Power resides with Rafa as he leads the pursuit of new Toon targets
BENITEZ OVERHAULS SCOUTING SYSTEM
RAFA Benitez’s message on scouting to Mike Ashley during their pre-summer summit was short and simple – “if you trust me, you have to back me”.
As much as we have talked about the off-the-field battles that Benitez is perceived to have fought in vain over the close season, there was one significant area where he did prevail over the summer months – the way the club approached its scouting.
Recruitment had been a bone of contention for most of Benitez’s immediate predecessors.
Chris Hughton appointed Graham Carr as chief scout and he scored some significant successes in the early years, plundering the French market as Newcastle invested time and effort in what was seen as a country that offered value for money and potentially huge re-sale rewards.
But there was a central tension between managers and the man who accrued huge power, influence and favour in the eyes of Ashley – who felt Carr married both economic concerns and sporting ones by buying good players who were likely to see their values inflate as soon as they started to perform in the Premier League.
It’s hard to say Carr’s influence was not deserved under Alan Pardew, whose recruitment ideas were very different.
The two jarred and the tension resulted in some wasted Newcastle careers – the club invested heavily in Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Remy Cabella, who were quickly written off. Pardew immediately noted that Yanga-Mbiwa was weak in the air – a fairly fundamental problem, he believed, for a Premier League defender. By the time Benitez had arrived – while Carr remained on the board and influential in the appointment of Steve McClaren – it was clear that Newcastle were going to have to go in a different direction.
But the Spaniard’s approach to the club’s infrastructure and existing employees was to try to work with them rather than clear the decks and blame existing staff for the club’s problems.
It won him plenty of friends. The club’s much-maligned medical department was not ripped up, it was added to and Benitez asked them to adopt new methods. The result has been fewer injuries and a more motivated, happier staff.
Perhaps Benitez recognised that it would be difficult to do the same with scouting, especially when Ashley was personally invested in his chief scout – who had a longterm contract and, nominally at least, a place on the board.
He opted not to seek conflict even though it was clear that he would be driving scouting and recruitment.
In that first summer Benitez asked Carr for advice and the pair would talk, although it was clear the chief scout’s influence was on the wane.
Carr recommended Daryl Murphy over Rickie Lambert when Benitez asked for advice on which striker to bring to Newcastle. He also offered his thoughts on the proposal to bring Matz Sels from the Belgian Jupiler League, a competition Carr knew well.
The relationship was cordial at least; Benitez sent a Christmas hamper to Carr.
But Benitez’s scouting methods were arguably more forensic that Newcastle had been used to. He brought a personal database of significant size to Newcastle.
Ten years ago a former Benitez lieutenant – Paco Herrera – said Benitez’s database ran to more than 14,000 players. It is now understood to be closer to 20,000.
Herrera said: “We started incorporating people from one country or another.
“As time went by Rafa proposed to create a personal database, apart from the one (which was at Liverpool) Carr recommendation Daryl Murphy which is also very interesting. So he created a personal one and that’s where every day all the scouts from every country are putting information on all the players they are watching. I would say it would be closer to 14,000 players than 10,000.”
Benitez’s approach to scouting is as obsessive as the way he trains the players.
He has spelled out before the importance of character and charisma as part of a player’s mix – it is not just about the way a midfielder or striker passes or shoots or his technique, it is about the way they approach the game, their willingness to learn and even – in a few cases – their facial expressions when they miss a chance.
That does not mean he gets every player right. Benitez shoots for an 80% success rate, figuring that their are occasions where a player’s family life or the way that he settles in a new country can undermine a choice.
But his absolute belief is that every player must be recruited to fit into an overall plan meant the haphazard way that Newcastle had been recruiting before – with a clear schism between manager and head coach and the scouting department – was never, ever going to work.
Benitez’s belief is that no player should be handed down to a manager – which is how United had tended to work before.
January transfer window tensions made it clear that Benitez needed to make the point to Ashley that the scouting power-lines needed to be clear and his control had to be absolute. His point that economics and football could mix – he presented a business plan – was heeded by Ashley. Steve Nickson’s appointment was a sign of a battle won.
Now Newcastle’s scouting processes have been refined. Crucially, Nickson is a regular presence at the training ground – where they have built a tailor-made office for Newcastle’s head of recruitment.
Carr lived in Northampton – a good base for his cross-Channel scouting missions but the distance from Newcastle could be difficult – while Nickson talks regularly faceto-face with Benitez.
Benitez has some priorities – leftback, number ten and striker are all prominent.
But Newcastle are working on players for every position in January and Benitez wants regular progress reports on the targets that both he and his network of scouts fanning Europe and beyond have identified.
Newcastle still use Scout 7 and Wyscout – and Benitez has clips of potential January targets uploaded to his personal computer. These are refreshed periodically and distributed to his wide network of scouts.
But Benitez’s personal experience is a help. There was a player last season – a La Liga star – who Benitez had been discussing with his scouts and he was able to make a quick call to a director of football who had worked with him before for a reference.
This is the case in Italy, Spain, England, Germany and beyond: Benitez’s profile means he is wellconnected in the game. These technical tweaks and refinements have helped Newcastle to identify plenty of targets that they can move quickly on – and it is why they were able to secure alternatives when Benitez’s A, B and C list of targets fell through.
Previously, United’s top targets