Caesium137
Well-known member
Do 'boro still have lots of boots on the ground, or is it mainly electronic these days? Do the club mainly buy into a scouting service still?
Interesting looking back at an article from 2015 it sounds like we are doing the work you'd expect, but not getting the players of the desired quality through the door anymore. Maybe related to agents we won't deal with, or getting them to move up north?
Boro's head of recruitment Gary Gill speaks to Anthony Vickers about data, what Aitor Karanka wants and keeping a close eye on Brentford
Finding football talent has changed radically in recent years with the appliance of science.
Number-crunching, video analysis and vast searchable databases are every bit as important as the wily old scout with his notebook in the stand.
But the basic aim of the job remains the same says Gary Gill, Boro’s head of recruitment.
“We just try to give the manager the tools to do his job,” said Gill.
“We work hard to make sure he can put the best possible team on the pitch and help find the players who can get Boro back into the Premier League.”
Most Boro fans will have a wish list of targets but it is not as simple as it sounds getting them in.
“It's not easy to sign a good footballer,” said the former Boro midfielder.
“Yes, we can all look at the stats and see someone has so many goals or so many assists and decide he is a player the club should sign, but there is more to it than that.
“There are players who on the surface look like they would be good fit for us but are not the type of players the manager wants because we have a certain way we play and prepare.
“Their personality and mentality is just as important as their talent and that is not always an easy thing to determine.
“With us, a player needs to know that he will have to train very hard, that the demands and intensity are very high on and off the pitch and that it won’t be easy to get into the team.
“Some players may not have the right personality to fit into that regime.
“Then there are a host of factors to consider: ability, availability, age, price, the club he’s at and their financial situation, the agent he uses, is he the best option for us right now, what are the alternatives - and all those things can change quickly.
“A player you want may not be available so you look at other targets and then suddenly he is available; a manager may change, his club may buy someone in his position, they may need to sell to fund another signing or for financial reasons so you may need to very quickly reassess.
“Part of our job is to try to be on top of all that changing information and it is not easy because we are covering a lot of complex markets in a business where clubs like to play things close to their chests.
“We need intricate knowledge about lots of clubs, lots of players. It is all intelligence work. It is about information really. That is the key.
“And the more information we have, the better equipped we are to recruit the best possible players.”
For Boro now, that information is coming in from a wide range of sources.
How data has changed scouting
And it is the collecting, collating and organisation of that information that has changed the entire nature of scouting and Gill has been central to that transformation at Boro.
He was initially brought in under Tony Mowbray as chief European scout in the old sense, watching games across the continent, but now heads a four strong data-based recruitment department at Hurworth.
They still have plenty of old-school human eyes on matches with a network of scouts, but there is also a battery of technology harnessed to harvest vital data on potential players.
Boro subscribe to Wyscout, a searchable video-based data system that breaks down every action on the pitch of tens of thousands of players in all the top leagues in Europe.
Then there is Scout Seven and Prozone, stats-based tools that break matches into raw information and can isolate and visualise individual players’ every move and touch.
Plus the recruitment team watch - live and on video - dozens of games a week making detailed notes on targets.
“How we collect and use information has changed dramatically in my time here,“ explained Acklam lad Gill.
Gill was brought to Boro by Tony Mowbray
“We’ve moved towards a more forward thinking and creative approach in terms of recruitment.
“We’ve moved away from the traditional method everyone recognises, the old chief scout who went to matches with a notebook and a great instinct and a tremendous knowledge of players which stayed in his head or was scribbled own and stuck away in a filing cabinet.
“We want to create a system with a tremendous store of knowledge that is at the disposal of the club in an instant and forever.
“We want to develop a database of hundreds, thousands, of players we can add to constantly as their careers develop.
“We can spot someone at 19 and be aware of his attributes but know he is not quite ready and then revisit him in the seasons that follow and watch how he develops and there may come a time when we think he is right for us.
Boro's long pursuit of Adam Forshaw
"Take Adam Forshaw for instance. We first watched him when he was with Everton Under-21s, noted him and added to that over several seasons as we saw him playing at different clubs at games we attended, not necessarily watching him.
“The key to it is not forgetting what you see with a player. You need to record all the information and build up the details because even if a player maybe slips off your radar for a year or two you never know when he will pop back up and that knowledge will become useful.
“There are loads of players like that who you see something in and take an interest in.
You are not necessarily 'after them' but things can change quickly in football: a new manager playing a different shape, a different division, a different financial climate and suddenly people you saw two years ago come back into play.
“What we are doing here is an on-going process in collating information so you are not always starting from scratch.
“And the real question is where is the information? Is it accessible? Who can use it? There was information in the past but it was in people’s heads,
“Now we have it at our fingertips for people to draw on, not just now but in the future as well.
“It is a system we’ve refined, developed and are expanding. It’s a major positive for the club.”
Keeping tabs on Brentford
Boro are not alone in using data. Pioneering Brentford are a lot further down the line using raw stats to recruit players with an aim of selling them on if they realise their potential.
They’ve even appointed a new Dutch boss on the basis he has totally embraced the data philosophy.
“That is an interesting model and we are watching what happens there very closely,” said Gill.
“A heavy reliance on performance stats is a very new route for football, almost a baseball “Moneyball” approach like in the movie.
“Up to now their recruitment has been good but we will have to see how it develops going forward.
“For our part, we are trying to get a balance of the technical and the human approach.
“We are conscious as a club that actually watching matches in house via the various systems in the office can be useful.
“That way you can have several sets of eyes on a game or a player, you can rewind, you see things in the build-up, off the ball, and that is all useful."
