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[Albion] Our best bit of scouting is…



Whitechapel

Whitechapel

Famous Last Words
Jul 19, 2014
4,504
Not in Whitechapel
Jan Paul Van Hecke.

Okay, hear me out.

We have became famous for our ridiculous scouting. Players plucked from obscurity all over the world. Europe, South America, Asia, Lewes. No corner of the globe is off the radar for us.

There’s a string of success stories but who is the best example of just how good our scouting is? Step forward the best looking Dutchman we know*. There are probably some names that pop in to your mind first but;

Pascal Groß - Wasn’t known in the UK but was a solid Bundesliga player for two seasons before we signed him.

Moises Caicedo - Man United wanted him. He was a known talent, we just managed to sort the paperwork - thank you Billy Arce.

Evan Ferguson - Okay, out of form now but often used as an example. Wanted by Liverpool & Chelsea but picked us for the pathway.

Alexis Mac Allister - I haven’t got a good reason why it isn’t him, but he doesn’t play for us anymore so we’ll ignore him.

Karou Mitoma - J Leagues best eleven & won the league before we signed him. Linked with Celtic and a couple of other European clubs.

Carlos Baleba - Playing in a Top 5 league

Marc Cucurella - c*nt.

All great bits of business but when it comes to pure scouting… I don’t think any of them come close to JPVH.

When we signed him he’d played 16 professional games. 11 in the Dutch second division, 5 in the cup. THE DUTCH SECOND DIVISION. 11.

And now look at him. The term Rolls-Royce gets thrown around a lot in football these days so I won’t use it. But JPVH is a Bentley Flying Spur of a defender. His improvement over the last couple of seasons has been nothing short of phenomenal. Another monstrous performance today where he drove the team to victory. Fills the Dunk shaped hole when he’s injured and is surely in line for the captains armband sooner rather than later. And we got him for a pack of skips and a jaunty tune. The best bit of scouting we have ever done.

11 games.
NAC Breda.
Eerste division.

Tony f*cking Bloom :bowdown:



*Weird line when he plays next to Veltman who is clearly much fitter but we’ll let him have it.
 
Last edited:




P

papachris

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2020
787
Viti, Estonia and Torrevieja, Spain
Whitechapel said:
Jan Paul Van Hecke.

Okay, hear me out.

We have became famous for our ridiculous scouting. Players plucked from obscurity all over the world. Europe, South America, Asia, Lewes. No corner of the globe is off the radar for us.

There’s a string of success stories but who is the best example of just how good our scouting is? Step forward the best looking Dutchman we know*. There are probably some names that pop in to your mind first but;

Pascal Groß - Wasn’t known in the UK but was a solid Bundesliga player for two seasons before we signed him.

Moises Caicedo - Man United wanted him. He was a known talent, we just managed to sort the paperwork - thank you Billy Arce.

Evan Ferguson - Okay, out of form now but often used as an example. Wanted by Liverpool & Chelsea but picked us for the pathway.

Alexis Mac Allister - I haven’t got a good reason why it isn’t him, but he doesn’t play for us anymore so we’ll ignore him.

Karou Mitoma - J Leagues best eleven & won the league before we signed him. Linked with Celtic and a couple of other European clubs.

Carlos Baleba - Playing in a Top 5 league

Marc Cucurella - c*nt.

All great bits of business but when it comes to pure scouting… I don’t think any of them come close to JPVH.

When we signed him he’d played 16 professional games. 11 in the Dutch second division, 5 in the cup. THE DUTCH SECOND DIVISION. 11.

And now look at him. The term Rolls-Royce gets thrown around a lot in football these days so I won’t use it. But JPVH is a Bentley Flying Spur of a defender. His improvement over the last couple of seasons has been nothing short of phenomenal. Another monstrous performance today where he drove the team to victory. Fills the Dunk shaped hole when he’s injured and is surely in line for the captains armband sooner rather than later. And we got him for a pack of skips and a jaunty tune. The best bit of scouting we have ever done.

11 games.
NAC Breda.
Eerste division.

