Zatman Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 2 hours ago, Villan4Life said: He’s on my LinkedIn as a connection.. he still working with us. ive been speaking to Brentford’s chief French Scout Brendan yesterday on LinkedIn. the guy that found Neal Maupay and Said Benrehma. He’s asked me to come over to Ligue 2 game with him whenever I’m in Paris. We both have links to Fc Red Star Paris as both done work do them. He’s a sound guy. I’ve never been to French game before so going to be a great learning curve for me. Got me wondering if we have any scouts in France currently at all? as not heard of any by name even though we have signed lot french players in past unless it was done via an agent close to our club ?? Sounds impressive. Find next Kante or Mahrez let us know. Keep Sylla though Think Paddy Riley found them players on Football Manager 2016 and we didn't have any scouts 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntrimBlack Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 2 hours ago, Zatman said: Sounds impressive. Find next Kante or Mahrez let us know. Keep Sylla though Think Paddy Riley found them players on Football Manager 2016 and we didn't have any scouts He did bloody well then, didn't he? Get him back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 7 hours ago, Villan4Life said: He’s on my LinkedIn as a connection.. he still working with us. ive been speaking to Brentford’s chief French Scout Brendan yesterday on LinkedIn. the guy that found Neal Maupay and Said Benrehma. He’s asked me to come over to Ligue 2 game with him whenever I’m in Paris. We both have links to Fc Red Star Paris as both done work do them. He’s a sound guy. I’ve never been to French game before so going to be a great learning curve for me. Got me wondering if we have any scouts in France currently at all? as not heard of any by name even though we have signed lot french players in past unless it was done via an agent close to our club ?? Hopefully you’ll be signed up by someone soon. As for Villa, you’d like to think we have at least a scout in france considering we have recently signed that rb from there 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiemunster Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Any Idea as to who exactly are members of the clubs scouting team?? I'm only asking, as I like to update my FM 2019 game, and I know that Machin and O'Hare are no longer part of the scouting system, but don't know exactly what happened to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan4Life Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 1 hour ago, eddiemunster said: Any Idea as to who exactly are members of the clubs scouting team?? I'm only asking, as I like to update my FM 2019 game, and I know that Machin and O'Hare are no longer part of the scouting system, but don't know exactly what happened to them. Not sure i have just had look. Crazy as just seen that scout David Downes shares same D.O.B. as me 7/1/79 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan4Life Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 (edited) Ben Hackney has joined us from Barnsley as our new Head Of Recruitment. Edited April 9, 2019 by Villan4Life 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaAlex Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 1 hour ago, Villan4Life said: Ben Hackney has joined us from Barnsley as our new Head Of Player Recruitment. Seems to have a good eye for a centre back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 (edited) Well it's not Monchi or Mislinat but you have to start somewhere Any idea if he's bilingual, his connections abroad and so on? Edited April 9, 2019 by sne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan4Life Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 (edited) 36 minutes ago, VillaAlex said: Seems to have a good eye for a centre back? He bought in Ethan Pinnock, Alfie Mawson & Liam Lindsay to Barnsley. Here's his 4-4-2 magazine interview: https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/whats-it-scout-a-league-one-club Quote Ben Hackney has been a talent-spotter at Barnsley for almost five years, helping the Tykes identify the likes of Alfie Mawson, Kieffer Moore and, well, more. He tells FFT how his team get it done… In football, you’ve got to dedicate yourself to get opportunities. It’s so competitive, and there just aren’t many jobs out there compared to other industries. When I was at college and university, I used to do some player and opposition scouting for local non-league teams. Once I’d built up a portfolio of reports, I sent them to as many of England’s 92 best clubs as I could find email addresses for. Generally my non-league reports were pretty basic, but you have to start somewhere, don't you? I did a few opposition reports for Ramsbottom, mainly focusing on strengths and weaknesses of opposition, how to exploit them, general patterns of play and key players. I also did some independent player work to send around to different clubs – I remember being really impressed with a young Denis Suarez, now at Arsenal, playing for Manchester City’s under-23s in a game at Rochdale. Luckily, I received a few replies and was soon working (voluntarily) for Crystal Palace as a regional scout, alongside some other (voluntary) work for Manchester United’s foundation. But then I got a break. Barnsley gave me an internship as a performance analyst and I quickly learned a lot being in a football club day to day, mixing with players and staff during the week and on matchdays. The club took a chance on me full-time when they decided to create a new recruitment department after Lee Johnson was appointed as manager in 2015, and I’ve been there ever since. I’ve worked under five managers, and there’s always something new to learn; each one brings with them different philosophies and ideas. Coach's orders Our current head coach Daniel Stendel has been great to work with since he took over last June. He brings a fresh approach having spent his whole career in Germany, including a year managing Hannover. He's very clear in his style of play, and that’s absolutely vital for the scouting team when we’re identifying players, so we know exactly what he wants and expects from each position. Barnsley have a specific playing identity: a front-foot style, focusing on defending from the front and attacking at pace. Last summer, the club made a conscious decision to adopt a counter-pressing style; a philosophy that Daniel embraces. The scouting team itself has a centralised team of three recruitment analysts who work from the club base. On top of that, we have three regional scouts placed around the UK, and a chief scout who travels the country and reports back for meetings. An average day would involve focusing on one player from our 'watch list'. We’ll look at him in several games, analysing every action, and submit a report afterwards reviewing his performance, data, plus any additional information that might be useful (such as their contract situation and even personality, more on which later). Dependent on the day I might also watch our under-23s if