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NeilLCFC

Our Scouting Team

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Does anyone know much about our current scouting team and their worldwide presence?

 

If we are to loose Riyad or any of our other first team players this summer, id expect us to receive some pretty good fees. the last few windows would suggest we don't have the scouts in place to find the next RM or Kantè, so can see us blowing more cash on the likes of Musa and Slimani.

 

Its a huge shame that our scouting network was torn apart.

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Depends on who the new manager is. If Shakespeare gets the job, I doubt he'll go spending mega money on foreign players. There are plenty of decent players already in the prem that would join us. Pickford if Kasper goes, Sigurdson, Trippier, Gibson just to name a few. They may not come cheap but at least we know they can play in the prem

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6 minutes ago, Abrasive fox said:

A lot of the brilliant scouting network Walsh built has now been ripped up, we rely heavily on agents to sign players and this is the challenge.

 

Wague is an example of us signing a player because of an agents recomendation 

Well that went well. :dry:

 

Can you give us any insight why Walsh left? Did he want to go back to his home place or a fall out with Ranieri? Could we have done more to keep him? 

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I think it's an area that will need addressing by the owners but it might only take one big appointment, who will bring his team with him. Luckily, we have a lot of young talent in the squad, so although there is work to be done to replace the ageing back 4, we still have a decent foundation for the future. 

 

I'd like to see us make an appointment sooner rather than later, so they can start planning for next season. 

 

Paul Mitchell who recently was released from his contract with Spurs, ticks the boxes and has an impressive history there and at Southampton and MK Dons. 

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5 minutes ago, Abrasive fox said:

A lot of the brilliant scouting network Walsh built has now been ripped up, we rely heavily on agents to sign players and this is the challenge.

 

Wague is an example of us signing a player because of an agents recomendation 

I thought wague had been highlighted by our scouts a few seasons ago ?.

 

we had lost some of the team before Walsh left. I heard on the grapevine that he wasn't happy how easily these guys were allowed to leave and no doubt this contributed to his decision to relocate closer to his home. 

 

the subject of employee retention is an interesting one. Clearly we can see that the owners are savvy enough to realise that players are not simply tradeable assets where you can sell one and buy a straight replacement. Further down the chain this may not be the case - in south East Asia, there is a high t/o of staff and it's just accepted that people leave and someone else comes in to do their job. one wonders if they appreciated how important the group that Walsh had built up were as individuals and were comfortable in allowing some to leave without paying what seemed to them, to be an excessive salary. 

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20 minutes ago, jayfox26 said:

Depends on who the new manager is. If Shakespeare gets the job, I doubt he'll go spending mega money on foreign players. There are plenty of decent players already in the prem that would join us. Pickford if Kasper goes, Sigurdson, Trippier, Gibson just to name a few. They may not come cheap but at least we know they can play in the prem

I was thinking the same about CS. The only problem for me is that we couldn't sign Sigurdson in the past and we couldn't even get Keane or Deeney in the summer.

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we certainly need to look at the scouting system, it would be nice to have one as good as the one with Steve Walsh but it depends on how motivated the people at the football club are to have one, and where to look for talent! the French league is an obvious one or are the club just happy to pay agents fees as they were under Claudio! our last few scouts have been poached so it will be extremely difficult to come up with some that are as good as the ones that left.

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I just cringe when we break out transfer record, they're almost destined to fail!

 

Since Akinbiyi whenever we've broke our transfer record has anyone turned out good?

 

Of the top of my head I can't think of anyone.

 

Matt Mills, Jermaine Beckford, Andrej Kramaric, Ahmed Musa, Nampalys Mendy, Islam Slimani.

 

I've got one! Ulloa, he's been alright for us, crucial at times!

 

Have I overlooked any other record signings that have turned out well for us?

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Just now, Matt said:

I just cringe when we break out transfer record, they're almost destined to fail!

 

Since Akinbiyi whenever we've broke our transfer record has anyone turned out good?

