Paul Mitchell and recruitment in the future.

[Khilari]

Our scouting network needs some serious investment to widen the net and increase the number of players we watch. Our ability to recruit attacking players has been horrific in recent years.

What on earth happened with N'Jie, God only knows and now Janssen looks like another failure.

We're so lucky that Kane came through and became so good. We'd be screwed if he hadn't.

Huh? We look pretty good at the moment.
I'd say Alli, Lamela, Son, Eriksen and even Sissoko and N'koudou are more than good. It's not really possible for a club to buy regularly and expect them all to work out. Also, some of them are still early on and will clearly take longer to settle.

Losing Mitchell sounds like a big blow to our strategy, but I think we'll be ok.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Huh? We look pretty good at the moment.
I'd say Alli, Lamela, Son, Eriksen and even Sissoko and N'koudou are more than good. It's not really possible for a club to buy regularly and expect them all to work out. Also, some of them are still early on and will clearly take longer to settle.

Losing Mitchell sounds like a big blow to our strategy, but I think we'll be ok.

All of the "big" clubs can attest to this. I'd say we've had a much better success rate with transfers than most teams in recent years, but also a much tighter budget, so we have had to. In the last 1.5 years, Liverpool and Man City must have spent something like £150m between them just on CBs, yet it's still a problem area for them both.

 

[Shadydan]

Personally I think our scouting system outside of England is piss poor. For example we were crying out for a technical AM who could dribble and pass and therefore went for Isco who didn't want to come to us; but we waited until the last day of the window to sign someone with a completely different skill set in Sissoko. You cannot tell me that there weren't players available who had that skill set for £30 mil and instead went for a guy who we've seen play in the PL and realised he wasn't of the required standard to take us to the next level. Our scouting network should be extensive, have reach in foreign countries and have links to various clubs. Instead it seems like whoever does it just sits their watching match of the day.

We were after a pacey wide player, Poch said as much which is why we brought in Sissoko, Isco was always going to be a pipe dream. If there were players available pretty sure we would have made a move for them also after the Bale money debacle it was mentioned that we were looking for more players who have played in England as they have that home grown experience as opposed to players abroad.

 

[Trix]

Huh? We look pretty good at the moment.
I'd say Alli, Lamela, Son, Eriksen and even Sissoko and N'koudou are more than good. It's not really possible for a club to buy regularly and expect them all to work out. Also, some of them are still early on and will clearly take longer to settle.

Losing Mitchell sounds like a big blow to our strategy, but I think we'll be ok.

Nah.

 

[Trix]

True but if you've got a good scouting network in place that is geared towards a certain model of player acquisition (buying less expensive, but less proven/more raw talent) then we should be able to find a few in 5 years.

As mentioned, Janssen might be that guy and in terms of that particular deal it felt like what we should have been doing all along (i.e. buying someone talented but quite raw). It's just weird that it took us so long to actually do that sort of deal, and I suspect it's because Levy thought he could be clever and kept failing to get more unobtainable targets. The hole in our squad in attack has been an ongoing joke (even with us fans) for a long time.

Simple answer was Batshuai.

 

[eddiev14]

Simple answer was Batshuai.

I don't mean 'so long' as in so long after the window opened, I mean so long after we clearly needed a new striker (basically since AVB left).

 

[Trix]

I don't mean 'so long' as in so long after the window opened, I mean so long after we clearly needed a new striker (basically since AVB left).

Wanted Bats last Jan also.

 

[Khilari]

Nah.

Can you elaborate?

He seems to have fit Levy's mould of finding upcoming players with the right attributes suited to Pochettino's style of play and the media report we're "on hold" until we replace him.

 

[Trix]

Can you elaborate?

He seems to have fit Levy's mould of finding upcoming players with the right attributes suited to Pochettino's style of play and the media report we're "on hold" until we replace him.

Like who for instance?

 

[eddiev14]

Wanted Bats last Jan also.

My point is that's still too late.

We should be buying him in summer 2014, when he left Standard Liege for £4.5m.