Interesting looking back at an article from 2015 it sounds like we are doing the work you'd expect, but not getting the players of the desired quality through the door anymore. Maybe related to agents we won't deal with, or getting them to move up north?
Boro's head of recruitment Gary Gill speaks to Anthony Vickers about data, what Aitor Karanka wants and keeping a close eye on Brentford
Finding football talent has changed radically in recent years with the appliance of science.
Number-crunching, video analysis and vast searchable databases are every bit as important as the wily old scout with his notebook in the stand.
But the basic aim of the job remains the same says Gary Gill, Boro’s head of recruitment.
“We just try to give the manager the tools to do his job,” said Gill.
“We work hard to make sure he can put the best possible team on the pitch and help find the players who can get Boro back into the Premier League.”
Most Boro fans will have a wish list of targets but it is not as simple as it sounds getting them in.
“It's not easy to sign a good footballer,” said the former Boro midfielder.
“Yes, we can all look at the stats and see someone has so many goals or so many assists and decide he is a player the club should sign, but there is more to it than that.
“There are players who on the surface look like they would be good fit for us but are not the type of players the manager wants because we have a certain way we play and prepare.
“Their personality and mentality is just as important as their talent and that is not always an easy thing to determine.
“With us, a player needs to know that he will have to train very hard, that the demands and intensity are very high on and off the pitch and that it won’t be easy to get into the team.
“Some players may not have the right personality to fit into that regime.
“Then there are a host of factors to consider: ability, availability, age, price, the club he’s at and their financial situation, the agent he uses, is he the best option for us right now, what are the alternatives - and all those things can change quickly.
“A player you want may not be available so you look at other targets and then suddenly he is available; a manager may change, his club may buy someone in his position, they may need to sell to fund another signing or for financial reasons so you may need to very quickly reassess.
“Part of our job is to try to be on top of all that changing information and it is not easy because we are covering a lot of complex markets in a business where clubs like to play things close to their chests.
“We need intricate knowledge about lots of clubs, lots of players. It is all intelligence work. It is about information really. That is the key.
“And the more information we have, the better equipped we are to recruit the best possible players.”
For Boro now, that information is coming in from a wide range of sources.
How data has changed scouting
And it is the collecting, collating and organisation of that information that has changed the entire nature of scouting and Gill has been central to that transformation at Boro.
He was initially brought in under Tony Mowbray as chief European scout in the old sense, watching games across the continent, but now heads a four strong data-based recruitment department at Hurworth.
They still have plenty of old-school human eyes on matches with a network of scouts, but there is also a battery of technology harnessed to harvest vital data on potential players.
Boro subscribe to Wyscout, a searchable video-based data system that breaks down every action on the pitch of tens of thousands of players in all the top leagues in Europe.
Then there is Scout Seven and Prozone, stats-based tools that break matches into raw information and can isolate and visualise individual players’ every move and touch.
Plus the recruitment team watch - live and on video - dozens of games a week making detailed notes on targets.
“How we collect and use information has changed dramatically in my time here,“ explained Acklam lad Gill.
Gill was brought to Boro by Tony Mowbray
“We’ve moved towards a more forward thinking and creative approach in terms of recruitment.
“We’ve moved away from the traditional method everyone recognises, the old chief scout who went to matches with a notebook and a great instinct and a tremendous knowledge of players which stayed in his head or was scribbled own and stuck away in a filing cabinet.
“We want to create a system with a tremendous store of knowledge that is at the disposal of the club in an instant and forever.
“We want to develop a database of hundreds, thousands, of players we can add to constantly as their careers develop.
“We can spot someone at 19 and be aware of his attributes but know he is not quite ready and then revisit him in the seasons that follow and watch how he develops and there may come a time when we think he is right for us.
Boro's long pursuit of Adam Forshaw
"Take Adam Forshaw for instance. We first watched him when he was with Everton Under-21s, noted him and added to that over several seasons as we saw him playing at different clubs at games we attended, not necessarily watching him.
“The key to it is not forgetting what you see with a player. You need to record all the information and build up the details because even if a player maybe slips off your radar for a year or two you never know when he will pop back up and that knowledge will become useful.
“There are loads of players like that who you see something in and take an interest in.
You are not necessarily 'after them' but things can change quickly in football: a new manager playing a different shape, a different division, a different financial climate and suddenly people you saw two years ago come back into play.
“What we are doing here is an on-going process in collating information so you are not always starting from scratch.
“And the real question is where is the information? Is it accessible? Who can use it? There was information in the past but it was in people’s heads,
“Now we have it at our fingertips for people to draw on, not just now but in the future as well.
“It is a system we’ve refined, developed and are expanding. It’s a major positive for the club.”
Keeping tabs on Brentford
Boro are not alone in using data. Pioneering Brentford are a lot further down the line using raw stats to recruit players with an aim of selling them on if they realise their potential.
They’ve even appointed a new Dutch boss on the basis he has totally embraced the data philosophy.
“That is an interesting model and we are watching what happens there very closely,” said Gill.
“A heavy reliance on performance stats is a very new route for football, almost a baseball “Moneyball” approach like in the movie.
“Up to now their recruitment has been good but we will have to see how it develops going forward.
“For our part, we are trying to get a balance of the technical and the human approach.
“We are conscious as a club that actually watching matches in house via the various systems in the office can be useful.
“That way you can have several sets of eyes on a game or a player, you can rewind, you see things in the build-up, off the ball, and that is all useful."
I've never seen it before, must have missed it at the time, but it was really interesting.
