Head of Recruitment

[volpeazzurro]

20 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Kieran Scott at Norwich has learnt rave reviews for the work he has done with Daniel Farke. They have brought in some excellent players in the same manner and mould that we did in the Pearson years. It would be a step up with us and as Norwich are about to be promoted he will likely stay there but he'd be my choice. Or if we could get the brains behind Eintract Frankfurt's transfer policy in recent years then I'd be all over that!!

I think your first comments are a really good shout, I heard quite a bit about their success at Norwich on the radio some weeks ago, but as you say, we've probably missed out on that prosect now. I don't know anything about Frankfurt so can't comment. I think our more recent model of recruitment has been much better and wonder how much exactly was down to Macia or whether it was more a board and scouting team joint decision. It's difficult to know how it all works. 

[sacreblueits442]

26 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

I personally think that boat has sailed. Yes we got Marhez, Vardy and Kante but we also had the likes of Slimani, Silva and Musa who have been a disaster together with some lesser lites. It was baffling really, it was almost as if the better newly discovered cheaper end of the player market was a huge success but the bigger ticket players were terrible failures? He also got the sack from Everton not without good reason and they couldn't wait to get rid of him. I think he was a part of a good team with Pearson and Shakespeare at a particular point in time.

 

Macia, or certainly more recent recruitment seems to have been much improved and it makes you wonder what the full story is surrounding his departure. I just hope that the recruitment of younger players persists and no more 29yr old last contract players from Portugal!

 

Congerton with his cv on the face of it is a huge worry and I just hope that the board are taken in by Rodgers blarney just to appease him as his own record in the transfer market for Celtic or Liverpool is hardly inspiring. Scouting new talent by nature is a bit hit and miss and I suppose as punters we tend to know little about who would be a good current candidate. It's easier to perhaps say who you wouldn't want and for me that would be Walsh and Congerton.

.... Slimani was on a list compiled by Walsh but with a price ceiling of about 12m. The club panicked to cover Vardy leaving and paid way over the odds. Walsh had gone prior to Slimanis' deal being implemented. 

 Although Silva has proven to be unsuccessful it is hard to blame Walsh for this one. 

 Ahmed Musa looked the part, just couldn't make it work here. 

  Would like to see Walsh back at the helm. 

[moore_94]

2 hours ago, Ted Maul said:

So we knew Macia was leaving for about 2 years and we're only just drawing up a shortlist, this close to a transfer window? Ridiculous if so.

 

I'd argue that recruitment is one of the most important parts of football these days- we need to get this right.

Seems like the club have wanted to include the manager in the process of hiring a new one, they could have had a list of people lined up while we had Puel but when he got sacked had to throw that out the window and start from scratch, as I imagine the person Puel would want is vastly different from who Rodgers would want

[moore_94]

9 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

.... Slimani was on a list compiled by Walsh but with a price ceiling of about 12m. The club panicked to cover Vardy leaving and paid way over the odds. Walsh had gone prior to Slimanis' deal being implemented. 

 Although Silva has proven to be unsuccessful it is hard to blame Walsh for this one. 

 Ahmed Musa looked the part, just couldn't make it work here. 

  Would like to see Walsh back at the helm. 

Macia left to be Director of Football at Bordeaux, bigger role, more responsibility, also Bordeaux having been taken over by some rich American investors, he probably saw it as a very good project to get involved in

[Dan LCFC]

Walsh might make sense in the short term because I think that would be a pretty quick turnaround. My issues there are... would he still fancy it, is he still even wanting to work? I thought the Everton move was effectively his final job of significance so he might not even fancy it anymore. As well it's worth saying that he failed at Everton with money and we're in a more comparative position as a club to Everton were under Walsh than we were when we had him.

 

If we go for Congerton we need shooting. There are literally no reasons what so ever for a club in our position to gamble a role as important as this on someone who has such a poor CV and track record. It would be absolute insanity and would pretty much signify that we have no chance of bettering what we're at now because it would be such a daft decision.

 

I know he's got interest from other clubs but I'd go for Paul Mitchell. Excellent track record. I would happily see us pay big money for him as well as scouts are ridiculously underpaid. Walsh and his team's work made us hundreds of millions and we probably paid him less money in five years here than we did Jermaine Beckford in two.

 

We need to take this very seriously, but given Macia's been supposedly off for about two years and the fact we've got no-one in at this point doesn't fill me with any confidence, sadly.

