"Bristol City - their recruitment is very, very intelligent"

[Chicken George]

Too much of the analytics in the recruitment process for my liking. Stats are good to review but there’s nothing like watching a player with your own eyes at least 10 times and then decide if you like him. Stats and analytics won’t tell you everything you need to know. 

So I suppose it could be considered as intelligent, but I’d prefer the old method of trusting your eyes, not the stats. 

[Alan Dicks]

48 minutes ago, simon uk said:

Didnt we sign woodrow and diony this season?

And the WBA kid and Kent

[Robbored]

20 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Not heard the full clip, or the context- but I can see where the person who said it is coming from in SOME respects.

• Have we got a squad with a good age range? Yes.
• Are we signing lots of 'proven' yet expensive with no guarantees players? No.
• Can a squad with our age range, grow together and gain cohesion, chemistry if it sticks together? 100% yes!
• Do some players who don't work out have resale- or at least some retention of value, even if not all of it? Yes they do!

Compared to our last 3-4 years in the Championship until the inevitable relegation under McInnes/O'Driscoll, it's a dream our recruitment- so yeah in CERTAIN ways it is intelligent indeed. Not perfect, but then what is?

Excluding loanees- be they in or out, and indeed goalies and academy players- e.g. Bryan, Kelly, Reid- I can say our squad in terms of signings has a good profile even taking them out of the equation.

• 18-24- 6 players (Brownhill,  O'Dowda, Walsh, Eliasson, , Bakinson and Hinds).
• 25-28- 10 players (Flint, Baker, Wright, Smith, Diedhiou, Taylor, Paterson, Pack, Djuric and Magnússon)
• 29-31-  2 players (Hegeler and Pisano)
• 32 and upwards- 1 player- O'Neil

That's a fantastic age profile for a squad, for signings. 100% it is- in some respects, we have recruited superbly. It is often said these days players- outfield players this is- don't peak until late 20's. So, based on that alone we have a relatively inexperienced squad with great capacity for growth and crucially growing and gelling together, as a unit.

Excellent post P. 

Lets hope the critics of the recruitment policy read it. Hopefully it'll help them understand it a bit more.

[Whale Eye Beef Hooked]

21 minutes ago, simon uk said:

And he signed diony and woodrow?

Diony was a 10 million pound player 18 months ago   Could have been a dream signing but as it was a risk we had a try before you buy.  Now that’s clever 

woodrow was a young player in the England setup.  He is young and was worth a loan to see if he flourished or not   You can’t tell at a Young age if they are going to be really good or if they are going to sink in the big boys league.   I thought Danny rose and Harry Kane were both crap whilst on loan at a young age.  Now look at them

Again a no brainer loan deal.  

You take the risk.   ANDY Cole worked. Woodrow didn’t.  Move along

[Maltshoveller]

13 minutes ago, Enter Sandman said:

Too much of the analytics in the recruitment process for my liking. Stats are good to review but there’s nothing like watching a player with your own eyes at least 10 times and then decide if you like him. Stats and analytics won’t tell you everything you need to know. 

So I suppose it could be considered as intelligent, but I’d prefer the old method of trusting your eyes, not the stats. 

Why waste money watching a player at least 10 times

when there are hundreds of "experts" on OTIB who can judge a player in minutes 

 

[Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan]

58 minutes ago, simon uk said:

Didnt we sign woodrow and diony this season?

Ha, I’d totally forgotten about him.

[Curr Avon]

1 hour ago, Robbored said:

The recruitment strategy comes from a very intelligent man - Steve Lansdown and he's employed professional people to implement and develop it.

And to think I read a post on here recently from someone whose name I didn't recognise calling for the club to be taken over so that "we can push for the PL"

Why would we want to push for the Players' Lounge? We're not all trolls.

[BTRFTG]

1 minute ago, Whale Eye Beef Hooked said:

ANDY Cole worked. Woodrow didn’t

Cole was class (as shown by the utter disdain he often displayed his teammates when with us.) Following his initial loan spell he signed in the clear understanding it was to highten his profile (on his terms) and go, he was that good.

Woodrow is rubbish, seriously rubbish.

