The recruitment team have been very successful in recent years. But as Hecky has said - it's becoming more difficult to unearth those diamonds. IMO the new CEO appointment indicates that the directors have widened the recruitment net to include Europe. So expect more foreign players at the club. That is of course if the present recruitment team success can be duplicated on the continent. There should be a large number of European players eager to break into potentially high wage English football. So let's hope the directors structure new contracts (this time) to reflect this.
I think your right but we wont be the only club adopting this strategy, so it will be just as tough to unearth a good player at the right price.
Looking overseas could be a more cost effective strategy for what we're trying to do. We've only gone down that avenue maybe a couple of times before with varying results, arguably more negative than positive. I do trust our recruitment strategy more than I did under Simon Davey for example though. If you look at the calibre of player we're linked with from overseas though, it's certainly more encouraging (for want of a better word) than some of the names we're linked with in this country. As an example, the striker we were allegedly linked with last week scored 10 goals in the French premier league last season; some of the English based strikers we're often linked with haven't played 10 games in the English leagues let alone scored 10 professional goals in a season. We'll just have to see, we could all be wide of the mark in essence and the club may already have its targets mapped out and the CEO could just be tasked with ensuring the deals get over the line. There's something exciting about an overseas player though. You never know whether we're signing the next Miguel Mosstto, or Ryad Mahrez. Sent from my WAS-LX1A using Tapatalk
I don't think it will be necessarily a change of strategy, rather widening where we look for players to fit into the same strategy
Quite a number of Clubs now have extensive scouting networks throughout Europe and Asia. Arsenal have a global network and a number of ex-players reside in different parts of the World to specifically track talent to recommend to Arsene Wenger e.g. Grimandi , Karbassinyon. Tony Woodcock (ex-Forest and Arsenal) was resident in Germany and Michael Robinson ( ex-Liverpool) now a naturalised Spanish citizen have been known to recommend the odd player to Clubs I recall. Wasn't our own Clint Marcelle recommended to Danny Wilson by Sir Bobby Robson no less.? Looking at the Racing Club Lens roster as well as home grown players they have squad members from Ghana, Egypt, South Africa and Senegal. One player Olsen who is Danish is on loan from Grasshoppers which points to the fact that in all probability as well as having a good working knowledge of the French Leagues and players who may fit our profile our new CEO may well have contacts within mainland Europe, Asia and Africa. Very interesting and hopefully very exciting times lie ahead.? Let's hope so.
The big problem with overseas players is that in 21 months they could suddenly be unable to work in the UK. Imagine the uproar on here if we discover a foreign striker who hits 25 that season but we have to sell him for peanuts as he can no longer work here...
Huddersfield Town are a club we can take great inspiration from. For example, Michael Hefele was plucked from a German side that just got promoted from the 3rd tier.
Don't non-EU players need to have international experience for a work permit. Or at least its a higher bar than for it currently is.