Brentford's data-driven "Moneyball" success

[Trequarista10]

"Because let's say xG didn't exactly exist: Would anybody be looking for Ollie Watkins at Exeter City? Would anybody have gone to an Exeter game, watched him play for 90 minutes, and thought "yeah he can score a hat-trick against Liverpool"? And before you proclaim yourself the next great scouting talent, no you would not."

I lived near Exeter whilst Watkins was breaking through for them, got to a few of their games myself and worked with lots of City fans, and they knew he was a potential PL striker. He looked a class act at 19, was regularly playing all across the pitch not just as a striker, but centre midfield, on either wing, as a number 10, because talent wise he was clearly above that level. He was also the latest product of one of the best academies in lower league football, that has produced a multitude of PL and Championship players in the past decade or so. It was a substantial fee for a player from a club of that size, and he was linked with moves to numerous PL and Championship clubs, so it's not like he was picked from obscurity as the article implies. He was EFL young player of the season even! Nor did he even play as a CF for Brentford for the first couple seasons.

I get the gist of the article but its overly romanticising what Brentford are doing. They are doing what every other club is doing, just slightly better. They're also very well coached.

 

[georgipep]

Data or not, but they were all genuine club signings. They had no use for the clubs first team manager, were all unknowns so are almost 100% likely to be have identified through the scouting system. If we empower the scouts, I think we'd definitely get more value for money.

Ironically enough, we apparently have sacked a scout this season for not rating FDJ. Whether or not that scout is right or wrong, that to me is not a great sign and is how you end up with a bunch of yes men. FDJ has hardly been pulling up trees for the Netherlands or Barcelona.

Can you back this outrageous claim with any proof?

 

[Oranges038]

I refuse to believe that Brentford is somehow unique in using data like xG to inform their decisions in the transfer market.

From what I've read it's not just xg, it's all about being able to take calculated risks based on the data at hand. Data which they develop themselves.

These guys did the same in Denmark with Mitjylland and won the league. They've also brought in other ideas like throw in coaches, set piece coaches, philosophy coaches etc. It's not just in data they have been innovative.

They've also used their own data models where they lump every team in Europe into one big league. And then look for players within that who are at a similar level to Brentford but are affordable and have the quality to improve them. It's how they were able to identify and sign up players like Mbuemo from Troyes for about 5m, Maupay for less than 1m and Raya for about 3m, Benrahma for 1.7m.

But they also have plenty of money behind them it's why they were able to spend 7m on Watkins. I think this is what has made the biggest difference to this model for Brentford, other clubs could try it bit it might not work as well. Because they don't actually have the money to be able to take a punt on a 7m player like Watkins. Plenty of other teams in the Championship were looking at him but couldn't afford to put that kind of money up.

 

[Gavinb33]

The Oakland A's originated money ball. And guess what - they won NOTHING.

Yes they did well with a small budget and a data driven approach. But even baseball has intangible aspects and also defense is very hard to measure accurately.

They aren't even the most successful small market team - marlins have 2 championships and the Ray's have a few division titles.

Money ball will never work in the Premier league. Quality always shines through. Even the liecester title they had Quality all over the pitch.

Leicster did have quality all over rhe pitch but most of it was found at good value Mahrez, Vardy and Kante were key signings for them and all of them were signed for seemingly low values and when shifted were sold at a great profit thats the moneyball ethos pretty much.

Brentford have been doing this for a while now as far back as Mepham and others sold for huge profits, fair play to them a really well run club

 

[Amar__]

They are generally punching above their weight, they are the most physical side in the league winning the most headers by a good margin when the league is generally more technical so they are using that advantage more than anything. They have also won more penalties(4) than any other side, and if two of those 4 were winning penalties without them they would be in 12th place.

People like to overrate/underrate teams and find the reason why something is unique, and yet this happenes pretty much every year. I am pretty sure Wolves were second place around Christmas few years ago too, all teams are supposed to sign Portuguese players at any cost now? What about Leicester?

