Latest news with #playerrecruitment
New York Times
28-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Why are Aston Villa making so many €5m to €9m signings?
Aston Villa's player recruitment these days can be separated into two clear categories. The Premier League club have demonstrated a couple of strands to their strategy on incoming transfers since sporting director Monchi arrived in summer 2023 to head up their football department. The first is to sign 'oven-ready' players who can immediately supplement manager Unai Emery's first-team squad. They may not always start matches, but are capable of making an immediate impact. The second is to add young recruits who have begun their senior-level careers in lesser-seen leagues in other countries. Or, as Emery calls them, 'potential players'. These are not purchased to help the Villa cause in the here and now, but later down the line. Advertisement A pattern has emerged over the past 18 months with Monchi, in combination with the data and recruitment staff, working to complete deals for such relatively-unknown targets. Each is bought for a similar ballpark figure — the €5million to €9m mark (£4.3m-£7.8m/$5.9m-$10.6m at current rates) — and usually gets loaned out, either to a third club or back to the one they were just signed from. If one proves a success, Villa would, in the long run, turn a sizeable profit. This is pertinent in the profitability and sustainability (PSR) era. One notable change since Monchi's appointment is that staff in these departments are now asked to focus on specific regions. Villa are rebuilding some upstairs rooms at their Bodymoor Heath training ground, moving their data insights team into the office next to Monchi's, making it easier to discuss private matters with him. This branch of recruitment is leaned upon when debating 'potential players' — young, raw talents needing to be refined. This area of the club's transfer business can be frustrating for supporters, who are not likely to learn of or see the development of such signings immediately — or indeed ever, if they are sold for profit before integrating into the squad. Kosta Nedeljkovic is a case in point. Signed in January 2024 for €9m from Crvena Zvezda, the then 18-year-old right-back stayed with the Serbian club on loan until the end of that season. 'He was inexperienced (when Villa bought him),' Marko Mitrovic, the Belgrade side's head scout tells The Athletic.'But with his body shape and long step in sprints, he looked very good. He had started in our feeder club in the Serbian second division and it wasn't until September 2023 he started regularly training with our first team. He played 12 Serbian league games before joining Villa.' Advertisement Once he reported to Villa for pre-season, Nedeljkovic made nine appearances under Emery over the next few months but did not start a single Premier League game. He was loaned to RB Leipzig at the end of the winter window in a deal that gave the German Bundesliga side an option to buy the now 19-year-old this summer, indicating Villa did not view him as having a longer-term future with them. Leipzig decided against exercising that option but have borrowed him again for the whole of the upcoming season. If Villa developed reservations about Nedeljkovic, there was greater excitement about Sverre Nypan. They were frontrunners to land the teenage midfielder from Norway's Rosenborg. Staff made trips there to monitor Nypan, with detailed work going into convincing him to join their project. Monchi had dinner with the family and built a good relationship with Nypan's father. His case was both different from how Villa recruited 'potential players' and the same. Nypan's acquisition, if achieved, would generate plenty of internal excitement at the club. Though the initial plan was for the 18-year-old to form part of Emery's squad and build minutes, Villa were also amenable to the idea of him going out on loan in the first season. The longer Nypan refused to commit, the club lost more confidence that he would. Instead, Nypan has since joined Manchester City in a deal worth £12.5million. Villa moving for Nypan fell outside the bracket of relatively-unknown players arriving at the club. He, similar to their pursuit of Toulouse defender Jaydee Canvot (Villa have made an opening offer for the 18-year-old), was on a larger financial scale than those kinds of deals. Going into this year's winter transfer window, Villa wanted to sign a right-back, with senior options considered. When they were all deemed financially unviable, they looked to Spanish second-division side Levante's then 21-year-old, Andres Garcia, who was available for €7m and regarded as a market opportunity. He was represented by the same agency, Interstar Deporte, as Villa's Spain international centre-back Pau Torres, who have a good relationship with