[Albion] Our best bit of scouting is…

[Triggaaar]

Best f***ing Dutchman I know !

And that's no mean thing with competition across the red light district

 

[Greg Bobkin]

He's certainly come a long way since his FIRST appearance at SJP where he was written off by quite a few people.

Only to then keep Haaland quiet in the home game against Machester City less than a week later. Quite the turnaround...

 

[Guinness Boy]

Yes, good points well made @Whitechapel

This is a bloke who has twice played Erling Haaland out of a game and looks a Rolls Royce of a centre back in the Premier League. But his origins are as obscure as any Ecuadorian's IMO.

I did some business in his area of the Netherlands last year and met someone who had been coached by his grandfather. Before that I would never would have been able to find Middleburg, Breda or Goes on a map. The only other person I know who knows that area is @hans kraay fan club

It's terrifically obscure. The equivalent would be a "team like" Eintracht Frankfurt discovering a player from Cornwall or Jersey. But he's very popular back home and 100 or so Dutchmen come over to watch him from Zeeland every year - this season, unfortunately, it was the Wolves home game.

To find him, sign him and develop him to the point now, where he must be one of the first names on the team sheet, is incredible.

 

[el punal]

I don’t know about scouting, I wasn’t allowed to. At the age of 9 I was kicked out of the Cubs for calling Akela a b*****d. I thought it was an affectionate term. I got that one wrong!

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

I don’t know about scouting, I wasn’t allowed to. At the age of 9 I was kicked out of the Cubs for calling Akela a b*****d. I thought it was an affectionate term. I got that one wrong!

It sort of depends on how you say it, to be fair ...

 

[el punal]

It sort of depends on how you say it, to be fair ...

Akela did not have a sense of humour. My Dad thought it was hilarious - only because of the sheer innocence on my part.

 

[huzzah]

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.

Pendant time - Survivorship bias

 

[huzzah]

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.

This is an underrated part of our recruiting - knowing clauses. Veltman when he extended his contract added a low release clause rather than leaving for free.

Also with georginio they knew the time his clause would run out and put in a bid at a minute before midnight to make sure there was no competition.

(No idea where I heard either of these, so they could be a figment of my imagination)

 

[BNthree]

When we played Ajax in the Europa league last season their fans were asking where on earth Van Hecke was from and why hadn't they heard of him? (As they could tell it was obviously a Dutch name)

 

[Greg Bobkin]

I don’t know about scouting, I wasn’t allowed to. At the age of 9 I was kicked out of the Cubs for calling Akela a b*****d. I thought it was an affectionate term. I got that one wrong!

Did you say it to their face, or did someone dob dob dob you in?

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Pendant time - Survivorship bias

Thank you, good call

 

[el punal]

Did you say it to their face, or did someone dob dob dob you in?

No, all down to me and yes I said it to their face. My Dad ran a pub so I reckon I must have heard all those naughty expressions coming from the bar. Ah, the sweet innocence of youth, alas my days of dibs and dobs were finished.

 

[schmunk]

It's terrifically obscure. The equivalent would be a "team like" Eintracht Frankfurt discovering a player from Cornwall or Jersey. But he's very popular back home and 100 or so Dutchmen come over to watch him from Zeeland every year - this season, unfortunately, it was the Wolves home game.

It's not quite as obscure as that - NAC Breda is yo-yo club* - perhaps more like a Leeds United or Sheffield Wednesday.


* currently back in the Eredivisie and likely to stay up.