This data stuff was a thing that's used for probably more than 15 years, big teams have always used it, but some sites are paying other to talk about it now so all of a sudden it's an only reason for success.

 

[SilentWitness]

Teams like Brentford and Brighton show that there is no excuse for teams like us to be struggling so much. Worlds away in terms of club size and finances to get it right. Winds me up so much how poorly we are run compared to them.

 

[Spiersey]

The interesting thing to me is how they managed to setup betting syndicates that managed to get bets through worth millions of dollars. Given than UK bookies can shut you down for doing even slightly well, surely whoever they're betting against would shut them down I would've thought.

Have you ever considered setting up a betting syndicates yourself? Buy a lower league club down the line?

To anyone interested, there's quite a few good articles online r.e Bloom and Bentham. This one was quite good from memory (no longer have an Athletic subscription) https://theathletic.com/3029279/2021/12/24/cold-war-brighton-tony-bloom-matthew-benham-brentford/

They use Asian bookmakers, can get a few million on mainstream stuff on the day of the games. Not sure what they're staking these days as standard but I think it's still over £1 mil for a normal bet. You don't get banned from Asian bookmakers, Pinnacle, Singbet, ISN etc. I actually use one of the same Brokers as Bloom and Benham. I get invited to the same events as them sometimes, but neither have ever turned up, they just send people below them.

I've been offered jobs at a few syndicates in the past, been given tours etc but never took the job as they don't pay well enough compared to doing it for yourself. I've briefly explored setting one up myself but it's a lot of initial work to get everything sorted and struggle to find the time. A few friends have worked for big ones including Smartodds.

 

[Samid]

The bastards have mastered penalty taking too. Of the last 46 penalties they have taken, they have scored 44 (96 %).

Toney is 20/20 for Brentford. 26/27 (96 %) in his career.

 

[NoPace]

Frank is a good manager. Neville and Carragher (and me) were screaming at the screen to go 5-4-1 when Liverpool started dominating and then Kane-Potter won the ball centrally which he would never have done out wide and Mbeumo was in a classic striker position and won the game.

They can get better too, by finding a CB or having Ajer come good, or by signing a proper Eriksen replacement who can battle in midfield (Damsgaard can't) and consistently find a pass (Jensen is that kind of player but he's a backup at this level).

I like how they let Raya sweep high and take free kicks from half. They either play in your half or theirs, no getting into midfield passing battles, just 2nd balls where a strong runner like Janelt is genuinely really good, and defending deep, where Norgaard is probably a top 6 quality player. They might be the team McTominay would do best at. He's basically a Scandivanian footballer.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

"Because let's say xG didn't exactly exist: Would anybody be looking for Ollie Watkins at Exeter City? Would anybody have gone to an Exeter game, watched him play for 90 minutes, and thought "yeah he can score a hat-trick against Liverpool"? And before you proclaim yourself the next great scouting talent, no you would not."

I think this is a standard confusion about what xG can and can't tell you. As seen in this other line, "using this system, even if a player doesn't directly perform well, they can attribute their xG or xA to them instead."

The reason you can attribute xG to the player is because xG is supposed to better correlate with future goals than current goals. But that also means that, if you don't have xG, you can scout Ollie Watkins by looking at his actual goals, just over a longer period of time (at which point they should not deviate from 'expected goals'). xG would give you the competitive advantage to be quicker than your opponents (but even that is not exactly true), but not more than that.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

The bastards have mastered penalty taking too. Of the last 46 penalties they have taken, they have scored 44 (96 %).

Toney is 20/20 for Brentford. 26/27 (96 %) in his career.

Or, you know, happen to have players who are good at taking penalties? Hence Toney was good at taking penalties before signing for Brentford.

“Arrival Strategy” “Active perceptual disengagement” ffs. It’s gas the way so many football gimps on Twitter love to make basic stuff seem complicated.