 

Of the top of my head I can't think of anyone.

 

Matt Mills, Jermaine Beckford, Andrej Kramaric, Ahmed Musa, Nampalys Mendy, Islam Slimani.

 

I've got one! Ulloa, he's been alright for us, crucial at times!

 

Have I overlooked any other record signings that have turned out well for us?

Was weller or worthington a record fee ?

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13 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

I thought wague had been highlighted by our scouts a few seasons ago ?.

 

we had lost some of the team before Walsh left. I heard on the grapevine that he wasn't happy how easily these guys were allowed to leave and no doubt this contributed to his decision to relocate closer to his home. 

 

the subject of employee retention is an interesting one. Clearly we can see that the owners are savvy enough to realise that players are not simply tradeable assets where you can sell one and buy a straight replacement. Further down the chain this may not be the case - in south East Asia, there is a high t/o of staff and it's just accepted that people leave and someone else comes in to do their job. one wonders if they appreciated how important the group that Walsh had built up were as individuals and were comfortable in allowing some to leave without paying what seemed to them, to be an excessive salary. 

 

Especially when player recruitment is more or less the be all and end all at a club.

 

We're in the position that we can more or less sign any player in the world that isn't wanted by the very elite clubs. We can go to any club in South America and most of Europe and get any player we want such is the financial pulling power of a PL club. With such a vast market and so much to choose from then player recruitment is impossible to overestimate. Getting world class staff in these areas should be paid world class wages and comparable to players.

 

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Just now, Gerard said:

 

Especially when player recruitment is more or less the be all and end all at a club.

 

We're in the position that we can more or less sign any player in the world that isn't wanted by the very elite clubs. We can go to any club in South America and most of Europe and get any player we want such is the financial pulling power of a PL club. With such a vast market and so much to choose from then player recruitment is impossible to overestimate. Getting world class staff in these areas should be paid world class wages and comparable to players.

 

Hence mr Walsh's frustration 

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2 minutes ago, Gerard said:

 

As in what was Walsh's frustration?

 

Was it that he wasn't paid enough or that Ranieri overruled him on certain transfer targets?

As i alluded in my post, he was peed off that his 2 main tech scouts were nicked by Arsenal and Spurs without the club putting up a fight to keep them. (Allegedly of course  ..........)

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Just now, st albans fox said:

As i alluded in my post, he was peed off that his 2 main tech scouts were nicked by Arsenal and Spurs without the club putting up a fight to keep them. (Allegedly of course  ..........)

Didn't they leave before Walsh signed a new contract with us? Rumour is that it was to do with Ranieri going against him on almost every transfer target, and changing the direction the club was going in. 

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10 minutes ago, NeilLCFC said:

Didn't they leave before Walsh signed a new contract with us? Rumour is that it was to do with Ranieri going against him on almost every transfer target, and changing the direction the club was going in. 

 

It wasn't his only motivation for leaving but when weighing up the whole situation when Everton came calling, it had left a big mark. I'm not ITK on much but this is something I am aware of. 

 

As for Claudio going against his targets, our recruitment last summer (Hernandez and musa ) were both Walsh targets. Mendy we don't know for sure and we had scouted slimani before although the slimani/silva deal seems to smell of macia. Keane would have been a Walsh target. Maybe he was frustrated the club wouldnt pay the money to secure him. 

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9 minutes ago, NeilLCFC said:

Didn't they leave before Walsh signed a new contract with us? Rumour is that it was to do with Ranieri going against him on almost every transfer target, and changing the direction the club was going in. 

 

I have no evidence whatsoever but I suspect you may be right. 

 

Walsh wanting to sign Gueye as a replacement for Kante and Ranieri wanting his ex player in Mendy instead and overruling him is a likely scenario. In the interview with Walsh and Ranieri after being handed the title against Everton Walsh seemed totally committed to Leicester and had plans going forward.

