Stats are useful, but we should not be buying based on stats alone - you don't need scouts if you do it on stats.
The Moneyball philosophy in baseball was based on stats often in contrast to what experienced scouts thought. Mind you baseball is more suited to stats.
What interests me is when you see a player doing well in say Division 1 or 2 and you have to decide if he can step up.
Look at Jordan Rhodes - scored for fun in Division 1 and even in the Championship at times, but no chance in the Premiership. Trevor Senior was the same.
Another key issue is looking at a player at 20 and making a decision if he will progress and if yes how much progression.
Be interesting to know who those players are, and where they end up.
Could be that the same people having a go at our recruitment in two years time are saying "our recruitment is ****, why didn't we go for Player X when he was available for a couple of hundred grand or whatever"'
Only time will tell who was right, let's not just assume because Warnock say's they can't defend then they're rubbish.
Be interesting to know who those players are, and where they end up.
Could be that the same people having a go at our recruitment in two years time are saying "our recruitment is ****, why didn't we go for Player X when he was available for a couple of hundred grand or whatever"'
Only time will tell who was right, let's not just assume because Warnock say's they can't defend then they're rubbish.
In fairness to our recruitment they did identify Maguire and Lindelof before anyone had them pegged as anything like as valuable as they are now.
The best defenders make it look effortless, usually because they read the game so well, and they don't end up in dangerous 1:1 situations
Gary Pallister springs to mind
I agree with this but...........
There is a huge difference in 'scouting' and 'recruiting' for us it seems. I'm sure we've scouted and selected hundreds of players that would have been great for us, but if the club can't get that deal over the line then it almost becomes a waste of time.
Whilst we should have as wide an overview as possible, the initial scouting should have a realistic pragmatic assessment of whether they would be released by their club at reasonable market value, and would actually want to join at a reasonable wage.
It seems we have a desperation and 'throw money at it' attitude (Saville, Britt) to get some signings, and others never looked realistic (Jesse, Lindelof).
Either way, we've been woeful for almost five years now.
Remember Brentford do sign quality and often sell for high profit. Play good football. I wouldn’t compare Brentford’s scouting to Gill’s.He did also go on to explain they have to scout differently at present because they cannot watch the games in person.
Remember Brentford recruitment is very much led on stats.
Quite. Brentford's scouting team have never been able to put together a team good enough for promotion.Remember Brentford do sign quality and often sell for high profit. Play good football. I wouldn’t compare Brentford’s scouting to Gill’s.
They’ve been doing this system what, 2 or 3 seasons? Shame they bottled it in the final two games of the season.Quite. Brentford's scouting team have never been able to put together a team good enough for promotion.
Yes there is that difference of course.
Although I'd say Lindelof and Jese were realistic. By all accounts the deal was almost done with Lindelof and with Jese it was only the player wanting to go back to his hometown club that scuppered that one, everything else was agreed. So yes, not possible in the end but in different circumstances we'd have got them. So not unrealistic to try I don't think. They were reasonable targets at the time.
Also then raises the question as to who's responsibility is it to get deals over the line? Is that the "recruitment team" or is that more say Bauser's territory? Or partly the managers?
One thing I did like about what Warnock said was that if there's no indication we're going to get it done, then we'll move on quickly.
I think Pulis (Bolasie) and Karanka (Jese) were both guilty of wasting time trying to beg players to sign who weren't really interested.
They mostly certainly don’t do a good job. If they are being ignored by a manager, why even have them? A good recruitment team is priceless. Ours is tragic. Gibson should go through all of Gill’s signings.Getting deals over the line is definitely not the responsibility of the likes of Gill, that's Bauser's territory. I have no idea whtehr or not our scouting team do a good job, as i have no idea if we sign the players that they recommend, or if we ignore it and just buy someone who the manager has identified.
They’ve been doing this system what, 2 or 3 seasons? Shame they bottled it in the final two games of the season.
You sure? This article was taken a couple of months after the play off tieThey've been doing it for several seasons, including one in which we knocked them out of the playoffs.