Crystal Palace hire club legend Dougie Freedman as sporting director

Crystal Palace have hired club legend Dougie Freedman as their sporting director.

The Eagles have been on the lookout for a football executive to take charge of transfers and the general sporting direction of the club for some time and have discreetly interviewed a number of candidates since the somewhat controversial departure of Iain Moody.

Freedman, a former Palace striker, manager and assistant manager, has been out of work since leaving Nottingham Forest and has patched up his relationship with chairman Steve Parish after the former Scotland international walked out on the south London club to take over at Bolton Wanderers in 2012.

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Parish said: "This is a position I have been looking to fill for a while, someone to work with the manager, myself and Head of Recruitment, Tim Coe on all the footballing aspects of the club.

"I’m delighted that Dougie has agreed to accept the position and look forward to continuing Crystal Palace’s progression to become a solid Premier League club with the right infrastructure.”

Manager Frank de Boer said: “I always worked with a Sporting Director during my time as manager at Ajax and I felt this was a position the club needed, I am looking forward to working with Dougie in this transfer window and beyond.”

De Boer's team have lost both of their opening Premier League games in the new campaign and his squad still has some significant gaps.

Palace are expected to push for up to four new signings in the next ten days, and have made moves to sign RB Leipzig wideman Oliver Burke, who has previously spoken of Freedman as a "father figure" to him during their time at Nottingham Forest.

“Dougie helped me a lot. He kept me focused on the football field and made sure I was on my guard off the pitch... he was a massive influence on me at Forest. In terms of developing me and believing in me, he had a huge part to play. He deserves massive credit for where I am today.

“He was like a father figure to me at Forest, as well as a manager.”