the main goal of recruitment should be to buy most all of the players you need when they are young, pay less for them, develop them into top pros, and have them slide right into the first team. we've done that with a bunch of academy players, and then guys like martinelli. the reality of the business is that most prospects don't pan out, so you need people at the club who can evaluate talent, and determine which players are probably not going to reach the level we require, and sell those players while they have value to another team. every team has a better idea of their own players than outside clubs do. outside clubs are not at training every day watching young players train.
the other group of players, guys who are already 25-27 when they sign, you know its unlikely you'll be getting a huge fee for them, unless you plucked them off the scrap heap and turned them into a completely different player by changing their role or something fundamental about their game.
getting rid of the scouts was a huge blunder, imo. statistics and analytics are very important, but the eye test still matters in sports, and its vital in scouting. we might be capped in what we can afford in wages, and we have to follow financial fair play rules, but last i checked, there is no rule on how many scouts you can employ. how much does a top tier football scout with a lot of experience make in a calendar year? £100,000? less? when you consider paying £70m for pepe, and figure out what kind of scouting network you can build with that money, and how many players you can sign before they blow up and cost £70m, i think its a huge miscalculation.
