Scouting/New Signings

[spyinthesky]

Anyone know how the Saints go about this nowadays?

 

In the 60's/70's most clubs had a system of full/part time scouts who recommended players to the Manager,

 

The Manager would also have a list of players from his own experience.

 

The Manager would then look at a prospective player first hand.

 

Ted Bates would generally want to see the player perform both home and away before approaching the Board for the money to purchase.

 

Often this would involve a player swap.

 

I guess nowadays there are players Agents hawking their charges around, especially as their existing contracts come towards the end of their term.

 

I wonder how many Managers/Coaches actually select a player nowadays?

 

Do they simply say I want a certain type of player, position filled and leave it to the Director of Football/Chairman to find a list of suitable candidates and then do the deal.

 

I just wonder whether Nigel Atkins is merely given the responsibility to integrate new players into the squad without having the initial say in whom he would prefer.

 

If this is the case then our Nige, or any Manager, cannot really be held responsible for any duff buys.

 

But of course they are and, by the same token, revel in the glory if the new player proves to be a diamond

[Saint Garrett]

There is a group of people who are involved in deciding whether to go after a player. Adkins/Cortese/Reed and one other I think decide between them, but also there will be a lot of agent crap involved.

[Scudamore]

A combination of Football Manager and YouTube I believe.

[The Kraken]

A couple of my friends are associated with football recruitment and coaching. How it works (during the season) for them (at a Championship club): there are a number of regional scouts and they will get dispatched to games at the direction of the head scout, to report back usually on one particular player he has targetted. If a particular player has two positive reviews of him returned by the scouts, that's when the head scout will typically get involved, and will either direct the scouts back to watch again until he deems it worthy of a visit. Only once the head scout has watched someone and again the player has ticked the boxes will the manager become involved, at which point the head scout may go again to watch the player or in some cases the manager himself.

 

The head scout will obviously have a direct liaison with the manager and will know the type of player and position that the manager is looking for at any particular time. Oftentimes scouting will also just be done for potential future purchases.