Stevens leaves Palace after a decade to become Swansea Sporting Director

Matt Hobbs was appointed as Palace’s Sporting Director over Stevens at the start of last season, after leaving the same position at Wolves.

Stevens is Swansea’s sixth Sporting Director or equivalent in less than seven years, following Leon Britton, Mark Allen, Josh Marsh, Paul Watson and Richard Montague.

Montague left the club in September after only seven months following an “internal review of football operations”. 

In the wake of Montague’s departure, Adam Worth, Global Head of Recruitment and Analytics, took charge of recruitment and strategy with Chief Executive Tom Gorringe overseeing contract negotiations. However, Worth left the club in April.

Swansea have been in the Championship for the past eight seasons, following a seven-year spell in the Premier League.

Second spell with Palace

Stevens was promoted to Assistant Sporting Director by Palace in July 2024 after eight years as Head of Performance and Recruitment Analysis.

He originally joined the Eagles for six months at the start of the 2010/11 season as a First Team Performance Analyst after three years as a Performance Analyst at Southampton – half of which was with the first team.

After leaving Palace in January 2011 he spent just over four years at Newcastle, initially as First Team Performance Analyst and then for two years and two months as Head of Performance Analysis before rejoining the Eagles.

Stevens spoke at the TGG Scouting and Recruitment Webinar in 2022.

He was with Everton’s Head of Player Trading Nick Hammond and Norwich City Sporting Director Ben Knapper on a panel discussing squad building and managing pathways.

TGG members can watch this and all our webinars for free.