Hey Reader,

On Saturday, I watched a group of people who had never met in person sit around tables, introduce themselves, and start talking about football careers like they’d known each other for years.

That was the Recruitment Room’s first ever in-person event.

A Hotel, Three Speakers, and a League Two Game

The format was simple. Three guest speakers at Casa Hotel in Chesterfield, followed by lunch, a League Two match, and then drinks and a debrief on the game.

The speakers each brought something different. David Cohen, a recruitment analyst at Lincoln City, talked about his move from performance analysis into recruitment. Chris Gill reflected on patterns he’s seen across hundreds of conversations with people working in football. And Alec Tate broke down individual players from Chesterfield’s squad with live telestration.

The Bit That Stuck With Me

David said something I keep coming back to. Without his network, getting his current role would have been ten times harder. Not because he wasn’t qualified. But because the opportunities came through relationships he’d built at previous clubs. People he’d left a lasting impression on. People who moved into new roles and remembered him.

Football is a small industry. People move. And they talk.

And this led into Chris Gill's later point that the football industry isn't linear it's opportunistic.

Why This Matters More Than Another Course

You can learn scouting frameworks online. You can watch Tableau tutorials on YouTube. You can study data analysis from your bedroom.

But you can’t build trust through a screen the same way you can in a room.

Watching our members connect with a recruitment analyst, ask questions to his face, then walk into a stadium and try to spot the patterns they’d just been shown - that is something no course or qualification can replicate.

One of our members spent half the game watching Sammy Braybrooke after Alec had broken down his movement patterns in the seminar. He was looking for the things Alec described - the appetite for risk, the dropping off to receive, the speculating. And he could see it. That shift from learning to watching to recognising is where real development happens.

What It Proved

We’ve been running for just over a year. An online community with 40+ members from all over the world. Putting on an in-person event felt ambitious. And honestly, I would have liked more members there.

But watching the people who were there connect, learn, and leave with something they couldn’t have got from a Zoom call made the whole thing worth it.

That is why I got into this space. Not to build a course platform. To build something where people can actually help each other get into football.

We’ll be doing more of these.

Liam