Murty wants to emulate Southampton model

[NeoGeo7 10,447]

Rangers have taken the same approach to player recruitment as Southampton, who sold Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool for a world record £75 million transfer fee this week, during the build-up to the January transfer window, their manager Graeme Murty has revealed.

Murty has been helping Mark Allen, the Ibrox director of football, to identify potential signing targets since he took over from Pedro Caixinha on an interim basis back at the end of October.

However, the 43-year-old, who previously worked as an academy coach at Barclays Premier League club Southampton, has been outlining to Allan the type of individuals he would like to bring in rather than singling out specific targets..

That is the policy which has helped the St Mary’s Stadium club, where Scot and one-time Rangers director of football target Ross Wilson is their director of recruitment and scouting, flourish on and off the park down south in recent seasons.

Southampton laste week made a £62m profit on the sale of Van Dijk, who became the most expensive defender when he moved to Anfield, and celtic, who they signed the Dutch internationalist from for £13 million in 2015, are set to receive at least £7.5 million of that due to a sell-on clause.

Murty, who has brought in Sean Goss from Queens Park Rangers on loan on Wednesday, believes Rangers, whose £8 million recruitment drive under Caixinha this summer has, with a couple of notable exceptions, proved nothing short of disastrous, would benefit from adopting the same model.

Murty said: “We have been looking more at people who fit the parameters rather than me saying: ‘I want this guy, I know him from the past, I need this guy’. It is more me saying: ‘What do we have that fits these parameters? What are options one, two, three, four’. Then we go and narrow it down from there.

“That is the way I saw it done at Southampton. I really enjoyed watching those guys do their recruitment, not just on the football side, but also on the management side. I watched their black box working. It is a fantastic thing.

“I think there are lessons to be learned from that. Identifying positions, identifying characteristics and then narrowing it down from there is beneficial for everyone.

“Any time when you can identify talent and buy it cheap, bring it in, develop it and sell it high and put a sell-on clause in, it makes a good business model to me.

“That puts a lot of emphasis on our recruitment department. But we have to make sure that, if it’s possible to do that, then we do that. Long term it’s a strategic thing.

"But we have to, in January, have people who can come in and impact our season immediately.

“I wasn’t thinking that I’d be saying I want this guy, these are my specific targets. Having said that, the recruitment department have put together shortlists for different positions.

“They’ve been hitting different markers so it’s my job now to spend long hours reviewing tape, on the phone talking about people, getting character references and judgement. Seeing what we can do to make sure that those characteristics we are talking about are fulfilled.

“I am somebody who likes to be positive and likes to push myself and I want to do a really, really good job. I want to be as aspirational as possible at all times. If I can improve myself if I can improve my practice then that will benefit myself and benefit this football club in the long term.”

[FSM 20,892]

This model sounds great. Type into the machine "I want a player who can do x, y and z, but he needs to cost no more than 100K and he must not want more than 5K per week in wages". Machine goes whizz, bang, pop and out comes a list of English third division players for us to choose from.

[K.A.I 36,183]

That's great news - over to the board to make 13-million available for the next Van Dijk, then.

[Fergie_6 1,078]

2 minutes ago, K.A.I said:

That's great news - over to the board to make 13-million available for the next Van Dijk, then.

Or the 2.8ish? They paid for him to then get 13m

[K.A.I 36,183]

Just now, Fergie_6 said:

Or the 2.8ish? They paid for him to then get 13m

Southampton never paid 2.8 though. 

[Fergie_6 1,078]

True

[danger ranger 922]

Doesn't every club want the Southampton model FFs, the biggest problem we have is getting the right people on board, just look at the shite we brought in the summer.

[The Godfather 71,735]

Sound like the DOF spiel again wanting to copy models from teams who have been doing it for years in the riches of down south  while we start from scratch in a tin pot league.

Every club wants that, our recruitment in large though is poor and so is our negotiation strategy of letting players leave for cut price deals.

