Nick Barnes reckon we have no scouts



I knew a bloke who worked for Middlesbrough Council but was a scout for Neil Warnock - scouted for him no matter what club he was at.
He once called me before a game and asked if I wanted to go with him, met him outside the main stand and we just walked in and he knew everyone. It was weird seeing how he worked - for example he had a very specific task, he just had one player to watch and marked down everything he did.
He was paid buttons - just enough to cover his fuel iirc.

Assuming this was in the 90s or something?
 
Then we are surprised when we buy absolute shite and coton is going speed dating with agents.

Ross will have leaked this to journos, self preservation. Questions should be asked of the owners though surely

The owners are full of blarney imo. Wouldn’t believe a word they say now.
 
I dunno why but I thought this was fairly common knowledge, certainly for the last few weeks.

Not saying it’s acceptable but I thought it was known we were just using freelance scouts.
 
Those scouts tout their recommendations to the club whose prepared to pay the highest commission

I stand to be corrected here. I'm not claiming to be an expert but I know one of these scouts and although he is free to work for whichever club he likes, however he only works for a couple. It was West Ham and Chelsea last time I spoke to him.

Part of his job is introducing players to the club and commission is paid for various things. He'll get some if they sign him, bit more if he plays in the first team, 50 appearances, 100 etc. They will however, also ask him to go and look at certain players for them and although he doesn't have to he does.

So I'm not saying using freelance is as good as having your own scouts, but from the little I know it's not a million miles away. He's more or less an employee just self employed.

I don't think it's the end of the world that we don't have scouts on the books. It's not great that the ones we are using aren't very observant.
 
Hasn't Donald just said that after scaling the scouting back we've now just spent £500k on putting scouts in place again?

Not sure how this is news when Donald has said pretty much the same himself and its no longer the case anyway.
 
Hasn't Donald just said that after scaling the scouting back we've now just spent £500k on putting scouts in place again?

Not sure how this is news when Donald has said pretty much the same himself and its no longer the case anyway.
Club shouldn't ever be in a position to have no scouts. That £20m Donald took out the club could have paid for some scouts.
 
Club shouldn't ever be in a position to have no scouts. That £20m Donald took out the club could have paid for some scouts.
My point is Barnes tweet has told us absolutely nothing and scouting has already been discussed and..... acknowledged by Donald that it needed to improve, hence investing £500k back into it.

People are still trying to find everything they can to moan about at every opportunity like imo.
I stand to be corrected here. I'm not claiming to be an expert but I know one of these scouts and although he is free to work for whichever club he likes, however he only works for a couple. It was West Ham and Chelsea last time I spoke to him.

Part of his job is introducing players to the club and commission is paid for various things. He'll get some if they sign him, bit more if he plays in the first team, 50 appearances, 100 etc. They will however, also ask him to go and look at certain players for them and although he doesn't have to he does.

So I'm not saying using freelance is as good as having your own scouts, but from the little I know it's not a million miles away. He's more or less an employee just self employed.

I don't think it's the end of the world that we don't have scouts on the books. It's not great that the ones we are using aren't very observant.
And this is pretty much what Donald said he was advised would be sufficient for this level. He may have been badly advised..... and has now sought to invest and improve the situation.
 
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This (if true) must be one of the things Barnes has been hinting about being vague when he’s been going on about it people knew what Ross had to contend with behind the scenes, or words to that effect.
 
I dunno why but I thought this was fairly common knowledge, certainly for the last few weeks.

Not saying it’s acceptable but I thought it was known we were just using freelance scouts.
It was out in the public domain. I don’t see what the issue is as we knew everything had to be stripped back in order to attract investment.

League One teams operate with this scout model.
 

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