Town have appointed a director of recruitment, Mick Court, who joins the club from Manchester United.
Court had been at Old Trafford for nearly 17 years, for the last six as technical chief scout having been head performance recruitment analyst prior to that.
Before his move to the Red Devils, Court was first-team performance analyst at Watford between 2006 and 2008, a period in which Blues CEO and chairman Mark Ashton was in charge at Vicarage Road.
Prior to that, Court had been a first-team and academy analyst at Crewe Alexandra, while also a post-graduate research fellow at Loughborough University, having previously been a research fellow at Liverpool’s John Moores University’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences after studying for four years at Manchester Metropolitan University.
His first job in football was a part-time role as an academy analyst at Everton between 2000 and 2002.
Over the summer, following Gary Probert’s departure for Liverpool, where he is head of loan management, academy director Dmitri Halajko was promoted to director of football operations from academy director and Ben Chenery was appointed academy manager following the youth set-up’s move to category one.
"We are delighted to appoint Mick to such an important role at the club,” Ashton told the club site.
"He brings top-level experience which will significantly enhance our growing recruitment team, with his appointment the latest in a number of important moves which highlight our commitment to building the best-possible staff across all areas of the club.
"Recruitment is such an important area and is one we will continue to invest in as we move the club forward.”
In 2024, head of recruitment Sam Williams left the Blues to rejoin Manchester United with his job subsumed into other roles.