Dan Ashworth's overhaul of Newcastle's backroom team continues

Newcastle United's backroom team is growing again, with the club having now poached Brentford's "Lead Western Europe Scout" to become its new "First Team & Emerging Talent International Scout".

Hedy Hassine will now lend his talent-spotting skills to Newcastle from his home base in France. The scout recently took to LinkedIn to announce his big move:

"After two fantastic seasons with Brentford Football Club, I am proud to announce that I have just joined Newcastle United as first team and emerging talent international scout. I would like to sincerely thank the club for the trust. Newcastle United is a great institution of English and European football with an ambitious project and great people. We have an exciting Premier League and Champions League season ahead of us. Let's get to work."

Hassine was previously Brentford's "Lead France & Belgium Scout". His remit at Newcastle will include compiling detailed reports on targets, collating extensive references on potential signings, and producing monthly positional lists of talent for Newcastle United's senior recruitment team.

Since commencing his role as Newcastle United's Sporting Director last June, Dan Ashworth has conducted a "root and branch review" of the club's staffing and has been leading the charge to flesh out each and every backroom department.

Ashworth has completely overhauled NUFC's approach to scouting, with the superb "Training Ground Guru" (TGG) website recently giving this breakdown of the "position-specific model" now in place:

"The team will be headed up by Ciaran Hughes, who has joined from Manchester City as Lead Video Analyst. Hughes has joined from Manchester City, where he had worked for four years and was Performance Analyst for their Elite Development Squad.

Reporting into him are five Positional Analysts:

• Josh Appleyard: Joins from Norwich City, where he was Senior First Team Performance Analyst.
• Oliver Slater: Joins from Blackburn Rovers, where he was First Team Performance Analyst.
• Graeme Tiffin: Joins from Middlesbrough, where he was Senior Scout.
• Chris Nix: Internal appointment from First Team Recruitment Analyst.
• Peter Clark: Worked for Arsenal for more than 16 years, including as Head of UK Scouting.

The position-specific team will report into Steve Nickson (Head of Recruitment) and Andy Howe (Head of First Team Technical Scouting), with Sporting Director Dan Ashworth overseeing the whole department."

Things have also been shaken up at the academy level, too, with TGG reporting that the overhaul of NUFC's academy recruitment staffing was completed early last month and sharing this finalised list of staff:

• Paul Midgley: Head of Youth Recruitment (ex Man City and Leeds)
• Paul McLaren: Head of UK scouting 13-18 (ex Man City and Arsenal)
• Paul Baker: Lead North Scout (job change from within under new structure)
• Delroy Ebanks: Lead South Scout (ex West Ham, Fulham and FA)
• Glenn Craggs: Head of Local Recruitment (already in place)
• Drew Beardsley: U5-U11 Recruitment Officer (already in place)
• Andy Basterfield: (Ex Man U and Preston and FA) North West Regional scout
• Dean Edwards: (Ex Stoke, Stockport and Birmingham) North West West Regional scout
• Wayne Spooner: (ex Man City and Everton) Yorkshire Regional Scout
• Amos Mukiza: (ex Leicester and Peterborough) Midlands Regional Scout
• Ross Thorpe: (ex Leeds) Midlands Regional Scout
• Abdul Habib: (ex Crystal Palace) London/ South East Regional Scout
• Dan Risk: (ex Chelsea) London/ South Regional Scout
• Andy Gill: (Ex Leeds and Man United) South West Regional Scout
• Eddie Black: U9-U14 Lead Local Professional Club Scout (ex Arsenal)
• Michael Hutchinson: U9-U14 Assistant Local Professional Club Scout (promotion from within)
• Claire Burrows: Recruitment Operations Manager (ex Leicester)

What a signing Dan Ashworth was by PIF, RB Sports & Media, and PCP Capital Partners, who have barely put a foot wrong when it comes to player and staff acquisitions in their ownership to date.