[K.A.I 36,183]

7 minutes ago, The Godfather said:

Sound like the DOF spiel again wanting to copy models from teams who have been doing it for years in the riches of down south  while we start from scratch in a tin pot league.

Every club wants that, our recruitment in large though is poor and so is our negotiation strategy of letting players leave for cut price deals.

Exactly. Said since Warburton's early days that if it was as easy as going to Swindon, Walsall, MK Dons, Accrington Stanley, Wigan, Preston, QPR and Wigan and taking one of their better players for a few hundred grand a time, play them a bit and all of a sudden they turn into multi-million pound talents then everycunt would be doing it ... your Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen's of this world would easily find an extra couple of million per year and push the boat out but they don't because it's a far-fetched, stupid, utopian, idealist philosophy - what makes us so special that we dive in ignorantly every transfer window and make the same mistakes over and over again and get different results?

It just doesn't work - likewise touring round the other Scottish clubs for guys who's having a good spell like Jones and Docherty - in the long run they won't be any better than Windass, Jack or Holt but again we just keep going down the same routes. 

What's that phrase something about madness isn't making a mistake, it's making the same mistake every time and eventually hoping for a different result? 

[MasterD 7,435]

All great if it works.

Sometimes I think people get a bit carried away with all this type of stuff though. Anytime we sign a good younger player before he’s even settled into the team people are talking about how much they could be sold for in a couple of years. Constantly talking about another team doing this and that, the next wee guy that we should sign that’ll progress and make us millions.

I’ll be happy enough when we have a team on the park that wins leagues and cups.

[A.T.G 10,773]

Yada fuking ya

[.Williamson. 82,019]

Such a load of dog shite

[Thewhitesettler 2,711]

We need to be signing players that'll do the job for us, and not worry about any sell on value.

If someone comes along that does well enough to be sold on for a substantial profit, then so be it, but don't go looking for players that fit that bill all the time.

We can look to the future when our present squad are winning things.

[RFC Eagle 4,888]

2 minutes ago, Thewhitesettler said:

We need to be signing players that'll do the job for us, and not worry about any sell on value.

If someone comes along that does well enough to be sold on for a s!substantial profit, then so be it, but don't go looking for players that fit that bill all the time.

We can look to the future when our present squad are winning things.

Thats pretty much what Southampton do. They dont buy players with a final sell on fee in mind but they will come up with a shortlist and pick the one most suited to their needs at the time.

Murty actually said.

“We have been looking more at people who fit the parameters rather than me saying: ‘I want this guy, I know him from the past, I need this guy’. It is more me saying: ‘What do we have that fits these parameters? What are options one, two, three, four’. Then we go and narrow it down from there.

“That is the way I saw it done at Southampton

From that it does seem as though he is talking about the way recruitment is done on a characteristics basis rather than looking at an individual player. The in depth checks to ensure they are the right fit for the club is something we haven't done well at all. It may be a criticism of the previous manager bringing in players who couldn't adapt to life at Rangers. The van Dijk factor is journalistic spin rather than what was actually said.

[Creampuff 22,628]

5 hours ago, K.A.I said:

Exactly. Said since Warburton's early days that if it was as easy as going to Swindon, Walsall, MK Dons, Accrington Stanley, Wigan, Preston, QPR and Wigan and taking one of their better players for a few hundred grand a time, play them a bit and all of a sudden they turn into multi-million pound talents then everycunt would be doing it ... your Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen's of this world would easily find an extra couple of million per year and push the boat out but they don't because it's a far-fetched, stupid, utopian, idealist philosophy - what makes us so special that we dive in ignorantly every transfer window and make the same mistakes over and over again and get different results?

It just doesn't work - likewise touring round the other Scottish clubs for guys who's having a good spell like Jones and Docherty - in the long run they won't be any better than Windass, Jack or Holt but again we just keep going down the same routes. 

