Chelsea’s drive towards a data-led approach to transfers under their new ownership has led to two of their European scouts leaving to take up posts at Liverpool and City Football Group, Manchester City’s parent company. Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital have overseen heavy internal restructuring since arriving at Stamford Bridge last year and are understood to have paid close attention to the recruitment model at Brighton. That push has been helped by Chelsea hiring three men from Brighton since the start of the season: Graham Potter as head coach, Kyle Macaulay in a recruitment role, and Paul Winstanley as director of global talent and transfers. The Boehly-Clearlake takeover was soon followed by the departures of senior figures from the old regime and the shift in emphasis has led to more change in the recruitment department. The latest to leave are two of their European scouting coordinators: Sven Dworaczek, who is returning to Liverpool, and Leonardo Masieri, who has accepted a job at CFG. Dworaczek, who worked closely with Masieri on identifying talent in Europe, has been at Chelsea since August 2021. The 32-year-old was hired by Scott McLachlan, who left his position as the club’s head of international scouting last September. McLachlan has recently taken up a role at Global Football Holdings, a US-based company with stakes in clubs in Germany, Portugal and Belgium. It is understood Dworaczek and Masieri have left on good terms. But in Chelsea’s attempts to introduce a multi-club model, data will become more important than traditional scouting. Whereas scouts would hunt for talent in specific parts of the world, each analyst will now focus on a specific area of the pitch. That has caused scouts to consider opportunities elsewhere. At the same time there is an acknowledgment from longstanding employees that there is plenty of merit to Chelsea’s increasing embrace of statistics, not least because Brighton have been so successful in the transfer market. Traditional scouting will still have a part to play at the club. It is another sign of change at Chelsea since the sale of the club by Roman Abramovich. The takeover was followed by Marina Granovskaia, who was effectively in charge of recruitment under Abramovich, leaving her role as a director, Bruce Buck quitting as chairman, and Petr Cech leaving as technical and performance adviser. Boehly has acted as de facto director of football and Chelsea, who have parted company with their long-serving doctor Paco Biosca and their head physio Thierry Laurent, have not restricted themselves to adding Winstanley and Macaulay to their recruitment team. They have also hired Christopher Vivell, who was previously at RB Leipzig, as technical director, and have poached Joe Shields from Southampton to be their co-director of recruitment and talent.