Former Tottenham Head of Recruitment Brian Carey joins Reading

FORMER Tottenham Head of Recruitment Brian Carey has joined Reading in the same role.

Carey left Spurs at the start of this month after six years at the club. He is a former Republic of Ireland international defender and Uefa A Licence coach who moved into scouting and recruitment when he joined Spurs.

His first role at the North London club was as Senior Scout for the North West of England before his remit expanded to cover Europe and then heading up the recruitment department as a whole. Carey’s exit from Spurs followed a shake-up behind the scenes by Fabio Paratici, the Managing Director, Football.

Reading said Carey would “work closely with Head of Football Operations Mark Bowen, first-team manager Paul Ince and Academy Manager Michael Gilkes in bringing the brightest talent” to the club.

Bowen, who was appointed this week, said: “Brian is a man who has experienced it all in football – he has been a player, captain, a coach, an assistant manager, a manager and has recently excelled during six years spent as Head of Recruitment at Spurs.

“He proved the ideal candidate to help the owner, myself and the manager bring in players with ability but who also possess the right character and temperament for our club and have that hunger to succeed and the potential to improve. It is a real coup that we have managed to beat off competition to secure the services of a man with his wealth of experience and I’m delighted he has agreed to join us at Reading.”

Carey helped Cork City reach the FAI Cup Final in 1989 before crossing the Irish Sea to join Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, although he never made a senior appearance for the club.

The centre-half went on to play for Leicester City and Wrexham and coached at Wrexham, Doncaster, Wolves, Chesterfield and Blackburn in both Academy and senior roles.