What's that phrase something about madness isn't making a mistake, it's making the same mistake every time and eventually hoping for a different result? 

Well then what are we supposed to do if scouting other leagues doesn’t work and signing the best players in your own league doesn’t work? 

[graeme_4 34,376]

5 hours ago, K.A.I said:

Exactly. Said since Warburton's early days that if it was as easy as going to Swindon, Walsall, MK Dons, Accrington Stanley, Wigan, Preston, QPR and Wigan and taking one of their better players for a few hundred grand a time, play them a bit and all of a sudden they turn into multi-million pound talents then everycunt would be doing it ... your Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen's of this world would easily find an extra couple of million per year and push the boat out but they don't because it's a far-fetched, stupid, utopian, idealist philosophy - what makes us so special that we dive in ignorantly every transfer window and make the same mistakes over and over again and get different results?

It just doesn't work - likewise touring round the other Scottish clubs for guys who's having a good spell like Jones and Docherty - in the long run they won't be any better than Windass, Jack or Holt but again we just keep going down the same routes. 

What's that phrase something about madness isn't making a mistake, it's making the same mistake every time and eventually hoping for a different result? 

I disagree.

Our successful sides have always had a core of Scottish players developed in our league. 

Being selective about them is key, but not the premise of signing in form players from our league.

[MikeBlue 136]

Nothing wrong with what Murty is saying.  This approach is exactly what we haven't been doing.

It's unlikely we will use parameters such as "slow', injury prone" and "used to be good" in which case we would never have signed Krancjar.  He was signed because his name is "Niko Krancjar".  That's not a good enough reason.  Probably wouldn't have got Pena or Herrera either.  OTOH, I can easily see how Morelos or Declan John would have satisfied this approach.

Also - it's not just about sell on.  You might, for instance, want an experienced CB, used to British football to stabilize the defence and pick up a Weir or Hill, but not Alves. Though tbf, you might also get Senderos on that basis.

[Deanzmeanzheinz 4,312]

I’ve argued something similar to the OP Murty statement for months and months now. It’s borne out of the fact that we exist on the doorstep of the worlds richest league 

so find and/or develop young talent at eg £1-3m transfer value eg Van Dijk, Ross McCrorie. Get the benefit of this on the football pitch for 2-3 seasons and sell on at a profit. 

Its not rocket science, neither is it new. Porto and Ajax have done it for decades. Of course Dutch and Portuguese local talent is much more prolific so that’s a challenge. But Ross McCrorie shows it can be done. 

However, and not that I’m glad he signed, but where does a 28yr Jamie Murphy fall into this new policy??? 

[Orange Persson 547]

Football players are people. They have spirit,  character, flaws, personality. All things that are on a football field.  You sign that too, they ain't robots.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

8 hours ago, NeoGeo7 said:

Rangers have taken the same approach to player recruitment as Southampton, who sold Virgil van Dijk to Liverpool for a world record £75 million transfer fee this week, during the build-up to the January transfer window, their manager Graeme Murty has revealed.

Murty has been helping Mark Allen, the Ibrox director of football, to identify potential signing targets since he took over from Pedro Caixinha on an interim basis back at the end of October.

However, the 43-year-old, who previously worked as an academy coach at Barclays Premier League club Southampton, has been outlining to Allan the type of individuals he would like to bring in rather than singling out specific targets..

That is the policy which has helped the St Mary’s Stadium club, where Scot and one-time Rangers director of football target Ross Wilson is their director of recruitment and scouting, flourish on and off the park down south in recent seasons.

Southampton laste week made a £62m profit on the sale of Van Dijk, who became the most expensive defender when he moved to Anfield, and celtic, who they signed the Dutch internationalist from for £13 million in 2015, are set to receive at least £7.5 million of that due to a sell-on clause.

Murty, who has brought in Sean Goss from Queens Park Rangers on loan on Wednesday, believes Rangers, whose £8 million recruitment drive under Caixinha this summer has, with a couple of notable exceptions, proved nothing short of disastrous, would benefit from adopting the same model.

