- Joe Savage has previous experience in England with Preston and Norwich
- Hearts are among Europe’s form clubs and are unbeaten in 12 as of Saturday
- Newcastle will be looking for a new sportng director with Dan Ashworth leaving
Hearts sporting director Joe Savage is emerging as a target for a number of Premier League clubs.
The 39-year old has overseen various changes at the Edinburgh club but continues to make them competitive against clubs with larger budgets.
Hearts were third going into Saturday’s Scottish Premier League clash with leaders Rangers and were on the back of a run of 12 games unbeaten.
Indeed, Hearts and Rangers are leading the way in Europe’s form table alongside more illustrious names such as Inter Milan, PSV Eindhoven and Paris St Germain.
Savage surprisingly had come in for criticism at Hearts’ AGM in December over elements of the club’s recruitment but all of his new additions have since bedded in and clicked under coach Steven Naismith who Savage also pushed to appoint.
Premier League clubs see Hearts’ sporting director Joe Savage as a potential target
Hearts are one of Europe’s in-form sides and were unbeaten in 12 games going into Saturday’s clash with Rangers
Hearts have had to be creative in how and who they recruit over recent seasons as they try to compete against the Old Firm of Rangers and Celtic. They have found some key players in the Australian market and added the likes of Kenneth Vargas from Costa Rica.
Savage has previous experience in England having worked as chief scout at Preston North End and Norwich City and his progress is continuing to be acknowledged within the game.
Clubs are recognising more and more the key roles sporting and technical directors can play within football clubs and a number of them are changing clubs at the moment.
Brighton have lost recruitment guru Sam Jewell to Chelsea, while Southampton are expecting to see Jason Wilcox form part of Manchester United’s new look recruitment team alongside Dan Ashworth, who is leaving Newcastle United.