they’re at home, check up on our under-18s via video clips, watch first-team training or get out to a midweek game in the evening. This isn’t a job for those inclined to get bored watching football... All of the information we gather then gets sent back to base – the management team have full access to the reports we submit daily on players – and we’ll have a weekly meeting to discuss any interesting players that have been highlighted. From there, we can plan our workload for the week ahead. We’re a relatively small department compared to many clubs, but we watch 50-60 games a week in the UK and Europe, both on video and in person. I'll admit, though: it's hard to just watch a 'normal' game now. You're always looking at them with the emotion taken out, and trying to see it for what it actually is. The World Cup was good because I could enjoy some international football as a supporter, and I try to get away a couple of times a year. I'm still a fan at heart, so if there's football on TV at any level I'll generally watch it, but there are times when it's nice to get away. I always do so for a few days after a transfer window closes – it's a good way to reset mentally, and then you feel like you can really start looking ahead to the next one with a fresh focus. Tell you what I want We’re looking for players who we think are capable of playing at or above our level and, importantly, have the attributes to suit our style of play. The suitability aspect is key. There might be an excellent player who is simply unable to fulfil the positional demands our head coach is looking for, so just wouldn’t be a worthwhile addition for us. For another team, he might be perfect. In recruitment, it’s vital to plan for every eventuality and have a list of players for each position going into a transfer window. Of course, depending on specific areas the manager is looking to improve on and the contract situation of players in your own squad, there are always priority positions that you’ll spend more time on than others. We often have meetings where we present players formally to the manager, supplying him with all the supporting information we have and a video showing their strengths and weaknesses. The head coach gives us his thoughts, and may want to follow it up by going and watching the player himself. Unsurprisingly, he always has the final decision on any players we sign. Success stories Pleasingly, we’ve had some good success in recent years, with a lot of our players gaining high-profile moves after a stint at Oakwell. The most notable is probably Alfie Mawson, who moved to the Premier League with Swansea in 2016, and still plays at the top level with Fulham. It’s always great to see players you’ve helped bring to the club succeed, but it really is a team effort as so many people are involved in the success of a player. Ethan Pinnock, who's been outstanding since we signed him from Forest Green Rovers, is a perfect example of that. He went through the full process of being initially identified through data, and was then watched in four games on video and five times live by different members of our team. I remember making the seven-hour round trip to watch him, only for him to get injured 15 minutes in. That was a long drive home. I was back out to watch him several times before the end of the season, though, including at Wembley in the National League play-off final. Once you get the player, it’s a relief and job done for us. Then it’s up to our coaching and backroom staff who get to work on the training pitch. The process We like to make sure several of our staff have seen the same player, and we use different methods – including live games, video and data analysis – for each one. It’s quite fluid, and something we look at as a team as the process evolves: there’s no one person with a specific role of just identifying talent or just looking at the data. Data is obviously an important part of the modern recruitment process. It helps you gain insight on players and can be particularly helpful in the initial trawling phase before you start to work through and look at players more in-depth. It can give you information that the eyes of a scout can’t – just like the eyes of a scout can see things the data can’t. It’s important to have a combination of the two. Each club uses data differently, and no one wants to give much away to keep ahead of rivals. Marvin Sordell column: Let me change your mind about footballers' off-field activities You can never be 100% certain when signing a player, as there as so many variables, but our job is to minimise the risk. Clubs don’t only assess their playing ability, but also gather as much intelligence and information on the personality and character of potential targets. It can be as simple as looking through his social media, or contacting one of his previous coaches for a character reference. How does he react to high-pressure situations? Is he doing extra work after training to try to be the best he can? Or is he the player who comes back to pre-season overweight, having not completed his summer gym programme? We always want to find out what we can about any of our prospective targets, although it can be more difficult to find out about some players than others (that’s usually a good sign, mind). It's not necessarily make or break, but it’s always beneficial to know as much as you can before a player comes into your environment. Good personalities can make all the difference in a dressing room. Edited April 9, 2019 by Villan4Life 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddiemunster Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 Has anyone heard what's going on with regards to the bullying allegations against MacDonald and McAndrew? Not heard anything since December last year. Are either still with the club? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 2 hours ago, sne said: Well it's not Monchi or Mislinat but you have to start somewhere Any idea if he's bilingual, his connections abroad and so on? Downloaded torrent of FM18 and a cracked no CD key. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 Just now, rodders0223 said: Downloaded torrent of FM18 and a cracked no CD key. Glad to see we are finally moving on from that 2009 save, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaAlex Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 2 hours ago, Villan4Life said: He bought in Ethan Pinnock, Alfie Mawson & Liam Lindsay to Barnsley. Here's his 4-4-2 magazine interview: https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/whats-it-scout-a-league-one-club Hopefully one day we can read that you have got a job with the club, although sadly that would probably mean we'd no longer get your great insight 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan4Life Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 (edited) .. Edited April 9, 2019 by Villan4Life Wanted to delete post. edited instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 European scout Juanfran left for a managers job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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