Former Celtic talent spotter links up with Tony Mowbray at Birmingham City

Former Celtic scout John Park has reportedly joined Birmingham City. The talent spotter, who left a role at Ibrox last year, is said to have joined up with Tony Mowbray’s Blues, who were recently taken over by Tom Wagner and Knighthead Capital. The Americans took over earlier this season, sacked John Eustace, hired and fired Wayne Rooney before turning to the former Celtic manager, Mowbray, to rectify their league form.

Football Scotland are reporting that Park has been appointed into a role at Birmingham City as they look to push up the Championship before an eventual promotion to the Premier League.

The 65-year-old was an integral part of Celtic’s recruitment operations under Neil Lennon, working to help bring players like Virgil Van Dijk and Victor Wanyama to Celtic.

Park joined the Ibrox club in July 2022 with Ross Wilson and Giovanni van Bronkhorst in situ. However, after the pair left, Park was heavily involved in supporting Michael Beale’s flawed recruitment during the summer which saw the Englishman lose his job.

Park previously also held roles at Motherwell, Hibs, Dundee United, Blackburn Rovers, Vancouver Whitecaps, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Legia Warsaw.

Park is from an antiquated era of scouting, which is very much in the style of having an ‘eye for a player’. Recruitment has moved towards an approach that encompasses stats and a number of different factors all geared towards the player finding success in the role and system used by the team.