 

[IRN-BRUno]

From what I've read it's not just xg, it's all about being able to take calculated risks based on the data at hand. Data which they develop themselves.

These guys did the same in Denmark with Mitjylland and won the league. They've also brought in other ideas like throw in coaches, set piece coaches, philosophy coaches etc. It's not just in data they have been innovative.

They've also used their own data models where they lump every team in Europe into one big league. And then look for players within that who are at a similar level to Brentford but are affordable and have the quality to improve them. It's how they were able to identify and sign up players like Mbuemo from Troyes for about 5m, Maupay for less than 1m and Raya for about 3m, Benrahma for 1.7m.

But they also have plenty of money behind them it's why they were able to spend 7m on Watkins. I think this is what has made the biggest difference to this model for Brentford, other clubs could try it bit it might not work as well. Because they don't actually have the money to be able to take a punt on a 7m player like Watkins. Plenty of other teams in the Championship were looking at him but couldn't afford to put that kind of money up.

Watkins was £1.8m initially, they only ended up paying more because of the high sell-on fee and other add-ons. Other Championship sides actually offered Exeter more including in the January before he moved. Brentford's offer was better long-term though and they were also Watkins' first choice because he saw them as giving him the best chance to develop.

 

[elmo]

They use Asian bookmakers, can get a few million on mainstream stuff on the day of the games. Not sure what they're staking these days as standard but I think it's still over £1 mil for a normal bet. You don't get banned from Asian bookmakers, Pinnacle, Singbet, ISN etc. I actually use one of the same Brokers as Bloom and Benham. I get invited to the same events as them sometimes, but neither have ever turned up, they just send people below them.

I've been offered jobs at a few syndicates in the past, been given tours etc but never took the job as they don't pay well enough compared to doing it for yourself. I've briefly explored setting one up myself but it's a lot of initial work to get everything sorted and struggle to find the time. A few friends have worked for big ones including Smartodds.

That’s because they’ll just limit your bets till you stop.

 

[elmo]

Yep, I haven't heard of any scout getting sacked due to not wanting Frenkie de Jong.

I thought our scouts all quit which was the excuse they gave for just following ETH’s list of targets.

 

[Amar__]

Or, you know, happen to have players who are good at taking penalties? Hence Toney was good at taking penalties before signing for Brentford.

“Arrival Strategy” “Active perceptual disengagement” ffs. It’s gas the way so many football gimps on Twitter love to make basic stuff seem complicated.

It's complete bs

 

[bosnian_red]

They put a larger focus in set piece training where analytics can give you an NFL style impact on what's the most effective ways. And that's definitely one where they set themselves apart.

Could be wrong but I remember reading that they scrapped their academy a few years back, because they found a lot of teams simply wasted tons of money and time on punts and the whole infrastructure by having one, so instead just went by the by cheap and sell high policy.

Edit: they closed their academy between u8 and u21 levels in 2016 due to the cost of running it yearly and being a smaller club around London there was simply too much competition. That you generally would find 1 player who would make it enough to make the investment in the 7 or 8 who dropped out along the way worth it, but being a smaller club they would simply get poached anyway so it'd be like finding a lottery ticket and someone richer just taking it from you for peanuts. They just reopened it this season as UEFA requires all clubs who participate in European competitions to have an academy.

 

[Spiersey]

That’s because they’ll just limit your bets till you stop.

No, theres no limits on asian bookmakers. Pinnacle will let you stake as much as you want (they'll just cut the price each max stake) Euro bookmakers (365, Hills etc) are different.


Back on the topic of the thread, the scale of Bloom/Benham's operation is huge. They follow probably 50+ leagues, pretty much every top tier league across Europe, Asia and South America along with multiple lower leagues too. They follow down to non league in England. They have people watching every single game in all these leagues every single matchday. It takes about 8/9 hours for them to analyse a match, recording all the different data points that they need to. As well as recording data, these 'watchers' also flag up key players etc and players who look too good for the level. It's just not feasible for other clubs to run operations as large as theirs as it would be pretty pointless in the grand scheme of things when it is only being used to scout players.
Also, for all the talk about how they use data, the scale of leagues they cover and can watch is arguably their biggest strenght. Mitoma was a player who quite clearly passed the eye test for anyone who watched him at Frontale.

