Leicester City have announced their new leadership structure with James McCarron appointed as sporting director and Kevin Davies promoted to chief executive.
A planned rejig of the club’s top roles emerged last year as City look to arrest their alarming slide down the standings. Now, those appointments have been made.
McCarron joins from City Football Group, which oversees Manchester City and their sister clubs, where he was director of player development. Starting at the end of March, McCarron will report to Jon Rudkin, who has a new title of chief football officer.
Chief executive: Kevin Davies. Hailing from Leicester, he’s worked for the club for 15 years, and moves up from his role as finance director, which he has held since May 2023.
Chief football officer: Jon Rudkin. A target of fan ire over the past few years, Rudkin moves into a new role with executive oversight over the men’s and women’s teams. He will report to the board.
Sporting director: James McCarron. McCarron will focus on the men’s team, leading the club in performance, analysis, player development and recruitment, taking on many of the responsibilities and decisions previously taken by Rudkin, who he will report to.
Commercial director: Russell Jones. He was general manager of marketing and commercial growth at Wolves, but now joins City to boost their financial potential.
Head of recruitment: Martyn Glover. He remains in charge of the recruitment department and will report to McCarron.
Manager: Gary Rowett. In charge until the end of the season, Rowett is the head coach and looks after the men’s first team. McCarron will be involved in any decision over Rowett’s future or successor.
McCarron is the most significant appointment, as he will take charge of a football department that has been failing over the past few years.
He has previous experience as a sporting director, at second-tier Belgian side Lommel, while comes in from the City Football Group, whose organisation is admired inside the King Power Stadium.
McCarron will direct City’s approach and philosophy, which will be shown in their managerial appointments and player recruitment and development.
City intend to have a clear separation between the football and business departments, so that each person is only focused on their specialist area.
Davies succeeds Whelan, stepping up from his role as finance director. Davies took that position with the club in turmoil over their Profit and Sustainability Rules.
While the club received a points deduction for their finances for the three years up to end of the 23-24 season, the damage was done by the 21-22 and 22-23 campaigns, before Davies took over.
For Davies’ first full season as finance director, City made strides towards PSR compliance, with their points deduction reduced from seven to six points for that positive trend.
With Davies taking over as chief executive, the club are now on the hunt for a new finance director.
As well as making new appointments, City are keeping on interim managing director Kamonthip ‘Monica’ Netthanomsak to oversee commerical and operational matters.