NPDK
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Posts posted by NPDK
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It seems like Danish options will be mentioned a lot in the the press due to Lange. I mentioned to a few of my friends when we hired Smith, that Brentford got an upgrade at the manager position. I stand by that still. Although, I wouldn't target Thomas Frank now as I want to get away from the Brentford-link, I still think he'd be a solid option - all things considered.
The only other Danish name I'd like to see us linked with is Bo Svensson from Mainz. He's been a miracle worker since he arrived in there in January. He's a players coach and he gives young players chances, although he has a small sample size in terms of his career. I think he's going to be very successful wherever he ends up going in his career.
EDIT: I'm not in favor of appointing a Danish manager, I'd really prefer not to, but Svensson is one guy I'd be really, really interested in.
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6 hours ago, Indigo said:
Reminder.
Okay, I'll take the bait. This was posted on August 12th, the day before the season started. So we were 2nd at the time for alphabetical reasons. This is a useless tweet.
EDIT: I can't be bothered to check if he means by where we ended last season. Which would make more sense, but make the timing of this tweet horrible.
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4 hours ago, thabucks said:
Stipe Biuk is a cracking young left winger from Croatia - this is the sort of signing I expect this window
Interesting player. I had the pleasure of seeing him up close a few years ago with the Croatian U17 national team at a U17 tournament. Croatia is, once again, loaded with young talented players (Most of us already know of Gvardiol and Sucic (a guy I'd throw 20M at right now with no hesitation), but also guys like Jakov Anton-Vasilj, Tomislav Duvnjak, Ivan Saranic, Ivan Cubelic, Roko Simic, Filip Braut and Gabriel Vidovic to name a few from that same age group) . Biuk didn't really stand out (my only memory of him is him diving. He hit ground smiling because he knew he had been caught. It was quite funny honestly). Tricky guy with a lot of pace and a good work rate.
Honestly, every academy should try to sign a couple of Croatians each year.
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3 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:
I'd prefer Hummel, from a purely design point of view. They do a great job, they genuinely care about every team they dress, and the Chief Brand Officer is a close friend of mine. He was my Marketing counterpart at Puma when we were doing all the Cameroon, Italy, Spurs, etc. He's a very smart guy with a strong belief in big ideas and innovation. I'd also be straight on the phone to him, begging him to let me design it!
As a realist, I'd prefer whoever would offer us the most money. So long as they get the right shades of claret and blue and don't **** about with the home shirt too much, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.
Looking at it as a somewhat informed fan, we're in a funny spot where we're not going to get a megabucks deal like Utd, Liverpool etc. They sell millions of shirts worldwide and we just don't. An ideal partner would pay us a good sum of money, maybe incentivised on Euro qualification etc, but would help to position us as an attractive club from a brand POV.
Back when Lerner bought the club, I created a presentation and arranged for it be sent to people in the club, that talked of positioning Villa as the quintessential English club. Historic ground opposite Aston Hall, the most England internationals, a lot of young English players, founders of league football. Just go out to the world as an international club that evokes the best qualities of "Englishness". It could be massive in Asia. Sadly, I never got a call back. If I were designing/marketing the kit now, that would still be how I'd approach it.
In terms of fan input - I wouldn't be in favour, to be honest. If the club and brand are doing their job properly it wouldn't be needed. Plus, you'll always get differing opinions based on what individuals prefer. There's a saying in our industry - a camel is a racehorse designed by committee.
Puma's kits - Italy home and third were great, all those one with the country name written on the front were shit.
It would be unprofessional of me to comment.
On a separate note, I often find your posts to be perceptive and well informed.
I don't think I've ever said this, but I don't think there's a guy who's opinion I respect more when it comes to kit, than yours. It's really appreciated!
I do have a question for you regarding upcoming manufactorers/designers. What would your thoughts be on a Villa and GymShark partnership? It's not something I have looked into in terms of what I would expect to happen (logistics, Fanatics etc.) if it came to fruition. But I think it could be a very, very interesting case considering the founder is a massive Villa fan and the ridiculous rise that GymShark has had over the past few years.
