Scouting Network

[mancunianblade]

We got that Belgian bloke in. I'm guessing we'll see the benefits in the next window. We need to watch any player he recommends several times and do proper due diligence on them so we don't get our pants pulled down.

Forgot about him. lets hope he comes up trumps

 

[Ricky]

We can't just carry on signing players from L1.

If we want to avoid the madness, we have to look abroad. There's no reason we can't. No excuses.

 

[Carlton Blade]

We can't just carry on signing players from L1.

If we want to avoid the madness, we have to look abroad. There's no reason we can't. No excuses.

Unless we get a massive cash influx we may have run out of viable British targets.
But Wilder needs to find someone he trusts implicitly with helping him identify any players he hasn't seen play. Otherwise it's just impractical

 

[Dutch Blade]

Expanding your scouting network is obviously a good plan, but you also need to be attractive for these players and have money. And I do think there's more than enough talent in England. Focus on these guys first I think, way cheaper and better connection with the fans.

 

[mancunianblade]

Expanding your scouting network is obviously a good plan, but you also need to be attractive for these players and have money. And I do think there's more than enough talent in England. Focus on these guys first I think, way cheaper and better connection with the fans.

Sorry but I have to disagree, we have signed some bargains. but on the whole British based players are waaaaay over priced. Matt Ritchie cost Newcastle £11m last season when they were in the championship. Brighton paid £2.7m for Gross. don't get me started on £6m for Gary Madine.

I also think that any top end Championship club is attractive to foreign players, they see the PL as the promise land, this can be achieved by winning promotion with the club you join or impressing that much you get a move to the PL with an other club , with the selling club gaining a hefty profit.

As for the fans connections the fans seem to take to anyone foreign easier than they do British players

 

[sitwell]

Just take a look across the city and have a look at the shit foreigners they are throwing massive amounts of money at ,some who never make the squad even.

 

[mancunianblade]

Just take a look across the city and have a look at the shit foreigners they are throwing massive amounts of money at ,some who never make the squad even.

Id be confident in saying they are paying the foreign players a hell of a lot less than the British players? and the really top earning foreign players are ones they signed from British clubs

 

[Dutch Blade]

Sorry but I have to disagree, we have signed some bargains. but on the whole British based players are waaaaay over priced. Matt Ritchie cost Newcastle £11m last season when they were in the championship. Brighton paid £2.7m for Gross. don't get me started on £6m for Gary Madine.

I also think that any top end Championship club is attractive to foreign players, they see the PL as the promise land, this can be achieved by winning promotion with the club you join or impressing that much you get a move to the PL with an other club , with the selling club gaining a hefty profit.

As for the fans connections the fans seem to take to anyone foreign easier than they do British players

I do agree that the average British players are way overpriced but those are mostly the 21-29 category players who are already have a name in England. I think you have to focus the scouting in England on talents who don't get a chance at the top teams for example.

But I understand that a team also need a few stable players in the 25-33 range and I do agree with you that international scouting is the way to go for that type of players. And yes, the Championsship is attractive for a lot of players, but you don't have to forget that they also pay way to much money for certain players in the rest of Europe. Every league has a few "Madine" buys.

I think scouting in the Ligue 2, Eredivisie,Superliga can be an excellent idea, but you have to mix it up with talents in England. For me the dream is to develop the youth academy big time, but don't know if there's any budget for at the moment.

 

[mancunianblade]

I do agree that the average British players are way overpriced but those are mostly the 21-29 category players who are already have a name in England. I think you have to focus the scouting in England on talents who don't get a chance at the top teams for example.

But I understand that a team also need a few stable players in the 25-33 range and I do agree with you that international scouting is the way to go for that type of players. And yes, the Championsship is attractive for a lot of players, but you don't have to forget that they also pay way to much money for certain players in the rest of Europe. Every league has a few "Madine" buys.

I think scouting in the Ligue 2, Eredivisie,Superliga can be an excellent idea, but you have to mix it up with talents in England. For me the dream is to develop the youth academy big time, but don't know if there's any budget for at the moment.

The academy is as good as it’s allowed to be. The PL fixed academy football to the benefit of its own members. We could produce The next Ronaldo and Messi in the same season and there’s nothing we can do to stop City et al coming in and just taking them at age 12/13/14.

 

[Davalon]

It's good to see the club acknowledge this is a requirement after too long being almost negligent in this area imho.

Not being able to compete anywhere near the level of quite a few clubs at this level, and more clubs coming down with huge parachute money, we can't afford not to cast the net wider imho if we're wanting to meaningfully progress.

Constantly using the Pigs as an excuse to not do this, that, and the other is not only tedious, but sheer folly.

