MIDDLESBROUGH’S new head of football has pledged to “put some life back” into the club’s off-field operations after taking up his role at Rockliffe Park.

Kieran Scott has left his previous position as head of recruitment at Norwich City in order to take up a newly-created post as part of Boro’s backroom team.

The 37-year-old took up his new role at the start of this month, and has assumed a wide-ranging remit that covers first-team recruitment, loans, scouting and academy matters.

A succession of previous Middlesbrough managers have questioned the way in which the club’s recruitment set-up operates, with Aitor Karanka and Tony Pulis having been especially critical of parts of Boro’s backroom set-up.

Scott is adamant everything is in place for the club to achieve on-field success, but accepts part of his remit is to shake things up a bit and enact some changes.

“The facilities are excellent,” he said. “It’s all there – it’s a category one academy, the club’s got an owner that’s prepared to put his hand in his pocket and back the club, which he’s done for years.

“I think it’s all there – it just needs a little bit of life putting back into it and maybe a new face, an outside face like myself, to come and start us back up and get us going again.

“I’m keen to get going. It was difficult starting in an international break – everyone’s quite rightly having breaks because of the transfer window and stuff. But I’m in now, and really looking forward to seeing what I can do.”

During his time as head of recruitment at Norwich, Scott drove through some recruitment and contractual decisions that have proved crucial to the Canaries’ financial wellbeing.

He was heavily involved in the £1.4m purchase of Emi Buendia from Getafe, a signing that ultimately enabled Norwich to achieve a profit of more than £30m when the Argentinian subsequently moved on to join Aston Villa, and was also a key factor in the free signing of Teemu Pukki from Brondby.

He has been outlining the secrets to his success in an interview with Middlesbrough’s official website, with a willingness to head far and wide to scout players one of his key requirements.

“You need hard work, and I’ve never steered away from that,” he said. “That’s what’s got me the players I had – the Emi Buendias, those types of players. It was hard work, and a willingness to get on a plane and go miles away from where (other) people were prepared to go.

“It’s definitely about that, but it’s also about people being on the same page. I think it’s difficult for scouts if they’re not communicated to. It’s the same with the academy, if they’re not communicated to, and they don’t know what the end looks like, I think it’s very difficult for them to produce what you need. Communication is a massive part of how I feel a successful scouting and recruitment team works.”

Scott’s first job in football was as an opposition scout with Bournemouth. He has had two spells at Burnley, dealing first with academy recruitment then with ‘emerging talent’, and worked with highly-regarded sporting director Stuart Webber at both Wolves and Norwich.

“I feel like I’ve had a bit of a perfect route, of all the angles from academies to loans to recruitment for young players to emerging talent then on to recruitment for first team, which I led at Norwich and we had some success there,” he explained. “It’s been a good path.

“I’m here to get on top of everything football-related, from first team to the academy to loans, just to try and help develop the club in terms of everything football-related.”