Leeds United confirm ‘short-term’ deal with former Celtic man after Newcastle United departure

Hammond had a brief consultancy spell at Newcastle to help oversee the club’s activity in the January 2022 transfer window. It was The Magpies’ first transfer window under new ownership and it proved to be a successful one as the club signed Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood, Bruno Guimaraes, Dan Burn and Matt Targett to help them ultimately avoid relegation relatively comfortably.

The 55-year-old has also worked as a director of football at Reading and head of football operations at Celtic. He has been appointed at Leeds on an interim basis following the club’s relegation from the Premier League.

A club statement confirmed that Hammond would support Leeds during the summer transfer window and that the process of finding a permanent director of football is under way. The Whites are hoping to appoint a new director of football by October.

Reflecting on his role at Newcastle, Hammond told The Training Ground Guru’s Scouting and Recruitment Webinar: “My role was a little bit more in the background than I would be as a normal sporting director.

“As a sporting director over my career I would lead the discussions, lead the negotiations with potential signings.

“This role was sort of a step removed from that, doing the checks and balances in the background, having an opinion on the players who had already been identified by Steve Nickson and his team, having taken a good steer from Eddie Howe, the new head coach, who had to make very quick decisions in terms of where he saw his squad.

“It was a fascinating experience, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but very challenging time for them. It was interesting in as much as here you’ve got a group of people who all want to achieve the same thing but they’re new, they’re almost thrown together.

“I don’t mean that in a haphazard way, but new group of owners; new head coach; Steve [Nickson, head of recruitment], who’s been in the building for a long time, and all of a sudden in a very short space of time you’ve got to come together and make some decisions to try and strengthen the team for what is the short term ambition of staying in the Premier League.”

Newcastle ended up finishing 11th in the Premier League before appointing Dan Ashworth as a new permanent sporting director ahead of the 2022 summer transfer window.