 

[phelans shorts]

Or, you know, happen to have players who are good at taking penalties? Hence Toney was good at taking penalties before signing for Brentford.

“Arrival Strategy” “Active perceptual disengagement” ffs. It’s gas the way so many football gimps on Twitter love to make basic stuff seem complicated.

Did you know that Denis Irwin had access to raw data that nobody else in the world had.

 

[Adnan]

I thought our scouts all quit which was the excuse they gave for just following ETH’s list of targets.

All the scouts didn't quit, it was actually the two heads of scouting (Bout & Lawlor) who were shown the door at the backend of last season. And when you fire your heads of scouting with the transfer window on the horizon, it's sensible to go with the head coach's transfer targets, because the alternative was to go with the work of the sacked heads of scouting who spent a season drawing up a plan for a non ten Hag approach. So it was easily predicted that John Murtough would lean on Erik ten Hag's knowledge whilst he restructured the first team recruitment department, that was previously structured by Lawlor and Bout who reported directly to Woodward.

The new guys are now in place with Jose Mayorga and Simon Wells replacing Bout and Lawlor in a heads of scouting capacity. There's also a team of data scientists led by Dominic Jordan, who will also assist the recruitment process amongst other things. So by the end of the next summer window, I'm expecting to see the influence of the new team when it comes to recruitment.

It's also not about how quickly one can conduct transfers but rather how those transfers mesh with the ideals of the head coach and the mid to long-term strategy.

 

[Oranges038]

Watkins was £1.8m initially, they only ended up paying more because of the high sell-on fee and other add-ons. Other Championship sides actually offered Exeter more including in the January before he moved. Brentford's offer was better long-term though and they were also Watkins' first choice because he saw them as giving him the best chance to develop.

Ah ok, I just saw the overall figure.

Still I think they were just financially much better off than other Championship and League 1 clubs. Before the take over their transfers were mostly frees and loans in and out, it took them a couple of years to get the right people and systems in place. Then all of a sudden, they are spending 10-20m in a window.

Don't get me wrong here, I think what they've done is excellent and it shows what can be achieved. But obviously having the money in addition to the data models to back the decisions has ultimately allowed them to pursue this model to the success it has been so far.

 

[Cheimoon]

Or, you know, happen to have players who are good at taking penalties? Hence Toney was good at taking penalties before signing for Brentford.

“Arrival Strategy” “Active perceptual disengagement” ffs. It’s gas the way so many football gimps on Twitter love to make basic stuff seem complicated.

It sounds ridiculous to casual observers, but for people that really study penalties, they do need terms for different stages of the process. I suppose instead of 'arrival strategy' they could have called it just 'arrival', and there must be something simpler for 'active perceptual disengagement' but that wouldn't necessarily describe the situation as well.

Jargon also sounds silly for people that aren't as involved in a subject.

Also, basically every post you wrote in this thread says something like 'I refuse to believe there's anything special here'. Maybe you're a bit too skeptical on this topic!

 

[ReSchmycling]

Thank you @Spiersey for your contributions. Really interesting to hear more about Brentford and Brighton's own datasets, and how those might allow for more unique insights. I don't think I realised the extent of it before.

Still I think they were just financially much better off than other Championship and League 1 clubs. Before the take over their transfers were mostly frees and loans in and out, it took them a couple of years to get the right people and systems in place. Then all of a sudden, they are spending 10-20m in a window.

Don't get me wrong here, I think what they've done is excellent and it shows what can be achieved. But obviously having the money in addition to the data models to back the decisions has ultimately allowed them to pursue this model to the success it has been so far.