[Xen]

50 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

.... Slimani was on a list compiled by Walsh but with a price ceiling of about 12m. The club panicked to cover Vardy leaving and paid way over the odds. Walsh had gone prior to Slimanis' deal being implemented. 

 Although Silva has proven to be unsuccessful it is hard to blame Walsh for this one. 

 Ahmed Musa looked the part, just couldn't make it work here. 

  Would like to see Walsh back at the helm. 

Exactly.

 

 

Slimani for £10m would have been a good buy. He had a decent return in the first season despite limited play time, and we could have written off a £10m flop as one of those 50-50 calls that sometimes doesn't work out. Instead we messed about the transfer negotiations, letting a release clause expire and paying way over the odds, which was out of Walsh's control.

 

Silva performed well in Portugal and is performing well in France. It didn't work out in England (the 14-second debacle can't have helped) but on paper everything looked good with the transfer. Similar to how Kramaric was/is a fantastic player but never settled here. 

 

Musa was an interesting one, and is probably the main failure of Walsh's tenure (although we don't know what he valued Musa at), but no recruitment team gets it right 100% of the time. 

 

I'd welcome Walsh back, but I'd be tempted to bring him back purely on a consultancy basis and have him work to develop one of the existing backroom staff into the 'Head of Recruitment'/'Chief Scout' role. As a club we're focussed on development across the board already - youth players, the new training ground, the groundsman/'Turf Academy' etc, so why not extend this philosophy to the backroom/support staff as well?

 

[Dan LCFC]

Yeah as much as those players were Walsh's recommendations I don't entirely put it on him because not only did we sign them for well more than they were worth (which I'm sure is something the ITK's say Walsh stressed), we didn't actually sign them under him. As rightly stated by others if we'd paid less for them I think they'd be perceived differently. Didn't Walsh say a maximum of £10mil each for both Musa & Slimani? It was Ranieri who decided to make us go and splash silly money on Slimani very late in the window meaning we not only overpaid, we ended up alienating Ulloa. It's pretty obvious what actually happened. I think steps like that went a way to knackering the bond between him and the players.

 

Walsh may have recommended them but the entire structure of our recruitment was broken that summer, largely through him leaving sadly.

Edited 24 April 2019 by Dan LCFC

[Stevosevic]

1 hour ago, sacreblueits442 said:

.... Slimani was on a list compiled by Walsh but with a price ceiling of about 12m. The club panicked to cover Vardy leaving and paid way over the odds. Walsh had gone prior to Slimanis' deal being implemented. 

 Although Silva has proven to be unsuccessful it is hard to blame Walsh for this one. 

 Ahmed Musa looked the part, just couldn't make it work here. 

  Would like to see Walsh back at the helm. 

This doesnt really make sense. 

 

Slimani signed way after Vardy signed his new deal with us during the Arsenal links. 

 

I don't think signing Slimani had anything to do with Vardy potentially leaving - when he signed Vardy was staying.

[sacreblueits442]

3 minutes ago, Stevosevic said:

This doesnt really make sense. 

 

Slimani signed way after Vardy signed his new deal with us during the Arsenal links. 

 

I don't think signing Slimani had anything to do with Vardy potentially leaving - when he signed Vardy was staying.

... I believe the club were committed to the deal even after Vardy had turned Arsenal down. He was signed very late in the window. 

[Ric Flair]

39 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

... I believe the club were committed to the deal even after Vardy had turned Arsenal down. He was signed very late in the window. 

Then we are absolute clowns. Vardy agreed to sign a new deal in June, after turning down Arsenal. Slimani had a clause in his contract to leave Sporting for significantly lower than what we paid for him that expired at the end of July, yet we waited a further month to do the deal we committed to doing and spent way more as result?

[lfu]

IIRC Slimani was signed because of Ranieri's stubbornness that he needed two (similar) players for every position (that is to say, two workhorse pressing strikers in Vardy and Shinji, and two slow target men in Ulloa and Slimani)

[Dan LCFC]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Then we are absolute clowns. Vardy agreed to sign a new deal in June, after turning down Arsenal. Slimani had a clause in his contract to leave Sporting for significantly lower than what we paid for him that expired at the end of July, yet we waited a further month to do the deal we committed to doing and spent way more as result?

