In practice Moyes (and Sorensen) likely has some capacity for direct interaction with Watts/Friedkin in the same way both the Chair/Non-execs and shareholders in listed companies get some structured access to department heads. Obviously in a private business the owners have much more autonomy and discretion and football team managers have a potentially louder voice than any normal non CEO/CFO departmental head .
The ‘4’ is really a ‘6’ including Kinnear/Moyes (men) and. Forshaw/Sorensen (women) forming de facto Football Steering Committees to debate and oversee key decisions. I assume the CEO has a casting vote but if you reach a point where eg Kinnear and Moyes cannot align then you have a problem. This type of structure requires collaboration. There is a big onus on the older, wiser Moyes to play nice. 
Previous Message
But Hammond is a consultant (exclusive to us in PL but not strictly on the payroll) hence lead not direct. It is not 100% clear who Forshaw reports to (Watts or Kinnear) but I would also assume Watts until told otherwise.
Cox also has Finch Farm operations and Sports Science as well as academy and medical. He might also have the football aspects (pitch, player/family facilities etc.) of the Hill Dickinson stadium operations - to be clarified. We are still looking for a new Academy Director to report to him. Previous Message
"In line with the vision mapped out in May by CEO Angus Kinnear, the Club has moved away from a Director of Football model in favour of a football leadership team made up of specialists in technical development, football operations, talent ID, data analytics and player trading.
Following a comprehensive recruitment process, the Club has appointed Nick Cox as Technical Director, James Smith as Director of Scouting and Recruitment, Chris Howarth to direct the Club's football strategy & analytics operations and Nick Hammond to lead the Club's player trading activity.
The quartet will work alongside the Club’s CEO in supporting Men’s Senior Team manager David Moyes, and Women’s Senior Team manager Brian Sørensen to deliver on-pitch success, whilst also ensuring the Club’s football operations, youth development and talent ID pathways are working to their optimum."
What I find a little odd is:
- Of the 4 new appointments 3 are "Directors" but 1 is a "Lead". And clearly Cox has a MUCH bigger remit than Hammond. So it's more like a committee.
- Those 4 will work "alongside" the CEO and yet it seems that this structure is his strategy and his appointments. If they were working alongside Kinnear I'd have expected the Executive Chairman, Marc Watts to do the announcement.
- When it comes to transfers I assume Moyes will have input and possibly a veto. Is he part of the "leadership team" or not? If he is, who is responsible for sacking him and hiring a replacement? Without a Director of Football it's not clear who should make that decision, so my assumption is that it's the owner - Friedkin. Therefore Moyes is an internal client of the leadership team, with his own direct line to the real decision maker.
- But if that makes sense for the men's team, it's a fairly glaring omission that the new women's CEO isn't even mentioned! It may be that the "leadership team" "support" the men's team and the women's team, but they can't report to 2 different CEOs. My assumption is that in the same way Moyes is really reporting to Friedkin, Forshaw has her own direct line to the Chairman. But I have no idea who Sorensen "reports" to.
Here's my best attempt to make sense of it:
Responses
on June 20, 2025, 5:11 pm, in reply to "