Pretty sure we had ITK on us being interested in him then, but we never bid and Marseille got him.

 

[millsey]

My point is that's still too late.

We should be buying him in summer 2014, when he left Standard Liege for £4.5m.

Pretty sure we had ITK on us being interested in him then, but we never bid and Marseille got him.

If you had a crystal ball yes

 

[Trix]

My point is that's still too late.

We should be buying him in summer 2014, when he left Standard Liege for £4.5m.

Pretty sure we had ITK on us being interested in him then, but we never bid and Marseille got him.

Mate we are interested in loads of young players. Do you just go out and buy all of them in case the fulfil their potential? or do you wait and see how they develop a year or two later?.

Fact is we can't afford to just buy all of them without having some degree of certainty they might work out, otherwise we'd have squad of hundreds of players.

 

[danielneeds]

Mate we are interested in loads of young players. Question is do you just go out and buy all of them in case the fulfil their potential? or do you wait and see how they develop a year or two later?. Fact is we can't afford to just buy all of them without having some degree of certainty they might work out. other wise we'd have squad of hundreds of players.

Oh, you mean we'd be Chelsea, and their loan Whatsapp group?

 

[eddiev14]

Mate we are interested in loads of young players. Do you just go out and buy all of them in case the fulfil their potential? or do you wait and see how they develop a year or two later?.

Fact is we can't afford to just buy all of them without having some degree of certainty they might work out, otherwise we'd have squad of hundreds of players.

That's not what I am saying though is it?

 

[Trix]

That's not what I am saying though is it?

I don't know what you are trying to say then. For every Batshuai we are linked with early on, there are 5-6 others that at that point are also promising but amount to nothing special in the long run. It's hit and miss at an early age to know for sure which will make it to the top and which ones won't. That is why it's not always wise to just jump straight in, which is what we did in this case.

 

[Khilari]

Like who for instance?

Dunno.

I accept he may not have directly ID'd the following, but he may have had a hand in...

During his time in north London, Mitchell has helped bring in a number of players including Dele Alli, Toby Alderweireld, Heung-Min Son, Vincent Janssen, Kevin Wimmer and Clinton N'Jie.

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...rm-head-of-recruitment-paul-mitchell-to-leave

 

[Trix]

Dunno.

I accept he may not have directly ID'd the following, but he may have had a hand in...

I'm sure he did have a part to play in some of them, just not as much as you might think. Number crunching is useful in the modern game but it's only a top up to good old fashioned using your eyes scouting.

 

[eddiev14]

I don't know what you are trying to say then. For every Batshuai we are linked with early on, there are 5-6 others that at that point are also promising but amount to nothing special in the long run. It's hit and miss at an early age to know for sure which will make it to the top and which ones won't. That is why it's not always wise to just jump straight in, which is what we did in this case.

Yeah, that's fair enough. But sometimes you do actually have to jump in.

Yes, we can argue on one hand that Michy - who had scored 40 in 98 games for Liege - may have never stepped up in the Premier League so it wasn't worth the risk.

But he moved for less than £5m. That's naff all. Even if you add the EPL premium we'd have got him for less than £10m. Everton just signed Lookman, who is far riskier, for £11m.

Instead we waited for the perfect signing, didn't find it and two years later got desperate and bought Janssen for £19m.

I'm not saying we should sign every young prospect that's out there - far from it - I'm not sure how you interpreted that from my post. However if we're spending, say, £5-10m every now and then on a promising young player in a position that - looking ahead - is starting to look a bit thin in the squad (as the centre-forward position was from 2013 onwards), then I think that's just smart. Especially when our academy is not producing players in that position.

It doesn't guarantee the player will fulfil his potential, but remember that you can spend 3-5 times that amount on a 'proven' striker from La Liga who completely tanks. Very few players are a sure thing and Poch appears to be great at moulding the younger players.

 

[Khilari]

I'm sure he did have a part to play in some of them, just not as much as you might think. Number crunching is useful in the modern game but it's only a top up to good old fashioned using your eyes scouting.

Sounds like we have no-one heading things up though

 

[JJetset]

Nah.