I'm glad we appear to have learnt (somewhat) from our errors but some of that was ineptness bordering on unprofessional. Unbelievable really.

[BenTheFox]

We should avoid anyone who played a significant part in the downfall of both Sunderland and Hamburger SV at all costs. 

[Muzzy_Larsson]

41 minutes ago, BenTheFox said:

We should avoid anyone who played a significant part in the downfall of both Sunderland and Hamburger SV at all costs. 

Very much this.

[hackneyfox]

3 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

... I believe the club were committed to the deal even after Vardy had turned Arsenal down. He was signed very late in the window. 

We were about to start a CL campaign.

Ranieri knew we didn't have the depth.

[LinekersApples]

14 hours ago, foxinsocks said:

I want this job.

I would not hire anyone with out a great first touch. .. as all pl players need that.

I wouldn't hire anyone who wasnt prepared to work on developing their strength. 

No release clauses. 

50% of wages into escrow to be paid on completion of contract. .signing a new one or a transfer instigated by the club.

 

Otherwise they can look for another club 

I agree with your approach, but there is an element of marketing involved too.  This needs a strategic 3 point plan.

 

• I would initially only sign players whose names work well with the old Ulloa chant to improve our atmosphere.  
•  
• I'd then look for very similar players to Ghezzal/Ianacho/Slimani as when they move on, our fans will need a new scapegoat.
•  
• Finally, I'd focus on the under 21's of Holland & Belguim. Both nations have proven quality in the EPL you get more for you £ in those leagues.

 

Please accept my response as a letter of application and I look forward to meeting with you, and sharing a more detailed account of my strategic plan at interview.

[st albans fox]

5 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

I know he's got interest from other clubs but I'd go for Paul Mitchell. Excellent track record. I would happily see us pay big money for him as well as scouts are ridiculously underpaid. Walsh and his team's work made us hundreds of millions and we probably paid him less money in five years here than we did Jermaine Beckford in two.

 

We need to take this very seriously, but given Macia's been supposedly off for about two years and the fact we've got no-one in at this point doesn't fill me with any confidence, sadly.

i know for a fact that one of the reasons he left was the club not fighting to keep the team of scouts/analysts he had assembled together - we allowed them to be poached for more money and SW was unhappy. has the club's mindset changed in this regard ??

 

my uninformed belief is that the club is no more professional in this regard than it was three years ago ……… i hope that Brendan will at the very least shake up this aspect/approach. 

[Wymsey]

19 hours ago, OldBob said:

Should bring Steve Walsh back. He managed to get players that were willing to buy into the ethos of the squad (right mentality and quality) - all be it, we had a few dodgy transfer windows after the title winning season, I still think you can't hide the fact that we wouldn't of had the likes of Vardy, Mahrez, Kante etc if it hadn't been for him

 

22 hours ago, MPH said:

bring back steve walsh! 

 

 

( snr)

 

12 hours ago, Foxxed said:

Is Steve Walsh employed these days?

 

9 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

Walsh might make sense in the short term because I think that would be a pretty quick turnaround. My issues there are... would he still fancy it, is he still even wanting to work? I thought the Everton move was effectively his final job of significance so he might not even fancy it anymore. As well it's worth saying that he failed at Everton with money and we're in a more comparative position as a club to Everton were under Walsh than we were when we had him.

The club, apparently, had already approached him back in January regarding a potential return to the club; he declined it due to family reasons.

 

He said that, when he left the club, he chose to do in order to be closer to his family back in the Merseyside area.

 

So therefore doubt he'd be looking to come back again to LCFC, especially also with him being mid-60's.

Edited 24 April 2019 by Wymeswold fox

[volpeazzurro]

13 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

.... Slimani was on a list compiled by Walsh but with a price ceiling of about 12m. The club panicked to cover Vardy leaving and paid way over the odds. Walsh had gone prior to Slimanis' deal being implemented. 

 Although Silva has proven to be unsuccessful it is hard to blame Walsh for this one. 

 Ahmed Musa looked the part, just couldn't make it work here. 

  Would like to see Walsh back at the helm. 

Unless you have really privileged information from inside the club, personally I'd suggest when you quote price ceilings it's pure conjecture from reading gossip sites like this but, if you know otherwise please feel free to disclose. As for Musa, even his own Russian supporters disclosed on here his inabilities before he arrived and they were proven right,  what were Walsh and our scouts watching?  How was he ever in a million years going to adapt?  Poor poor scouting if he was really watched much at all or was he just picked up using statistical software. Why hard to blame Walsh for Silva? 29yrs,  never courted by anyone else, mediocre in a poor league? Poor poor signings like his subsequent work was for Everton for which he was rightly sacked.

