Moyes impressed by Salzburg model during visit to Austrian club

David Moyes has put his free time to good use since parting company with West Ham United at the end of last season. The former Everton, Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sunderland manager has been boosting his air miles tally in order to study the way top clubs in Europe and the USA operate, knowledge he intends to put to good use in his next job.

One of the clubs he spent time assessing is Red Bull Salzburg, who will play host to Celtic in the Europa League on Thursday evening.

The Scot was impressed by the way the energy drinks gianthashelpedtotransform the fortunes of the club previously known as Austria Salzburg and Casino Salzburg since buying control in 2005.

Moyes also highlighted the number of players they have taken out of Africa (the current squad has five players from Cameroon, Mali and Zambia) and how that helps to give them an edge over British clubs, who struggle to obtain work permits for youngsters from that part of the world.

“I went to Austria the other week to see the Red Bull model at Salzburg and it was really interesting to see their set-up,” he said. “The biggest

0 David Moyes: Study trip.

thing for me is that you need to look at the players who’ve come out of Red Bull and moved elsewhere – guys like [Liverpool duo Naby] Keita and [Sadio] Mane,” said the 55-year-old. “They’ve sold two or three other players as well.

“Red Bull have an awful lot of players from Africa, and what’s happening is they’re getting them in early enough and they’re selling them on so they’re getting [access to a talent pool] which we haven’t got.

“I was amazed by the facilities they had. The weekend we were out they held an under-16 tournament. They had Red Bull Leipzig under-16s, Red Bull Salzburg under-16s, Red Bull New York under-16s and Red Bull Brazil under-16s – and then there was Chelsea, Southampton, Flamengo and a team from Africa. I thought it was a great idea because it gave [the owners] a chance to see all Red Bull’s players and where they can move them on to. I think there’s much more of this going on; you have Manchester City’s model and there’s a few other clubs thinking the way forward is to have a franchise.

“You might think about Red Bull Salzburg and ask who’s in the Austrian League? You might be able to name two or three at most yet they actually got to the semi-final of the Europa League last season.

“That’s where you’d be hoping Celtic might get to this season.”