 

If Ranieri has undermined Walsh then you can't blame him for wanting out. It's healthy for the head of scouting and manager to have disagreements but Walsh should be given respect for the players he has bought in previously for buttons especially when Ranieri's picks weren't anywhere near as scouted as thoroughly if we assume the likes of Inler, Benalouane, Kaputska and Mendy were Ranieri picks.

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Just see who Walsh is after then nip in, buy him, and be on our toes before he knows what day it is.  Simples ....    :thumbup:

 

For central defenders identify the best in the prem and the championship that fit our style and get some serious offers in ....

 

And whilst all this is going on carefully rebuild our scouting network ...      Would Walshy come back ??     Good place to start ....

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2 minutes ago, Countryfox said:

 

Just see who Walsh is after then nip in, buy him, and be on our toes before he knows what day it is.  Simples ....    :thumbup:

 

For central defenders identify the best in the prem and the championship that fit our style and get some serious offers in ....

 

And whilst all this is going on carefully rebuild our scouting network ...      Would Walshy come back ??     Good place to start ....

This is the guy who apparently got NG over here and signed without his agent knowing where he was !  You expect rudders to be in and out before him! 

 

And he wont come back because we already have a DOF who isn't going anywhere 

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3 minutes ago, Gerard said:

 

I have no evidence whatsoever but I suspect you may be right. 

 

Walsh wanting to sign Gueye as a replacement for Kante and Ranieri wanting his ex player in Mendy instead and overruling him is a likely scenario. In the interview with Walsh and Ranieri after being handed the title against Everton Walsh seemed totally committed to Leicester and had plans going forward.

 

If Ranieri has undermined Walsh then you can't blame him for wanting out. It's healthy for the head of scouting and manager to have disagreements but Walsh should be given respect for the players he has bought in previously for buttons especially when Ranieri's picks weren't anywhere near as scouted as thoroughly if we assume the likes of Inler, Benalouane, Kaputska and Mendy were Ranieri picks.

Spot on.

 

The Kantè transfer especially  should have taught Ranieri that he should leave Walsh to get on with it.

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I have an interesting anecdote from an acquaintance of mine who used to scout for Arsenal, covering the North and Central America region for them. Every year there are conferences between clubs and countries where scouts, coaches, physio's, etc share knowledge with one another. Leicester used to have a superb one, although very few people attended. That was of course until December 2015 when LCFC were on the run of a lifetime. This time round for the LCFC scouting presentation, the room was packed with many standing! As a result of the presentation, Ben Wrigglesworth ended up joining Arsenal, as the content was so good! It was a look into how LCFC use statistics both from their own games and from scout reports to identify players they want / need. They highlighted how the team were not winning as many aerial duels as teams around them in the league, which led to Robert Huth signing for us, and how Albrighton had a huge "chances created per game" stat despite barely playing for a struggling team which they felt was missing during the Great Escape. And of course they highlighted how despite Kante appearing not to suited for the league physically, his stats were so ridiculous they believed the data.

 

Most clubs these days also use a system called Wyscout:
https://wyscout.com/#tour

 

You can actually sign up to this for free for 15 days! It's pretty amazing actually, although you wouldn't have access to the club's account which will likely have lots of notes on various players. It has videos and stats for players from literally around the world. It's like Football Manager but on crack.

 

Anyway back on topic, though we've made some poor signings this year, since Macia has come in we have signed only two players - Ndidi and Wague. Wague we have no idea about really, but Ndidi is yet another LCFC masterclass! We might have paid 18m for him, but we'll sell him for minimum twice that. So signs are still IMO promising. Also despite a lot of our signings not working out, we made offers for both Ousmane Dembele (now at Dortmund) and Michael Keane during the summer and both players have emerged to be full internationals this year. So although we may not have got them, it again shows that the team at the club know what they are doing.

 

The big test will be this summer of course. I'd like to think that now we appear to be in a prettier situation than earlier in the year we can focus on getting quality signings instead of working out which Championship players we need to get back into the top division! A long Champions League run wouldn't hurt us in this department either!

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