Very interesting article in Mail On Sunday about clubs new refined recruitment process. Excerpt below:
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Since 2014, United have been attempting to overhaul recruitment. It has been a long, slow build. Too long and too slow, you could argue. They might counter that theirs were unique circumstances and they were trying to build a system to replace Sir Alex’s brain and charisma, which was pretty much impossible.
But by 2018 they had a team in place that allowed Woodward to be confident enough to say ‘No’ to Mourinho. Last summer, with Solksjaer on board and onside with the model, they felt it was fully operational.
They are confident that after their painstaking rebuild, the structure is as sophisticated as anyone’s. Unheralded names such as Mick Court, a former Loughborough University don and analyst at Watford and Crewe, is the chief technical scout, crunching through data.
He has excelled in the new system. Mark Platt, who works with him, uses their own bespoke software to analyse the market. United, like most clubs also buy in packaged software such as Wyscout to add to their model. Yet, as Graham did at Liverpool, they now have designed their own package which they feel outperforms the standard ones.
Recently club staff were presented with a presentation of how the recruitment procedure works. The idea was to communicate exactly how far United have come, so that the staff at least were clear that it wasn’t Woodward picking out players to buy.
So, before signing Wan-Bissaka, United had data on 804 right-backs around the world. At the start of the process, Solskjaer told the recruitment department what he was looking for. By drawing on the reports of 33 first-team scouts, they produced a list of 50-70 names. With further scouting reports and using their software, they then produced a top 10. The club then applied bespoke video analysis to narrow it to three candidates.
This is the recruitment department. In those final crucial meetings sit Jim Lawlor, who was Ferguson’s chief scout, Bout, Court, Solskjaer and Judge. Woodward isn’t present. It is said Judge doesn’t offer any input on the quality of the players. His only role is as the initial interface with the agents.
So if a player is suggested, he say that he has met the agent and it’s clear the player doesn’t want to move to England; or that he has just signed a new long-term contract but has a buy-out clause which makes him a possible target.
There is a power of veto on either side to add checks and balance to the system and avoid the mistakes of the past. So, the recruitment department has the power to veto the manager if he wants to buy a player, as they did with Mourinho. They can only do so if they can prove that their analysis meant the player didn’t make their top-three list. And the manager himself can veto a candidate put forward by the recruitment department.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...rd-looking-build-United-six-dismal-years.html
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Since 2014, United have been attempting to overhaul recruitment. It has been a long, slow build. Too long and too slow, you could argue. They might counter that theirs were unique circumstances and they were trying to build a system to replace Sir Alex’s brain and charisma, which was pretty much impossible.
But by 2018 they had a team in place that allowed Woodward to be confident enough to say ‘No’ to Mourinho. Last summer, with Solksjaer on board and onside with the model, they felt it was fully operational.
They are confident that after their painstaking rebuild, the structure is as sophisticated as anyone’s. Unheralded names such as Mick Court, a former Loughborough University don and analyst at Watford and Crewe, is the chief technical scout, crunching through data.
He has excelled in the new system. Mark Platt, who works with him, uses their own bespoke software to analyse the market. United, like most clubs also buy in packaged software such as Wyscout to add to their model. Yet, as Graham did at Liverpool, they now have designed their own package which they feel outperforms the standard ones.
Recently club staff were presented with a presentation of how the recruitment procedure works. The idea was to communicate exactly how far United have come, so that the staff at least were clear that it wasn’t Woodward picking out players to buy.
So, before signing Wan-Bissaka, United had data on 804 right-backs around the world. At the start of the process, Solskjaer told the recruitment department what he was looking for. By drawing on the reports of 33 first-team scouts, they produced a list of 50-70 names. With further scouting reports and using their software, they then produced a top 10. The club then applied bespoke video analysis to narrow it to three candidates.
This is the recruitment department. In those final crucial meetings sit Jim Lawlor, who was Ferguson’s chief scout, Bout, Court, Solskjaer and Judge. Woodward isn’t present. It is said Judge doesn’t offer any input on the quality of the players. His only role is as the initial interface with the agents.
So if a player is suggested, he say that he has met the agent and it’s clear the player doesn’t want to move to England; or that he has just signed a new long-term contract but has a buy-out clause which makes him a possible target.
There is a power of veto on either side to add checks and balance to the system and avoid the mistakes of the past. So, the recruitment department has the power to veto the manager if he wants to buy a player, as they did with Mourinho. They can only do so if they can prove that their analysis meant the player didn’t make their top-three list. And the manager himself can veto a candidate put forward by the recruitment department.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...rd-looking-build-United-six-dismal-years.html
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