The recruitment process according to GG

It still goes on, we have a very good scouting network, and there is a board at Oakwell which has every position on it, and for each position there are 3 or 4 names of players which are being looked at, maybe as first team targets, maybe as future academy players, maybe as squad cover. This activity is continuous and all are assessed and monitored. We haven't done badly in the last couple of years in terms of quality recruitment for minimal outlay!

 

People are very quick to criticise our recruitment policy, but if you look at the results since PC announced it, we have actually done quite well both financially and from a footballing perspective.
I know people will be quick to laugh and point to our relegation, but over all, a promotion, two Wembley trips, some excellent football all outweigh one season. I’m hopeful that one season was a result of a transition period between the owners, added to that PC couldn't/wouldn’t(?) fund recruitment for the Championship or improved contracts to keep the team together and one bad decision in appointing Morais.

 

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It’s been an absolute failure from a footballing perspective. We are back where we started with a team that isn’t a patch on the last one that got promoted. I favour the recruitment policy but let’s be straight here.

 

They invented computers!!
The idea was computers would remove the need for humans to process data and save huge amounts of time. What actually happened is that because they are so much they increased exponentially the amount of data to be input and analysed so the time taken(and cost) to complete tasks actually increased.
It happens in all areas of commerce and industry. Instead of computers serving us we now serve the computers. The best examples of this phenomenon is in the Government sector. They are only interested in collecting data. The more the better since, if you collect enough, you can extrapolate whatever set of data you need to 'prove' statistically any argument you are trying to put across. That means,the more data you can provide the more they want (one of the reasons that IT projects for Governments often run over time and budget).
The conversation at 'requirements capture' stage meetings often went along the lines of--- (supplier) "We can provide 'w', to which they would say ..".OK... but 'x would be useful and what about y ? " The next meeting would result in' requirements creep'. "We've been thinking, we NEED z as well can you provide that?. Half the collected data would end up being collected by the system and never used. We once calculated on one particular project that it would have taken several hundred analysts at least a year to fully collate and analyse the reports requested that the system was creating EACH WEEK!
I suppose it is the same as when Nuclear power was first proposed... the famous argument that electricity would be produced so cheaply that it would hardly be worth billing the consumers! We all know how that turned out

 

Cheers Gally. Sounds like a very thorough process which I'm sure will mean we sign some decent players.

A list of some of my favourite players while watching Barnsley:
Ronnie Glavin
Paul Futcher
Neil Redfearn
John Hendrie
Ashley Ward
Craig Hignett

I wonder how many of those this process would have identified and been put before the manager.

 

So this team isn’t better than the Shea, Ramage, Woods dross that took us down?

 

Please do.

 

That's all well and good, but our computers might identify Wayne Kerr playing at Gateshead as having the best stats in the league, doesn't mean he's going to be good enough to make the step up to league football does it? Watching clips on the computer is also all well and good, but i believe professional scouts get a better idea when watching in person. Now i don't think any of our scouts actually have any experience of playing football at a decent level, they are more into the data analysis side of things by all accounts.

 

I’d imagine scouts would be involved at some stage before signing .

 

But the last team was built from the spreadsheet so how can that be deemed a failure? It found players that formed a good team and raised revenue too. Like I said, it only ‘failed’ because of the lack of recruitment when we got promoted, that wasn’t the spreadsheet but the management failed to either continue its recruitment or improve players contracts or both

 

I think it failed because we brought in large numbers of players who weren't good enough for the Championship. Yes some of them will develop and become good enough but at the time they weren't up to it. We had a good league one side so it was hardly surprising that we ended up in league one.

 

I think some folk get over excited over this spreadsheet and data thing. Stats will have been used to identify players for decades. The only difference is that 30 years ago the stats were pretty limited (age, size, goals scored, clean sheets, assists, etc).

People now collect data on all sorts of other metrices including speed (short and long distance), miles ran, passion accuracy, chances created, key interceptions, etc and many more beyond that. It, therefore, makes perfect sense that a statsical spreadsheet is used to filter out players you do or don’t want to fit the way you play.

Once players/realistic targets are found then these players will almost certainly be watched by scouts, coaches and managers which is exactly how it’s always been done. It’s just that now it can be more focussed.

For me, the recruitment process has been a success over the last few years. It still needs refining but hopefully the more investment it gets the better it will become.

 

Well it got us relegated so at Championship level last seasons team was just as bad. As for this seasons it’s not as good as the Hourihane one.

 

In the championship we built a good L1 side the challenge that we tried and failed is building a good championship team using the same methods. Taking the next step forward. It’ll be interesting to see if we can move it forward when we go up. I can’t say I’m confident but at the same time think it’s our only option.

 

At this stage of the season, it's far better than the 2015/16 one.
Remember, we had some posters claiming in January 2016 that team was the worst Barnsley team they'd ever seen.

 

Its all plastic toggles now days

 

Stats say it is better than the heckingbottom

 

How do you work that out then? Every stat on the league table shows we’re a better side.

 

Thanks for that Gally.We can now put to bed that GG targets picks and signs our players.In fairness it was silly of people to even think that.The recruitment team was formed at P.Hecky's request to take the work load off him.