Middlesbrough's revamp of the scouting department continues, with another new face joining the club.

Jamie Benson, previously of Watford, Udinese and West Ham United, has joined Boro in a senior scouting and recruitment role for the first team.

The appointment comes as head of football Kieran Scott and the club's recently appointed new head of scouting Chris Jones continue to develop the scouting and recruitment department at Rockliffe.

READ MORE: Chris Jones appointment & how Middlesbrough scouting department works

Last week, Scott said: "We're developing that department quite strongly. There's been a couple of guys who've moved on and some new guys coming in."

Benson was most recently at Watford where he was initially senior recruitment officer before becoming UK recruitment manager and senior international scout.

For more than three years he worked as senior international scout for Serie A side Udinese. Earlier in his career he was at West Ham, where he held various roles and worked his way up to scouting, recruitment and analysis operations manager.

Head of football Scott is pleased with the direction in which the club's scouting department is heading, with the appointment of Jones in September seen as particularly key.

Scott said: "He drives standards. There's nowhere to hide with him, there'll be nowhere to hide for the scouting department.

"He will put a bit of accountability on everyone, including myself. We need that here, we need Chris to bring more people like him into the building and we need to catch clubs up in the scouting and recruitment world, because we're not there yet. But we're building again and Chris is a major cog in what we want to do."

The scouting team are working closely with Michael Carrick to understand exactly what the head coach is looking for as Boro plan for future windows. Boro are already well down the line with their preparations for January, with permanent deals rather than loans the preference.

Scott said: “We’re going to do whatever is realistic in January. We’re going to try to do as much as we can to improve the squad and the group.

“In the end, we just want to make the group as strong as we possibly can so that come January 31, we’re as strong as we possibly can be to give the guys every possible chance in the second half of the season.”

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