Comparison is rendered meaningless.

[Xiled]

Woodrow, Diony, Kent and Leko - all loans so none of them long term financial risk.

All players are a gamble so I'd say it was financially astute even though it also means we need to do better with next season's loans if they are to have a positive impact on the squad.

[BCFC11]

1 hour ago, simon uk said:

Didnt we sign woodrow and diony this season?

To be fair Woodrow done very well on loan in a struggling Burton side last season scoring a fair few, as for Diony we were watching him for 2 years, he must have something about him for St Etienne to splash out £9m or whatever it was for him, both are clearly very much confidence players and we don’t seem to have seen or got the best out of either of them, same could be said about Engvall, let them all go at the end of the season, replace them and move on.

[BTRFTG]

1 minute ago, Xiled said:

All players are a gamble so I'd say it was financially astute

That's akin bragging how much one has saved on discount cat food when one doesn't own a cat.

Of the players you list ask how they might have fitted into our system and what they had to offer that players already on our books didn't? I'd suggest two of them would never fit WeeLee's system, the other two were no better than youngsters we could have tried who, had they failed, would have had the same net impact as those recruited. That's not astute in my book. 

[tinman85]

Dearie me. He clearly doesn't know a lot. Funny how Johnson is never linked to any other jobs. 

[TheCulturalBomb]

Diony is last seasons Ekstrand.

[Spoons]

12 minutes ago, TheCulturalBomb said:

Diony is last seasons Ekstrand.

But ten times more expensive!!!

[Dr Balls]

14 minutes ago, TheCulturalBomb said:

Diony is last seasons Ekstrand.

 

1 minute ago, Spoons said:

But ten times more expensive!!!

Unfortunately Diony has played 10 times as much, with even less impact on the game!

[Whale Eye Beef Hooked]

2 minutes ago, Spoons said:

But ten times more expensive!!!

Uhh. Ekstrand was here for a season and prob got a signing on fee. Diony half a season on loan.  So how do you work that one out 

[Spoons]

2 minutes ago, Whale Eye Beef Hooked said:

Uhh. Ekstrand was here for a season and prob got a signing on fee. Diony half a season on loan.  So how do you work that one out 

Because we will be paying his wages which will be massive considering he was bought for £7 million ! I imagine he's on at least £20 k per week which we will be picking up. Also you have to pay a loan fee, at to put the player up in accomodation etc. IMO dionys' loan deal will easy cost more than esktrand 1year deal.

[Xiled]

31 minutes ago, BTRFTG said:

That's akin bragging how much one has saved on discount cat food when one doesn't own a cat.

Of the players you list ask how they might have fitted into our system and what they had to offer that players already on our books didn't? I'd suggest two of them would never fit WeeLee's system, the other two were no better than youngsters we could have tried who, had they failed, would have had the same net impact as those recruited. That's not astute in my book. 

I'm not sure I'm with you on the cat food analogy. My point is that loans are less risky than permanent signings. The fact that we judged those four players as appropriate loans implies to some extent that they were seen as a risk on a 2 or 3 year deal.

I take your point on the suitability of the loans relative to our 'system'. Leko and Kent look like mavericks and I doubt we will see any similar players arrive at the club next season. I think we all accepted that Woodrow was a last ditch squad filler as the August transfer window closed. Diony was a big money player for St Étienne who might have been something special/different. I guess he is in as much as well never know how that £9M fee was agreed. But just imagine the outcry (and pressure to play him) if we had paid £6M for him. The loans have allowed us to gamble a little without the long-term commitment - that's relatively good business.

I've read your other recent posts and using the name 'WeeLee' isn't really necessary. I'm sure it's a bit of fun but it implies bias against Lee Johnson and that undermines your points.

[Whale Eye Beef Hooked]

6 minutes ago, Spoons said:

Because we will be paying his wages which will be massive considering he was bought for £7 million ! I imagine he's on at least £20 k per week which we will be picking up. Also you have to pay a loan fee, at to put the player up in accomodation etc. IMO dionys' loan deal will easy cost more than esktrand 1year deal.

