Fulham have laid the responsibility for finding the next manager mostly at the feet of chief football officer Mike Rigg, who joined the club in December last year.

Who is he?

Rigg was a failed footballer who started in Football in the Community projects at lowly clubs

Cheshire-born Rigg sold a neat line in self deprecation when he described himself as a ‘former slow, inept midfielder,’ he told Goal.com.

Instead he cut his teeth on Football in the Community schemes at Wrexham and Chester in the late 1980s and early 1990s before moving on to better things.

As ‘technical director’ at Manchester City and QPR, Rigg even researched top players shopping habits

His main job was to leave no stone unturned in digging out the next big thing - or making sure millions were spent on the right man.

Rigg told GetWestLondon in August 2012 when at QPR that his homework was so thorough 40-page dossiers on stars even outlined their leisure time habits - like shopping, to make sure his clubs got the right man.

He loves a flip chart

In the two interviews GetWestLondon conducted with Rigg at QPR, media officers were required to tote a large flip chart and stand into the room as a means to illustrate Rigg’s points on players.

QPR’s chairman Tony Fernandes was unimpressed at the time. “Can you due diligence on a human being? It’s not an exact science,” said the man in charge.

QPR chair: Tony Fernandes

Mike Rigg was head of talent identification at the FA before he left to join Fulham

When Rigg was lured by Fulham to leave the FA and become the Whites football officer, The FA's Director of Elite Development Dan Ashworth, said: “We are really sorry to see Mike go but we totally understand his reasons.

"It was always likely he would move back into club football at some stage, as this type of role becomes increasingly common within the game.

“Mike has played a huge part in the transformation of the way in which we work in talent identification and helped build and shape a department that looks after both the male and female game."

Rigg believes agents are just doing their jobs - but clubs are buying the wrong players

Rigg is quoted as saying to Goal.com: “Everyone beats upon agents.

“They’re doing their job – to manoeuvre the market and move on their players. It’s not the agent’s fault if you sign a bad right-back. It’s the football club’s fault if they don’t have the records or dossiers on the players.”

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