Hey Reader, I’ve spent this week building something new, and it sent me back about six years. Back to when I was in the gambling industry, applying for football jobs, and hearing nothing at all. I had a sports coaching degree. Specialised in performance analysis. Little of it was any use for recruitment analysis. Because it wasn't really a publicly knowledge at the time. There were little resources for recruitment analysis. I’d done placements at Leeds and Bradford on the performance side....
7 days ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, My first paid job in football came through one person. Someone I worked with at Sky Bet got a role at Wigan. He brought me in as a recruitment analyst. Part-time, around my day job. Player rating models, data visualisation, and out doing live and video scouting across the Midlands. I'd done freelance scouting and analysis before that, paid and unpaid. But this was the first time a club had me on a contract. When he left Wigan, the opportunity was different. So I left too. Partly...
14 days ago • 4 min read
Hey Reader, Stoke have interviewed me twice. I didn't get either job. Twice I went through the whole thing. Twice I got the no. Here's the part I didn't expect. The head of football operations there still messages me. Not about a job for me. About other people. We've got someone here, can you help them. There might be an opportunity coming up. I've never worked a day for that club. And they're still one of the more useful relationships I have in the game. That took me a long time to...
21 days ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, A former Premier League scout said something in the Recruitment Room this week that stuck with me. He was describing what he looks for in a young player. Not goals. Not assists. Not the highlight stuff. One thing most people miss. Picture a young midfielder. He gets the ball, drives forward thirty yards, has a go from distance, and misses. Badly. Twenty yards wide. Most people watching write him off. Wasteful. Greedy. Wrong choice. The scout doesn't. He's watching what the player...
28 days ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, A few years ago, a scouting or analysis qualification was enough to stand out. You’d done the course. Most people hadn’t. That gap was your advantage. That gap has closed. The courses are everywhere now. Cheaper, faster, better than they used to be. Good for the game. But the thing that used to set you apart now just gets you level with everyone else holding the same certificate. The bar has shifted. And a lot of people haven’t noticed. Here’s the part they miss. A certificate...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, There is a particular kind of Sunday night that no one warns you about. I spoke to a guy on a call this month who had just got back from a scouting trip. He was buzzing. Notebook full, brain firing, completely alive. And then it hit him. Tomorrow is Monday. And Monday means back to the job he can’t stand. He wasn’t complaining. He said it quietly, almost embarrassed, like it was a weakness. It isn’t. It is the most normal thing in the world, and almost no one talks about it. The...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, Most football job adverts don’t tell you the one thing you actually need to know. The salary. You see “competitive salary” and nothing else. So you apply blind, sometimes through two or three rounds, before anyone mentions money. That might be about to change. The UK government is proposing new rules that would require salary information on job adverts. It is still at consultation stage and the detail isn’t settled, but the direction is clear. I put a quick reaction to the news...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, The best piece of work you produce this year is worthless if it sits in your drafts. I say that because I watched it almost happen to one of our members. A month of polishing Early on in the Recruitment Room, Freddie built a recruitment project - a task on right-backs at Dundee United. He shared it inside the community and the feedback was good. People told him, plainly, that it was strong. So what did he do next? He sat on it for a month. Tweaking the weightings. Adjusting,...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, You open LinkedIn and someone’s posted a clean player rating model. Someone else has just landed a role at a club. A third person is at the StatsBomb conference, lanyard round their neck, looking like they belong. And quietly, you think: everyone’s miles ahead of me. I get messages like this most weeks. People who feel like the game started without them. The comparison nobody notices they’re making Here is what’s actually going on. You’re comparing your day one to their year one,...
2 months ago • 2 min read