 

[BushBlade]

I do agree that the average British players are way overpriced but those are mostly the 21-29 category players who are already have a name in England. I think you have to focus the scouting in England on talents who don't get a chance at the top teams for example.

But I understand that a team also need a few stable players in the 25-33 range and I do agree with you that international scouting is the way to go for that type of players. And yes, the Championsship is attractive for a lot of players, but you don't have to forget that they also pay way to much money for certain players in the rest of Europe. Every league has a few "Madine" buys.

I think scouting in the Ligue 2, Eredivisie,Superliga can be an excellent idea, but you have to mix it up with talents in England. For me the dream is to develop the youth academy big time, but don't know if there's any budget for at the moment.

Exactly, it has to be a blend of lower league prospects who we can develop, academy players and well scouted imports, like Diabate who Leicester have signed from Ligue 2. The key to signing foreigners is to scout them extensively and not be swayed by agents trying to make a quick quid. And to bring one or two in each season so they become integrated into our way of playing and thinking.

 

[UnitedBlade]

I’m disappointed United haven’t made any statement on international scouting yet. It must be that we haven’t sorted it yet. All the key players have mentioned it: McCabe, the Prince and Wilder.

It was reported that the Prince bid for Beerschot Wilrijk a Belgian club at the end of October and Jan van Winckel joined the Board in December but there’s nothing been said about his brief.

I didn’t expect any transfer activity in January but you would hope plans and investment should be made to ensure some activity in the summer.

It could all be happening behind the scenes but we have no visibility of it.

 

[UnitedBlade]

Exactly, it has to be a blend of lower league prospects who we can develop, academy players and well scouted imports, like Diabate who Leicester have signed from Ligue 2. The key to signing foreigners is to scout them extensively and not be swayed by agents trying to make a quick quid. And to bring one or two in each season so they become integrated into our way of playing and thinking.

Agree with that approach potentially supplemented by having a feeder club in Belgium (the cheapest place in the EU to run this) where you can be absolutely sure on players before moving them to us and get that club to play with the same philosophy as SUFC.

I suspect they are trying to do the latter but we have no visibility as yet.

 

[BushBlade]

Agree with that approach potentially supplemented by having a feeder club in Belgium (the cheapest place in the EU to run this) where you can be absolutely sure on players before moving them to us and get that club to play with the same philosophy as SUFC.

I suspect they are trying to do the latter but we have no visibility as yet.

If either owner has money to spare I'd rather them invest it in our club at the moment instead of buying Belgian clubs. It's a step too far for me.

 

[UnitedBlade]

If either owner has money to spare I'd rather them invest it in our club at the moment instead of buying Belgian clubs. It's a step too far for me.

I guess it’s short term strategy versus medium / long term.

When I looked into this Leicester picked up a Belgian club for a couple of a million I think, so it wouldn’t be much we could currently add to the SUFC budget. There wasn’t any figure attached to the Prince’s bid as far as I can remember.

There are some significant financial advantages in Belgium for getting non EU players qualified to play in Europe apparently. We’d never see any business case but that appears to be the Prince’s intention. But who knows, he might have abandoned the bid.

 

[BushBlade]

I guess it’s short term strategy versus medium / long term.

When I looked into this Leicester picked up a Belgian club for a couple of a million I think, so it wouldn’t be much we could currently add to the SUFC budget. There wasn’t any figure attached to the Prince’s bid as far as I can remember.

There are some significant financial advantages in Belgium for getting non EU players qualified to play in Europe apparently. We’d never see any business case but that appears to be the Prince’s intention. But who knows, he might have abandoned the bid.

They only bought them six months ago so it's too early to say whether or not it's been successful. I wonder how much further investment they've put in since. Didn't KM try to do this with Ferencvaros and Central Coast Mariners?
It's a tiny investment for Leicester, maybe 1-2% of their turnover and the family that owns them are loaded. It would be a much bigger investment for our owners, proportionally.
It's something to consider in the future but I'd rather the owners spend their time and money on us right now.

 

[UnitedBlade]

They only bought them six months ago so it's too early to say whether or not it's been successful. I wonder how much further investment they've put in since. Didn't KM try to do this with Ferencvaros and Central Coast Mariners?
It's a tiny investment for Leicester, maybe 1-2% of their turnover and the family that owns them are loaded. It would be a much bigger investment for our owners, proportionally.
It's something to consider in the future but I'd rather the owners spend their time and money on us right now.

Yes, small outlay for Leicester. I don’t think Kevin tried very hard with the football side of Ferenc, there was however a large tract of land to develop in the near vicinity .....

Central Coast Mariners I just don’t know what he was doing, maybe something to do with the Valad sale. He made some money that day even if he did have to live in Belgium for 7 years!