Tony Bloom, Brighton and their recruitment model
Posted: 01 Dec 2024, 12:50
Was reading about their CEO and how he's the opposite of Sullivan. A listener who likes to collaborate and take advice from those he employs and trusts. Then read the article below about a takeover of Hearts and the data analytics and process they use. If he has taken or does take over Hearts we shall see how they improve or not. Takes a while to see results but got to admire what they are doing. Something Sullivan would never ever do. Its got to be about Sullivan being the decision maker, cannot rely on mathematical models when you have Sully's insights into football and life. Narcissistic and deluded is our Dave and no one to tell him so.
Here is the article ( bleedin long like my posts always ) that gets into recruitment and how they use data. This is the only way smaller ( poorer )clubs compete. With Sullivan at the helm we will never do this so will never be anything different to the underachieving outfit we've always been imo.
INSIDE TONY BLOOMS ALGORITHMWe are very data-driven so we do use a lot of data to help with our player recruitment.“We have to do that because we are not the biggest club in the Premier League by any means, but we have to compete with those bigger clubs who have bigger budgets and bigger resources. The data just helps us to narrow down the sorts of players that we think we can afford, that we think would add value and quality to our team. Then it's our job to go and get them.“We have to fish in different ponds. We can't afford to fish for players in the bigger markets that the bigger clubs are in, so we go to the smaller markets. We look for players that are perhaps younger, less-developed, that we can coach, that we can develop and progress in the Premier League.“If we are able to make a success of that, it does give us an opportunity to sell them at much higher value. That profit can then be ploughed back into the club to start the cycle all over again. Of course, we combine that with our own academy, where we are developing young players from the local area and hopefully make them into Premier League players and carry on the model.”Barber revealed some detail on the data formula and the different stages Brighton navigate when signing a player through their technology. Hearts can expect something similar, provided talks with Bloom reach their intended conclusion. Barber explained how the specific algorithms pinpoint only the players suitable for Brighton’s needs. “It’s the foundation for all of our player recruitment,” he told a Men in Blazers interview. “A lot of clubs will spend a lot of money having hundreds of scouts across the world looking at players and reporting back. We tend to take a different approach, which to start with is a positional need.“We actually need, for example, a left-sided defender: We then use our data to match up the attributes that the coach is looking for with the players that we think would be available at a certain price in certain parts of the world. Then we use our own eyes-on scouting to verify the data to make sure that what we believe the data is telling us is actually what it is telling us.“Then it’s a question of: Can we afford that player? Will that player come to Brighton? Will we be able to get the deal done at the time we want it done? The final part of the jigsaw is the character profiling. Is that the sort of player that we want in our club? Is he going to fit with our culture? Is he going to fit with the dressing room we already have? Screening personalities is more difficult. Hearts and every other club in the world have a list of signings who did not last long for a variety of reasons. “That’s the most difficult part,” admitted Barber. “The first part is essentially an objective process, and objective processes tend to be more successful when you are looking at numbers and data. When you are looking at personalities, subjective processes have to come into it.“You have to use a degree of subjectivity. Is this person going to travel well to the UK? Are they going to be able to settle well in the UK? Culturally, is it a good fit for them? Do they have family? How are the family going to settle? Are the kids going to be able to get into school easily and adapt easily?“Then it’s a case of what kind of personality is this person? Are they a party animal? Are they a drinker, a smoker, a gambler? Is it the sort of guy who is going to come into the dressing room and be a positive influence or a negative influence? The problem with all of those things is that, to large extents, they are subjective. What I might think is a good personality fit for the dressing room, the coach may have a slightly different opinion. Who I might think will gel well with the other players may not because everyone is different and everyone reacts differently to each other.“To some degree, that last part of the process is the most tricky part. We are not perfect. We have had situations where not every player we have brought into the club has worked out. Very rarely do they not work out for technical reasons because the objective part of the process is pretty solid. But the subjective reasons - the ability to settle in the UK, the ability to gel with team-mates, the ability to have their family settle in the UK - sometimes they are factors largely outside of our direct control. Therefore, they can have an influence on whether a player is successful or not.”Brighton operate with three levels of recruitment. Should Hearts employ Bloom’s methods, they may find themselves doing likewise. The English club group potential signing targets into the following categories: Players for now, players for now and the future, then solely players for the future.The future at Hearts would look more prosperous with the help of Bloom and the funds his operation could generate. James Anderson and other philanthropists have gone far beyond the call of duty by generously donating more than £25m to Tynecastle coffers since 2017. That cannot last forever, so there needs to be a contingency plan. Signing, developing and selling players for profit works if done properly.“You do need some ‘now’ players - like Danny Welbeck - who are established, high-quality internationals and very much for now,” explained Barber. “They are not for the future because they’re already in their mid-30s. The ‘now-and-future’ bit is players that we think are almost ready but need some more development and will get that by being in and around our first team immediately.“The players for the future are those that we see real potential in, who will need more than just being around out first team right now. They will need to maybe go out on loan, either in England or in Europe, to play maybe at the next level down to get confident about their surroundings and environment. When they are ready, we move them into our squad at some point in the future, and they become the "now" players.