Yes, Matthew Benham's funding was a necessary part of the puzzle - but the money he put in was still at a below-average level for Championship owners, while competing with clubs who also had parachute payments and much bigger stadiums.

A key part of this approach is to sign a high volume of players. Brentford this summer signed 20 players - last season they signed 16 players.

These numbers are a bit misleading. This summer it was 6 senior players signed, and last season 5 - including Eriksen's short-term deal - plus 2 loans. The other players were signed for the B team, much like signings for United's under-18s or 21s but with more of them, because Brentford don't currently have players moving up from meaningful younger age group teams within the club. That's not to say that there aren't high hopes for a few of the B team signings in the future, of course.

Lots of softer aspects also seem to enhance the success of the models, like a very patient, nurturing, long-term approach to player and coach development, and (I'd like to think) a great bond between the team and supporters. That might all be easier to sustain when there's such progress on the pitch though.

 

[charlenefan]

They haven't lost in the league since October 23rd. I know there was a WC in between but what a run

 

[NoPace]

The way they play is how England should have played during Sven's years:

Take 2002:

------------------Owen-Heskey
Cole-Scholes-Butt-Hargreaves-Beckham
------------Rio-Southgate-Campbell-------------

Would have made a run. Hargreaves as a runner like Janelt, Scholes as the Eriksen/Jensen passer, Butt as Norgaard, better wide men and a little and large pairing up top (and you have Sheringham to bring on for Heskey after an hour for more skill but still good hold up play, or go with Heskey's energy late in games).

So, for all the moneyball stuff, I do think Frank has found a way to play harmonious with the footballing culture of the nation (and where many of his players are from or they're Scandi and are all Prem fans and grew up playing a heavily English influenced game). England have changed, so not saying he's who the FA should target (or that he'd want the move, he probably wouldn't yet).

 

[Walrus]

Toney gets the plaudits, but they have some really underrated players aside from him. Mbeumo looks very tidy and is only 23, and Rico Henry would be a great option for a top 6 club.

 

[MrBrightside1989]

Toney gets the plaudits, but they have some really underrated players aside from him. Mbeumo looks very tidy and is only 23, and Rico Henry would be a great option for a top 6 club.

Absolutely right about Mbuemo, he always look's lively and if he was a little more consistent finisher he will be a top player potentially. Plus a good mix solid defence and Raya in goal too. Have been really impressed with Hickey at full back when I have seen him as well.

 

[Samid]

We need to start hijacking every transfer they and Brighton are about to make.

 

[Buster15]

Aren't Brighton doing something very similar.

 

[Martial'sEmergingSmile]

Another hyperphysical player. Strong, fast, aerially dominant and plays with real aggression. Things that have been missing from the vast majority of our post-Fergie signings.

Against West Ham in the Conference League final, Fiorentina were using him as a constant out-ball to start attacks. Just pinging diagonals to him while he beasted their left-back (think it was Cresswell from memory, maybe Emerson) non-stop in the air and on the ground.

 

[Teja]

Aren't Brighton doing something very similar.

Both clubs are fantastic and really well run but given their size / fan base expectations, they can afford to take these punts. One season where they finish mid table (say 11th instead of 7th or whatever) won't be full panic mode.

For a "bigger" club like Chelsea / United, a season where they finish 10th implies heads have to roll. They're forced in a way to buy proven entities like Caicedo or Casemiro. I sometimes wish our football ops were run by the folks running Brighton but I don't know how well it'll translate given the expectations for success United has. We almost went that way with Ralf but now we'll never know.

 

[Buster15]

Both clubs are fantastic and really well run but given their size / fan base expectations, they can afford to take these punts. One season where they finish mid table (say 11th instead of 7th or whatever) won't be full panic mode.

For a "bigger" club like Chelsea / United, a season where they finish 10th implies heads have to roll. They're forced in a way to buy proven entities like Caicedo or Casemiro. I sometimes wish our football ops were run by the folks running Brighton but I don't know how well it'll translate given the expectations for success United has. We almost went that way with Ralf but now we'll never know.

