Chelsea’s move for Southampton recruitment head is close – but he’s “not a big loss” for Southampton

Chelsea’s move for new faces in their recruitment department hasn’t been easy, but it has been frantic.

All sorts of names have been thrown into the mix so far, including some of Europe’s big name sporting directors.

So far our pursuit has been less than successful, with two months of rejection starting to sting.

We seem to have lowered out aim a little from the Michael Edwards and Monchis of this world, and our latest target is Joe Shields, who was appointed as Southampton’s director of football in August.

Ralph Hasenhüttl confirms Joe Shields has left Southampton for Chelsea. "He came in August and he left in October. It’s not a big loss for this club because the impact he had in the six weeks was not the biggest. We are not in the situation where we fall into depression.”

— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) October 14, 2022

Confirmation of that ended up coming from Ralph Hassenhuttl in his pre match press conference today.

He didn’t sound too bothered – he said “it’s not a big loss” for Saints, as Shields had only just arrived.

“The impact he had in the six weeks was not the biggest,” the coach added.

We knew the move was close because The Athletic reported that Shields had been banned from Southampton’s facilities. He will now go on gardening leave – and we expect confirmation from Chelsea relatively soon.