CELTIC and more specifically Nicky Hammond brought in Gary Penrice a month ago on a full-time basis to be the club’s head scout.
Hammond is overhauling Celtic’s scouting system and continues to shake up Lee Congerton’s project to find the very best players for Celtic.
Penrice has come in with a wealth of experience and has now revealed he was already working alongside Celtic in December on a consulting basis before getting the full-time gig.
The scout will be tasked with finding top young talent for the first team who they club can mould and eventually sell on for a large free.
Speaking about his new role, Penrice told SunSport, Celtic’s pool of players is ‘huge’.
“Nick Hammond is there who I worked with at West Brom, I get on well with Nick.
“But prior to then I sorted out the scouting department at QPR, I was at West Brom and Everton running their scouting networks.
“I also had my own scouting project, which is one of the biggest in Europe. And I do it all from home.
“I have never moved house in 27 years, and currently live in the Cotswolds, so not far away from Bristol.
“I moved a lot as a player, so, to be honest, it’s nice to stay put.
“And I’ve obviously worked as a coach and assistant manager, which involved moving around as well, which drives you mad. But doing this you don’t need to.
“I can travel from here, or hop on a plane and be where I need to be.
“Obviously I can’t travel to see games, and there aren’t any anyway!
“But I can keep in contact with people. It’s actually been busy, manic, catching up with all stuff, and tapping into a huge global market.
“Celtic’s market is absolutely huge. It’s global. I am currently watching 240 players.”
Celtic will have a big job replenishing the squad over the next two years, some heavy hitters will want to leave to go onto more lucrative things. It’s Gary and Nicky who must be prepared for that eventuality.
It’s not an easy job to do as Lee Congerton found out. There’s lots of great players out there but the market the club operate in means we miss out on a lot of targets because we simply can’t compete financially with other clubs.