We signed Malacia though as a bit of an unknown.
But yes I do take your point. We always seem to pay over the odds which I guess is because the selling club escalated the price because they know United will pay.

 

[rcoobc]

Both clubs are fantastic and really well run but given their size / fan base expectations, they can afford to take these punts. One season where they finish mid table (say 11th instead of 7th or whatever) won't be full panic mode.

For a "bigger" club like Chelsea / United, a season where they finish 10th implies heads have to roll. They're forced in a way to buy proven entities like Caicedo or Casemiro. I sometimes wish our football ops were run by the folks running Brighton but I don't know how well it'll translate given the expectations for success United has. We almost went that way with Ralf but now we'll never know.

We could go the Chelsea model and buy players to loan out. Could do a lot of things

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

Aren't Brighton doing something very similar.

All clubs are using data to a far greater extent than the public comprehends, but between the two Brentford lean more heavily into analytics whilst Brighton probably have the best scouting department in England.

 

[FootballHQ]

Another hyperphysical player. Strong, fast, aerially dominant and plays with real aggression. Things that have been missing from the vast majority of our post-Fergie signings.

Against West Ham in the Conference League final, Fiorentina were using him as a constant out-ball to start attacks. Just pinging diagonals to him while he beasted their left-back (think it was Cresswell from memory, maybe Emerson) non-stop in the air and on the ground.

Yes he set up the Bonaventura goal as you say by outjumping Cresswell at far post so they clearly need that sort of presence while Toney is unavailable so looks a really good fit considering how well Mbeumo and Wissa have started the season.

Biggest testament to how well they've done is scanning all the endless pre season predications by journos and former players and I don't think one pundit tipped them to get relegated.

When you see them quickly turn around 1-0 v Spurs and then go and wipe the floor with Fulham they are pretty solid bets to finish top 10 again I think which is extraordinary given their general size.

 

[Buster15]

All clubs are using data to a far greater extent than the public comprehends, but between the two Brentford lean more heavily into analytics whilst Brighton probably have the best scouting department in England.

Thank you for this.

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

All clubs are using data to a far greater extent than the public comprehends, but between the two Brentford lean more heavily into analytics whilst Brighton probably have the best scouting department in England.

I also think Brighton is the Dortmund of the UK, their players look good in their system and don't look as good away from it. So while their scouting is good, it is good "for them" not necessarily that the player is incredibly talented.

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

I also think Brighton is the Dortmund of the UK, their players look good in their system and don't look as good away from it. So while their scouting is good, it is good "for them" not necessarily that the player is incredibly talented.

Yeah this is also a great point worth highlighting - they identify players who are great fits for them but who aren't being coveted by larger clubs, which gives them an even bigger advantage since the prices aren't astronomical.

Will be interesting to see how many clubs selling to Brighton will push for sell-on clauses now.

 

[Murder on Zidanes Floor]

Yeah this is also a great point worth highlighting - they identify players who are great fits for them but who aren't being coveted by larger clubs, which gives them an even bigger advantage since the prices aren't astronomical.

Will be interesting to see how many clubs selling to Brighton will push for sell-on clauses now.

It's great for business because the team punches above its weight and the players look like seamless fits, every time they lose one to a bigger club, the replacement looks as good. I don't see any of their sold players being anywhere near good enough to justify the price but Brighton will be financially in a tremendous position to keep working their way into the top 6 full-time.

 

[Revan]

All the scouts didn't quit, it was actually the two heads of scouting (Bout & Lawlor) who were shown the door at the backend of last season. And when you fire your heads of scouting with the transfer window on the horizon, it's sensible to go with the head coach's transfer targets, because the alternative was to go with the work of the sacked heads of scouting who spent a season drawing up a plan for a non ten Hag approach. So it was easily predicted that John Murtough would lean on Erik ten Hag's knowledge whilst he restructured the first team recruitment department, that was previously structured by Lawlor and Bout who reported directly to Woodward.

