Arsenal are trying to bring in Manchester City’s head of academy recruitment Joe Shields, amid a shake-up of the recruitment department.

Joe Shields with Arsenal legend Kanu / Photo via Twitter
Joe Shields with Arsenal legend Kanu / Photo via Twitter

The Daily Mail report that Arsenal want Joe Shields to play a lead role in their new-look scouting setup at the club.

As we covered yesterday, Arsenal are planning to let go as many as eight members of their recruitment staff, with head of youth scouting Steve Morrow the highest-profile employee to be on the way out.

Dave Lee, Kevin Beadell, Dan Rice, Joe Sutton and Jay Leffe are all reportedly set to join him.

It certainly makes sense that the club are trying to bring in the head of academy recruitment from another top club as a result. Shields is credited with signing Jadon Sancho for City, and he’s ‘hugely admired’ at Arsenal according to the Daily Mail report.

Arsenal could make the argument to Shields that he would be more likely to see the players he discovers transitioning from youth football to the first team in North London than in Manchester. It’s very rare to see an academy product at City end up as a first-team regular nowadays.

Whether that’s enough to convince him to leave, we should find out in the coming weeks.