The Friedkin Group to buy data company to help with player recruitment

Chris Howarth, who owns his data analytics company Insight Sport, is a strong contender for the head of strategy role. Owners The Friedkin Group are interested in securing bespoke metrics designed to give Everton a competitive edge.

Is that the data company we're talking about here?

No, I don't remember that… although it might explain some of the random signings we made.

Shandy, Krøldrup, Bilyaletdinov...

I found this link about the deal with Sports Interactive:

Everton signs Football Manager database

Get out there and scout. Watch players and judge them on what you see.

Hard work is analysis's poor relation.

Hopefully a sign of professionalised approach to youth and low cost market recruitment. Which doesn't need to be particularly exotic – and can be players like O'Brien and Ferguson from RoI and Conor Bradley from Northern Ireland.

Do we not want some of that kind of action? Brighton also, £100M sale of Caciedo anyone? Great move.

I don't think it's new and to my personal view, you can only tell a player when you see them.

But, I understand how technology can help and narrow down the search to realistic targets.

While there are decent buys to be had, the football world is full of dreadful buys that clubs want to get rid of who are not only poor footballers but grossly overpaid too. I would sooner Everton bought nobody than waste some of the money that we have seen wasted by clubs over the years.

Benitez's database of 300 players? By his performance, he must have found it in a lucky bag.

The Role of Data in Player Recruitment and Scouting

The key areas are:

1. Identifying Talent in Undervalued Markets

2. Assessing Suitability for Team Philosophy

3. Reducing Financial Risk in Transfers

4. Age Profiling and Career Trajectory

5. Enhancing Negotiations with Agents and Clubs

It is no coincidence that clubs that over-perform the level of investment in the squad are using this. I know Brighton and Brentford etc all get the usual mention – but it's Liverpool who have been using this to greatest effect since Klopp was persuaded to use it for the post-Rodgers rebuild.

It was instrumental in bringing Matip, Robertson, Salah and Mane to the club – and in shifting Firminho from winger / attacking midfield to a false 9 / striker position.

Human beings obviously retain a role – but it just makes decision making more informed and better (as it does in pretty much all walks of life now).

Salah was known about. They missed a trick with Salah and likewise with De Bruyne. Arguably Lukaku could fit that bill.

I'm all for its use and work in an environment of metrics and data driven decision making.

But for me, football still has to be down to watching players. Before you know it, scouts get lazy, scouring the internet, watching YouTube and compiling spreadsheets, not out seeing a player with their own eyes.

We all see football and footballers differently. Many on here really like Garner whilst I think he is a poor player.

Yes, we do see players differently, as we do managers. It's all subjective. I think Garner has played well recently since coming back from injury and is still young, so can develop.

World beater? No, but doesn't get the credit I think he has warranted. Again, just an opinion from how I see it.

I can't quite get my head around the faith in the old ways of doing things, when the new approach has made it ridiculously easy for the likes of Brentford and Brighton to overtake us –and for the RS to eclipse us.

But if this is available to all clubs, doesn't it also cause more competition for players, which in turn raises prices, supply and demand – or the early bird, soon to be used by the sellers?

1. if it is widespread and you don't use it, then you give yourself a disadvantage.

2. it is intended to better identify players who will fit into a clubs specific tactical framework. For example, the most suitable candidates to be our new (long overdue) RB will be different to those needed by other clubs.

In our case it could help compare / contrast players like Wesley (Flamengo), Walker-Peters (Saints) and Sanchez (Sevilla). All of them in different leagues, playing at different standards in different tactical frameworks. Scouts can watch in real life, of course, but it's hard for them to process an entire career's worth of data when forming a view.

More broadly, there seems to be a lot of scepticism about any forms of innovation on here (even when the innovation has already become old hat). I think a lot of fans can't conceive of us being good again, unless we do it the way we did it nearly 40 years ago. That simply won't happen again. Football has moved on beyond all recognition in the last 40 years. Standing still will see us relegated sooner or later.

To actually go and watch players stresses the importance of having an expansive scouting network. And increasingly now, a global one.

Once certain types of players are identified or there is a tip-off, then scouts will be instructed to go and watch, assess and report back their findings.

It's a process that has likely been followed for a long time. The technology now just puts it, quite literally, at the fingertips.

Speaking from non-football experience, too much data can be equally as problematic as it becomes very difficult to sift through it for it to be turned into useable intelligence.

I'd also have thought that once you had recognized those players from this system that you might at least seek the opinion of a contact in the relevant area but it is not a system that you would use for Academy level players, 4 and 5 year olds not withstanding.

Having worked within a couple of properly developed bespoke systems and a load of what is simply senior people's interpretation of the job, I can say, if it's done right, it will make a real difference.

I have been disappointed time and time again by people who simply don't understand how limited the metrics they try to use actually are.

It can be a great boon so let's hope we get the right system and the right administrators.

Is there also a list of the players who have flopped when using this method or is it infallible?

Take Brighton for example. Gyökeres flopped there and was allowed to leave for Coventry on a nominal fee.

Brighton have also spent £230M just this past season without noticeably improving performances (and Hurzeler is lucky not to have been sacked for this).

I think there's a couple more key points though if you dig deeper.

1. It tends to reduce losses in the transfer market by signing from low cost markets (or unproven youth). You can often offload these sorts of flops for more than you bought them for.

2. It seems less successful with higher value signings. It's really good at lower value, less well-known players. But it's not really helped Brighton take it up a notch from where they were signing sub £20M players. They are now just buying the same or similar standard at higher cost. In fairness, though, some might need a bit more time.

For us at the start of a big rebuild with a modest kitty, we're about 2 or 3 (or more) seasons away from this being a problem.

So the data driven approach taking unproven players from low cost markets etc seems our best chance of assembling a decent squad quickly (without being saddled with high wage unshiftable crap).

Brentford then sub-let it I think, or got in a guy that had something to do with it. I'll see if I can dig out the link I read.

(The Athletic, so possible paywall, search around for a code and you can get it for about a tenner a year, good value.)

About as subtle as one as Jerome's posts.

The Brighton owner / Chairman made his money in betting and gambling.

Russian oil or gambling? It depends where your morals sit.

Watching the BBC this morning, he is about to invest £10M to acquire about 25% of shares in Hearts and intends to "disrupt Scottish football".

Leeds are interested in Beto.

'Leeds believe Beto's physicality, aerial strength, and hold-up play could thrive under Farke's high-tempo, pressing style'

Have they actually watched him? He couldn't hold up a pair of pants with a belt and braces.

Databases and YouTube aside, until you actually watch a player, you won't get a real understanding of what they are like and add to the way you want to play.

Maybe, I'm turning into a dinosaur, but I judge on what I see with my own eyes.

"Sometimes you do wonder what goes on in football recruitment."

Perhaps, only if you believe the clickbait shite.

Where did I suggest that you believe in clickbait

Fecking hell...some fellow fans can't wait to pounce!

Enjoy the movie mate!

Look at Red Bull. New York Red Bulls, RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg.

They are also associated with Everton as a sponsorship partner.

7 goals in 1260 minutes.

A good back up, or sell him based on that?

It's the atypical 'nuisance' value and 'if he doesn't know what he's going to do, how do the defenders'. He's much more effective than Broja who is about as dangerous as a butter knife.

I don't think there's many players I've wanted to succeed as much as I would like him to. He gives his all and gets the club by the looks at it. His lack of an all round game, means we will unfortunately have to look elsewhere.