Our recruit team/department

[FTPE]

I know its probably just a general scout job, but wouldn't it be good to have one that scouts young talent to add to our academy, a foreign one, and one that looks at young players from big clubs for possible loans? We've obviously had that at some point to pick up McAtee, but how we've missed out on a left wing version of Donovan this window I've no idea

 

[luffenhamblade]

And a comparison of annual player salaries
Bolton. £8m
Cardiff. £17m
Sheffield united. £28m

Is that this season or last?

 

[bakeblade]

Is that this season or last?

This season

 

[luffenhamblade]

This season

Blimey, we’re being taken for mugs if we’re paying this lot that much.

 

[Blademan89]

Though the since he left, side of the coin.

"On Saturday Moyes said "I don't think we can afford to lose any players, we need to stay as strong as we can” - since then we have lost another five players (three of them who have left play in areas we needed to strengthen in) and only brought two in.

"To leave us with no back up full-backs and just one striker is full-on gross negligence, not forgetting we also lost one of our best players at an under valued price in today’s market in the process without replacing him too.

Everton fan group 'standing down' after being 'disgusted' by transfer window

Everton fans' group the 1878s have issued a statement saying they are standing down due to their disgust over the transfer window

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

Or is it the board to blame and not JH ?

Im not saying it was soley on him I cant be its jsut they have had their worst run of recent times during the time he was head scout.

I get he can recommend plsyers if they dont go for said players he has to have a back up set. Clearly not great at scouting in my eyes, and has some on here have said amateur fans are better than the pros l.

 

[Blademan89]

Cooper, Souttar, Bamford, Romelle Donovan.

Or are these failures on Wilder ?

Pretty sure cooper came in when tom page was floating around & soutter with the des Taylor advisors- even mentioned in court transcript that they offered a list of players or words to that effect.

Donovan was Andrews / lester pals act.

But hey whilst ya at it why dont u mention about all the rest from last season summer transfers? All those great players we are lumped with on long contracts.

 

[Nick Jansky]

Pretty sure cooper came in when tom page was floating around & soutter with the des Taylor advisors- even mentioned in court transcript that they offered a list of players or words to that effect.

Donovan was Andrews / lester pals act.

But hey whilst ya at it why dont u mention about all the rest from last season summer transfers? All those great players we are lumped with on long contracts.

We’ve been doing that for a long time. Last summer was just a continuation of the brilliant strategy that landed us with Shackleton, Grbic and Tom Davies on long contracts. I always thought it was a shame that Van Winckel was forced out, we looked for a time as if we might be moving forward.

 

[ATL Recs]

Hoyland joined us in May 2024 though, and Cooper and Souttar joined August 2024.

So I assumed, though always glad to be corrected.

Definitely both Taylor influenced signings shame he didn’t stay around
If you recall there was some conflict of interest issues potential new owners influencing transfers or something
That was through summer 24

 

[CPB]

Something we still haven't seemingly done is increased the scope and spend on scouting networks.

This is where alot of clubs have had success picking up talent from relative unknowns. But it isn't hit after hit.

As much as some laud the prince he basically just kept things ticking along without much improvement in way of infrastructure. These new owners are seemingly doing even less.

But this is what needs to happen. Improved scouting system. Construction of 1st team training facility and then improvement of academy.

As for our signings. This summer it's clear the constraints are well in place. Which is maybe why we've gone for players who have been here before. They've got a soft spot for us and want to play. There will be plenty of clubs who are put off with the stuff hanging over us.

Arguably our best window of recent seasons was the 1st season down. Aside from losing McBurnie I actually felt we had improved the squad compared to what it was in the PL.
That season the likes of Cooper, Burrows, Campbell, McCallum, O Hare improved us.

 

[CPB]

I know its probably just a general scout job, but wouldn't it be good to have one that scouts young talent to add to our academy, a foreign one, and one that looks at young players from big clubs for possible loans? We've obviously had that at some point to pick up McAtee, but how we've missed out on a left wing version of Donovan this window I've no idea

I think this is an area we don't do badly in regards academy.

We've picked up youngsters to add to the academy such as N'Diaye, One, Osula, Peck, Lankshear even Seriki.

 

[Bladeloyal]

I don't know if Jamie Holland is good at his job ,I don't know his remit but what I know he's not the head of recruitment that's mike Allen ,so maybe Jamie is getting all the flack when he is just one wheel in the cog.

 

[Zeblades34]

So what we're saying is... Des Taylor is a football mastermind

 

[Iffy Onuora's Shiny Head]

How many players over the past 10 years have we paid a fee for, developed, and then sold on for a profit?
Answer is its not many - less than 5 I believe.

 

[jt64]

Who exactly decided the players in last summers transfer business - that was the horriffic window, this was bad for selling the best and not replacing at all; that was just plain insane. If any of the stake holders that were guilty of that horror show are still in any capacity at the club they shouldn't be.

Bollocks. At least that window could be accused of having a plan. It didn't work (or, more accurately, most didn't give it time to work out the results), but at least there was a hint of a coherent strategy. Here it just seems like fire sale with no plan, in either the short or the medium term, to progress back past a Preston-level of results

 

[jt64]

How many players over the past 10 years have we paid a fee for, developed, and then sold on for a profit?
Answer is its not many - less than 5 I believe.

