Alex Neil is confident that the appointment of head of recruitment Jared Dublin is ‘a great bit of business’ for Stoke City.

Dublin has joined following a brief spell at Reading but it was behind the scenes at Sheffield United where he had a prominent role for six years, playing a significant part in putting together the squad which has won promotion to the Premier League.

It is a timely arrival at Stoke because work permit rules have changed to open the door for four wild cards from overseas who wouldn’t have previously met post-Brexit Home Office criteria. And, an impressed Neil suggests, Dublin’s little black book of potential targets is not so little.

“I think that’s a great bit of business for the club, I really do,” said the manager. “I think that he’s got a great balance between understanding what’s going on and sort of the news from the market in terms of what deals are getting done – but also being able to recognise what all the key players are like.

“His knowledge of players is freakishly good in terms of who’s on the market, who’s available, who’s the best left centre-back in Sweden. He lives and breathes it.”

Dublin has talked about a 70-30 split in terms of traditional scouting methods and the use of data to help recruitment.

Neil said: “It’s a proper business now. We’re not talking about guys that could rock up with a few names on the back of a fag packet. Those days are long gone.

“It’s a proper organisation where you’ve got separate departments for one element in the club whereas before it used to be four or five guys running the whole thing. It’s a proper, it’s a proper operation.”