“The key to our recruitment model is that we are constantly finding players for the future that we can bring in to replace the players that are ‘now’. In an ideal world, you are trying to bring in players well before you need them. There’s nothing worse than selling players like [Marc] Cucurella or [Moises] Caicedo to Chelsea for a combined $200m and then going out into the transfer market looking for their replacements.“Everyone says: ‘This is great, Brighton are on their way, their pockets are bulging, their wallet is bulging, we can actually take more money off them.’ It’s important that we try to get in the players we need for the future earlier and then be prepared to sell.”Data is the epicentre of recruitment at the Amex Stadium. Hearts are already well-versed in using statistics and analysis when signing players, although Bloom’s approach takes things into a whole new dimension through his companies Starlizard and Jamestown Analytics. “We’ve got a data set that’s exclusive to us and unique to us. That obviously helps,” added Barber.“Our interpretation of that data, the algorithms we use to source through the data and find the players, is unique to us. But that’s not to say that other clubs are not building up their own data sets and their own methodologies. Of course, it’s a question of whose is more effective and whose will be more effective going forward.“We are confident that our data is very good but, as I said before, we are not perfect. Human beings are exactly that. They are unpredictable, they’re not always subject to objective processes in the way we would love them to be because everyone is different. So, it’s not a perfect science but it’s a science that we try to improve upon every year. Every year that we improve, it means that our competitors stay that little bit further behind.“We’ve got to make sure that we continue to be different in the way we recruit. We’ve got to be prepared to go to different parts of the world and find players that other clubs are not looking at. The second part of that process is actually hiring the best possible coaches because, once those players arrive, they don’t just play for us and then get sold for higher sums of money. They have to be developed, they have to be coached, they have to be improved. They have to develop as individuals and as adults and, therefore, what we then sell is a very different player to the one we first bring in.“Being prepared to sell at the right time is the second part of that trick. Most coaches will not want their best players sold ever, let alone at a time when the team is starting to really perform. Understanding our model and making sure the coach understands our model are two other very important factors in the way we work.”
Here is the article ( bleedin long like my posts always ) that gets into recruitment and how they use data. This is the only way smaller ( poorer )clubs compete. With Sullivan at the helm we will never do this so will never be anything different to the underachieving outfit we've always been imo.
INSIDE TONY BLOOMS ALGORITHMWe are very data-driven so we do use a lot of data to help with our player recruitment.“We have to do that because we are not the biggest club in the Premier League by any means, but we have to compete with those bigger clubs who have bigger budgets and bigger resources. The data just helps us to narrow down the sorts of players that we think we can afford, that we think would add value and quality to our team. Then it's our job to go and get them.“We have to fish in different ponds. We can't afford to fish for players in the bigger markets that the bigger clubs are in, so we go to the smaller markets. We look for players that are perhaps younger, less-developed, that we can coach, that we can develop and progress in the Premier League.“If we are able to make a success of that, it does give us an opportunity to sell them at much higher value. That profit can then be ploughed back into the club to start the cycle all over again. Of course, we combine that with our own academy, where we are developing young players from the local area and hopefully make them into Premier League players and carry on the model.”Barber revealed some detail on the data formula and the different stages Brighton navigate when signing a player through their technology. Hearts can expect something similar, provided talks with Bloom reach their intended conclusion. Barber explained how the specific algorithms pinpoint only the players suitable for Brighton’s needs. “It’s the foundation for all of our player recruitment,” he told a Men in Blazers interview. “A lot of clubs will spend a lot of money having hundreds of scouts across the world looking at players and reporting back. We tend to take a different approach, which to start with is a positional need.“We actually need, for example, a left-sided defender: We then use our data to match up the attributes that the coach is looking for with the players that we think would be available at a certain price in certain parts of the world. Then we use our own eyes-on scouting to verify the data to make sure that what we believe the data is telling us is actually what it is telling us.“Then it’s a question of: Can we afford that player? Will that player come to Brighton? Will we be able to get the deal done at the time we want it done? The final part of the jigsaw is the character profiling. Is that the sort of player that we want in our club? Is he going to fit with our culture? Is he going to fit with the dressing room we already have? Screening personalities is more difficult. Hearts and every other club in the world have a list of signings who did not last long for a variety of reasons. “That’s the most difficult part,” admitted Barber. “The first part is essentially an objective process, and objective processes tend to be more successful when you are looking at numbers and data. When you are looking at personalities, subjective processes have to come into it.