Laurence Stewart's departure is viewed as the next part of Chelsea's evolution. The co-sporting director is set to leave the club after four years at Cobham, but already his duties and responsibilities have been delegated to other members of Chelsea's team of sporting directors.
While Stewart was initially appointed as technical director in October 2022, he moved into the role of co-sporting director alongside Paul Winstanley in February 2023.
Over £1billion of transfer spending
Stewart and Winstanley oversaw more than £1billion of transfer spending during their time working together, though their division of labour in recent windows saw Stewart take a leading role on data and the 10-strong analytics team working with the men's first team. Winstanley, meanwhile, took a front seat on signings.
Stewart's exit, described by Chelsea sources as “by mutual consent”, was confirmed before Todd Boehly and Mike Walter sold their stakes in the club last month. The club have been putting into practice the spread of the workload they plan to use once he has officially left. They are not planning to hire a like-for-like replacement but are appreciative of his contribution with the Blues.
Shift of duties towards Winstanley, Shields and Jewell
The sporting leadership structure at Chelsea continues to evolve and, following discussions between Stewart and owner Behdad Eghbali over his exit, there has already been a shift of Stewart's usual duties towards Winstanley but also towards Joe Shields and Sam Jewell, whose levels of responsibility at the club are set to increase.
Winstanley, Shields and Jewell run the club's sporting operation on a daily basis and work closely with manager Xabi Alonso and his coaching staff.
It is Winstanley who has led and will continue to lead on negotiating with clubs and player representatives in transfer deals, also working on player contracts and maintaining a close relationship with the club's medical team.
Jewell and Shields take on greater workloads
Jewell and Shields have greater workloads now Stewart is on the way out. They lead on recruitment and discovering new players for the Chelsea men's team to sign, commonly known within the football industry as 'talent ID'.
Jewell's duties overlap with the larger BlueCo multiclub system and include involvement in Strasbourg's recruitment. Shields, meanwhile, leads on the academy, on player pathwards, and his roles are similar to what has traditionally been come to be covered within the remit of a technical director.
The other member of the sporting director team that will shrink from five men to four once Stewart leaves is Dave Fallows, whose role Standard Sport understands to be more akin to that of an advisor or consultant. He does not have fixed day-to-day responsibilities, unlike the others.
