Gillingham assistant manager Richard Dobson becomes the club’s first technical director

Gillingham assistant manager Richard Dobson has taken on the new role of technical director at the club.

Manager Gareth Ainsworth’s long-term assistant is stepping away from the dugout and will now be in overall charge of the club’s recruitment department, sports science and medical, and the GFC Academy.

The club say he will “continue to work alongside the first-team staff” but will now report to Gillingham managing director Joe Comper.

Dobson said: “I guess this is a role that has been 25 years in the making.

“I have worked across every age group through the academy. I have been an academy manager, I understand the development programmes of each phase and I’ve been a part of successful development of players into the first-team who have been sold to the Championship and Premier League.

“I have done coach education visits to the likes of PSV Eindhoven and Espanyol and spoken to all departments in those clubs around structure and how they develop their players.

“I will still be around to support the first team but my viewpoint now is longer term and how we develop this club in the coming years.”

Dobson worked as youth co-ordinator at Brentford before becoming centre of excellence manager at Wycombe in July 2007.

He has worked alongside Ainsworth at Wycombe, QPR and Shrewsbury, and had a spell in charge at the Gills when the boss had heart surgery earlier this season.

Comper said: “We are always looking at the structure of the club and we felt the step forward would be to link the departments even closer.

“Appointing someone who oversees recruitment, academy and sports science and working closely alongside the first-team is really key.

“We are very fortunate that we have someone with decades of expertise in all of those