Former Wrexham AFC football strategist tells UCFB how football clubs prepare for success

Football strategist and former Premier League manager Les Reed has been talking to UCFB about how football clubs prepare for success.

Les, who now runs his own consultancy company, was previously manager at Charlton Athletic and was recently working at Wrexham AFC as a football strategy advisor.

When asked about what the role of a football strategist involves, he said: “The purpose of a football strategist is to advise new or potential club owners around the due diligence stage.

“They all do really well on the finances, but very few actually do anything on football strategy.

“They’ve got ambitions for the club but they haven’t analysed if that club has the capability or potential and how long that might take until they’re in the driving seat.

“They can then make some pretty bad decisions so my job is to try and prevent them doing that.”

Les went on to speak about how football clubs prepare for success.

“It’s really important that there’s no ‘one size fits all,’” he said.

“In my role, the big thing is to find out what are the owners’ ambitions and in what timescale, and then what is the culture, background and history of that club, and try and match the two things up.”

He added: “Success on the pitch is really important. Obviously, the better the performances, the more points, success and trophies.

“That in itself means you’ve got a better opportunity in attracting better players, and it brings it more revenue which you can then reinvest back into the club.

“But it also gives the business side of the club an opportunity to invest in commercial branding, attract better sponsorship and better deals.

“Then the money recirculates, you get a better team on the pitch, it plays better and the whole cycle repeats itself.”