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JayPittardBlueatheart

Ole Nielsen - The history of our Danish Scout

By JayPittardBlueatheart, in Leicester City Forum

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JayPittardBlueatheart

JayPittardBlueatheart

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I am not sure if this has been posted elsewhere but I found it an interesting read.

The article is in Danish but I have google translated it below. Enjoy!!

http://www.plbold.dk/nyhed/historien-om-leicester-citys-danske-scout-ole-nielsen?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

He does not look like a Premier League scout. Like the majority of the audience in the dark around the manicured course at FC Copenhagen's training facility, he stands with an umbrella in hand. And with his black raincoat and hat he looks like many of the hundreds of FCK fans who also attended the training match against Rosenborg. But Funen Ole Nielsen is not like the others.

 
He is here to stay updated, because when all, he is always looking. Looking for talent. Looking for the next Premier League star in Denmark.
 
41-year Ole Nielsen's scout in Scandinavia and the surrounding area for the Premier League's current top team, Leicester. In the winter transfer window brought the club three players - two of them were at Ole Nielsen's recommendation; Daniel Iversen in Esbjerg and Daniel Amartey in FC Copenhagen.
 
In a mini-series on tipsbladet.dk says Ole Nielsen about life as a Premier League scout in Denmark and his work. The first part is about his path to the job as well as his working methods. The second part is about Daniel Amarteys way to Leicester and the third part is about scouting work in the English club.
 
When Ole Nielsen, who is also scout for OB, watching a football game, he always has his table with him. It is a document in which he can evaluate a single player or more from some different criteria such forward passing, defensive and offensive duels, header, clearing and so on. It uses he always, and so he uses his eyes and his gut feeling when assessing whether a player can be used in Leicester.
 
- It's hard to know whether a player can play Premier League. It's a little science, when you also use statistics, but it's also about gut feelings, emotions and experience. It is a mixture. We can not just say that Denmark has 25 Premier League players hurrying. Danish players must fight with players from around the world. But I must see them, and I shall know them. There is not anybody who can switch to another club without Leicester has had the ability to download them, says Ole Nielsen tipsbladet.dk.
 
It is his most important task.
 
- I must find players to the first team, or at least recommend players. I will detail the market, I have. We must have knowledge of the players who are here. It does not pop up something from Scandinavia, we have not been able to find. We need to find the next Premier League star in Scandinavia. It is the most important.
 
- What are the most time with is to sort all out those who are not good enough. It is most of the work. I see many battles with players who are not good enough for PL: There are many friendly agents who have players who can be a whole lot. I see it as a help, and sometimes they are right, says Ole Nielsen.
 
He always keeps Leicester informed the players he has seen in action, and at home he has a database of all the active players, he has seen. There are 9,000 players pt.
 
- I fill my sheets, and when I get home, I make a report and fill out some statistics. Then I give the player character in various fields - for example, technically, tactically and physically. We have a system where we throw the numbers into, and there is a result, but I should even give a final judgment in the end. I must give an A, B or C. A-players we need to sign a contract immediately. B, we need to keep an eye on. C we just forget. I am employed to have my opinion. I should not write to Leicester what I think they want to hear. I have to write what I think.
 
- In the old days I got it in to the computer instead of having it on handwritten paper. First it was in a table in Word, but since we made it to an Excel sheet. I have 9,000 players in the database, and I try to update it as well as I can. I note many things: Rygnummer, player name, nationality, club, end of contract, league contract expired, former clubs, injuries, agent information, formalities fødseldsdag, position, favoritben, height, weight. It can also be private information about children. If we are to the player, it's a nice entrance to ask for the children. We have also tried with some columns on speed, technique and so on. Finally, I have a column that says if it's Premier League or Superliga potential. But there is no truth in addition to the winners at the track are right, he says.
 
Right now it's Leicester, is right. The club is against all odds towards the English Championship and Champions League, and Ole Nielsen's part of it. How he got there? It is a history that is marked by chance and good network.
 
It began in Odense, when Ole Nielsen was about 20 years old.
 
- In the beginning I would be a professional football player like everyone else, but officially I had some knee injuries that prevented me from getting it. Actually, I was probably not good enough. So I became coach in place, and then I could well imagine having to live by it. Therefore, I was youth coach in B.1909 in the early nineties.
 
- I subscribed at the time of the football magazine World Soccer, so I got it 14 days before most others in Denmark. There was a fun article about Tommy Moller Nielsen, who at the time was the head coach of B 1909. In the article it said that he was the brother of Richard Møller Nielsen and World Soccer had mixed a lot together. I showed him the article, and we started talking about football. In this way I began to scout a little for him - it actually started with the fact that I cycled around and saw Danmarksserie Matches in Odense.
 
