Newcastle United agree terms to sign ex-Arsenal man from Manchester City – will join in summer

McLaren has spent the past five-and-a-half years at Manchester City and is currently the club’s head regional scout. Prior to joining City, the former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder worked as Northern head youth scout at Arsenal.

According to Fabrizio Romano, McLaren will join Newcastle in a newly-created head scouting role at the club. He has agreed terms with The Magpies and is likely to start his role in July ahead of the 2023-24 season.

In January Newcastle created several new recruitment roles at the club as they looked to appoint a 13 to 18 UK scouting lead, a head of emerging talent, a recruitment operations manager and a scouting lead at the club’s academy.

As part of sporting director Dan Ashworth’s academy reform, United recently appointed former Manchester City and Leeds United scout Paul Midgley as head of youth recruitment.