IT IS NOT THAT (II)

I spoke in the previous entry of certain tactical aspects of the Barça game. I said I would speak about the Sports Management and certain issues related to it and what it entails.

Part one. Three examples that come quickly to my mind. The first one is the injury Jorquera playing with the Catalan National Team in December 2006. There was no provision on the subject (published in the newspapers, said by the same people at Barça). Speechless. The second example is Chigrinskiy. Beyond that if it was valid or not, the fact is that there was no report or note about him in the Office of the Camp Nou when Barça played against Shakhtar Donetsk. How is it possible that there is no information on Champions League rivals? The third case is Lewandoski. He was playing in Poland yet, when former player José Mari Bakero Club spent reporting on it (Bakero was coaching in the League in that country, I do not remember, but if it was the time of Poland or Lech Poznan), but no one took the disturbing of travelling and/or look a match of this player. The result is that Lewandoski ended where he ended and now he is worth what he is (much more than then).

Part two. At the end of the season, under the umbrella of UEFA, 2,000 games are played. Of these, 300 (rising to 400 or 500 if the new competitions U-16 and U-18 are in place), are with players between 15 and 21 years. The question is: How many of these games are observed by "scouts" of Clubs at the highest level? The answer is very, very few. And except for the U-21, the system is the same: a first phase where they make groups of 4 teams playing their matches in the course of 6 days. A second phase, with the same format, and a final phase similar. We're talking about 40 tournaments of this style every year. There are certainly quite coincidences on time among tournaments, but with a good organization, you could include almost everyone. We're talking about 106 selections (53 for each age group, now with the addition of Gibraltar, 54), which means around 2,000! players (18 per team). Clearly, for the smaller clubs, it is impossible to attend any of these competitions, except if they are played next to your house, but for the big clubs, with millions of Euros in budget, this should not be a big effort, considering that many of them have people all over Europe, or at least people covering specific geographical areas.

If we put together the first part and the second, I say I do not understand many things. There are specialized websites that have data on players, especially for Agents, Clubs and similar (history, matches, contract duration, agent, etc.), costing around 500€/year. And the data are fairly accurate. Clearly, young people have no data, unless they are already playing in the First Division of his country. But when you go to a tournament I've said before, you get all the information (Name, Club, Age, etc.). And these data are given to all scouts who register. I know some cases of players I've seen in these tournaments that moved to another team at the end of the season. And, it is that someone was watching him from the stands.

All this leads me to say that something is not right. But not now. I detect this for many years. It seems that they only go to the Final Stages of these competitions (which, they have almost everyone there) or, they only see players in these tournaments organized by multinationals and similat. And the big clubs should work and move and, more Barca (as it touches me as a member ("soci"), and supporter); it gives the impression that "as we are who we are, they will come to us" and, increasingly, people is moving this way and that way.

Returning to the first part. Is it so hard to see all league matches in Norway, Greece, Brazil, Argentina or South Africa? A good satellite dish, decoder and a good computer/laptop or tablet. With this, you can watch many matches. If you are a big club, you will have more dishes, more computers and more subscription cards to different platforms offering games. And that's the point: to see games and writing about the features of players. On television and in the fields. And they appear. To play in the First, or Second Division. As a future option. As a player that comes from an unexpected injury. As you wish. Because obviously, any 8 year old kid can sign Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc. The trick is to sign a player who is not known by anyone for 4 dollars and sell it for 30 million. There are Clubs experts in this Club: Porto is one of them; Sevilla other.

I read that to sign Ter Stegen there were 12! reports. If European of this, if World Cup of that, if Bundesliga. Travellling up and down that I will never understand. Because when you take a plane and go to the other side of Europe should be very clear why you go: Yes or No. I remember one day those of National Teams matches with12! Barça scouts, but in pairs! Can not they go, where appropriate, to 12 different places? If you send someone, is supposed to have enough criteria and, in any case, there will be a video of the game, to finally conclude. The fact is that among the 12 passengers, no player came to the Club. That can happen, of course. But I do not see it .

I finish. Clearly there are many players in the world and it costs make the wheat from the chaff; but even so, there is something wrong. I do not know whether the criteria the scouts have are different, if the instructions are the same for everyone, if they only look at those who appears in the news or social networks. I do not know. But I am very clear for many years that Barça does not get any of these players with very high quality and very good price, as they do many other European clubs.

By the way, if you know someone who does scout ask him if he earns 400,000€/year. I know you will have asked because I will hear how he laughs from my house. Ah! And they are the same that are talking about "market prices" for reforming the Camp Nou.

I repeat: It is not this, comrades, is not this.

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP

P. S. This is the second part of the trilogy. The third, in a few days, will be the post on Positional Play I promised.