His name is Tony Strudwick and, explaining why he has brought him on board, Alan says:
"Tony is a fully qualified sports scientist as you would expect and has been at the F.A. - I think he is going to bring a model to the club that we can reproduce through all the teams from the first team down.
"It will give a sports science approach to our fitness and levels of strength and increase our power throughout the club.
"It will develop the young players that we have always produced here and if we can get a wee bit more out of them on the physical side he will find it.
"I think he is going to be a major addition to the first team as well.
"His input will be about the fitness of the players and producing a better product for me to put out on the pitch from the physical side of things.
"For too many years managers have double guessed whether they are doing it right or doing it wrong and this way the chance is being out of it.
"To be fair, he will come alongside Paul Goddard and be that close to me - that is how importantly I take it.
"He will be a major assistant to me and if he can add 1% to one player it will be worth it but I am sure he is going to add more than that to the first team and to the club."