FOOTBALL PROGRESSION PATH Helping you create opportunities in football Hey Reader, Putting your work online is just the starting point. Not the finish line. A lot of people now understand the value of sharing publicly. Feedback, network, visibility, evidence that you have the skills for the roles you want. All of that is real. But it’s just the beginning. The Post Is the Prompt A post isn’t a result. It’s a conversation starter. After you publish, the next step is to follow up with the people...
19 days ago • 2 min read
FOOTBALL PROGRESSION PATH Helping you create opportunities in football Sponsored This email is kindly sponsored by In-Play Online. As a scout or recruitment analyst, you will need to show video evidence of any potential target. So, if you are looking for an affordable video analysis tool that allows for match tagging, drawing tools and video playlists then In-Play Online is definitely worth a look. Use code HENSHAW20 for 20% discount. → Check out In-Play Online Hey Reader, I'm writing this on...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
FOOTBALL PROGRESSION PATH Helping you create opportunities in football Hey Reader, When someone lands a role in football, the word that tends to come up is “lucky.” “He was lucky to get that opportunity.” “She was lucky that she already had a connection” “Lucky timing.” It’s always meant kindly. But it misses what actually happened. Because in almost every case I’ve seen, the luck wasn’t random. It was built. The Andy Reid moment My own break came from Andy Reid, then the Nottingham Forest...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
FOOTBALL PROGRESSION PATH Helping you create opportunities in football 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,...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
FOOTBALL PROGRESSION PATH Helping you create opportunities in football Hey Reader, Everyone tells you to find a mentor. Get in front of someone senior. Build relationships with people who can open doors. That’s not bad advice. But it’s not where the real value is. The relationships that changed my career the most were with people at a similar level as me. Not way above. Not way below. Right alongside. The people who got me here Before I had any kind of role in football, I was sharing work...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
FOOTBALL PROGRESSION PATH Helping you create opportunities in football Hey Reader, I was at the Field of Play conference in Manchester on Friday. Nine speakers. Premier League, Ajax, The Athletic, Hoffenheim, the England Women's team, the Seattle Seahawks. Every single one of them came back to the same point. Not data. Not models. Not tools. Communication. The Head of Football Analytics at Ajax said something that stuck with me. "Complexity should always be available but never enforced." She...
2 months ago • 2 min read
FOOTBALL PROGRESSION PATH Helping you create opportunities in football Hey Reader, A couple of senior roles in recruitment and scouting have come up recently. Multiple clubs, across the top levels of football. Good locations. Interesting projects. Part of me wanted to apply for every single one of them. I didn’t. But I thought about it longer than I should have. This happens to me more often than I’d like to admit. And if you’re someone who wants to work in football, I’d bet it happens to you...
2 months ago • 3 min read
FOOTBALL PROGRESSION PATH Helping you create opportunities in football Hey Reader, I’ve been listening to a lot of the Founders Podcast recently and Episode 413 - How to run down a dream is a must listen. The host studied three people from completely different worlds - a basketball coach, a folk singer, and a restaurateur. On paper, nothing in common. But the same five themes kept appearing in each story. These are the exact same patterns I followed on my own journey into football - and the...
3 months ago • 2 min read
FOOTBALL PROGRESSION PATH Helping you create opportunities in football Hey Reader, I hate to say this. But the odds of you sharing your football work online, posting consistently for two months, then giving up - they're extremely high. It's not your fault. It's just how humans are built. Building your online portfolio comes with delayed rewards, unpredictable outcomes, high effort, fear of judgement, and no clear finish line. No job offers after 50 posts. Your best work gets 10 likes. Each...
3 months ago • 2 min read