I gather we are paying a percentage of his wage , I’d suggest 10 or 15 k and only for 4 months so probably cost £200,000.  Ekstrand would have been on 12k at a guess over a season so that is approx 600,000 plus as a free transfer he would have got approx 150 k signing on fee so even if we had to pay Diony 20k that would cost £400,000 so sorry you are wrong 

[BS4 on Tour...]

2 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Mervyn was West Ham?

I dunno, was he?

[Unan]

1 hour ago, Maltshoveller said:

Why waste money watching a player at least 10 times

when there are hundreds of "experts" on OTIB who can judge a player in minutes 

 

Shhhh, don't out MA on here he'll Rubbish your post

[Spoons]

6 minutes ago, Whale Eye Beef Hooked said:

I gather we are paying a percentage of his wage , I’d suggest 10 or 15 k and only for 4 months so probably cost £200,000.  Ekstrand would have been on 12k at a guess over a season so that is approx 600,000 plus as a free transfer he would have got approx 150 k signing on fee so even if we had to pay Diony 20k that would cost £400,000 so sorry you are wrong 

What about the loan fee? At least £500k to sign a £7million player for half a season. No chance we are paying a % oh his wages, We will be paying it all.

Also niave to think esktrand would have been on 12k? 

I'm sorry but you are wrong!!

Add to that agents fees!!

 

[BS4 on Tour...]

1 hour ago, Robbored said:

That's why he employed MA - a former professional player and a very experienced COE with years of working in the football industry.

???? Sebastian? Church of England? Council of Europe? Chamber Orchestra of Europe? Corps of Engineers? Cost of Electricity? Crude Oil Equivalent? Council of Elders? Code of Ethics? Chief of Engineers? I give up!

[Chappers]

Personally I think our recent recruitment has been excellent, apart from this seasons loans which have been awful. It's not only what we are seeing in the first team, but the younger players that we are developing out on loan.

[BTRFTG]

31 minutes ago, Xiled said:

'WeeLee' isn't really necessary

Nothing to it as that's what those around me called him as a player (so as to distinguish him from his Dad.) He's small and named Lee, so what's the issue? 

If I wanted to offend him if call him ***********

[Whale Eye Beef Hooked]

We didn’t pay 500k loan fee fact

ekstrsnd was on £15 k per week at Watford and we managed to get Him on for 12kpw with a nice signing on fee

[Lrrr]

1 hour ago, Enter Sandman said:

Too much of the analytics in the recruitment process for my liking. Stats are good to review but there’s nothing like watching a player with your own eyes at least 10 times and then decide if you like him. Stats and analytics won’t tell you everything you need to know. 

So I suppose it could be considered as intelligent, but I’d prefer the old method of trusting your eyes, not the stats. 

Which is why we watch players 10 times once we've decided to look into them further..... The use of statistics is only to filter out the types of players you're not looking for in positions, ie you want a finisher/poacher upfront, not much point in looking at target men so you use KPI's to filter players for a more precise pool of players to scout. 

[BobBobSuperBob]

11 minutes ago, Whale Eye Beef Hooked said:

We didn’t pay 500k loan fee fact

ekstrsnd was on £15 k per week at Watford and we managed to get Him on for 12kpw with a nice signing on fee

Is that the same Ekstrand who was a free agent and struggling to find a Club after failing a medical at Leeds ?

 

 

[Spoons]

15 minutes ago, Whale Eye Beef Hooked said:

We didn’t pay 500k loan fee fact

ekstrsnd was on £15 k per week at Watford and we managed to get Him on for 12kpw with a nice signing on fee

Fact? What did we pay for a loan fee then? You seem to know?

[BobBobSuperBob]

‘ Millwall have the second lowest spend on players of any club in the Championship this season, just £800,000, and currently sit a point outside the play-offs. What a job Neil Harris has done. The same can be said of Chris Wilder at Sheffield United, whose squad cost £5.9million, making it the sixth cheapest.

It is not only Neil Warnock who has worked wonders in that league this season. Preston may be 10th, but they are three points off the play-off places, with a budget for players that would leave them in the relegation zone — just £2.1m.’