Brotherly arguments at the heart of Boston recruitment

BBC News

5 hours ago

Brotherly arguments have famously split up bands and created rival sporting brands, and how Boston United lands new recruits is no different.Twins Sam and Shaun Graham are joint chief scouts at the National League club and freely admit to "falling out" with one another while at work.Where they will differ from rock stars Noel and Liam Gallagher, whose fraternal feud tore Oasis apart in 2009, or Adi and Rudi Dassler, whose quarrel led them to founding rival companies Adidas and Puma, is that they welcome the disagreements."Generally we will have a little bit of an argument," Sam told BBC Radio Lincolnshire."As you can imagine, we are brothers, and we do fall out. But I usually win."With a scoff, Shaun follows up with: "No, I don't think that's true."
Tales of footballing brothers sticking together are nothing new.Gary and Phil Neville featured for Manchester United and England; the Ivory Coast's Yaya and Kolo Toure had three years together at Manchester City; and then there were Ronald and Frank De Boer, who teamed up at Ajax, Barcelona, Rangers and the Netherlands during their illustrious careers.The Bellingham bros, Jude and Jobe, are among the highest-profile siblings in the game at the moment, starring for Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, respectively, after both emerged at Birmingham City.Where it differs for the Graham brothers is that they are lifelong Boston fans who are living out their dreams with the club off the pitch.Heading the scouting department of the fifth-tier club is something they have done together for the past two years.They returned to the Pilgrims together, having previously started out with them as volunteer regional scouts before going on to develop their careers away from Jakemans Community Stadium.Sam, who still recalls the first time he watched Boston United with his father and brother when aged five, says the job he shares with Shaun remains a "passion" above all else."I grew up a little addicted to football from a young age, especially non-league football," he said."And we have been lucky to have this amazing opportunity to now be involved and use that passion to try and drive the football club forward."Football and being on the lookout for talent is an all-consuming pursuit for the 38-year-old pair.When they are not working side by side, they laugh that they are probably on the phone to one another."We are quite lucky that we have different skill sets," Sam said. "I will do a lot of the admin stuff, a lot of the communication and speaking to the manager and a lot of the players. "And Shaun does a lot of the reporting and getting out and watching players, so that dynamic gives us two really good skill sets and allows us to do the job."As much as they play to one another's strengths as a scouting team, how the twin brothers view a player is not always identical.But even then, they have worked out ways of settling an argument in a way that Boston United benefits."It can be difficult at times, and there are disagreements now and again," said Shaun, who is the older brother by 48 minutes."But we tend to come to the same outcome because we have the same outlook on the game, and our opinions are very similar on players."Sometimes not agreeing is quite healthy. It keeps the relationship between us strong, I'd say."