As I said, I haven't given it too much thought, it's just something that's crossed my mind a couple of times over the past few months.
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3 hours ago, theboyangel said:
I see mild speculation about sivert mannsverk, an 18yr old Norwegian central midfielder from Sogndal
Any of our Scandi based VTers know much about him?
Clearly one for the future but I like our recent thoughts on the recruiting for youth set up
I've done some stuff for the Norwegian football federation, so I've seen him quite a bit of him for the Norwegian U18 national team. He looked okay and it's worth noting that he was a year younger than the rest of the squad. He looked good in practice and he seemed like a good and mature lad when I talked to him, but he didn't get many minutes in actual games when I had the opportunity to see him.
But I think Norway has a couple of just as interesting players coming up in his age group (Christos Zafeiris (Grorud IL); Nicolaj Skoglund (Sporting CP); Joshua Kitolano (Odds BK); Thomas Rekdal (Mainz); Oscar Bobb (Man City); Leo Fuhr Hjelde (Celtic)). Generally, Norway has a very good generation coming up right now.
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The 'Johan Lange Special' podcast were released earlier today and as promised, here's what was said. It was a rather short one (35 minutes), but still pretty solid. Like the last one, I've been paraphrasing it.
Initial thoughts on Lange to Villa.
He wasn’t one of the first names you’d think about if asked which Danes would land a Premier League job. But he’s an extremely respected man in Denmark, and one of those guys that pretty much every manager, coach and other DOF’s looked up to. He’s by far Ståle Solbakkens favorite guy to work with (and Solbakkens word carries a lot of weight in Denmark, rightfully so I might say).He’s also really, really good friends with Thomas Frank at Brentford. Lange was rumored to be Frank’s assistant when Frank worked at Brøndby IF from 2013-2016.
They absolutely love the fit from a Danish point of view. Aston Villa is still a massive club and one with a future. As they said, it wouldn’t have been as exciting had Lange been appointed at Brighton. Not because Brighton is a bad or borring club, but because they don’t carry the same name recognition that Villa does and doesn’t have the means we do. They said, that if he hit it right, we are a club that could challenge for Europe relatively soon simply because of the money in our owner’s pockets as well as the facilities that we have. They didn’t call us a sleeping giant, but they were kind of gushing about the potential of this club.
The job and the Grealish situation.
First order of business for Lange should be to get on the exact same page as Smith, JT and O’Kelly. They talked about how an actual ‘director of football/sporting director’ is still relatively new in the UK, so it’s not something every manager is familiar/comfortable working with. It’s a big plus that DS has that experience. It’s makes everything a hell of lot easier when Lange doesn’t have to worry about a power-struggle from day one.Second order of business is Jack. If Jack lets Lange know that he wants to leave, Lange needs to figure out how to replace him. That could pretty much make or break Langes Premier League adventure. Would he be trying to replace Grealish with one ‘star-player’ or multiple players (like some have suggested in the transfer thread).
How much influence will Lange get?
As I mentioned in another post, Lange was a big part of the tactical preparations for Copenhagen and he has a background as an assistant manager for a good while. How likely is it that Lange would be a rather big influence of our philosophy moving forward? Considering his background as well as what the Copenhagen Academy developed into under Lange, it’s very possible that Lange is going to have a lot to say when it comes to strategically developing our overall philosophy on the pitch (like we’ve seen for the past 20 years at Ajax and Barcelona). This whole concept of creating a clear identity from your senior squad to your U10 players is very, very big in Denmark and has been for 10-15 years now (FC Nordsjælland is one of the best at this in the world. It's crazy what they are doing).Apparently Purslow (or maybe one of the owners?) gave an interview Thursday to an English newspaper, where he said that part of the reason we went for Lange, was because of the team he helped build at Copenhagen. A team that consistently punched above its own weight class in European competitions. Apparently that was a big selling point for Lange, according to the podcast host.
Danish fits.