It was in 1994 that Ole Nielsen cycled around and saw Danmarksserie Matches for possible players for B. 1909's first team. Tommy Møller Nielsen was the year after assistant coach for Kim Brink in OB. Here came Ole Nielsen, and when Kim Brink was replaced by Viggo Jensen as head coach of the bicycling club, took it off for the Scout.
 
- I followed Viggo Jensen around to his clubs, so I scoutede for him in both Aarhus Forward, Esbjerg and Silkeborg until 2006, when he was fired. I drove the last part of the agreement with Silkeborg finished in the season, and so I was lucky that Bolton contacted me and asked if I would scout for them. I had previously written to them to see if they could use a scout, and since they obviously had something lying on me, they contacted me, he says.
 
Sent Braithwaite to Newcastle
How was Ole Nielsen scout for a Premier League club. He began work in January 2007, where it ran for Bolton. Sam Allardyce had created a strong team that qualified for the UEFA Cup. Then stopped Sam Allardyce and went to Newcastle in the summer of 2007, and shortly after, Ole Nielsen after.
 
- In connection with the manager change it sometimes happens that all English scouts reminder setting, while foreign will. So I continued in Bolton, but at a European FCK match at Parken in August 2007, I met my former boss, now in Newcastle. It was fortunate for 14 days later I got a call from Bolton and was told that all we foreign scouts were terminated. Therefore, I called my former boss, and five minutes later I had Newcastle's chief scout in the pipe. "You can just start now," I was told.
 
- There is talk of nepotism in this game, and that's both good and bad. It's good when you're inside, but it's bad when you are out. It is important to have a network. Steve Walsh hired me back in Newcastle, and him I have always kept in touch with. He is assistant manager in Leicester now.
 
It was for a number of years in Newcastle for Ole Nielsen, who both worked under Sam Allardyce, Nigel Pearson, Kevin Keegan, Joe Kinnear, Chris Hughton and Alan Shearer. And along the way he was both the sending Martin Braithwaite and Kevin Mensah to the northern English club. Mensah was invited twice to Newcastle - the first time at Ole Nielsen's recommendation, the second time because he had done well. The case of Braithwaite was a more funny episode.
 
- I was once in cottage somewhere in Denmark, where my phone rang from Newcastle. I thought, 'Oh no, this is rarely the call - now, I'll probably fired. "It usually happens via mail, so I was a little flabbergasted. They called on Thursday and said they would have the best young striker from Denmark to a trial on Monday. Martin Braithwaite was he just showed up and I then tried to set it up with Esbjerg. We found out about it, and he came over. He played test match for the U18 team and scored a hat trick on one day, and three days later he played for the U21 team and did well. Newcastle want to sign him, but he would not more, because he only had six months left on his education. It was good for me that he did it well.
 
But everything has an end, and it had Ole Nielsen's time in Newcastle too. Since a new manager change came about Ole Nielsen received a call from Chris Hughton and told that we would rather bet on France over Denmark.
 
- It was too bad, but it was fair that they had the balls to call and say it personally. Meanwhile, I made a bit of Celtic and Charlton, but I still had contact with Steve Walsh, and I got such an inquiry as to whether I could look at some Danish players for them. I could help them, because it could be a way in, and two months later they asked if I would work for them. I have done ever since the summer of 2012, says Ole Nielsen.
 
And therefore, he is now northern Europe thin to watch football. In January, he was on a weekend that included Hamburg, Amsterdam and Alkmaar, and this weekend he will both see OB AGF, FCK Esbjerg, Brøndby-Hobro and FC Midtjylland-AaB live. In addition to "a secret mission abroad on Saturdays," he says. So there is plenty to do - and it does not seem that there is much money in "casual job" for the 41-year-old fynbo that have both a wife and two sons.
 
- Scouting The job is not at all full-time wage. Beside, I work as an educator in a care facility. I work 27 hours a week there, and the rest of my time I spend on football. That's what I want. How many hours I spend on it? It's my wife probably better to figure out.
 
- I spend maybe 50-60 hours a week on it, but I count it not, and I do not my hourly rate up. This does not happen when there is something you would like. It's a passion, says Ole Nielsen, who also has support from the family to indulge his passion for his wife knew what she was getting into.
 
- It's a lifestyle and we have as soon as copper wedding, so it's fine. But there are some things we can not. We can not just take the weekend. On the way, I never completely free, says the man, in addition to the many live games have football on TV and on the computer as often as he can. And when the Super League is still, he looks elsewhere.
 
- I see many matches because it's fun. And then I hope of course to find the next Amartey. It's the drive. And I love the watching football, says Ole Nielsen - the Danish scout for the Premier League's top teams.
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