Nicky Hammond is set to strengthen his role at Celtic with two key appointments.
Last July the former Reading goalkeeper was brought in to help with recruitment after Lee Congerton jumped ship to Leicester City.
In October Hammond was given a permanent role as Head of Football Operations and is now underlining his role by bringing in a Chief Scout and Head of Scouting Operations.
Gary Penrice will be appointed as Chief Scout with Jay Lefevre heading up Scouting Operations.
The Sun reports:
CELTIC are set to appoint Gary Penrice as their new chief scout. The former attacking midfielder made his name playing for the likes of QPR and Bristol Rovers.
But after hanging up his boots he has been working in recruitment since 2006. Penrice, 56, has held posts at the likes of Leicester, Stoke and Everton.
Most recently he spent two years as recruitment consultant back at Loftus Road. But he opted to quit in December to pursue other opportunities.
Hoops head of football operations Nick Hammond briefly played alongside Penrice at Bristol Rovers in the late 1980s.
Now he hopes to appoint his one-time team-mate as part of his new look behind-the-scenes support staff. Former Arsenal analyst Jay Lefevre will work as head of scouting operations.
Congerton was in the job for three seasons during which Celtic had some horrendous transfer windows, signing off in January 2020 with Vakoun Bayo and Marian Shved.
During the most recent transfer window, under Hammond Patryk Klimala and Ismaila Soro were brought to the club with Soro still to play a minute of competitive football.
In December when he was asked about a contract extension Nir Bitton told the Daily Record ‘It’s something that you’ll need to ask Peter Lawwell’.