They talked briefly about potential Danish fits. Nothing in-depth, because they don’t think Lange is going to go about Danish players just for the sake of it. They don’t think Thomas Delaney (Dortmund) is realistic, but they very much believe the rumor will pop up very soon. Then they mentioned Mathias Zanka as a potential 3rd CB option. He’s got PL experience and should be able to come in very cheap. Again, they wouldn’t bet on it, but it’s a link they expect to see soon.They mentioned Ståle Solbakken from Copenhagen as a name to maybe replace Dean if needed, but they wouldn’t bet on it. It would simply be too big of risk and gamble for Lange to really put his neck out for Solbakken like that. They then mentioned Thomas Frank. Again, they are very good friends and it was rumored Lange should have been an assistant for Frank a few years back. IMPORTANT NOTE: THEY DIDN’T THINK DS IS AT RISK, IT WAS SIMPLY THEM SPECULATING RANDOM NAMES KNOWING LISTENERS WOULD BE ASKING.
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As promised, here's some information about Lange on a few topics.
First of all, there’s a lot of waffling. He came across rather uncomfortable with a lot of mumbling and fast talking. The podcast was recorded in January of 2017, so some things might have changed.
There were also a lot of useless information that was Copenhagen strictly and not really about him. But there some information about what he does (and how he does it) as well as what Copenhagen need to do to continue developing and things like that.
I’m paraphrasing btw.
What is it that actually does:
He said he’s mostly working three areas.
1) He assists the manager (Ståle Solbakken) and his staff at tactical training sessions. He analyses upcoming opponents (which includes tactical discussions with Solbakken back and forth), both in Denmark as well as European. He’s the guy traveling to see European opponents up close while Solbakken stays back in Denmark. He’s also one of the primary guys at Copenhagen when it comes to presenting the analysis to the players either at meetings or individually.
2) He’s in charge of the academy. He’s in charge of the overall strategy of the academy to insure that Copenhagen stays competitive
3) Optimizes the scouting process. Solbakken has final say whether Copenhagen signs play X or player Y, but it’s his job gather as much information as possible to present to Solbakken.Regarding transfers:
There’s a video on Youtube where he goes through how Copenhagen goes about their transfer business and the scouting process. There’s ongoing discussions within the management team and his guys about the squad assembling as well as how the squad would be looking in 12-18 months, so that they can prepare for anything. A big part of this preparation is the knowledge of the scouts. They all know exactly how Copenhagen wants to play and what kind of players fit that system. The further along they get, the less targets they get (some of them aren’t as good as they thought, some would be too expensive, some won’t come to Copenhagen and so on). Once they’ve slimmed down there list of targets, they start to do there due-diligence and get a feel for the players. They talk to teammates, former teammates, coaches, agents and so on to get a feel for the players mentality and to see if he would fit into the FC Copenhagen mindset. End the end Lange, and hopefully Solbakken if possible, will go and watch the players in-person. This is pretty standard, but I wanted to add it anyway.Career-planning:
A big part of Copenhagen is career-planning. Copenhagen know exactly who they are and where they belong in the pecking order that is European football. In order for them attract top talent, they have to present them with a long-term plan for the development, which is being discussed even before they sign the contract. He also mentioned that due to the way society has changed, it’s much more common for players to an actual career-plan for how they want to progress and it’s easy for Copenhagen to show how Copenhagen would be a great decision for them to make in terms of continuous development (they can leave more mature and mentally stronger, as well as a better resume with European caps in Champions League or Europa League). Usually Copenhagen plans for players to stay three years, before selling them (Benjamin Verbic spend 2,5 years at Copenhagen before being sold to Dynamo Kiev and Ludwig Agustinsson also spend 2,5 years before going to Werder Bremen, just two examples), which is pretty much the agreement when the player signs his contract. This, IMO, just shows that Copenhagen perfectly understands where they are compared to other European clubs and what they need to sell to potential new players.There aren’t a lot of ‘one club players’ anymore, which means that the squad in general is much younger than 5-6 years ago, which also means Copenhagen added a couple more coaches to their staff in order for them to continue help developing every young player in the squad.
