CHELSEA have suffered a blow to their recruitment department after losing the services of Kenneth Zandvliet.

The scout has swapped Stamford Bridge for Dutch side Heerenveen.

He has joined the club as their new head of scouting, replacing the outgoing Peter Maas.

Speaking on Heerenveen's website, Zandvliet said: "SC Heerenveen is regarded as a club where young talent likes to come to develop themselves.

"It is a great challenge to continue this and thus identify the right players for the club.

"Together with the scouting team and Ferry [de Haan], I would like to contribute to the further development of scouting at SC Heerenveen."

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Zandvliet has left his role at Chelsea after four years as a European scout at the club, mainly aimed at identifying players Under 23.

Prior to this, the 56-year-old's experience in scouting stemmed from his time with Go Ahead Eagles and as head of youth scouting at FC Twente.

The move comes after Chelsea hired All Blacks mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka to try and cultivate a winning culture.

Heerenveen technical manager Ferry de Haan revealed he was pleased to bring in the Dutch scout.

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He added: "Kenneth is very experienced with scouting and player evaluation.

"We look forward to his contribution to the further development of the scouting team.

"He has gained a lot of experience at the absolute top and we can of course use this knowledge."

In the last two windows, Zandvliet had his work cut out by helping Chelsea with a whopping 16 transfers.

This included a staggering outlay of £326million in January.

However, Chelsea were left blue faced after only being able to add three new stars to their Champions League squad.

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