What's new

Comolli: Tottenham’s scouting network is a joke around the world

KaribYid

Well-Known Member
Jul 2, 2012
1,308
7,830
Tottenham Hotspur’s scouting network is a joke, according to former sporting director Damien Comolli.

Spurs are sitting 12th in the Premier League after 11 games and their transfer business is under heavy scrutiny, with the majority of their signings over the last two years struggling to adapt to the demands of the Premier League.

Expensive buys like Roberto Soldado, Paulinho, Vlad Chiriches and Federico Fazio have failed to live up to their price tags, while £10million left-back Ben Davies is being kept out of the team by Danny Rose.

Their technical director Franco Baldini is currently in charge of their affairs in this area but Comolli has brutally laid bare the club’s failings by revealing their understaffed recruitment team is a laughing stock amongst the world’s biggest clubs.

He told the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast: “If the board or the chairman feel the club is not functioning properly it’s up to them to sit down and review the situation.

“From the outside, what I can tell you is that among the top 20 clubs in the world, in terms of wealth, Spurs are the only ones who haven’t got a scouting network.

“They are clearly understaffed in this aspect. It has become a kind of joke in the scouting community. They say, ‘have you seen a Spurs scout?’ You don’t see them. I don’t think they’ve got any.

“[When I was at Tottenham] we had 12 full-time scouts. We had a great scouting staff. The scout we had in Italy at the time is now the sporting director at Sampdoria after being sporting director at Monaco. The one we had in Spain is now head of recruitment for a big club in Spain. The one we had in Argentina is now head of recruitment for a club in Italy, so we had a strong scouting network which allowed us to sign all those players. Now it doesn’t seem to be the case."

And there problems don't end there, according to Comolli: “They have this fantastic [training] facility that Daniel Levy and I fought very hard to build but they need some brain power in there.

“If you look at the top clubs in the Premier League, all of them have got five fitness coaches and five physiotherapists just for the first-team but I don’t think Spurs have got anywhere near that at the moment.

“There is a lot to be done to address this situation.”
 

SlunkSoma

Like dogs bright
Oct 5, 2004
3,941
3,490
Ouch, that's pretty sobering to read. But not surprising, especially regarding the training ground. Typical cut-price approach, building it, then not properly staffing it. You can use the same blueprint for most of the managers during Levys reign.
 

Kendall

Well-Known Member
Feb 8, 2007
38,502
11,933
I stuggle to disagree with or go against the man that brought us our best 3 players (bar King) in my lifetime of supporting Spurs.
 

VoteMe4Prez

Well-Known Member
Oct 6, 2013
2,690
6,752
So what is our current scouting system? Do we any scouts or do we just look at who Liverpool are after and go for them?
 

MyNameIsNicolaBerti

Well-Known Member
Jan 28, 2013
2,035
3,834
I stuggle to disagree with or go against the man that brought us our best 3 players (bar King) in my lifetime of supporting Spurs.
More importantly he's highlighting that the scouting network that existed when those players came in is no longer functioning. Imagine if we still had decent scouts. Who could we have gotten for £100m? We genuinely could've been competing right now.
 

JohannTHFC

Active Member
Aug 2, 2014
795
1,293
He's probably right. Dude is a **** but I'm not going to defend our board who have been absolutely disgraceful the past few transfer windows. Top 20 richest clubs in the world yet Swansea and Everton are outspending us.
 

tiger666

Large Member
Jan 4, 2005
27,978
82,214
“From the outside, what I can tell you is that among the top 20 clubs in the world, in terms of wealth, Spurs are the only ones who haven’t got a scouting network.

Yeah but we use Football Manager and save thousands in the process. Jokes on you bitch.
 

Kendall

Well-Known Member
Feb 8, 2007
38,502
11,933
More importantly he's highlighting that the scouting network that existed when those players came in is no longer functioning. Imagine if we still had decent scouts. Who could we have gotten for £100m? We genuinely could've been competing right now.

Where did they go and why were they replaced? Was this a Redknapp thing where he basically wanted Bloomfield and that's it? Why was the network disolved? These are the types of questions Levy needs to front up to. He can't keep blaming other people if he oversaw the dismantling of the system that brought us such quality.
 

Mustard

Well-Known Member
Nov 14, 2012
10,781
20,141
Fuck off Damien.


I agree but you have to accept that just having baldini who, whilst having many contacts, May just be a little off the pace of who is hot having come from the most shambolic England set up ever. I mean he and Capello knew lirlterally nothing of even England's under 21s.

Again. The finger points to levy.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,348
87,809
Why? Truth hurts?
No because he's a self serving ****, who undermined Jol, was instrumental in hiring Ramos, and signed such gems as Bentley, Bent, Dos Santos, Pavluchenko, Gilberto etc etc... and then claims to have discovered Bale when he was already pulling up trees at Southampton. And then goes and blows the best part of £100m on shite at Liverpool. And then he has the temerity to come have another pop at us when he's just as shit?

That's why he can fuck off.
 
D

Deleted member 26368

Twatting off in the press again. Must have a book/album/movie coming out. Not worked in fulltime football since wasting £35m on Carroll and £20m on Downing. Says it all.

And before anyone responds - yes he did sign Bale and Modric. They weren't exactly unheard of though, were they? Unlike Kevin Prince Boateng. Ahem.
 

guy

SC Supporter
May 31, 2007
4,507
6,182
What did the amazing scouts Damien had in Spain, Italy and Argentina ever turn up for us?

Thats what I was thinking, we only ever bought players from england or france (plus modric from zagreb) didnt we?
 
Top