“You have to use a degree of subjectivity. Is this person going to travel well to the UK? Are they going to be able to settle well in the UK? Culturally, is it a good fit for them? Do they have family? How are the family going to settle? Are the kids going to be able to get into school easily and adapt easily?“Then it’s a case of what kind of personality is this person? Are they a party animal? Are they a drinker, a smoker, a gambler? Is it the sort of guy who is going to come into the dressing room and be a positive influence or a negative influence? The problem with all of those things is that, to large extents, they are subjective. What I might think is a good personality fit for the dressing room, the coach may have a slightly different opinion. Who I might think will gel well with the other players may not because everyone is different and everyone reacts differently to each other.“To some degree, that last part of the process is the most tricky part. We are not perfect. We have had situations where not every player we have brought into the club has worked out. Very rarely do they not work out for technical reasons because the objective part of the process is pretty solid. But the subjective reasons - the ability to settle in the UK, the ability to gel with team-mates, the ability to have their family settle in the UK - sometimes they are factors largely outside of our direct control. Therefore, they can have an influence on whether a player is successful or not.”Brighton operate with three levels of recruitment. Should Hearts employ Bloom’s methods, they may find themselves doing likewise. The English club group potential signing targets into the following categories: Players for now, players for now and the future, then solely players for the future.The future at Hearts would look more prosperous with the help of Bloom and the funds his operation could generate. James Anderson and other philanthropists have gone far beyond the call of duty by generously donating more than £25m to Tynecastle coffers since 2017. That cannot last forever, so there needs to be a contingency plan. Signing, developing and selling players for profit works if done properly.“You do need some ‘now’ players - like Danny Welbeck - who are established, high-quality internationals and very much for now,” explained Barber. “They are not for the future because they’re already in their mid-30s. The ‘now-and-future’ bit is players that we think are almost ready but need some more development and will get that by being in and around our first team immediately.“The players for the future are those that we see real potential in, who will need more than just being around out first team right now. They will need to maybe go out on loan, either in England or in Europe, to play maybe at the next level down to get confident about their surroundings and environment. When they are ready, we move them into our squad at some point in the future, and they become the "now" players.
“The key to our recruitment model is that we are constantly finding players for the future that we can bring in to replace the players that are ‘now’. In an ideal world, you are trying to bring in players well before you need them. There’s nothing worse than selling players like [Marc] Cucurella or [Moises] Caicedo to Chelsea for a combined $200m and then going out into the transfer market looking for their replacements.“Everyone says: ‘This is great, Brighton are on their way, their pockets are bulging, their wallet is bulging, we can actually take more money off them.’ It’s important that we try to get in the players we need for the future earlier and then be prepared to sell.”Data is the epicentre of recruitment at the Amex Stadium. Hearts are already well-versed in using statistics and analysis when signing players, although Bloom’s approach takes things into a whole new dimension through his companies Starlizard and Jamestown Analytics. “We’ve got a data set that’s exclusive to us and unique to us. That obviously helps,” added Barber.“Our interpretation of that data, the algorithms we use to source through the data and find the players, is unique to us. But that’s not to say that other clubs are not building up their own data sets and their own methodologies. Of course, it’s a question of whose is more effective and whose will be more effective going forward.“We are confident that our data is very good but, as I said before, we are not perfect. Human beings are exactly that. They are unpredictable, they’re not always subject to objective processes in the way we would love them to be because everyone is different. So, it’s not a perfect science but it’s a science that we try to improve upon every year. Every year that we improve, it means that our competitors stay that little bit further behind.“We’ve got to make sure that we continue to be different in the way we recruit. We’ve got to be prepared to go to different parts of the world and find players that other clubs are not looking at. The second part of that process is actually hiring the best possible coaches because, once those players arrive, they don’t just play for us and then get sold for higher sums of money. They have to be developed, they have to be coached, they have to be improved. They have to develop as individuals and as adults and, therefore, what we then sell is a very different player to the one we first bring in.“Being prepared to sell at the right time is the second part of that trick. Most coaches will not want their best players sold ever, let alone at a time when the team is starting to really perform. Understanding our model and making sure the coach understands our model are two other very important factors in the way we work.”
Sullivan's algorithm ( shudders 
)