Bradford City appoint Gent as head of recruitment

Gent will head up scouting and recruitment operations after a long spell working with Middlesbrough.

The 37-year-old filled a variety of different scouting, coaching and analysis roles at Boro, before more recent spells as head of scouting operations and loans and scouting operations manager.

He said: “This is a massive football club which attracted me to the role, as well as the manager and ambition it has, so I am delighted to be here and cannot wait to get started.

“I have been at Middlesbrough for over 10 years and worked in a lot of different roles, which gives me a varied background and a lot of knowledge and experience.

“It is about sitting down with the manager and coaching staff and outlining what we want in terms of a playing philosophy, which we have to be aligned on.

“It is important we get it right in terms of the mentality and key characteristics of players needed to play for Bradford City, first and foremost.

“The long term is going to be massive for us. We want to bring players through and recruit them at the right ages, and hopefully that will stand us in good stead for the future.”

Bantams boss Mark Hughes said: “We took our time with the appointment and are really pleased Stephen is on board.

“He has great knowledge of all levels of the footballing pyramid, and we were all struck by the insight Stephen has into the character of players, which will be important in ensuring we get the right ones through the door.

“Stephen has lots of enthusiasm for his job and loves what he does, which is great because you know you will always get 100 per cent, and we are looking forward to working with him further.”

City chief executive Ryan Sparks added: “We are really pleased to have Stephen with us, and myself, Mark and Glyn Hodges will be working very closely with him over the course of the summer transfer window and beyond.

“Stephen will lead our recruitment drive and manage, grow and develop our current scouting operations across the UK.”