West Ham United yesterday unveiled Gianluca Nani as their new technical director. The Italian, who will start work in June at the Premier League club, has been employed in the same role at Brescia since 1999 and will now work at Upton Park helping to scout for players, further develop the Hammers' youth academy and take on other backroom duties.
Alan Curbishley, the West Ham manager, travelled to Italy last week to meet Nani and they discussed possible summer transfer targets.
"Gianluca is the person I need to help me in recruitment at the club, venturing down into the academy level," Curbishley said. "It is a big brief but I am sure he is up for it. He is vastly experienced.
"We are lacking at the club in terms of infrastructure and network, which you need now because it is a global game. Since I have been here the club has always been looking to push on and push forward. There was a void I felt needed to be filled. We don't want to hear about a player going to another club and not having known anything about it.
"We expect the infrastructure of the club when it comes to recruitment will be beefed up, giving us a chance to get the best home-grown players and foreign players."
Nani, who also speaks English, French and Spanish, said: "I am proud and honoured to be here at West Ham. I know it is a club full of history, I know West Ham play the right way. I met Alan and Scott Duxbury [West Ham's managing director] some months ago. We started to talk about the ambitions of the club. We have the same point of view. I am sure this is a club with incredible potential. We have to work to bring the club to its potential."
Duxbury said: "West Ham's aim is to be successful in the Premier League and Europe. A key factor in this is the appointment of Gianluca Nani as the club technical director. The manager led the recruitment process and interviewed all the potential candidates."
The Croatia coach, Slaven Bilic, recently touted as a replacement for Curbishley, is high on Hamburg's managerial wishlist. The Bundesliga club are keen to sign him after the Euro 2008 tournament in June. "We haven't talked about any concrete details yet," Bilic said, adding that he was also in talks with the Croatian FA about his coaching future.