Darren Mowbray will leave his Aberdeen head of recruitment role for Southampton, it has been confirmed.
Saints, who have been relegated from the English Premier League, announced the capture of Mowbray on their website, with the 47-year-old set to perform the same role as St Mary’s as he currently does at Pittodrie.
A Southampton statement said the transfer guru “will join the club later this summer, with Mowbray serving his notice at Aberdeen until 1st July.”
The Press and Journal previously exclusively revealed Aberdeen chiefs expected to lose Mowbray – who joined the club in September 2021 and was credited with unearthing 36-goal strike duo Bojan Miovski and Luis “Duk” Lopes last summer.
The hunt for Mowbray’s replacement is already under way.
Although new boss Barry Robson’s summer rebuild is about to get going in earnest, and the Aberdeen squad will likely need bolstered for the demands of European group stage football next term, the club’s hierarchy are not concerned by the timing of their head of recruitment’s exit.
The Pittodrie football department are understood to have already identified most of their transfer targets for the upcoming transfer window, with Mowbray and others laying out a plan of action over the past few months.
Mowbray, who is the brother of veteran English manager Tony Mowbray, was secured almost two years ago as a replacement for transfer chief Russ Richardson, who left following long-time boss Derek McInnes’ sacking – although Mowbray only started work after the summer 2021 window had closed.
As a result, the head of recruitment only had one transfer window (January 2022) to work with Stephen Glass before he was axed, and two (summer 2022 and most of January this year) with Jim Goodwin before he suffered the same fate amid a nose-dive in form at the start of 2023.
While Duk and Miovski, as well as the likes of Kelle Roos, Ylber Ramadani, Leighton Clarkson (Liverpool loan), Mattie Pollock (Watford loan) and Angus MacDonald, were influential signings for Aberdeen over what was an up-down-then-up-again campaign, and have provided further evidence of the club’s willingness to cast their transfer net wide in search of talent, several other signings have made much less of an impression.
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