Brad Friedel explains his sporting director role at Shrewsbury Town

Premier League icon Brad Friedel will be a day-to-day presence at Shrewsbury Town and take charge of the club’s footballing operations.

The former United States goalkeeper has been appointed Town’s new sporting director and confirmed he will move to the UK to work at the club on a daily basis.

“One of the things that I and Scott (Davidson) spoke about on day one, he said: ‘Brad I don’t want to go into this with you unless you are fully invested in the project’,” Friedel explained.

“What he meant by that was that I was moving over and I was going to run the football operations.

“I am a dual citizen, so it is very easy for me to move back to the United Kingdom, which I am doing.

“I will be there day-to-day, this is not a situation where you will see me once in a while at the club. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for people, they are going to see me every day at the club. I am not here for the short-term at all.”

Friedel described his role as sporting director as effectively being the head of football operations.

Shrewsbury had only recently returned to a previous structure following the departure of former director of football Micky Moore, with Gavin Cowan taking on the title of manager.

But new ownership has brought another change in the model.

Friedel outlined the responsibilities of his role, adding: “You have categories that fall underneath you - the first-team staff, players, academy staff and players, the recruitment department, high performance and medical department. Anything to do with the technical side of football.

“This is completely different to other ownership groups out there. Scott knows a lot about the game, so it is very easy to talk to him about budgets or needs, because he gets it. We can have an open discussion about what is needed, what may be needed and what isn’t. So, we’re already a step quicker when we go to the discussion phase.

“But the business side of other things, commercially, have nothing to do with me. But it is everything associated with the technical side.”

Friedel also outlined how he will work alongside manager Gavin Cowan. He described the results achieved under Cowan, who saved Town from relegation last season, as “excellent”.

“It will be a collaboration,” Town’s new sporting director said. “The way that we see football being successful is that you definitely have to have roles and structure, but can’t have dictatorships inside the club.

“Gavin and I will be around each other every day. I will be around at training every day. We will be discussing the needs on player positions.

“At times people are going to want to come in and buy our players and we will speak about the replacements and if we can sell.

“It’s a group effort. If we are successful, which we really hope we can be, it will have nothing to do with just what I or Scott does, or Gavin does, it is everybody.”