Trio to join in recruitment department restucture

Bradford City AFC can confirm the arrivals of Ian Roscrow, Stuart Millar and Alan Young - in a restructure of the club’s recruitment department

Their appointments mean the Bantams will now have a scouting presence in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland on a permanent basis. 

The scouts will identify players according to position-specific technical and tactical profiling. Increased use of data analytics and scouting software programmes will also assist in the recruitment of new players. 

Roscrow - who has vast scouting experience at the likes of Brighton Hove Albion, Middlesborough, Swansea City, Wigan Athletic and Plymouth Argyle - will cover England and Wales. 

Millar will be based in Scotland where he has extensive previous experience as director of football at Airdrieonians, as well as successful years as head of scouting at West Bromwich Albion, Aberdeen and Ross County. 

The former Irish scout for Plymouth Argyle and Ross County, Young will cover Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland where he has scouting and coaching experience both in the League of Ireland and Northern Irish Football League. 

He has previously worked at Bray Wanderers, Donegal Celtic, Ards and Cliftonville as well as enjoying spells as Northern Ireland’s elite performance academy coach and underage international coach. 

City boss Derek Adams said: “We are delighted to welcome the three new additions to our recruitment team, who have a great track record of identifying players. 

“I have worked with each of them at my previous clubs, and their appointments mean we will now cover the whole of the UK and Ireland - to give us the best possibility of finding the correct players for Bradford City, according to budget and profiling.”

Ryan Sparks, the club’s chief executive officer, added: “Over the years, our football club has unearthed some fantastic talent, and we look forward to achieving more in this area in the months and years ahead following the appointments of scouts across the UK and Ireland. 

“This change to our recruitment structure enables us to cover more areas and work in more detail, allowing the team to recruit as closely to the manager’s profiling as possible. 

“Since Derek agreed to become our manager, we have been fully aligned in our thought process and this is another step in terms of ongoing progress being made within the football department, as we continue working towards achieving our aims.”

The trio will officially become employed by the club when their contracts begin on Friday (October 1).