Filippo Giraldi - Head Of Player Recruitment

Florrie thinks it's strange that a team should play anyone high up the pitch.

 

Tariq Lamptey developing rapidly at Brighton. Free transfer.

Probably already worth £20 million. Ceiling could be anything if he proves to be the real deal.

Brighton’s recruitment has shat all over ours this season, very jealous of the way they’re run.


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He wasn’t a free transfer. £3m-£4m the mooted fee, plus I imagine Chelsea still have an interest or sell on clause.

 

So he was one Marc Navarro then?


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Luther Blissett and John Barnes.

 

Probably nearer one Jerome Sinclair.

 

Yeah but Tony Bloom is a billionaire! That's why they can't buy players like Tariq Lamptey for less than we paid for Pussetto.

Oh he isn't a billionaire? But how can a club progress if they don't have a billionaire owner?

 

It could just be lots of lazy journalists copying one another but he's referred to in many sources as a billionaire. Even if he's not a billionaire, his personal wealth far exceeds Pozzo. He has personally put upwards of £350m into Brighton:

https://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/18082470.tony-blooms-albion-investment-reaches-362m/

 

Don't need them mate. We've all read enough puff piece articles to know we have The Best Scouting Network in the World™. We probably knew about all those players but let Brentford have them as we were too busy hoovering up the likes of Navarro, Zeegelaar and Peñaranda.

 

Red Bull Leipzig are after Brentford's Head of Recruitment:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...Lee-Dykes-replace-departed-Paul-Mitchell.html

 

He also footed the bill for their stadium. In full. Up front. He’s a very wealthy man.

 

The issue is greater than Filippo Giraldi.

This comes down to the hierarchy of strategies followed by the Pozzo family.

They (and I stress the word "they" as this is far broader than Gino) put buying players who will return a profit when resold ahead of hiring the right people to move Watford forward in terms of footballing performance.

Of course the two strategies are far from mutually exclusive. But neither are they mutually inclusive.

Does anyone really believe that Filippo Giraldi's bonus/KPIs etc are based on Watford's footballing performance rather than the profit made on his player transactions.

 

Don't Brentford just use a complex statistical analysis to target who they buy ? Wasn't that why Warburton walked as he wouldn't accept it ? It was ridiculed at first but seems to be working ?

 

Certainly does

 

It's not just the recruitment team, it's the club structure from the top downwards:

- They have a desired way of playing - the manager has to fit this, as does the players they sign

- To sign those players they target (often via data) undervalued young players who have good resale value. Once a bid comes in that they think is fair (or above their valuation) they sell and reinvest in even better young players - generating more profits, the below is phenomenal work for a Championship team



- They value the smaller sides of the game that have a big impact - as far as I know they're the only club in the world with a Head of Set-Pieces. They also have a dedicated ball striking coach and believe have also worked with the Liverpool throw-in coach.

- They're patient, they could gamble it on all on a promotion push but they know that could lead to financial ruin, but with their slow and steady approach they're (and so am I) confident that they will definitely get promoted in the future and that because of their slow and steady approach, when they do get to the PL - they'll be in a good position to stay there.

- Scrapped their academy (which I believe is going to become much more common) after constantly getting talents poached by the big PL clubs, instead have an innovative B team system which gives their reserve players better quality matches than our youth leagues - meaning they're more likely to break into the first team.

It all links together in a wonderful system, a very switched on club and I really hope they go up this season.

 

I get your point but Bloom is a billionaire apparently

 

Wow that chart is brilliant I didn't realise so many of those players came through Brentford.

If they have sell ons then Tarkowski is easily £25 million plus now and John Egan probably £10mill ish too.

 

Not overly convinced. He's obviously rich though.

However, their recruitment hasn't been over the top because of that, has been more focused than ours and appears part of a long term plan to be sustainable.

 

Then why does he oversee training every day and sit behind the dugout for every game?

Solely down to Giraldi? Of course not. But I think the changes that need to happen all involve him finally losing his job.