Monchi and Emery from their La Liga days. Advertisement Villa had tracked Garcia's data from when he played in Levante's B team, with his characteristics deemed as transferable to the Premier League. They had faith in their convictions, given he had accrued nearly 3,500 minutes of football across three seasons in Spain's second tier. His work rate and volume of sprints in a game — even if technical aspects in possession require work — suggested he can be effective in the Premier League, where he made seven appearances and five starts in the second half of last season. Bolstered by coaching and the critical fact that Emery trusts him to play, staff believe he will show more adaptation to the English game in the coming campaign. Whether Garcia is Villa's first-team right-back of the future is another question but if he continues to rack up appearances, there is a possibility he can be sold for two to three times the amount he cost. Also in January, Villa finalised an agreement with Turkish club Kasimpasa for teen centre-back Yasin Ozcan to join them in this window. The 19-year-old has signed a contract until 2030, with the fee being €7m plus a further €1m in possible add-ons. Villa's scouting system extracted a good amount of data on Ozcan, due to him making his top-flight debut at 16 and playing 81 games for Kasimpasa to that point (he got to 94 before season's end), combined with caps at various youth levels with Turkey. From Villa's perspective, it was clear he was on the path to be a full international before too long, which would accelerate his value. And they were right — he made his debut for Turkey in a friendly against Mexico last month. They noted how Ozcan was adept in different formations and positions (he can operate at full-back), while possessing the gold-dust-like centre-back requirement of being left-footed. Emery has tried him at left-back and on the left of a back three in pre-season, which means he can add depth to the Villa first team, or to that of another club he joins on loan before the September 1 transfer deadline. Athletic, left-footed centre-backs are simpler to make money on. Last summer, Villa signed teenage central defender Yeimar Mosquera from Colombian second-tier side Orsomarso before loaning him to sister club Real Union in the Spanish third division for the first half of the campaign. Mosquera's low-cost transfer was facilitated partly because of Villa's relationship with his representatives, DV7; Damian Vidagany, the club's director of football operations, was formerly the agency's chief executive. Now 20, Mosquera is involved in Villa's pre-season as Emery wants to take a closer look before deciding on a longer-term strategy for his development. Advertisement This month, Villa confirmed the €5m signing of Modou Keba Cisse from Austrian side LASK, edging out France's Troyes for his services and so keeping the 19-year-old out of the clutches of the City Football Group (CFG), which owns the Ligue 2 side. He will be loaned back to LASK for the coming season. Cisse only joined them last July from the Be Sport Academy in Senegal and didn't make his league debut until February, so the data available on him is a much lower sample size than some of the other young additions mentioned in this article, but Villa's checks indicate there's something promising about him. 'I brought him to the second team initially,' Luka Pavlovic, who was LASK's under-18s coach at the time, tells The Athletic. 'He went on trial and I said: 'He is the next Pogba' — he was a midfielder then. But the club put him at centre-back, which was a great decision. He is great in training, hard-working and a nice, quiet guy.' Whether any such 'potential players' are a success depends on your definition. Villa accept that not every such prospect they sign will turn out to be a first-team option for them. But they can, possibly, all be assets down the line — either on the pitch or the spreadsheets.
BBC News
26-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Rice appointed Livingston head of football operations
Brian Rice has "swapped the dugout for the boardroom" after being appointed head of football operations at 61, joined David Martindale's backroom team in November 2023 and helped the team gain immediate promotion back to the Scottish Premiership last former Hamilton and Alloa boss will now focus on the club's player recruitment."As part of the structural review at the end of our successful 2024-25 season, we identified we were a bit fragile in terms of player recruitment and player ID, both paramount to the on-field success of the club," manager Martindale said."[Rice] has swapped the dugout for the boardroom on a matchday essentially, and as much as he will be a big loss in terms of the daily coaching and matchday itself, he will be a huge asset for the football club in this new role."
