Motorway miles & Differing styles – 10/11 **Season 11/12 from page 51**

[DaveShoelace]

Also, what are you like as a footy bettor. Do you ever get any inside tips? Are you allowed to bet on Carlisle?

[Colchester Kev]

Looking forward to reading this.

My two eldest were with Reedhall? boys club when we were in Colchester, who were like a boys/youth feeder for the "U's." Is this still the case?

Does your scouting take you to the boys/youth level at all?

Geo

Hi Geo, to be honest I have no idea.  I don't do anything with youth football/youngsters, its all done by the academy.  I'm not fully up to sctratch with the situation as to who youngsters can sign for, but I'm sure they have to live within a 60/90 minute drive of the club that wants to sign them.  I think Tighty might know better than me.

I live in Chester so cover the North for them, basically, as far as League 1 teams go its Tranmere/Rochdale/Oldham/Sheff Wed/Carlisle/Hartlepool/Walsall etc this season.  Fixtures work in funny ways though, so there is always the odd trip down south every few weeks.

Tks mate, my bad as I had assumed you were working from Colchester now.

Good luck with this

Geo

Strangely enough I have never been to Colchester, and only saw them once last season, at Oldham!

Best you rectify that soon fella, you know where I am if you have any freebies get in touch if you are ever going to be here and we can meet up.

Good luck with the job x

[Josedinho]

Some more questions for when you return....
What do you do during the summer? Do League 1 clubs scout any World Cup teams?
Colchester have Wednesday very early on. How do they go about scouting them? Just watch their first 2 games or go back and watch the end of last season games even though the squad has changed alot?
Favourite ground and game you've been to?

[Colchester Kev]

Colchesters first home game is against Sheffield Wednesday.

[dino1980]

Mr Shoelace pretty much covered all my questions but...

1) Not sure how much detail you can go into here, but when you're compiling a team assesment apart from obvious things like formation, style of play, how they line up at attacking and defending set pieces etc what else is generally covered and how is the information passed on - e.g is there a 'standard' post match assesment form/template that most clubs use. Also how do you record this info during the game? Is it still pen/pad or do you use dictaphone or similar? Also if colchester are playing say Oldham away, do you only scout Oldham home games?

2) Have you ever been asked to scout a player who after watching him you didn't think was good enough (or at least you didn't reccomend him) and he's now playing at a high level?  

3) When you go watch The Grecians let me know what you think of them, i'm an Exeter exile.

4) What's the furtherst you've travelled before being told 'game's off' and do you think there should be a winter break?

5) What did you make of the BBC coverage of The Championship to div 2 e,g the saturday night show.
Thx in advance for any anwsers.

[ACE2M]

can you post an example report you might compile?

[Herbie H]

Lolz

And there was I preaching about football to OP in another thread.

Did you work under John Ward at Chelt?

[TheChipPrince]

Fantastic stuff, I always always always love hearing about people who have cool jobs and this is a cool job, many questions:

How do you get into a job like this? There is clearly an element of footy skill/technical knowledge involved, did you play much?
How old are you? I always assumed you were really young.
Does it pay well? Or at least, does it pay well at the highest level?
Where does a job like this lead? Does it open the doors to other big footy jobs?
What sort of cool perks do you get?
Do you ever do any work for champ manager? I had a mate who was a footy scout for champ manager (the game) but it was more of a hobby.
Which Wednesday match you going to? (can you wrangle mates tickets lol?)

If I were you I would use the job as an excuse to visit blondes up and down the countries and then play poker in their locals.

I got into by chance, a friend from Uni worked for Cheltenham at the time (he literally turned up at a reserve game and said can I do some matches for you) rang me out of the blue 1 year or so after I'd finished Uni and said they needed someone in the North.  I did some trial games and it went from there, thats was feb-mar '06, 3 months later they made the play-off final at Cardiff and beat Grimsby 1-0.

28 mate, I played to an 'ok' standard, but got a bad knee injury at 19 and was never the same.  

It doesnt pay particularly well, I am not full-time, I get expenses and a small retainer, I if was doing it purely for the £, I wouldn't be doing it put it like that.

It could lead anywhere really, but I'd need to do more advanced coaching courses which I want to do, but are not immeadiate plans.

perks?  umm, free tickets, meeting faces off the TV, free food at most grounds!  

Not sure which Weds game i'll be going to, possible V Bury (CC), 10th Aug, or the 1st home game.

[TheChipPrince]

Also, what are you like as a footy bettor. Do you ever get any inside tips? Are you allowed to bet on Colchester?

Inside tips, not really, I wouldnt bet on Colchester out of principle, and to be honest with not seeing them much, its still a 'normal' bet in terms of expectation.