This strategic career-planning for players, also means that Copenhagen has a much bigger squad turnover than previous (which goes back to squad planning 12-18 months into the future). It’s also important to Copenhagen that the turnover isn’t too big and players leave after 12 months. They want those three year cycles to ensure some sort of continuity.Academy/player development:
I believe the rebranding of the academy (School of Excellence) came after this podcast, so there weren’t a lot of information. Copenhagen spends a lot of resources on developing the academy and continue making players for the first team.A few other clubs in Denmark, that made surprise runs in Europe, claims that the biggest part of their run were due to a great spine of homegrown players and the biggest part in their development were the amount minutes they got for the first team, something Copenhagen hasn’t been particularly good at. Lange claims that at Copenhagen, the best players play regardless of name and resume. He claims that’s why players like Thomas Delaney (Dortmund), Andreas Cornelius (Parma) and Zanka (previously Huddersfield) came through, was because they were simply good enough at a very young age. We’ve seen it lately with guys like Carlo Holse and Jonas Wind knocking on the door to the starting 11 at Copenhagen (Holse was sold to Rosenborg and Wind had some injuries, but he looks like a future star now).
He’s a big believe of loaning players, as long as the loan is the right fit. Copenhagen has previously had a lot of success loaning out players and getting them back ready to be a part of there squad. Hopefully, that’s something we’ll see here as well.
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25 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:
Uh oh... Time will tell! I think our owners will have looked into it and know what they want from him. We have people who can watch players, it's the early identification that data can especially help with.
I definitely think with everyone on the same page and we can have a really successful few years here.
Be fantastic if @NPDK can transcribe some interviews/podcasts. Prepare to see them reported on various news sources once you post them
I'll see how much time I'm going to have, but right now I'm targeting tomorrow morning for some writing. It's a lengthy process mate.
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24 minutes ago, NPDK said:There's a couple of hour long podcast with him, as well as a few other where he's being talked about somewhat in-depth. I'll get to one of two of them at some point today and I'll post whatever seems relevant and interesting.
The best football podcast media in Denmark will make a 'Johan Lange special' this weekend, which means about 60-120 minutes of talk about Lange and how he fits in at Aston Villa and his approach to everything. It should be out Sunday/Monday. I'll keep an eye out.
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11 minutes ago, Teale's 'tache said:I'd love to read more about him if you get time to do those translations.
There's a couple of hour long podcast with him, as well as a few other where he's being talked about somewhat in-depth. I'll get to one of two of them at some point today and I'll post whatever seems relevant and interesting.
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Thoughts from a dane on a dane.
All of this 'he buys cheap and sells for a big profit' chatter needs to be taken into context. Copenhagen runs on a much, much bigger scale than the rest of the danish league. What is considered 'cheap' by english standards is more than 75% of the rest of the league can afford. It doesn't take away from the fact that Copenhagen regularly manages to sell for a profit, though. He's also had his fair shares of stinkers over the years, especially strikers.
It's tough to really know just how much power he has had at Copenhagen with Ståle Solbakken being the manager. Solbakken runs that team, top to bottom and he has final say in everything sporting related.
He's been a big part of Copenhagens restructure of their academy (they've called it 'School of Excellence') that has seen quite a few players make it to the first team and other places over the past few years. He's a guy that emphasizes the academy, which seems to be something we really, really want to do. He's a good appointment in that regard.
He also fits Edens' Moneyball approach. Lange is ridiculously data-driven. He loves his data and spreadsheet.
I saw a few people mention that they hoped he would bring a couple of guys with him. I don't. Frederik Leth (stats guy) would've been interesting, but I have a feeling he's going to take Langes job. I'd take a pass on the rest of that staff. Copenhagens biggest transfer hits have been guys they've played against and later signed. In 2017 they played Champions League qualifying against Zilina from Slovakia. A few weeks later they sign Denis Vavro. They hadn't discovered him if they hadn't played against him.
I've had the pleasure of meeting Lange a couple of times, nothing in-depth and I won't be an ITK account, but he seems like a good guy. He's a bit arrogant/cocky, but I've also met him where he was really cool and down to earth. I guess he has his days. From what I know and has heard, he can be ruthless. There's been a few Copenhagen players mentioning after they left Copenhagen and they didn't exactly endorse him.