 

Plus, they saw where things were going stale and repetitive under Hughton and were brave enough to change it. They now have a young coach who plays better football, and they are primed to perhaps make their way up the table in future seasons after establishing themselves.

We haven’t been brave enough to implement such a broad change in outlook.

 

This is where the issues with the system are laid bare.

To buy cheap and sell big, you have to develop those players right? But we have seemingly no interest in doing that. Perhaps it's a shortage of actual skill to do that, so instead, we send out all these players on loan - which means two things.

1 - someone else can have a go at making them better and 2 - makes the supporter base think that player doesn't have the 'mindset' to develop and therefore the fanbase don't question anything.

Point 2 has been an overriding success, as fans spend time calling any fringe younger player '****' whilst cupping their hands at the altar of the owner and point 1 hardly ever works out and on the odd occasion that it does, the player doesn't want to come back as he's been considered not good enough in the first place and the fans applaud saying 'haha Gino saw them coming LOL'.

Comical really. I expect the man in charge of all this, the Technical Director, will cash in on at least two reasonably priced assets this summer and take credit for a job well done.

For a club and supporter base that used to pride itself on the opportunities given to their youth products to not be bothered about not one single youth player making the grade, or even getting an extended opportunity in 8 years goes to show where the priorities are for both now.

 

It obviously failed but what was the recruitment of Marco Silva about if not an attempt at the same thing? Young coach, highly rated, played good football etc.

 

Do you think that was a thought out appointment and they’d done loads of homework on him? Or do you think his stint at Hull brought him more to their attention?

Regardless of the answer, whilst Silva may have been some of the things you list, he also already had a track record of moving jobs year after year. So hiring him was not much of a change in direction for us really. Duxbury was still bleating on then about a coach only being good for a year or two in our ‘model’.

Brighton have given Potter a multi-year deal that gives the impression they are invested in his changes. We didn’t do that.

We gave a long term deal to Garcia and sacked him 6 months later, rightly or wrongly. As a club, we don’t have a clear identity or real blueprint of where we are going from what I can see.

 

Sad but true.

So sad but so true.

Look at the contrast with the big clubs whom people still lazily quote as ruining English football with their foreign purchases without seeing the real picture. Liverpool, United, Chelsea, Spurs and even Man City all have youth players progressing bringing massive success for those clubs investing heavily in their academies and local networks. And I mean success in footballing terms let alone the future financial aspect.

 

That said, those big clubs have massively impacted other clubs by coming in and hoovering up all their top players, by offering big contracts and then paying paltry amounts of compensation. See Jadon Sancho as a prime example.

The odds of developing a future star are greatly reduced when big clubs "swoop" for them. "Swoop" being a term used by the media to excuse a system heavily weighted in big clubs' favour.

 

I fully agree both that it's a bit shameful just how poor we've been giving opportunities to youth/young/academy players, and that the reason top clubs can do it is because they attract the largest numbers in the first place, and can poach anyone with talent they didn't manage to hoover up to begin with for very little money thanks to EPPP, so credit itsn't really overly due in their cases.

 

Has anyone actually thought, whilst complaining that the big boys come along and ‘steal’ smaller clubs youngsters, that our answer to it has been to go overseas and do it to foreign clubs in South America and other places?

Bit boy who cried wolf really.

 

What are Giraldi’s qualifications? Has he ever played the game? I’m not saying people who haven’t played can’t do this role at a club, I’m sure they’re some success stories of guys doing well for them self’s but surely an ex pro with coaching badges would be better suited for this role.


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I suspect we might see the transfer window overlapping with the start of the season for much longer than we are used to.

 

Liverpool trying to pay as little as possible for Harvey White is the latest example of a big club trying to pay as little as possible for a smaller clubs talent.

It looks like Fulham and Liverpool will now go to a tribunal with their respective valuations miles apart.

Fulham want £7m, Liverpool are offering £750,000 for a 17-year old who was bought as an academy player but has actually been in the first team squad for most of the season (including 8 appearances) and has now been offered a professional contract.

I mean, £7m seems low to me but to offer a measly £750,000 is just taking the piss.

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