Scouting: Manchester United make drastic reduction to scouting network

dinostar77

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A few different outlets have the same story.

United's scouting network was once so bloated it was in excess of 100 scouts but dozens have left the club across the two rounds of redundancies over the past 12 months.

Utd are down to ten first team scouts. This is more in line with the rest of the PL and the data driven approach that has served teams like Brighton so well.

Lets hope this approach gets us players like Baleba before they come to the PL.

Utd under INEOS seem to be following the Chelsea model of signing youth players with potential who may never play for the first team but could be flipped for PSR profits.

It does seem the club is starting to head in the right direction, albeit slowly. Fingers crossed we can unearth some talents good enough to be first team superstars eventually.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...hester-united-make-drastic-reduction-31912787

https://centredevils.co.uk/news/chr...erhaul-of-manchester-united-scouting-network/
 
Could've sacked the entire scouting staff 10 years ago and we'd be no worse off
 
AndySmith1990 said:
Could've sacked the entire scouting staff 10 years ago and we'd be no worse off
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Harsh on @Mr Pigeon @mazhar13 @Cheimoon @nimic

Edit: And @RedSky

Would be interested to know how much input and influence our scouts have actually had in our signings over the past 12 years though. Got the impression that we've mostly just handed over the wheel to our managers in that department.
 
dinostar77 said:
A few different outlets have the same story.

United's scouting network was once so bloated it was in excess of 100 scouts but dozens have left the club across the two rounds of redundancies over the past 12 months.

Utd are down to ten first team scouts. This is more in line with the rest of the PL and the data driven approach that has served teams like Brighton so well.

Lets hope this approach gets us players like Baleba before they come to the PL.

Utd under INEOS seem to be following the Chelsea model of signing youth players with potential who may never play for the first team but could be flipped for PSR profits.

It does seem the club is starting to head in the right direction, albeit slowly. Fingers crossed we can unearth some talents good enough to be first team superstars eventually.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...hester-united-make-drastic-reduction-31912787

https://centredevils.co.uk/news/chr...erhaul-of-manchester-united-scouting-network/
Click to expand...
So I use to live with a lad who did the data research for new signings at United for about 6 months. Won't give too much away about him but he came with more than decent pedigree.

He said he loved working at United but called this very thing out, there were far too many people doing the same jobs, which made it counter productive and a little weird.

Good to see were doing something about this.
 
SalfordRed18 said:
So I use to live with a lad who did the data research for new signings at United for about 6 months. Won't give too much away about him but he came with more than decent pedigree.

He said he loved working at United but called this very thing out, there were far too many people doing the same jobs, which made it counter productive and a little weird.

Good to see were doing something about this.
Click to expand...
There were some stories under the glazers that we had so many scouts on the books that we would have multiple scouts turning up to matches to scout the same player and not being aware that their fellow scouts were there for the same reason. Madness.

There was also a story that so many scouting reports were being submitted, that they weren't being read.

Hopefully it's quality over quantity now.
 
nimic said:
Yeah feck @langster and @Rooney in Paris, useless cnuts.
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Woah. Don't worry, soon be winter and back to almost endless nighttime.

I don't mind trimming the number of scouts, our scouting has been better recently. Especially the last 12 months where we nicked two of the top prospects around from Arsenal and one from PSG. Those three lads have got some immense potential as we have already seen from Heaven. Let's just hope he continues to improve while at the same time Chido-Obi and Kana-Biyik. We also picked up Sekou Kone, a highly rated young defensive midfielder.
 
dinostar77 said:
There were some stories under the glazers that we had so many scouts on the books that we would have multiple scouts turning up to matches to scout the same player and not being aware that their fellow scouts were there for the same reason. Madness.

There was also a story that so many scouting reports were being submitted, that they weren't being read.

Hopefully it's quality over quantity now.
Click to expand...
Undoubtedly what was happening. So counterproductive as all that will happen is whoever is "reading" all those reports will go straight to the players they're already interested in and ignore everything else.
 
HookedOnAPhelan said:
Harsh on @Mr Pigeon @mazhar13 @Cheimoon @nimic

Edit: And @RedSky

Would be interested to know how much input and influence our scouts have actually had in our signings over the past 12 years though. Got the impression that we've mostly just handed over the wheel to our managers in that department.
Click to expand...
I didn't have any, that's for sure. Can't blame me for that specifically.
 
SalfordRed18 said:
Undoubtedly what was happening. So counterproductive as all that will happen is whoever is "reading" all those reports will go straight to the players they're already interested in and ignore everything else.
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Up till the glazers took over, managers were allowed to have a scout they personally appointed as well. It was a crazy situation where managers wouldn't trust the reports or get their own scout to scout players they wanted scouting and not the club.
 
I wonder how many United scouts would be happy to add: "I was the person who scouted and recommended......"

Not many I'm guessing. Most will probably try to erase any reference to working as a scout at United, which is embarrassing in itself.
 
Weren’t there reports that we were interested in Caicedo and Baleba before they went to Brighton though? It’s not necessarily a scouting issue, it’s those pulling the trigger.

If all clubs go down the data driven model that’s served Brighton and Brentford so well, won’t we all be chasing the same players? You could argue that it’s already happening, seems there are only half a dozen strikers capable of joining the big premier league teams if reports are anything to go by
 
Couldn’t have had worse results even if they were trying, so fair enough.
 
In fairness the numerous staff leaving the club is a no brainer.

If I was the new owner of United I would look at them for a number of reasons and fire loads of them too.
- Scouts - who recomended all these players?
- Physios - How are we this injured
- Top-management - clean house

I'm a business owner myself and had to force out a previous top-perfomer just today. Sometimes fewer people can achieve more. At the very least you can make everyone work hard towards the same goal. All those who stand in the way of change and reference what used to be need to leave asap.
 
dinostar77 said:
Up till the glazers took over, managers were allowed to have a scout they personally appointed as well. It was a crazy situation where managers wouldn't trust the reports or get their own scout to scout players they wanted scouting and not the club.
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Up till the Glazers, Sir Alex was in charge for another 10 years. So, what managers?
 
Astute decision and one of the few I can really get behind. I mean who was the last first teamer who was "scouted" and brought in? We never signed any South American/ African/ Eastern European talent from those areas directly.
 
Good decision. We don't listen to scouts at Manchester United anyways so employing that many scouts was just a money
drainer.
 
ThereOnceWasAShip said:
Astute decision and one of the few I can really get behind. I mean who was the last first teamer who was "scouted" and brought in? We never signed any South American/ African/ Eastern European talent from those areas directly.
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It’s years I reckon, Javier Hernandez was probably the last one that springs to mind that made it here.

The youth scouting I think seems to have been half decent in recent years but it’s been none existent at first team level.
 
I have a feeling Vivell is going to prove to be an excellent hire.
 
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