Hapoel Tel Aviv is starting to think about January, at the same time as the interest of the American group. The intended buyers are expected to appoint a foreign professional manager, who will work above Omer Boxenbaum and in cooperation with him. That designated professional manager has already spoken with Boxenbaum in a Zoom call.
So who is that new figure who should be significant in the club? Nick Hammond, who was appointed as the professional advisor to the team is former Arsenal goalkeeper, Nick Hammond, who previously worked at Celtic, and just recently served as an advisor to the new owners of Newcastle.
Hammond is mainly experienced in British football and is considered a transfer specialist, and one who has signed players at a high rate in his teams. After previously serving as a sporting director in recent years, he serves as a “transfer consultant”, which he did at Celtic and Newcastle and may now do at Hapoel Tel Aviv.
The 55-year-old was previously a substitute goalkeeper for Arsenal and other teams, and after his retirement became a professional manager. In 2003, he became the sporting director of Reading, while the team was promoted twice to the English First League during his time. He then also worked at West Bromwich Albion and Celtic, serving as the team’s head of football in each of them, but was fired after a short time.
In Scotland, his period was defined as “one that the club would like to forget”, in the two years in which the team lost the local championship to Glasgow Rangers. He signed 20 players at Celtic for £35 million, including Hatem Abdelhamid, Fraser Forster and Ismaila Soro.
Hammond recently acted as an adviser to Newcastle’s management in the new owners’ first transfer window in January. The Magpies have made a number of notable signings in this window, including Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes, and managed to avoid relegation danger. After Newcastle were below the red line midway through last season they went into the Christmas break in third place.
In Newcastle, however, he acted as an adviser to Eddie Howe. “Newcastle approached me and we were able to find players, this was the second time I served as a consultant after what I did at Celtic in the summer of 2019. I was impressed by Newcastle’s long-term plan,” said Hammond.
Hammond He referred to the situation at Newcastle, where he reached the first transfer window of the new owners: “I told them that this was the most difficult window because it was a group of people for the first time, but they had an experienced coach. I helped the sporting director mainly in the background.” At Newcastle he assisted sporting director Dan Ashworth.
In the cases of Newcastle and Celtic he came as a consultant to one transfer window. He ended up staying at Celtic as sporting director for two years, but left Newcastle after a month as per contract.