Newcastle hire Benfica trained recruitment chief
Tomás Amaral takes over first team recruitment at St James' Park.
Benjamin White, building at the intersection of emerging tech, media, and culture.
Newcastle have named Tomás Amaral as Head of First Team Recruitment. He arrives from Spartak Moscow and spent 2019 to 2023 as a senior scout at Benfica.
That Benfica line is the interesting bit. Benfica have built a business out of finding players early, developing them and selling high. If Amaral brings even some of that eye to St James' Park, it's a serious upgrade on how we shop.
My take: this is the unglamorous hire that decides the next five years. Spending rules mean we can't simply outbid everyone, so we have to be smarter than them. That means spotting the player a year before the big clubs do, not paying top whack once everyone knows his name.
Results on the pitch get the headlines. Recruitment decides whether they last. Get this right and the squad gets better and cheaper at the same time. Get it wrong and we're back to panic buys every January.
Newcastle have appointed Tomás Amaral as Head of First Team Recruitment. He joins from Spartak Moscow and was a senior scout at Benfica from 2019 to 2023.
Winning on Saturday is nice. Finding the next Isak is nicer.