If you guys I want, I can translate some quotes from him from a couple of great pieces of how he views football and his role within an organisation? I think there might be a podcast as well with/about Lange. I'll check around to see if I can find it. It should help paint a better picture of who he is and how he approaches his tasks.
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The current situation has made me read pretty much everything I have and I realized a remarkable lack of Villa related books.
So which Villa related books can you guys recommend? Preferably some I can get off of Amazon.
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I've seen both Harvey Elliott and Louie Barry play for England at the U16 and U17 level and I think Barry is a better player than Elliott (I also think Bellingham is better). I wouldn't be surprised to see Barry feature regularly next season and get quite a bit of minutes at the end of this season if he were to sign with us.
Also, the Marcus McGuane talk is interesting (Villa isn't mentioned by name, but he's eyeing a return to England). Barca, allegedly, signed him as revenge for Arsenal signing Fabregas, Bellerin and Jon Toral. McGuane was highly thought of at Arsenal and Barca saw an opportunity to "get back" at them while still signing a quality talent. He never really made the strides Barca was hoping (he also got stuck behind a couple of really, really interesting players).
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12 hours ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:
Oi vey, I really like Sisto. Even if you're purely looking at him as a your man from the bench to do some madness in a game that's winding down.
I don't know where these rumours of him being "off the rails" stem from, everything I've ever read about him suggest he has a very strong work ethic. Such at this Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/02/pione-sisto-uganda-born-dane-who-worked-harder-than-his-team-mates
Will be interesting to see if we go back in for him in January. I imagine not as he has already turned the move down, so a shame for me and the club.
Something happened to Sisto at Celta Vigo that changed him mentally. He's got legit issues that needs to be fixed for him to function properly as a human being, because this past year hasn't been good for him. His teammates joked about it at Celta, but quickly realized they shouldn't be messing with him about it. It dug a lot deeper than they thought.
I don't know what has happened to him at Celta (hopefully it is just homesickness or some sort), but I hope he figures it out and gets back on track, because he's really, really talented.
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4 hours ago, Jonsi77 said:
I would never compare or give similar quality stamp to Gíslason (who is squad player in the team - tough he was best player in danish league with fc kobenh. at least highest paid ) and Frederik Schram who was 3 keeper in last world cup beacause of an injury and have play in 4 or 5 friendly matches.
Comparing these player with keyplayer like Bjarnason is not realistic. Bjarnason playes 90 minutes in almost every game. Ofcourse its stamp of quality if you are able to play keyrole in two biggest football tournements in the world and play well and in addition score versus France and Portugal . Are you trying to tell me something else?
Bossing thats not the right word but he won most of their battles in this match and kept him down. And if you can keep him down, than i assume you can keep almost everyone down
At least Villa supporters where happy https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/lionel-messi-birkir-bjarnason-world-14793659
Gislason was nowhere near the best player in Denmark. If you genuinely believes that, that would explain why you rate Bjarnason so highly. Just a FYI, Gislason wasn't even amongst the 30 best paid players in Denmark when he was making the most. He MIGHT have been in the top 10 in FC Copenhagen but nowhere near the top of the Superliga.
I only mentioned Schram and Gislason because you kept saying, that playing in the World Cup or at the EUROs was some sort of stamp of approval. It isn't. No doubt Bjarnason is a key player for Iceland. He's a soldier and pretty smart footballer. He is also one of the few (at that time) that was playing regularly in some of the bigger leagues in Europe. Of course he was going to play. And as I mentioned earlier, Iceland was succesfull because that they were a great TEAM. The icelandic gameplan against Argentina was to shut down Messi as much as possible, and they succeeded. But I will bet you that Lagerback didn't tell Bjarnason to singlehandedly cover Messi. That was 100% team effort - and again, they executed that gameplan very well. No offense to the Icelandic team, but their strength isn't in the players, but the team. I have a feeling, that you feel so strongly about him because he is one of the stars in Iceland.
You want to know about another guy that scored against Portugal (on five different occasions actually), Germany and Brazil? Nicklas Bendtner. Trust me, you don't Bendtner playing for Villa either (even though he's a free agent right now). Just because you score a couple of goals against good competition, doesn't necessarily make you Premiership quality.