[foxinsocks]

8 hours ago, LinekersApples said:

I agree with your approach, but there is an element of marketing involved too.  This needs a strategic 3 point plan.

 

• I would initially only sign players whose names work well with the old Ulloa chant to improve our atmosphere.  
•  
• I'd then look for very similar players to Ghezzal/Ianacho/Slimani as when they move on, our fans will need a new scapegoat.
•  
• Finally, I'd focus on the under 21's of Holland & Belguim. Both nations have proven quality in the EPL you get more for you £ in those leagues.

 

Please accept my response as a letter of application and I look forward to meeting with you, and sharing a more detailed account of my strategic plan at interview.

I like your ideas.... how about a player with a name like huff... now fuchs has finished.  

We also need players from big tv maekets... like china ...india... japan etc.  

Further i think players born in certain star signs  may be useful. .. virgos are peddants... and coz they are born in sept often have more confidence at sports 

I am working on ideas about hand writing.  I am not sure about left handed players 

 

[cal21212121]

I'll do it, I'm very proficient at looking up players fan made skills videos on youtube

[Dahnsouff]

4 hours ago, foxinsocks said:

I like your ideas.... how about a player with a name like huff... now fuchs has finished.  

We also need players from big tv maekets... like china ...india... japan etc.  

Further i think players born in certain star signs  may be useful. .. virgos are peddants... and coz they are born in sept often have more confidence at sports 

I am working on ideas about hand writing.  I am not sure about left handed players 

 

An Asian Horoscope 11 - cross market fertilisation, sure fire winner on the financial side 

Some blue sky thinking right there. 

Gerrimin.

[Xen]

9 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

Unless you have really privileged information from inside the club, personally I'd suggest when you quote price ceilings it's pure conjecture from reading gossip sites like this but, if you know otherwise please feel free to disclose. As for Musa, even his own Russian supporters disclosed on here his inabilities before he arrived and they were proven right,  what were Walsh and our scouts watching?  How was he ever in a million years going to adapt?  Poor poor scouting if he was really watched much at all or was he just picked up using statistical software. Why hard to blame Walsh for Silva? 29yrs,  never courted by anyone else, mediocre in a poor league? Poor poor signings like his subsequent work was for Everton for which he was rightly sacked.

Those 'price ceilings' were pretty common knowledge. Slimani definitely did have a release clause which expired, so even if you ignore the ceilings Walsh supposedly set, when he was being scouted Slimani could have been had for £20m. It was ineptitude beyond Walsh's control that made him our record buy.

 

Musa was relatively young and had good physical attributes, played a similar style to Vardy (at a time we thought we might lose our main man) and was playing fairly well in Russia. He had his faults, but every signing at our level does and if our scouts identified those faults as being something we could work on/harness (like with Vardy's aggression) then they may have seen him worth pursuing. 

 

Silva was far from "mediocre in a poor league". He was captain of his club, a fan favourite, a portugal international and Euro 2016 winner. He was a one-club man before we convinced him to join our project. 

 

 

At Everton he had a completely different remit as DoF, working with a completely different player/staff culture, and it didn't work out. Considering that building a scouting network takes several years (and he was restricted from going for scouting targets he'd had here for a short time) its not too surprising that he wasn't an instant success.

Edited 25 April 2019 by Xen

[LinekersApples]

9 hours ago, foxinsocks said:

I like your ideas.... how about a player with a name like huff... now fuchs has finished.  

We also need players from big tv maekets... like china ...india... japan etc.  

Further i think players born in certain star signs  may be useful. .. virgos are peddants... and coz they are born in sept often have more confidence at sports 

I am working on ideas about hand writing.  I am not sure about left handed players 

 

Ticks many boxes

[st albans fox]

1 hour ago, Xen said:

 

Silva was far from "mediocre in a poor league". He was captain of his club, a fan favourite, a portugal international and Euro 2016 winner. He was a one-club man before we convinced him to join our project. 

 

I suspect the 80k/week for four years (which is 10 million quid more than he would earn on his SCP contract) was more convincing than the ‘project’