Joe Shields to Chelsea confirmed but Ralph Hasenhuttl insists exit is ‘no big loss’ for Southampton

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has confirmed the departure of Chelsea-bound Joe Shields, insisting such a loss is not a significant one at St Mary’s.

Standard Sport reported earlier this week that Chelsea were in advanced talks to appoint Shields as their new director of recruitment as part of a high-profile backroom hiring drive that will see the Todd Boehly-Clearlake ownership group hand over the day-to-day football operations to specialists having done much of the work themselves since taking over from Roman Abramovich, with the likes of Marina Granovskaia, Petr Cech and Bruce Buck having moved on.

The Blues are also in talks over appointing Christopher Vivell as their new technical director following his exit from RB Leipzig, with Norwich’s Stuart Webber, Bayer Leverkusen’s Tim Steidten and Victor Orta of Leeds among those in the frame for the sporting director role.

Shields was only appointed by Southampton as their head of senior recruitment over the summer after previous encumbent Martyn Glover left for Leicester, having spent nine years at Manchester City in a variety of positions including head of academy recruitment and talent management, where he was credited with helping to unearth a number of exciting young talents.

He also held recruitment and scouting roles at both Crystal Palace and Fulham in the past, with a strong reputation that obviously proved attractive to Chelsea.

However, Hasenhuttl claims Shields did not stay long enough at Southampton to make any real impact, insisting most of the club’s major summer moves had already been made by the time he arrived - including the signing of City starlet Romeo Lavia.

“It is not a big loss for this club, I think, because his impact in six weeks was not the biggest so we are not in the situation where we fall into depression,” the under-fire Hasenhuttl told reporters before Southampton’s clash with West Ham on Sunday.

“He came in August and nearly all transfers had been done in this moment – he was not the person who brought in Romeo for example.

“For us we would like to have people here longer for sure, but if he decides not to be here for longer it is better he leaves immediately.”