The new guys are now in place with Jose Mayorga and Simon Wells replacing Bout and Lawlor in a heads of scouting capacity. There's also a team of data scientists led by Dominic Jordan, who will also assist the recruitment process amongst other things. So by the end of the next summer window, I'm expecting to see the influence of the new team when it comes to recruitment.

It's also not about how quickly one can conduct transfers but rather how those transfers mesh with the ideals of the head coach and the mid to long-term strategy.

I remember you posting several times that things have changed, it is not only the manager, etc. So found this post interesting, with you saying that by the end of the transfer window we will see the impact.

By the end of transfer window we signed: a Chelsea player who played in Eredivisie while EtH was coaching there, a goalkeeper who played for EtH until a year ago, and Holjund.

Still thing that Murtough and co. have actually changed something for the good?

 

[Adnan]

I remember you posting several times that things have changed, it is not only the manager, etc. So found this post interesting, with you saying that by the end of the transfer window we will see the impact.

By the end of transfer window we signed: a Chelsea player who played in Eredivisie while EtH was coaching there, a goalkeeper who played for EtH until a year ago, and Holjund.

Still thing that Murtough and co. have actually changed something for the good?

Things have changed as far as the recruitment structure is concerned and I have proven that with the people that have come in to replace the people that have left. This is the first transfer window where Jose Mayorga and Simon Wells have had a full year to make their mark. How they'll do remains to be seen in the mid to long-term but their influence is already seen if you know what to look for. So like I've said previously, I will judge their work over a longer period of time.

And if you think we signed Mason Mount because he was on loan to Vitesse as a teenager and not because of how he performed for Chelsea in the league and champions league under Thomas Tuchel, then you'll believe anything. Liverpool and Arsenal wanted him for the same reasons. And It was pretty obvious that the plan was to develop Kobbie Mainoo in a deeper midfield role and sign Mason Mount as a advanced midfielder. But unfortunately Kobbie Mainoo got injured, which makes the situation look worse for us.

Rasmus Hojlund is a another signing that again is a out of the box move compared to what would've happened with the previous head scouts. We've signed a young 20 year old striker who has the pace and physicality to potentially develop into a very good striker. People can be sceptical about the player due to his age and inexperience, but again, the early influence of the the heads of scouting can clearly be seen. Simon Wells in-fact was previously the lead scout for United in Scandinavia, so he's knows the market and has the contacts in the region. So it wasn't a surprise that we'd been tracking him since his time at FC Copenhagen.

And it was reported in The Athletic about the scouts wanting to sign Mike Maignan from AC Milan but Milan put a £100M price tag on him and hence a potential deal for Andre Onana became even more appealing on top of him having the attributes for a team that has ambitions to play out from the back.

And with any new recruitment structure, it takes time to see changes. Thus far we've seen changes to our approach to recruitment where we've signed players for a specific purpose. And I can go into even more detail about the development of a play style and how I think it will potentially come together.

And if you look at other big clubs domestically who have gone on to be successful when it comes to recruitment. It's clear that those clubs had problems in the beginning and it took time for their heads of recruitment to finally settle into their roles and become more consistent with recruitment. One of the popular people on the forum currently is former Brighton head of recruitment Paul Winstanley, and Winstanley was at Brighton since 2014. But people on the outside only started noticing his work after he'd been at the club for over 5 years. And that coincided with Brighton appointing Graham Potter as the manager whose playstyle was more proactive and hence the recruitment centred around signing players for Potter's football. Potter himself made additions to the recruitment setup at Brighton by adding Kyle Macaulay who he brought with him to the club. The same applies to Liverpool and their head of recruitment Barry Hunter who was arguably the most important person when it came to recruitment at the club and not the data analytics or Michael Edwards.

And at Brentford currently, they don't use money ball but rather have a very good recruitment head in Lee Dykes who controls the recruitment department. The data is used to back up the eye test as Dykes himself has mentioned.