I'm pretty sure no one here has anything against Bjarnason and most of us thinks he could be a decent squad player. We just don't want to rely on him as starter for 30 games this upcoming season.
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10 minutes ago, Jonsi77 said:
Ok, but when you are in midfield position vs france you are playing against premier league players
There is a HUGE difference in playing for Iceland vs. France than playing for Villa against Ipswich.
Bjarnason could've been a useful player had Steve Bruce still been here. He's a solid player when he's supposed to chase the opposition and be helpful as a counter attacker. Lars Lagerback had a great TEAM at the 2016 EURO. Not a lot of individuals, but a good and broad understanding amongst the players of what each and everyone was supposed to do and why. They knew they weren't going to the ball for 70% of time and that they had to rely on being efficient and taking advantage of opponents mistake. They were not a great bunch of players, but they were a great TEAM.
You keep saying he played against opponents of the highest quality like it's a stamp of approval. Well, Frederik Schram was a part of that 2016 EURO squad too and he's still playing in the second division here in Denmark. Rurik Gislason played at the World Cup last year and he's currently making more off of his Instagram account than his salary in Germany.
Also, did you type this "Played in final of world cup 2018 where he took Lionel Messi and bossed him in 1-1 draw in Iceland vs Argentina." with a straight face?-
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16 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said:
Looks like he has a great shot in him, how mobile is he though?
Bit wary of another Gary Gardener type if you known what I mean.
Just curious I have never seem him play.Yeah, that's the thing. He looks awkward when he runs. But he's not slow or un-athletic. It's just kind of adds to an element of surprise kind of thing. He is sneaky fast, especially once he gets going. He's not the most explosive athlete, but once he gets going his speed is not an issue.
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19 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:
Best Danish player since Eriksen?
Eriksen was a big talent that left Denmark before ever making his senior debut (he left at 16). We have a lot of talent in Denmark, but the best ones leaves as a 15/16 year old (for instance Maurits Kjærgaard, who just left for Red Bull Salzburg at 16. He was a guy I suggested to team in Germany earlier this year).
But if you're talking about the best player in the Danish league, then definitely. I've never seen a single player takeover an entire season the way Skov did this past season and the expectations moving forward are huge.
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6 minutes ago, Villan4Life said:
Yes, he's better than Trezeguet
As a Dane, I'm quite interested in hearing your "report" on Skov. Care to share your thoughts?
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I love the Robert Skov talk. He's a great player and an even better person. But he's going to be around 20M, if not more. He was rumored back in January to be the first "100M DKK" player from the danish league (100M DKK is just over 12M pounds). Copenhagen's head of communications made a funny tweet fixing the article with a "100M euro"-caption. Obviously he isn't going to be that expensive, but they value him a lot in Copenhagen.
One of the best left foots in Europe and he would actually fit right into our system.
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30 minutes ago, Uncle Albert said:
Is there any big scandinavian centre backs knocking around? We always seem to do well with them
I don't know many in Sweden or Norway (Ajer is the only one that comes to mind), but there's a few Danish options right now.
Jacob Rasmussen, Fiorentina - Fiorentina bought him in January and he was loaned out to Empoli. Kind of the modern centre back, i. e. that he's a big and calm guy who's good on the ball. Give him a few years and I could see him be a solid player in one of the big leagues.
Victor Nelsson, FC Nordsjælland - He's 20 and captain for his club. He's a leader, who, like Rasmussen, is good on the ball (every Nordsjælland player is). He's young, so a lot can happen, but right now I wouldn't be comfortable starting him in the Premiership.
Joachim Andersen, Sampdoria - Probably the biggest talent in Denmark right now. 23 years old and Transfermarkt values him at 25M euro. He's been linked with moves to all the major clubs over the past year (Arsenal and Inter has been the two most consistent). He's a star. I normally don't rate Danes that much, but Anderson is incredible.
