Crawley Town appoint director of football who has worked with Brentford and FC Midtjylland

WAGMI United have made no secrets of their goal to take Crawley Town to the Premier League, and they see the appointment of Chris Galley as they next step in that journey.

Galley has been appointed as the club’s new Director of Football, effective August 23 and he will also act as the club’s interim CEO until a search for a permanent hire is completed.

Prior to his appointment, Galley served as Head of Pro Services for StatsBomb, the leading football analytics firm, where he led the company’s consulting practice and advised professional clubs on player recruitment, strategy and tactics.

He previously spent a decade at Matthew Benham’s Smartodds, where he was responsible for research, analysis and the application of statistical models, while also working behind the scenes assisting Benham’s own football clubs — Brentford FC of the English Premier League and FC Midtjylland of the Danish Superliga — with coaching searches and player recruitment.

Having advised Crawley Town in his capacity at StatsBomb since the club’s takeover by WAGMI United, Galley will now bring his wealth of football experience and invaluable analytics expertise to the Broadfield Stadium on a full-time basis, where he will partner with co-chairmen Preston Johnson and Eben Smith, manager Kevin Betsy and assistant manager Dan Micciche in collaboratively charting the club’s path forward, on and off the pitch.

Galley said: “I am delighted to be given this opportunity to join Crawley Town at such an exciting time in the club’s journey. I am looking forward to getting started and working with everyone at Crawley Town to achieve the club’s on- and off-pitch ambitions.”

Since taking over the club in April, WAGMI United have made significant investments in Crawley Town FC, with the goal of building a model that can not only achieve promotion up the English football pyramid, but also sustain that level of success over the long term.

This includes the hiring of highly rated Arsenal academy coach Kevin Betsy as first-team manager, the recruitment of 14 new players in the summer transfer window, and the building of essential club infrastructure through investments in top-notch data and analytics, cutting-edge sports science and nutrition, robust player development programs, and more. Galley played a key part in advising on those investments in his role at StatsBomb.

Johnson said: “We couldn’t be more excited to have Chris joining our team at Crawley Town on a full-time basis. He’s been an invaluable asset to our football operations team since the very beginning of this journey, so when we needed to hire a Director of Football, he was our first call without hesitation.

"We’ve got big ambitions for the club and a lot of work ahead of us if we want to achieve them, but Chris has seen first hand at Brentford what it takes for a club to beat the odds and rise all the way to the Premier League, and we’re eager for him to bring that practical experience and his first-rate analytics mind to our team.”

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