FOR many clubs in the lower reaches of the Football League, player recruitment is largely based on gut feeling, calling in favours and luck.

From next week, Oxford United will begin to implement a strategy which they believe will take the guesswork out of an imperfect world and give them a clear advantage when it comes to finding the right needles in the haystack.

On Monday, Craig Dean will begin work as the club’s new head scout after two years working in the Football Association’s development department.

Before that, he spent five years as head of development at Newcastle United.

Dean will work with a network of at least four regional scouts, who are expected to be in place within weeks.

Their reports will be fed back to Mark Thomas, brought in as head of technical recruitment in July, who has started to build the database, upon which the whole project will be built.

Mark Ashton, United’s chief executive, saw a similar system work at West Brom a decade ago.

He is quick to stress it will not bring overnight success, but is convinced it is the only way forward.

“If you look at the clubs that have done well, whether that’s in the lower leagues or in the higher leagues, they all have a similar type of process,” he said.

“Look at Peterborough’s record in identifying players in non-league, coming in and doing fairly well for them and then trading them out at unbelievable profits.

“You have to hold your hands up and say they’ve done well, it’s not an accident.

“The difference in Leagues One and Two is there is far less data and video analysis available on players compared to the Championship and Premier League.

“So the only way to scout those players is to have bodies on the ground, you’ve got to physically have people out there.

“It’s a genuine opportunity – it will take time, but it will be worth it.”

This is not about revamping a recruitment department, it is starting from scratch.

The lack of forward planning was brought into sharp focus this summer, when Ashton was brought in as part of changes in the boardroom in July.

It meant he and newly-appointed head coach Michael Appleton were two months behind the rest of League Two.

Within days Appleton was admitting publicly there were frustrations about the absence of shortlists for transfer targets.

And despite weeks of feverish activity, the transfer window closed last week with the squad still two or three players away from completion.

“It will remove, over time, a lot of the challenges we’re having in this transfer window,” Ashton said.

“If you compare it to when we came in when little or none of this was happening, that is a quantum leap forward.”

Appleton, who will retain the final say on whether a player is signed or not, believes it will make a significant difference to his duties.

He said: “It will let me try and focus on what happens day-to-day on the training ground and on the pitch on a Saturday, instead of being on the phone constantly to agents and trying to pull in favours from people.

“I don’t think there will be a massive improvement for January, although there will be an improvement, but I think we’re that far behind it will still be difficult.

“But come next summer that’s where things should be in place to make things a lot easier.”

MARK Ashton explains the system in detail:

“We are recommended players on a daily basis from agents, scouts, contacts, other clubs, fans, you name it.

“It’s Mark Thomas’s job to sort and sift those names into a priority order and benchmark them against the individual DNA we have written down for each Oxford United position.

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  • Mark Thomas has a key role to play

“For example, we know technically, tactically, physiologically, psychologically, and very importantly financially what an Oxford United left back looks like.

“Mark measures the names against that DNA, so that starts to siphon the names down.

“He organises Craig Dean, who, supported by his regional scouts, will view players and opposition.

“They will not go to watch matches, they will be going out to watch pre-identified players in those games.

“We will have weekly recruitment meetings with written reports.

“Michael Appleton is a part of that group and from that we make recommendations, in line with the DNA that he has set.

“The theory is we will get to a point within 12 months that, for example, we will know every player in the Conference and we will have some kind of report on each one.

“So the minute someone recommends a centre half in the Conference to Michael, a series of reports will be there to say yes, no or maybe.

“But if it’s a ‘no’ we know why, if it’s a ‘maybe’ we will continue to watch him. And if it’s a yes how do we take it to the next stage?

“We will look at non-league and the Football League, but we may make a decision to look at specific clubs in the under 21 league, or at some point venture into Scotland, or Ireland, or over a period of time other leagues in other countries.

“That won’t be on day one, but it all flows so there is a logic and process behind each player we go and watch.”

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