Who is head of recruitement.?

Quoted from GrimPol

The Purveyors Data Services, of will take the kudos when your team does well, but its your fault if the team does badly as your not using the data right. Theres a thread running about Snake Oil, it should be attached to the Dat people.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Still trying to decide whether this is a thread about Joe Hutchinson or Yoda TBH, so clearly the latter had to a degree achieved the result he no doubt desired.

I share the same view as some posters in that I assume Joe's role is based upon a brief from the manager to search for players that may be available and fit the brief, research targets both in terms of performance but also personality then presents his findings to PH/DA to see if they tick the box. It would be unrealistic to think he does not have some engagement with agents but to what degree I'm not sure.

If you search the interview the club we site did with Conteh when he joined you get an idea of Joe's value in that he seemed to build a relationship with Conteh (and no doubt his agent) ahead of PH getting too involved, something a manager working in isolation to recruit probably wouldn't have the time to do, but also in the case of Conteh it appeared really helped in making GTFC an attractive proposition.

In addition to the above if Joe has started to build a relationship with a target it really helps in terms of understanding how to engage the individual, the key word being "individual" as he may need a different approach for each player, possibly again something that a manager may not have time to do.

Some posters seem to believe that Joe signs player and gives them to the manager to utilise or that in the summer PH went off and signed his own players and just ignored Joe, both theories are complete nonsense and just suit the narrative of people who want to have a dig as we're not storming the league.

Joe Hutchinson cannot be held accountable for Mullarkey and Andrews seemingly jogging back whilst Waterfall tries to prevent the first Walsall goal on Monday or the various examples of nobody tracking opposition runners from midfield or the numerous defensive errors this term, the accountability for that and more importantly fixing that sits with the Manager/Head Coach who actually signed the players.

I don't know Joe are in reality what he does but I'm sure having someone in that role adds value, especially at a time (Jan window) when the manager and his coaches need to spend as much time on the training pitch as possible fixing the issues that are holding us back.  

Quoted from AncientExiledMariner

And all those factors are relevant, and some can be easier measured, and improved when putting metrics on them. Such as how players behave with different team mates around. Gut feel and impulse is important to know what weighting you put on different factors, but if you have a hunch and you can put data on it, you can remove bias. Ultimately you cannot put gut feel on the average speed of running back for Conteh (just picking a random example here) in the last 15 minutes of the half when winning, drawing or losing. Certain things can come to light that you'd never think of. Some players are very good at conserving energy to stay on the pitch, and you need to know when to get people off, have a word, and be certain people are giving 95-100% and not 80% between 65-80 minute. When you're watching 11 players, you cannot see the average distance of a player away from the player with the ball and see if people's off the ball movement changes based on the result. How about for every player those metrics on an evening or day, or when they've played 2 games in a week or 1, or when you rest them 3 in 4 games or 2 in 4 games. You may feel some go anonymous, but you may have some surprises when the data comes in.

Hell, Arsene Wenger used to get a urine sample to see hydration levels and how people looked after themselves off the pitch. Obviously we're not at that level. I get that you hate data, and don't think it's everything, and I agree, but putting numbers on stuff really gives you a lot more information to confirm your hunches, or realised you're biasing it because of what you see in training or on a match day. Maybe learn new stuff like how even your fastest players can slack off but don't look it, because they're faster than everyone else.

You get a data scientist and plenty of data and they can throw data at the manager they never even considered or prepare metrics the manager requests.

Quoted from GrimPol

[quote=120845]Still trying to decide whether this is a thread about Joe Hutchinson or Yoda TBH, so clearly the latter had to a degree achieved the result he no doubt desired.


Joe Hutchinson cannot be held accountable for Mullarkey and Andrews seemingly jogging back whilst Waterfall tries to prevent the first Walsall goal on Monday or the various examples of nobody tracking opposition runners from midfield or the numerous defensive errors this term, the accountability for that and more importantly fixing that sits with the Manager/Head Coach who actually signed the players.        

Waterfall never got near the Walsall player as he was slow, but yes Mullarkey & Andrews only jogged back. DA can (hopefully)  "motivate" Mullarkey & Andrews and others to step up and react quicker, but Waterfall has serious problems in that he is slow, and if we press up the field he will be passed time and again. I wouldn't be surprised if its his last match, but Rodgers doesn't fill me with any hope as his positioning is terrible.  Not good.

Quoted from Yoda

We keep hearing about a stats guy and two people involved in recruitment if so who are they.?
Did PH have a say on recruitement it was is purely the stats team.
I find it hard to think PH signed so many poor players, if it was purely the head of recruitement doesn’t he have questions to answer.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

It's easy to fire shots at the Head of Recruitment, who was also responsible for fielding the managerial applications, but Hurst had the final say on signings and I'm sure Artell will this month too.

Eastwood, Eisa, Gnahoua, Pyke are all players Hurst had worked with previously. Mullarkey is someone we went after last January when the Head of Recruitment had been here 5 minutes, and Danny Rose is a great player at this level that every manager should want in their team. Charles Vernam had been on the cards for a number of transfer windows dating back to before the Head of Recruitment was here. Vernam on a 3 year deal does seem insane though given his injury record.

Rodgers has a lot of games under his belt at a higher level, so I do think he will come good once he gets some confidence back. Conteh is a promising prospect, and both of these are potentially recommendations from the Head of Recruitment.

Looking from the outside in, I think most of our signings haven't been recommendations of the Head of Recruitment.

Quoted from pen penfras

But a nobody from the office isn't going to make the difference.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I believe every club has a data analyst. It is guaranteed that each one will come to a different conclusion given the same data set, and I can also guarantee that GTFC wont have the best data analyst with all due respect to him. A wrong conclusion can cause havoc.

All clubs are following the cult of "data led decisions" for managers and players alike, but managers are hired and discarded at an alarming rate because it just doesn't work. That is because there are so many moving parts, so many disparities, so many false conclusions drawn and so much data that doesn't transfer from circumstance to circumstance.

It's the same in signing players, led by the data. Different clubs get different results because the circumstances are so different.

Good luck to those who live by it,but it is certainly not a panacea.

Quoted from pen penfras

A player is rarely going to sign because somebody talks to them nicely who they'll have no interaction with once they've signed. There's loads of stories of players only signing because the manager went out of their way to get them, it shows they're wanted. But a nobody from the office isn't going to make the difference.

If the data says this player doesn't try hard to get back or doesn't put as much effort in when the going gets tough, then it is the guy that recommended him's fault.