Town’s head of recruitment Sam Williams has been appointed academy lead scout for 17-21-year-olds back at his former club Manchester United.

News of the Red Devils’ interest in Williams, who joined the Blues in April 2022 having been working as a first-team recruitment analyst and academy scout at Old Trafford, emerged earlier in the week.

Now, according to the Manchester Evening News, Williams has been appointed to the role at the Premier League giants’ academy.

Williams's departure will come as a blow to the Blues, with CEO Mark Ashton and manager Kieran McKenna having established a new scouting department over the last couple of years, and with some success. Last January’s transfer window is widely viewed as the best in the club’s history.

Prior to his time with United - where he was on the backroom staff alongside Town manager Kieran McKenna and his assistant Martyn Pert - Williams worked at Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield Wednesday scouting for their academies.

Williams is the second member of Town’s staff to move to a recruitment role with Manchester United’s youth set-up, U18s coach Callum Tongue having made a similar move in October last year.

Photo: Matchday Images

NthQldITFC added 16:55 - Feb 9 Shows how well we're doing. Sure we'll have a suitable replacement lined up. Thanks for the great talent you've been involved in recruiting here Sam and good luck at United.
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Suffolkboy added 17:06 - Feb 9 Progress is the ambition of all enthusiastic Managers. ,and we must wish him well and great success ! Little doubt MA and Co will view this as a normal challenge and it’ll be interesting to see who is attracted ,for ITFC must be an exciting proposition right now ., COYB
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cressi added 17:28 - Feb 9 From been head of recruitment 1st team at ipswich to the und21 to 17s atn man utd is it really a step up I'm not so sure. With been able to watch 90% of games via TV or recordings and statistics it can't be that difficult not like going to Hartlepool on a Tuesday night.
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Churchman added 18:05 - Feb 9 Good for him. The club can only benefit from staff doing well and moving on. Hopefully they will have a list of who they want next.
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Marinersnose added 18:54 - Feb 9 Well he’s gone to a huge PL club which is in complete disarray and going nowhere. Whilst I see the Carrot on the other hand he’s in a great position at Ipswich and as a club we are on the up both on and off the field. Thanks for your efforts. If you don’t want to remain part of the process here in order to concentrate on youth football then good luck. Hope this wasn’t an informed decision.

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GiveusaWave added 21:56 - Feb 9 Not sure it's a good move for him. He will find players to develop, and then watch them all disappear on loan to other clubs. Meanwhile he'll always be under the shadow of the first team Head of Recruitment. Still, he has made his choice.
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PhuketPete added 08:24 - Feb 10 I expect he got a huge pay rise and they dangled the carrot of promotion to overall head of recruitment in 2-3 years. You can see why that would be attractive to him even if disappointing to us. Anyway never fear. MA will have a succession plan tor all key roles
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