West Ham United vice-chairman Karren Brady has lifted the lid on the work being done behind the scenes by Mario Husillos.
When Manuel Pellegrini was appointed in the summer co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold made good on their promise to revamp West Ham’s recruitment.
One of the first things the club did was hire Mario Husillos as director of football (whufc.com).
Husillos and Pellegrini impressing so far
The Argentine worked with Pellegrini during their time together at Malaga.
There they were behind signings such as Santi Carzola and Isco.
West Ham backed the pair with a £100million splurge on 10 new players.
And they pulled off some excellent business with the likes of Issa Diop, Felipe Anderson, Fabian Balbuena, Andriy Yarmolenko – until his injury – and Hammer of the Year cert Lukasz Fabianski helping the Hammers enjoy a comfortable season.
Samir Nasri has also impressed since been brought in on a free last month.
Super Mario keeping a low profile
Lucas Perez, Jack Wilshere and arguably Carlos Sanchez look to be the only blot on their copybooks so far.
Unlike other directors of football at rival Premier League clubs, Husillos keeps a very low profile.
He is rarely mentioned in club media updates. Meanwhile the likes of Marcel Brands of Everton are very much in the public eye.
But now Brady has revealed in her column in The Sun how Husillos has revamped the club’s recruitment process behind the scenes.
Hammers have seven scouts across Europe
“My club does plenty of scouting abroad and it would be a dereliction of our duty not to,” Brady wrote in The Sun.
“We have a director of football (Husillos) who has set up a system which employs seven scouts in Europe.
“And I mustn’t forget our video unit, people who scan tapes of prospective footballers, delivered in hundreds every week. The attraction of football really is eye-popping.”
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