One-to-one with Daniel Levy
One-to-one with Daniel Levy
Yesterday I talked music and language.
Previously I talked about listening properly, which of course includes what you read.
You have tried to get through to the anti crowd, right, and failed because they aren't listening.
This turns you off because they are speaking German, while you're speaking English.
They are aggressive, shouting, loud, incorrectly thinking people will take notice.
They see everything through eyes that are blind to the realities of building a football club.
When you start to become aware of something, you notice it more frequently.
If you buy a new car, you suddenly start seeing the same car on the street.
I have a Jaguar so I notice Jaguars on the road.
My next door neighbour has a Mini and you see stacks of these.
Our faces, our hand gestures speak volumes.
If you imagine a big X right in the middle of someone's face, sat central on their nose, you'll see the most important facial expressions.
There are tell tale signs at the corners of the mouth and the outer side of the eyes.
Facial microexpressions happen as a reaction to something, so it is essential to hold a conversation with any potential signing and not do everything with an agent.
An agent is giving their view on behalf of a client, you need to be speaking to the client themselves.
How are you going to know you have a Tanguy Ndombele if you haven't read the player themselves?
Yes I know we will have talked to him and he will have given the right answers, but, is the person listening, actually listening and are they qualified to do so, do they know body language?
Great managers pay attention to detail, Sir Clive Woodward won the Rugby World Cup with England because he paid attention to every single little detail, no just playing but, transport, washing the kit, every little thing.
When are Spurs going to do the same, off the field?
For Tottenham, nothing should ever be enough, we should always be pushing boundaries, not sticking to tradition and doing it one way because that is always how it has been done.
I know body language is left field to most of you, but if it prevents signing expensive players who don't have the right character, then it is worth the effort.
Every player should be striving to improve their performance even when it looks the hardest thing to do.
Why wait until one happens to fall into your lap, why not find them through evaluation and bring them on board.
Monchi is one of the most successful sporting directors in the world and he, at
Sevilla has instigated a research and development department with all sorts of trade people having an input, like mathematicians, engineers, physicists, statisticians and analysts.
He doesn't want to leave a stone unturned in the recruitment process, not having the budget other clubs have.
His 5 elements to recruitment are:
- Having a good scouting network allows you to have comprehensive control of the market.
- Establishing a clear profile of the player in partnership with the coach.
- Consider how the new arrival will adapt to the team and, if arriving from abroad, to the new league and a new country.
- Understand the person.
- Try to work out what concerns may arise, what the player needs and what problems could come up, which may prevent them fulfilling their potential.
- Explain to the player what to expect, club philosophy, what the media are like, the city, rivalries, the fans, paint a picture for them.
The first two are very much computer based initially, statistically based, video based before moving on to actually watching with a pair of eyes.
Spurs want a centre-back who can play long passes for instance, so we'll decide what percentage success rate, say 68%, and we'll create a list of people who hit that criteria and ignore the rest.
The more variables you add, the more you can tighter that list.
At a recent conference Monchi said that there are over 8 million pieces of data generated every football game, 8 million.
There is no way a team can work through that, especially given how many games there are, so having an algorithm to discover what you are looking for is essential.
Ten Premier League games a weekend means 80 million pieces of data, just for one league of 20 teams.
Monchi has his way of doing things, Paratici has his way of doing things, but it is number 3 and particularly 4 that concerns me, that is where I think we fall down in our recruitment process and where we should be concentrating not more of our effort, but additional effort.
Anybody can give the right answers to a question, an interviewer talks to potential employees and makes a decision, which often turns out to be less than what they were expecting.
Well shouldn't that process be more thorough to try and eliminate that aspect. For some top companies it is, there is a professional personality assessment.
That should be a pre-requisite for player acquisition at Tottenham, we are spending millions or tens of millions on these people after all, plus huge wages.
Guesswork, when there is professional assessment available is 2nd division as far as I'm concerned.
It is no surprise we buy so many players who don't perform, clearly something is wrong in the process, not necessarily in the people conducting the process.
Those making the decisions must be as informed as possible so non-verbal communication has to be a part of that.
It should also be a part of the communication process with agents so you can hear what they are not saying.
There are a stack of fans who say give the coach what he wants, but that isn't how football works today.
A coach provides details of the 'type' of player he wants, it's up to the scouting department to find the player and the Football Director to decide who to buy that fits the required style.
Here is how Monchi, someone actually involved in the process puts it.
“There are two pillars to the way the Sevilla FC sporting department works: the scouting and the coordination with the coach.“The coach doesn’t decide the name of the player we’ll sign.
“The coach decides the profile of player.“Then, with the work of the scouts, we offer different possibilities.”
To hear Monchi talk about his clubs scouting would be an eye opener to the average fan in the street.
A scouting year is split into two, July to December and January to May.
Set scouts follow set leagues during the first part (July to December) creating a wide overview and undertaking a data gathering exercise.
Then, in part 2, (January to May) a closer study of identified players, around 15 per position, takes place.
There are detailed discussions with the coach at the end of the season where the coach is shown 6 or 7 players that could meet their needs.
You'll note everything is geared to the Summer Transfer Window, not the Winter Transfer Window, again, something many don't seem to understand.
We have a coach who has only been here a few months, yet journalists, who don't know how football clubs are run or how scouting works, think the club should have done a years work in a couple of months.
Tottenham are having to rush things this window, not over buy without having put in the hard yards of data analysis and scouting.
It takes the most successful sporting director a year, our fans expect an entire recruitment process in 2 months!
Using data, in the way it is used today, is in its infancy, it has only been around for 21 years and there is a long way to go with it, if you have the vision to see the possibilities.
I have no doubt I could improve our recruitment process as well as making us the richest club in the world.
Quite frankly it isn't difficult if you think big enough and more importantly, in the right areas.
There is a massive hole in marketing and a huge opportunity for someone, that someone in my view should be Spurs, but revealing it would probably mean it wouldn't be Spurs.
I know this can be done, not think, know. I have that vision, that conviction, it stems from thinking far beyond the everyday fan, the mass thinking.
I ought to have a one-to-ne meeting with Daniel Levy and discuss the way forward in more detail.
Tottenham Transfer Talk
Spurs have spoken to Angers about the possibility of signing 18-year old (19 next January) striker Mohamed-Ali Cho.His value is suggested at £16.7m but that seems a little high to me given what he has achieved so far.
Cho qualifies as homegrown although a French Moroccan as he was at Everton between 2015 and 2020.
He also represented England at Under 16 level before switching his allegiance to France Under 21's.
Several clubs in Spain are looking at taking Giovanni Lo Celso on loan while Spurs and PSG will discuss Tanguy Ndombele further.
Dele Alli is expected to join Newcastle before the window closes, with no rush given an international break is coming up.
A loan or loans will be agreed behind the scenes, there are suggestions Dele has already said his goodbye's to staff at Spurs, that coincide with behind the scenes agreements for incoming players.
When both are done, any official bids will then be made and matters completed swiftly.
It is a proven fact that most transfers happen in the final week of a window, two weeks in the summer window, that loans take place at the end of a window and that top clubs don't buy players in January generally, none have this window again.
Managers tell you players aren't available in January but fans still don't seem able to grasp that, I wonder why!
Enjoy the real world folks.
COYS
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COYS
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3 comments
Here's the challenge - to stay positive about all things Spurs (even some of the less salubrious of the fans).
By the way, good luck getting a meeting with Daniel Levy. I'd be very interested in the outcome of that. I've followed your comments for a long time now and I believe you have a lot of very workable & positive ideas. I'd back you.
COYS!!