Scouting Network Additions

[Villaphan04]

 

[HalfTimePost]

Aston Villa are pleased to announce exciting additions to the Club’s global recruitment network.

Alberto Benito and Pablo Rodriguez will join from Real Betis and Villarreal CF respectively.

Alberto brings a wealth of experience and a global network to the organisation and will work alongside Rob Mackenzie in a global technical role.

He leaves Real Betis having won the Copa del Rey and having qualified for Europe in the last three seasons. He has previously worked with Unai at PSG and Arsenal, in addition to stints at Granada, Parma, Almeria and Swansea.

Pablo was most recently at Villarreal CF as a coaching staff member and senior scout.

He was previously a senior scout at Valencia for 10 years and is a Copa del Rey and Europa League winner.

Alberto joins Villa immediately while Pablo will arrive at the Club at the end of the season.

Edited May 22, 2023 by HalfTimePost

[wishywashy]

[duke313]

Wonder is this aimed at more finding younger talent rather than first team players?

[Demitri_C]

Dint know anything about them but you can imagine we wll be heavily scouting la liga this summer

Ill bw honest i prefer that than lique 1 where we seem to have minimal success

Kamaras probably been our biggest success there 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Demitri_C

[gwi1890]

15 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Wonder is this aimed at more finding younger talent rather than first team players?

Maybe , Benito’s name is mentioned several times in the book “El Maestro” as someone Emery has worked with several time and have a good working relationship. I think we’re aiming to form a global scouting network something similar to what City did when Guardiola came in, as much I despise City there’s no doubt in the fact that they have and excellent scouting networks on all levels.

[allani]

Interesting that the Global recruitment team has been announced as "V-Sports and Aston Villa" - further support to the idea that core operations will be running globally and locally to try and spread the net as wide as possible.  Gives "us" (V-Sports rather than Villa) the opportunity to place prospects in the academy that will work best for the prospect and allows "us" Villa to recruit young Portuguese talent for example and rather than dragging them to the UK, allow them to stay in Portugal close to family / friends / etc and then see how they develop.  Allows us to have a much more widespread recruitment / scouting / academy network than we might otherwise be able to afford - the same applying to the other teams within the V-Sports network.  Plus there are going to be some great inter-academy training matches / tournament opportunities down the line.

[DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth]

1 hour ago, allani said:

Interesting that the Global recruitment team has been announced as "V-Sports and Aston Villa" - further support to the idea that core operations will be running globally and locally to try and spread the net as wide as possible.  Gives "us" (V-Sports rather than Villa) the opportunity to place prospects in the academy that will work best for the prospect and allows "us" Villa to recruit young Portuguese talent for example and rather than dragging them to the UK, allow them to stay in Portugal close to family / friends / etc and then see how they develop.  Allows us to have a much more widespread recruitment / scouting / academy network than we might otherwise be able to afford - the same applying to the other teams within the V-Sports network.  Plus there are going to be some great inter-academy training matches / tournament opportunities down the line.

I also thought that it’s interesting how they worded the statement to say V sports and Villa. 
could also be an FFP thing to spread operational costs away from the club maybe?

[ender4]

5 minutes ago, DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth said:

I also thought that it’s interesting how they worded the statement to say V sports and Villa. 
could also be an FFP thing to spread operational costs away from the club maybe?

Yes that was my first thought - cost can mainly go to V sports and not Villa helping us for FFP purposes.

[allani]

36 minutes ago, DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth said:

I also thought that it’s interesting how they worded the statement to say V sports and Villa. 
could also be an FFP thing to spread operational costs away from the club maybe?

I don't know which operational costs are covered by FFP.  I think it definitely means that Villa can make cost savings - i.e. we wouldn't need to invest in setting up a Villa Academy in Portugal as we will have access to the Vitoria academy via V-Sports (as they will have access to ours).  I think it also means that we can make operational savings in certain areas by being able to , for example, spread the cost of Scouting in the USA across 3 or 4 clubs rather than them all being picked up by 1 club.

Edited May 22, 2023 by allani

[allani]

1 minute ago, allani said:

I don't know which operational costs are covered by FFP.  I think it definitely means that Villa can make cost savings - i.e. we wouldn't need to invest in setting up a Villa Academy in Portugal as we will have access to the Vitoria academy via V-Sports (as they will have access to ours).  I think it also means that we can make operational savings in certain areas by being able to , for example, spread the cost of Scouting in the USA across 3 or 4 clubs rather than them all being picked up by 1 club.

I would also imagine that a lot of things like data analytics, etc - could be done centrally and then each club can tap into the data and use it for specific purposes.  So your analytics expertise can be centralised within V-Sports and again the costs of that divided across the different clubs.  Even if we pick up more of the costs than other clubs - we'd still be paying less than if it was all run by us but without getting any less information / output.

[Tubby]

2 hours ago, allani said:

Interesting that the Global recruitment team has been announced as "V-Sports and Aston Villa" - further support to the idea that core operations will be running globally and locally to try and spread the net as wide as possible.  Gives "us" (V-Sports rather than Villa) the opportunity to place prospects in the academy that will work best for the prospect and allows "us" Villa to recruit young Portuguese talent for example and rather than dragging them to the UK, allow them to stay in Portugal close to family / friends / etc and then see how they develop.  Allows us to have a much more widespread recruitment / scouting / academy network than we might otherwise be able to afford - the same applying to the other teams within the V-Sports network.  Plus there are going to be some great inter-academy training matches / tournament opportunities down the line.

I picked up on this also but my first thought was that V Sports might offer a 'shared services' approach to scouting and analysis.

Clubs like Vitoria will have much smaller budgets and are therefore restricted in their activities of player identification and analysis. The provision of expert services centered in Villa's operation would allow for a cost-benefit to be passed onto the teams within the network. Those players that are not yet Premier League capable, or unable to move due to visa restrictions, or for family reasons etc., that were also once out of reach of teams like Vitoria, are now identified early.

As for analysis, the shared service could run tactical and individual player analysis to help with match preparation, therefore improving the quality of play at a team like Vitoria and potentially, access to higher competition.

Overall, Villa can benefit from the fact that these players develop in a more suitable system, at a higher level than the incumbent system, or on loan to a disparate array of clubs. Assuming that any player wishes to move to the Prem at some point.

 

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Tubby

[useless]

I see the club are advertising for positions within ZED FC academy on our official site.

Head of Coach Development (ZED FC)

Head of Performance (ZED FC)

Head of Technical and Player Development (ZED FC).

[Hank Scorpio]

Can only be a good thing!

[I Make Pies]

Benito and Rodriguez appear to be Emery recommendations. Benito used to share a room with Emery when they played together at Toledo back in the 90s, and was also at PSG and Arsenal as a scout while Emery was there.

Rodriguez was at Villareal and Valencia with Emery.

It seems we are going all in on Emery and his staff. That should help maximise what he is able to do for us, however I hope there is a succession plan in place (I'm sure there is knowing our board). When you are invested in one person/group of staff to that extent a break can hurt more than usual. There was never a plan put in place for the post-MON era.

[useless]

The club’s move for Barcelona director of football Mathieu Alemany has fallen through but they still are keen to strengthen the recruitment team and scouting network around the squad. There are expected to be new appointments at the club, following the recent additions of scouts Alberto Benito and Pablo Rodríguez, who will be based in Spain.