MSc Scouting and Recruitment in Football

This module will enable you to develop awareness and analysis of the key fundamentals and principles of football statistics and data, integrating theory with practice and sharing knowledge and understanding through discussion and debate. The applied element of football will allow you to gain experience and develop an understanding of data drawn from both competition and training contexts. You will learn which data is needed to function effectively and safely within a variety of situations, developing reflective skills and identifying which theories are most applicable when working in a specific applied football context. You will learn how to analyse data, integrate theory with practice and work with differing departments within a football club in order to improve practice and performance.

This module will advance your research methods and critical thinking skills, and support you in applying these to the sports industry and its associated environments. This module will prepare you for research, reflective, and evidence-based development in future employment, as well as for higher study if applicable.

This module will enable you to define the differences between detection, identification and selection in the process of scouting and recruitment.  Understanding where to find talent is the first step within the logistics of the scouting process.  Students will learn how to adopt a multi-sport approach in young performers to assess talented footballers of the future.  You will learn how to spot the ‘right’ talent for the needs of your clubs and the understand the importance and difference that a good talent does not simply mean the right talent.  Students will explore the importance of maturation, female specific considerations, the impact of Bio banding and the Relative Age Effect (RAE)  and how this needs to be considered when making judgements and selections on a player’s potential.

This module will take students beyond the realm of traditional scouting and will prepare students for the next steps beyond the role at the side of the pitch.  You will explore the intricacies of how to recruit talent and how to negotiate and justify your points to figure heads within your club.  Utilising theory, you will adopt practices that provide you with a high chance of success of securing the players your scouting network have identified as targets.  This module will also provide students with additional exposure to agents, heads of recruitment and sporting directors to share their experiences of how they have navigated the complex and competitive environment that is football recruitment.

This module will give students a taste of what it feels like to share their knowledge and views in the format of those seen on Monday Night Football (Sky Sports). For the first time, Postgraduate students will be crossing over with Media and learning and developing interpersonal skills that can be translated into a ‘punditry’ style approach of delivery.  This module has been developed as within the domain of scouting and recruitment knowledge and experience is not enough, the delivery of this information is a critical part of whether you get the player that you have worked hard to scout, report and recommend.  Students will be given opportunities to hear from those in the media world with a specific focus on football analysis and how this is impactful when trying to reach an audience.