Well, that's more a function of where you are on the pitch. Ten years ago coincides with Wilder's first spell, and since then there has been a natural tendency to concentrate on the now, rather than the medium term - either we have been in a legitimate promotion window, in which case you need to have players that can jump in immediately and contribute, or we've gone up and needed to bring in players who can do the same at a higher level. In either case, the typical profile of those players doesn't usually result in someone who will go up in value, as they're normally at close to the peak of it already. But to answer your question, I can't think of many either outside of academy products or close approximations of those (and it's hard to say for sure as everything is undisclosed). Probably Anel and Ramsdale are the only two that spring to mind

 

[brownblade]

Problem with “we tried but FC” is that we don’t look beyond these shores enough. I’m not talking about an extensive network but even if we just kept a closer eye on one or two other countries.

Let’s take one country, Belgium for instance and even one club as a case in point. Sint Truidense. Not far to go and take in games. When we had a link with Beerschot I watched quite a few Bwlgiuk top flight games myself. Some players I kept an eye on, which I’ll come back to.

There was a lot of talk of Stoke having bidded for Cannon. We wanted 7 raising to 10. Maybe they offered 5 rising to 7 for example.

I’d have taken that. But I’d have also been happy to have BBD up top.

As has been mentioned, Riyotaro Ito was a 10 for Sint Truidense last season. 11 goal contributions in 27 matches. So rather than nothing, on a free he’s an option. Same age as Cal.

Then, baring in mind I’ve also got the Cannon money too now, it brings me to a player I’ve seen since he made his debut for Beerschot; Ilias Sebaoui.

Kept an eye on him. His main position? Left winger, Attacking midfield and central midfield. He’s be an excellent Hamer replacement. You’d have two players 24 and 28 replacing a 28 and a 30 year old.

Sebaoui went to Feyenoord, had a couple of Dutch loans and went for 1m last summer to Sint-Truiden. Transfermarkt has him rated at 3.5m. Probably get him for less but id I’ve got the Cannon money I could do this and have change.

You could play BBD alongside Bamford and have Donovan and Sebaoui as wide players. You’d still have Ito as an option too as a 10 option.

In the Belgium league this year he’s played 4, scored 1, assisted 3. In Europe he played 2, scored 2. Last season 5 goals and 6 assists in 42 games.

I wanted us to get him in when we lost Ndiaye as a player to develop.

I think he’d have been a good acquisition if we were more open on the recruitment and more willing as a club to lose a bit on Cannon who doesn’t fit.

Great post. And yes, as we're seemingly incapable of scouting/using software to have a wide knowledge of players, why don't we at least focus on a few leagues. Places that can develop very good players. E.g. France Ligue 2, Belgium top flight and Japan J-League. If we were watching and analysing those leagues, we'd find at least one gem over a few year period, to more than justify the scouting salaries needed

 

[joe casey]

Who are they or him? What are they doing? We''ve just played Cardiff and Bolton who probably have smaller wage bills than ours. Both teams played us off the park in the second half. Looked fitter, younger, had more pace but no "stars" or ex-EPL players as far as I know. I would be prepared to bet there will be a lot of teams who will do the same this season. Where do they get their players from? I don't think either have academies as succesful as ours on paper.

Barnsley seem to discover players like Carlton Morris or the kid we were rumoured to have put a bid in for who scored a lot of goals in L1 last year.

Even the Wendies who have had to assemble a team from nowhere this season and seem to be doing well so far even thought it is L1.

I know we don't have much money but look at our recruitment. Great recruitment of Donovan (on loan) but then we've been chasing our old loanees or oldies like Souttar, Phillips, Doughty, Choudrey, Rothwell and free agents we got from last season Bamford and Jairo, Rothwell and so on. Last season our recruitment in the transfer window was a disaster and then we paid 10 mill for Cannon (probably Wilders fault!). Compared to other Champ clubs our recruitment has been woeful in terms of recruiting players and results. Coventry last season with no parachute payments. Good player recruitment is key to a successful club in all divisions and ours has been poor for years. Who is responsible and what do they do?

Played off the park apparently yet came away with 4 points.....

 

[Balham]

We’ve been doing that for a long time. Last summer was just a continuation of the brilliant strategy that landed us with Shackleton, Grbic and Tom Davies on long contracts. I always thought it was a shame that Van Winckel was forced out, we looked for a time as if we might be moving forward.

Van Winckel and Taylor coincided with our best period of recruitment in the past decade but one fell foul of Wilder’s autocracy and the other the COH fall out. What might have been.

 

[Godbeblade]

Not sure where I heard it (maybe steven rosen's podcast appearance) but I feel like some of the 'old heads' we've brought in (phillips/ayew/matt docherty) were on Wilders say so.

I feel like I've heard someone say they wanted a mix of ages and we had quite a few young lads. If their experience rubs off on young players and makes them better then fantastic but that's quite a big 'if' ...

 

[DeanLearner'sCat]

Jan Van Winckel wasn't a victim of Wilder's "autocracy". He wasn't "forced out". Wilder left the club a year before he did. What did he even do here? Wasn't he more involved with the United World stuff like Beerschot?

I seem to recall he supposedly recommended Michael Verrips, so there's that.