Murty said: “We have been looking more at people who fit the parameters rather than me saying: ‘I want this guy, I know him from the past, I need this guy’. It is more me saying: ‘What do we have that fits these parameters? What are options one, two, three, four’. Then we go and narrow it down from there.

“That is the way I saw it done at Southampton. I really enjoyed watching those guys do their recruitment, not just on the football side, but also on the management side. I watched their black box working. It is a fantastic thing.

“I think there are lessons to be learned from that. Identifying positions, identifying characteristics and then narrowing it down from there is beneficial for everyone.

“Any time when you can identify talent and buy it cheap, bring it in, develop it and sell it high and put a sell-on clause in, it makes a good business model to me.

“That puts a lot of emphasis on our recruitment department. But we have to make sure that, if it’s possible to do that, then we do that. Long term it’s a strategic thing.

"But we have to, in January, have people who can come in and impact our season immediately.

“I wasn’t thinking that I’d be saying I want this guy, these are my specific targets. Having said that, the recruitment department have put together shortlists for different positions.

“They’ve been hitting different markers so it’s my job now to spend long hours reviewing tape, on the phone talking about people, getting character references and judgement. Seeing what we can do to make sure that those characteristics we are talking about are fulfilled.

“I am somebody who likes to be positive and likes to push myself and I want to do a really, really good job. I want to be as aspirational as possible at all times. If I can improve myself if I can improve my practice then that will benefit myself and benefit this football club in the long term.”

Nothing to find wrong in that statement at alll - just need the time for it to work 

[bluenose244 2,618]

All good in theory. 

[Gascoigne8 3,378]

8 hours ago, FSM said:

This model sounds great. Type into the machine "I want a player who can do x, y and z, but he needs to cost no more than 100K and he must not want more than 5K per week in wages". Machine goes whizz, bang, pop and out comes a list of English third division players for us to choose from.

I imagine it as an old dot matrix printer from the late 80's

[SeparateEntityMyArse 53,626]

I can't disagree with this philosophy as long as it continues to bring success on the park now.  My problem is the scale of what we are able to achieve. 

For good money to be earned the players have to be appearing and doing well in either the CL or in the group stages of the Europa. That's what will convince the EPL clubs that they're not just good players in our shitty league 

We can only afford to scratch around for ex EPL academy players with minimal 1st team experience, or lower league efl players. That's going to limit how far we can go in Europe and showcase them to potential buyers.

The beggars are already regularly in Europe, buying in better  leagues and spending several million on players to turn them into multi million ones. 

We can't get those riches until we take their position and we can't do that until our Board find the money to shop on the High Street rather than the flea market.

[Blue72 1,098]

I think that needs to be the model we recruit to, using profits to purchase higher calibre proven players.  To get there we need some serious investment in quality to put these types of players in s team where they are able to develop and learn from a higher level of player 

it will all boil down to quality of scouting, quality of backroom cosching, quality of PR and how we promote our players and luck 

if the board don't build a quality side though before lumping in potentially second rate league one and two players they'll not come on st all and we we up pissing more money down the river

[pcbear 10,913]

4th bottom of the EPL atm  not won in the last 5 games, it must be soul destroying producing and nurturing player for what seems like mostly Liverpool, if it had been possible for them to hang on to their best players over the last 10 years they would have been at the top end of the EPL they are raking in the cash but if they end up relegated the fans will not give a fuck what is in the bank as they want EPL football.

Bale/Shaw/Clyne/Walcott/Crouch/Van Dijk/Mane/The Ox/Lallana/Waymana/Chambers/Fonte/Schneiderlin/Lovrens/Alderweid/ excuse the spelling.

They are all still playing as far as I am aware  and there are prob plenty more I have forgotten ,ok they have received tons of dough but what a side they could have had.