Can constraints help?
In my working life up until this point, I've always taken on jobs where my role was to remove constraints. Automate the boring bits of people's work, free up time for the value-adding activities, look for where processes are slow and where investment could increase capacity. All that type of stuff that is painfully boring to read about, let alone do.
Nordsjaelland have embraced a self imposed constraint on promoting youth |
Yet in football, I actually think constraints can be useful.
There are naturally occurring constraints, for example, no club has full data, video, or live scouts positioned at every possible place potential recruits are in action.
Almost all clubs are constrained by money. They operate within a budget, there isn't any point in Grimsby Town enquiring about the availability of Lionel Messi.
But what if the standard approach to scouting and player recruitment isn't as efficient as it could be? What if imposing some constraints led to better outcomes?
Geographical Constraint
What if you only recruited from two markets? Perhaps your domestic market and, for example, France? Rather than having a worldwide network of scouts you got all your best data, video and in-person scouts and became absolute experts in France. You know every player before they make their debut, you have contacts with every agent and chairman in the country. Rather than hastily arranging trips to unfamiliar locations, or expecting one scout to cover a whole country, you instead build up a database, updated after every game of every feasible player. When it comes time to sign a player trust your process and pick from your list. It doesn't matter if there is some interesting player suggested in Spain, your French list is what you work off.
Age Constraint
Promote within constraint
What if you first port of call when a player needed replacing was your own academy? External transfer success rates are surprisingly low. Youth players train with you, know your systems, can practice alongside others for months. Nordsjaelland managed to remain competitive in Denmark, a very physical league, with an average age of 21. They promote and believe in youth which also helps them attract prospects to the club. They know they will get a chance.
Data constraint
What if you REALLY trusted data. Instead of scouting far and wide you simply created a narrow list using data and concentrated your best scouts on really in-depth reports on the identified players. I am of the opinion that data scouting is the best way to initially filter for suitable players. If scouts really are experts in determining how likely a target is to succeed you want them actively assessing players you might want to buy. By combining data to filter and concentrating your best scouts on specific targets you get the best of both worlds.
Partnership constraint
My most radical suggestion is to deliberately constrain yourself to set player pathways. Instead of recruiting into your first team you effectively establish a club network. Effectively if RB Leipzig only recruited from Red Bull Salzburg (and their other feeder clubs) and vice versa. You combine recruitment and technical expertise across the clubs. All players recruited should be of sufficient potential to play in the most competitive league. The network created would allow players to move easily between clubs finding the highest level of football they are currently able to play. For example, Kieran Dowell could have had 100 league games in a partner club playing attractive football between 18-21 rather than reserve football and short terms loans.
Too much choice can lead to resources being spread too thinly and poor decisions being made.
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