Rasmus Nissen Kristensen, Ajax - He's been a right back his entire career, but his size makes him an interesting prospect to move to centre back or maybe even a defensive midfielder (6'2). He comes from one of the top academies in Denmark (Midtjylland) and moved to Ajax in January of 2018 as a player with a lot of power. Ajax refined his technical ability. I think it would be good for him to try something new. He captained Denmark for a game or two at this past U21 Euro championships and forced Joakim Mæhle to play left back (I've seen Mæhle linked with a move to Crystal Palace to replace Wan-Bissaka, and he was linked with a move to Southampton back in January for 12M pounds).-
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2 hours ago, BOF said:
So they've taken a leaf out of Midtjylland's book.
Most definitely. Especially considering that the owner is involved with a group of people, looking into purchasing clubs throughout Europe and build some sort of empire with a lot of feeder clubs to one big club (kind of like the Midtjylland and Brentford connection). It'll be very interesting to see if anything comes from it (I personally doubt it).
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It's an interesting move.
Fremad Amager got new owners about a year ago. A young (30-ish year old) guy from Monaco who made a fortune on real-estate. He's been pouring money into the club ever since and they looked like a good team this spring.
They are a very interesting case. The director of sport is a 29 year old russian guy that was brought in from a scouting agency that relied heavily on statistics and algorithms. I know some have talked about us using the Moneyball-philosophy. These guys lives it.
It'll be interesting to see Fremad Amager moving forward with Olof at the helm.
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3 hours ago, Tomaszk said:Blimey. Wonder how they've landed those roles? From nowhere to Premier League. Expecting massive things from them with our current standing.
It seems a bit harsh to say Juanfran came from nowhere to Premier League. I mean Celta Vigo, Levante, Valencia, Ajax and Besiktas aren't horrible places. He was also a part of Spains world cup squad in 2002. He has all the UEFA manager licenses necessary. He's one of Vicente Del Bosque's favorite players (Del Bosque was the reason Juanfran went to Besiktas).
When it comes to former players turned scouts, I tend to look at the relationships. Juanfran played at Valencia and Ajax which happens to be two of the finest academies in Europe. It's a long time ago, and his spell at Ajax was short, but nonetheless he made relationships. At Ajax he was teammates with Johnny Heitinga (who happens to be Ajax U19 coach now), Maxwell (who is now assistant sporting director at PSG) and Tomas Galasek (an assistant coach for the Czech national team), as well as many others who went on to play throughout Europe.
Same goes for Monterrubio in France. He spend three seasons with Alexander Frei at Rennes (Frei is now the manager at FC Basel). He came through Nantes youth academy, who, for a long time was considered one of the best in France, and an academy that still produces quite a few good footballers.
When it comes to scouting, it is as much about relationships as it is actually about evaluating talent. Which is the primary reason I really like Suso as out Sporting Director. He has so many ties throughout Europe. Someone mentioned Suso not "setting the world alight" after Atletico Madrid. I think his legacy at Atletico Madrid is remarkable. He left them in a much better place than when he arrived. I know he didn't appoint Simeone, but he acquired most (if not all) of the backbone of that great Atletico team. He signed Diego Godin, Felipe Luis, Tiago, Paulo Assuncao, Juanfran, Falcao and he went and got Gabi back from Zaragoza. He really did a magnificent job at Atletico Madrid and prepared them to take that step up to battle Barcelona and Real Madrid on somewhat equal terms.
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Carney Chukwuemeka
in Other Football
Posted
For those wondering. I'm 99% sure Carney is being repped by Playerworks and David Dixon. I don't know much (anything really) about Playerworks or David Dixon. But I believe Playerworks works primarily with young players, and then they lose most of the really talented players to agencies with better connection and more ressources, when those players progress away from youth football.
Also, just random info from myself. I'm really not an ITK accout. I just get around and talk to people every know and then.
I got home from Slovakia yesterday. The people that I spoke to at the games all believed that Carney would stay in the UK. They didn't know if he would stay at Villa, but they didn't think he would leave the UK. I did talk to a guy from Germany that said he heard Dortmund, but he was the only one that thought he would leave the UK, and he's not the most plugged in guy (with all due respect to him).