SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens feels Paul Jewell’s appointment as director of football at the club this week can help lighten the load on his shoulders.

Former Premier League manager Jewell’s arrival at the club was announced on Tuesday morning, resuming a partnership alongside Wellens that began at Oldham Athletic last season.

Back at Boundary Park, Jewell served as Wellens’ assistant manager, but his remit at Town will be away from the training pitch and instead focussed on player recruitment.

Wellens says the volume of prospective signings lower league managers have to appraise can be overwhelming.

Therefore, the Town boss hopes that with someone of Jewell’s experience now casting an eye, potential transfer targets will be vetted more thoroughly and a higher calibre of player brought in.

“Dealing with agents and dealing with player recruitment is quite tough on a manager at times because you get agents emailing you to send videos and making phone calls every single day,” said Wellens.

“There’s that many of them that sometimes it can drain you.

“Paul can dilute the ones that are wasting our time, so that the ones that are serious and the ones that are of a good enough quality to get in, we can then go and have a look at them.

“Paul has obviously got a lot of experience in the game and his eye for a player is very good.

“He has got a lot of contacts in the game, so I will basically put the agents on to him.

“He is someone that I trust and someone I am looking forward to bringing some good players to the club.

“Paul is from Bradford, so within an hour-and-a-half radius, there is a hell of a lot of clubs and a hell of a lot of players.

“He can cover up there and Ben Chorley (chief scout) can do down here. They can liaise with each other and we can come to a conclusion about what we want to get in.”

Wellens and Jewell’s previous working relationship was a brief one, with the latter opting to leave his position at Oldham after only six weeks at the club.

Town boss Wellens feels the role Jewell will now hold at the Energy Check County Ground will suit him much better and hopes that can bear fruit with quality player acquisitions.

“I didn’t really work with him for that long,” said Wellens.

“He came in at Oldham as assistant manager, but under the circumstances – lack of facilities, lack of organisation and lack of everything, really – he got frustrated and it didn’t really work out as I wanted it to.

“I understood where he was coming from and I ended up going the rest of the season without an assistant manager.

“He has come here in a different role this time and one that he should enjoy.”