Manchester United are hiring Kyle Macaulay, the former Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea, and West Ham United analyst, as their new head of senior scouting.
Macaulay, 39, has a strong reputation in the game and becomes the latest addition to a reshaped scouting department at Old Trafford.
United have been looking to add a key figure to assist on transfers since July, when The Athletic revealed the search process had begun.
Macaulay will report into Christopher Vivell, United’s director of recruitment, and oversee the club’s global scouting network. The pair worked together at Chelsea from 2022 to 2023, when Vivell was technical director and Macaulay was head of scouting. Jason Wilcox leads United’s sporting department as director of football.
United looked at several candidates for the new role, including Ben Chorley, the former sporting director of Valenciennes in France and current head of UK scouting at Southampton, who was was considered a strong potential appointment. But Macaulay’s availability, following his exit from West Ham in October, changed the picture in a competitive process.
Macaulay (right) has spent much of his career alongside Graham Potter (Athena Pictures via Getty Images)
Macaulay was well liked at his previous clubs, where he combined data with his network.
Macaulay’s career has closely followed that of Graham Potter, the pair first working together at Ostersunds in 2012. Macaulay spent six years as Ostersunds’ chief analyst during an unlikely rise from the fourth tier of Swedish football to the Europa League knockout phase.
He followed Potter to Swansea City in 2018 as chief scout, then Brighton in 2019 as head of scouting, in a period when the club signed Leandro Trossard, Moises Caicedo, Kaoru Mitoma, Marc Cucurella and Danny Welbeck on a free transfer.
Macaulay joined Chelsea in 2022 and stayed on after Potter’s departure in a chief analyst role under subsequent head coaches Mauricio Pochettino and Enzo Maresca. Macaulay left Chelsea to join West Ham alongside Potter in January 2025 but departed in October, shortly after Potter was dismissed.
Both West Ham and Chelsea attempted to keep Macaulay.