[TheChipPrince]

Some more questions for when you return....
What do you do during the summer? Do League 1 clubs scout any World Cup teams?
Colchester have Wednesday very early on. How do they go about scouting them? Just watch their first 2 games or go back and watch the end of last season games even though the squad has changed alot?
Favourite ground and game you've been to?

During the summer, not much!  No, WC games are enjoyment only, not scouting done.

Watching weds will purely be on this seasons early games, lots of new signings so pointless looking at a game from last seaosn.

fave ground, umm, i'm on around the 50 number grounds wise, most of the ones I havent been to are obviously the further ones away.  Although I have done Yeovil, Orient, Brentford all there and back in a day.  Huddersfield is nice, Swansea you get a proper meal before the game, so there! 

[TheChipPrince]

Mr Shoelace pretty much covered all my questions but...

1) Not sure how much detail you can go into here, but when you're compiling a team assesment apart from obvious things like formation, style of play, how they line up at attacking and defending set pieces etc what else is generally covered and how is the information passed on - e.g is there a 'standard' post match assesment form/template that most clubs use. Also how do you record this info during the game? Is it still pen/pad or do you use dictaphone or similar? Also if colchester are playing say Oldham away, do you only scout Oldham home games?

2) Have you ever been asked to scout a player who after watching him you didn't think was good enough (or at least you didn't reccomend him) and he's now playing at a high level?  

3) When you go watch The Grecians let me know what you think of them, i'm an Exeter exile.

4) What's the furtherst you've travelled before being told 'game's off' and do you think there should be a winter break?

5) What did you make of the BBC coverage of The Championship to div 2 e,g the saturday night show.
Thx in advance for any anwsers.

1. Thats about it info wise, Colchester use a system/website called scout 7 where I login, fill the online templates in, and the club have the info straight away.  I think its costs them approx 15k a season for this software, its also taops into EVERY player report done by anyone with scout 7, some high up names write the most basic things put it like that.

2.  I cant think of any obv ones at the mo, will think.

3.  I saw exteter at Tranmere in April, Tisdale loves his continental formations!

4.  Ive been sat in the car park at Doncaster & Acc Stanley when games have been called off.  Stanley was 'on' when I arrived, Doncaster was called off before I'd get past Manchester.  [ ]  Had 5Live on.

5.  I though it was great, ok the budget limits the show, but any football is good in eyes. 

[BigArmo]

Looking forward to this one....should be good

+1

[TheChipPrince]

Lolz

And there was I preaching about football to OP in another thread.

Did you work under John Ward at Chelt?

yes mate, and with John at Carlisle, then when he joined Aidy Boothroyd as assistant lats September, moved with him again.  I did one off games for Bristol Rovers and Stockport at the start of last season too.  He's a good guy John, he's not the all singing all dancing manager some ppl like, but boy does he know the game at a lower level.

[Matt50]

Really looking forward to reading this Dwayne.

Does John Ward ever ring you up for a chat about anything you have put in your scouting report?

Is it easy watching a match and having to purely concentrate on one side, or do you find yourself drifting off and just enjoying the game sometimes?

If you spot a young player who you think has huge potential do you inform your team or just keep an eye on his progress?

[TheChipPrince]

Cool job mate.

So are you a 'next opponent kind of scout' or do you scout certain players? Who is the biggest player you have scouted that your club has signed?

Yeah its mainly team assessments I do, teams upcoming etc, each team is usually watched 2/3 times by 2/3 different staff members to get a variety of opinions, and hopefully each report will have the same theme running through it, eg picking out the same strengths/weaknesses.  Not uncommon for reports to totally differ though, some teams play well 1 week, poor the next.

The clubs I've worked for have never really had the money to sign players for £, you hear through the grapevine (for that read agents pestering the club), which players are to become available, which are looking to get out etc.

I would say I do 80% team assessments, 20% players.  For nearly all League 1/2 clubs the target players are Premiership youngsters to get on loan, or players doing well in the League or 2 below.

Players who I saw that did well last season and have made summer moves include:

Grant - Acc Stanley - Scunthorpe
Symes - Acc Stanley - Bournemouth
Dagnall - Rochdale - Scunthorpe
O'Donovan - Hartlepool (loan) - Coventry (DUCY?)

We had Symes at Bradford but he never really got a chance/was still too young.

Who do you see as the main contenders for League 2 this season? What chances do you think Bradford have of promotion? And what do you think of Bradfords signings?

I wouldnt make Bradford the faves for the League like they are, but the leagues are so open, first 10 games are always key, get some momentum and its xmas before you know it with 50 points.

I like the look of Chesterfields signings at a glance.

Fairly uninteresting point about Bradford, 1st time I went there my sat nav showed up the roundabouts by the ground and I got disasterous lost even with the ground in site!