Tony f*cking Bloom :bowdown:



*Weird line when he plays next to Veltman who is clearly much fitter but we’ll let him have it.
Click to expand...
All good examples in your list. But for me it's Alexis. Bought relatively cheaply convincing his footballing family that Brighton would be the best place for him. An amazing player for us during a time when we went from Premier League strugglers to a regular top half team. A World Cup winner with Argentina (playing a big part in that team) and looks like .........soon to be a Premier League winner with Liverpool, arguably one of the best players in that team.
On top of this, he has always behaved with class 👏
 
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JBizzle

JBizzle

Well-known member
Apr 18, 2010
6,573
Seaford
Thunder Bolt said:
Danny Welbeck, free, because everybody else thought he was too injury prone.
Click to expand...
Does signing a player as a back up striker (at the time) and having played for 10+ years PL experience count as "good scouting"?

Great signing, sure, but it's hardly scouting
 












B

Brian Munich

teH lulZ
Jul 7, 2008
604
Green Cross Code Man said:
Brighton's scouting is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Click to expand...
It's the bigliest thing about our club in the whole professional soccer world.

I'd go for Mitoma as the best non-obvius bit of scouting by the way. He was 24 by the time we signed him, and that's usually when top players are coming into their prime and start to be noticed, whereas Mitoma wasn't on the radar outside of Japan - he hadn't even got a senior cap at that point.

Gross as well was a 26-year-old playing for a low-profile BL side that had got relegated; so despite having played in a top-level league he wasn't exactly an in-demand player that anyone predicted would be key to our success over the next 7 years.
 


Kalimantan Gull

Kalimantan Gull

Well-known member
Aug 13, 2003
13,875
Central Borneo / the Lizard
Yes, it is an amazing scout. I was going to reply that it's a bit of confirmation bias, in that he's the one that made it out of a whole load of youngsters we signed. But really they're aren't that many failures. Only Kozlowski in players we've signed since, and Zeqiri and Clarke from the same year as JPVH haven't made it at the top level, and their careers are hardly failures. You have to go back to 2018 and Dreyer, Mlakar, Baluta, Tau, Arce for that.

Was looking more into JPs story to try and find some clues. His uncle is Jan Poortvliet, who played for Holland in the 1978 world cup final, so it's possible he had help getting on scouts radars.

I also found out that his dad died in September 2022, during the period between Potter and RDZ. Wow that must have been hard.
 


Justice

Justice

Dangerous Idiot
Jun 21, 2012
22,268
Born In Shoreham
papachris said:
All good examples in your list. But for me it's Alexis. Bought relatively cheaply convincing his footballing family that Brighton would be the best place for him. An amazing player for us during a time when we went from Premier League strugglers to a regular top half team. A World Cup winner with Argentina (playing a big part in that team) and looks like .........soon to be a Premier League winner with Liverpool, arguably one of the best players in that team.
On top if this, he has always behaved with class 👏
Click to expand...
Gomez has the potential to be better than Macalister. He’s adapted very quickly to the pace of the PL.
 






Me and my Monkey

Me and my Monkey

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Nov 3, 2015
3,516
papachris said:
All good examples in your list. But for me it's Alexis. Bought relatively cheaply convincing his footballing family that Brighton would be the best place for him. An amazing player for us during a time when we went from Premier League strugglers to a regular top half team. A World Cup winner with Argentina (playing a big part in that team) and looks like .........soon to be a Premier League winner with Liverpool, arguably one of the best players in that team.
On top if this, he has always behaved with class 👏
Click to expand...
Agree, Alexis for me. Not only because he's fantastic, and I still love him even after having flown the nest, but because I believe he was very much a pioneer in our super-scouting era. Alexis and his footballing family chose Brighton as the best place for him to come to further his fledging career when there wasn't really much of a precedent there. That and his subsequent success will surely have sent out a huge message to other talented wannabes. You wonder whether Messi, knowing Alexis and his journey, helped to persuade young Gomez that Brighton was the place for him. The word is out there.
 






Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

I believe in Joe Hendry
Oct 4, 2003
12,463
Kalimantan Gull said:
Yes, it is an amazing scout. I was going to reply that it's a bit of confirmation bias, in that he's the one that made it out of a whole load of youngsters we signed. But really they're aren't that many failures. Only Kozlowski in players we've signed since, and Zeqiri and Clarke from the same year as JPVH haven't made it at the top level, and their careers are hardly failures. You have to go back to 2018 and Dreyer, Mlakar, Baluta, Tau, Arce for that.

Was looking more into JPs story to try and find some clues. His uncle is Jan Poortvliet, who played for Holland in the 1978 world cup final, so it's possible he had help getting on scouts radars.

I also found out that his dad died in September 2022, during the period between Potter and RDZ. Wow that must have been hard.
Click to expand...

Jan Poortvliet also had a unremarkable spell as Southampton manager for part of the 08-09 season. Sacked after 32 games and winning just 1 of of 14 home games.
 


Nobby Cybergoat

Nobby Cybergoat

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2021
9,422
To find a player in the dutch second division. I mean, the Eredivisie has a few good teams but is mostly a poor league, what must the second division be like? We're talking Scottish league levels of bad
 


Hamilton

Hamilton

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
13,279
Brighton
Whitechapel said:
Jan Paul Van Hecke.

Okay, hear me out.

We have became famous for our ridiculous scouting. Players plucked from obscurity all over the world. Europe, South America, Asia, Lewes. No corner of the globe is off the radar for us.

There’s a string of success stories but who is the best example of just how good our scouting is? Step forward the best looking Dutchman we know*. There are probably some names that pop in to your mind first but;

Pascal Groß - Wasn’t known in the UK but was a solid Bundesliga player for two seasons before we signed him.

Moises Caicedo - Man United wanted him. He was a known talent, we just managed to sort the paperwork - thank you Billy Arce.

Evan Ferguson - Okay, out of form now but often used as an example. Wanted by Liverpool & Chelsea but picked us for the pathway.

Alexis Mac Allister - I haven’t got a good reason why it isn’t him, but he doesn’t play for us anymore so we’ll ignore him.

Karou Mitoma - J Leagues best eleven & won the league before we signed him. Linked with Celtic and a couple of other European clubs.

Carlos Baleba - Playing in a Top 5 league

Marc Cucurella - c*nt.

All great bits of business but when it comes to pure scouting… I don’t think any of them come close to JPVH.

When we signed him he’d played 16 professional games. 11 in the Dutch second division, 5 in the cup. THE DUTCH SECOND DIVISION. 11.

And now look at him. The term Rolls-Royce gets thrown around a lot in football these days so I won’t use it. But JPVH is a Bentley Flying Spur of a defender. His improvement over the last couple of seasons has been nothing short of phenomenal. Another monstrous performance today where he drove the team to victory. Fills the Dunk shaped hole when he’s injured and is surely in line for the captains armband sooner rather than later. And we got him for a pack of skips and a jaunty tune. The best bit of scouting we have ever done.

11 games.
NAC Breda.
Eerste division.

Tony f*cking Bloom :bowdown:



*Weird line when he plays next to Veltman who is clearly much fitter but we’ll let him have it.
Click to expand...
You make a bloody good argument!

I'd also argue that scouting Solly March from Lewes was a good move, but he was only around the corner.
 


L

lost in london

Well-known member
Dec 10, 2003
1,865
London
I don't disagree, but can we give a nod to Veltman? £900k has always felt to me like an incredible bit of business in pure return-on-investment basis. I know he came from Ajax, but to get such a consistent performer for three weeks of some players' wages has to be down to the scouting team doing some seriously good work.

I don't know anything about scouting but it can't just be talent spotting, it must also be deal spotting - finding a player at the right moment, playing the right way, for a price we can justify.
 






Triggaaar

Triggaaar

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
54,689
Goldstone
JBizzle said:
Does signing a player as a back up striker (at the time) and having played for 10+ years PL experience count as "good scouting"?

Great signing, sure, but it's hardly scouting
Click to expand...

We didn't scout Danny, we scouted his ankles, and determined that they could be saved.
 


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