Former Birmingham City, Celtic, and Rangers figure reportedly leaves club after five months

Former Birmingham City transfer chief John Park has reportedly left Blackburn Rovers just months after he swapped St Andrew's for Ewood Park.

According to The Sun journalist Alan Nixon, Park has left his post as head of recruitment at Ewood Park, in what is being described as a ‘surprise’ move by Nixon on his Patreon. He later returned to Blackburn Rovers in June following Birmingham's relegation to League One, but Nixon’s report is saying that he has left that role after just five months.

Park was apparently appointed as Blues' head of international scouting towards the end of January. He arrived at around the same time as Tony Mowbray, and during the January window Birmingham signed Paik Seung-ho and Alex Pritchard permanently, whilst Andre Dozzell was brought in on loan from QPR.

Blackburn were linked with a move for the South Korean international. Paik of course ended up remaining with Birmingham, and has forged a strong partnership with Tomoki Iwata in the centre of the park.

Park was working closely alongside former Birmingham City boss John Eustace, whilst former Aston Villa and Middlesbrough striker Rudy Gestede was working as their Head of Football Operations. The 65-year-old described Blackburn as a club ‘close to his heart’ having worked there for a year between June 2021 and June 2022.

As well as working at Birmingham and Blackburn, he also held roles at Celtic, Rangers, Hibs and Motherwell in Scotland, Maccabi Haifa, Vancouver Whitecaps, and Legia Warsaw. Since his appointment was announced in mid-June, they signed Todd Cantwell from his former club Rangers. Mahktar Gueye and Yuki Ohashi arrived from overseas, whilst they also signed experienced Championship players Danny Batth and Andreas Weimann.