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Scouting, or lack thereof


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I think we can all agree that our scouting system has been pathetic for a very long time. We have such a dislike for Europe that I am sure Nigel Fargo must be in charge. It hampers us and we make the same mistakes over and over again. 

Anyway, interesting article on the BBC site about scouting from a Norwich perspective. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50086438

Don’t know if I have added the link correctly. Would make a nice change if we tried something like this! 

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For me it feels like the scouting team just play football manager to pick who we sign and select whoever has the best stats regardless of whether they would actually fit well into the team. Whoever picks our attackers loves signing number 10s to fill every attacking role that we have.

We cant do a Norwich though - they have a great sporting director running the transfer side of things. Unless we hired someone similar we will just end up with more of the same crap we buy in this country exactly the same as our last foray into the foreign markets.

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24 minutes ago, GenBr said:

For me it feels like the scouting team just play football manager to pick who we sign and select whoever has the best stats regardless of whether they would actually fit well into the team. Whoever picks our attackers loves signing number 10s to fill every attacking role that we have.

We cant do a Norwich though - they have a great sporting director running the transfer side of things. Unless we hired someone similar we will just end up with more of the same crap we buy in this country exactly the same as our last foray into the foreign markets.

Why can’t we have a great sporting director? 

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31 minutes ago, GenBr said:

For me it feels like the scouting team just play football manager to pick who we sign and select whoever has the best stats regardless of whether they would actually fit well into the team. Whoever picks our attackers loves signing number 10s to fill every attacking role that we have.

We cant do a Norwich though - they have a great sporting director running the transfer side of things. Unless we hired someone similar we will just end up with more of the same crap we buy in this country exactly the same as our last foray into the foreign markets.

I’m not even sure Stuart Webber’s that great, just that everybody else is that bad.

There’s only a handful of well run clubs in the top two divisions!

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43 minutes ago, Steve Buckley’s Dog said:

Why can’t we have a great sporting director? 

No reason why we can't, but its not like our scouting problems are new is it. If we had any intention of fixing it we'd have done something about it before now.

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Just now, Squid said:

As much as it hurts me to say im jealous of F*rest’s recruitment 

Their throwing turd at a wall was bound to come up with something useful eventually.

I know for a fact if we had signed some of the players they had, the experts on here would be crying about it. Ameobi, Watson, Dawson at least are all straight from the Gary Rowett play book. They signed a first choice keeper then had to sign another one when they realised how poo he was! It might appear to be a bold claim now but I doubt they will finish more than ten points ahead of us, and they won’t be in the play offs.

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2 minutes ago, nottingram said:

Their throwing turd at a wall was bound to come up with something useful eventually.

I know for a fact if we had signed some of the players they had, the experts on here would be crying about it. Ameobi, Watson, Dawson at least are all straight from the Gary Rowett play book. They signed a first choice keeper then had to sign another one when they realised how poo he was! It might appear to be a bold claim now but I doubt they will finish more than ten points ahead of us, and they won’t be in the play offs.

I agree some of the players are poo but for example grabban, lolley, carvalho, brice samba would walk into our team 

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1 minute ago, Squid said:

I agree some of the players are poo but for example grabban, lolley, carvalho, brice samba would walk into our team 

Grabban was signed for a big fee with no resale value, which is a model we really need to move away from. If they don’t get promoted while he’s at the club it will be the equivalent of pissing £5m against the wall. Lolley was a great signing I agree, fabulous player who I actually really like off the pitch. Carvalho was only possible because they have access to a market brought about by being in bed with Mendes (I think). Samba I have no idea on but I see he is a goalkeeper so yes he probably would walk into our team. Tbf so would most goalkeepers.

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Recruitment’s as much about finding players who fit as it is finding gems. Shinnie was free, looks really good at what he does but ultimately don’t think he’ll suit Cocu’s system. I certainly don’t think he would have suited Lampard’s. 

Albentosa as well, 6”4 poohouse who played in a team that defended deep and his job was to head and kick. Signed for a team that played a high-line and out from the back. Granted in his case he was so cheap that we sold him for profit anyway. 

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1 hour ago, GenBr said:

For me it feels like the scouting team just play football manager to pick who we sign and select whoever has the best stats regardless of whether they would actually fit well into the team. Whoever picks our attackers loves signing number 10s to fill every attacking role that we have.

We cant do a Norwich though - they have a great sporting director running the transfer side of things. Unless we hired someone similar we will just end up with more of the same crap we buy in this country exactly the same as our last foray into the foreign markets.

Football manager has foreign markets.... 

They just don't like boarding planes and aren't qualified. We have our owners son and our former managers son in 2 of the key scouting roles.... 

If you hire people with no real connections and contacts or experience in football from their own credit you'll get nothing but dross like we do. Look at what happened when lampard came in and his British contacts for loans (and what they are now doing this season). 

Need to go out and spend some of the money we're saving on someone really credible for finding hidden gems. Leicester, Brentford etc and then give them a senior role and a budget to bring in a few other people with knowledge of some foreign markets. 

Even nowadays it doesn't take alot to dominate some of the less obvious nations recruitment pools. Scandinavia etc is starting to get picked over but there's other areas to pick from

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38 minutes ago, GenBr said:

No reason why we can't, but its not like our scouting problems are new is it. If we had any intention of fixing it we'd have done something about it before now.

Sort of the point of the thread- why haven’t we done anything about it? We paid 5 million for waghorn  but could have had him for 250k a year earlier, it really is madness and shows no sign of being rectified. Norwich and Sheff utd’s squads seemingly cost less than Bielik. Until we address this side of the club it won’t matter who the manager is or what our budget is. 

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5 minutes ago, cannable said:

Recruitment’s as much about finding players who fit as it is finding gems. Shinnie was free, looks really good at what he does but ultimately don’t think he’ll suit Cocu’s system. I certainly don’t think he would have suited Lampard’s. 

Albentosa as well, 6”4 poohouse who played in a team that defended deep and his job was to head and kick. Signed for a team that played a high-line and out from the back. Granted in his case he was so cheap that we sold him for profit anyway. 

I agree but if the net is wider your top pick is the best of 10 options rather than the best of 3 or less. 

At the moment we don't pick over the lower league very well, this year since losing lampard we haven't got the best from above and nothing from abroad. So we end up picking the best of the rejects from the championship who have never shown a consistent form (or would be wanted by their club not sold). 

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1 minute ago, Steve Buckley’s Dog said:

Sort of the point of the thread- why haven’t we done anything about it? We paid 5 million for waghorn  but could have had him for 250k a year earlier, it really is madness and shows no sign of being rectified. Norwich and Sheff utd’s squads seemingly cost less than Bielik. Until we address this side of the club it won’t matter who the manager is or what our budget is. 

Norwich scout most of Europe and have had a golden generation who they took gambles on introducing large numbers and it worked. 

Sheff have consistently picked up strong players from league 1 who fit their very specific tactical model. But I would say the tactical model is far more significant than the players they have signed. If they sold any to the championship (except their summer signings who were just that and cost fees similar) not many would be guaranteed starters at the top end

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