Training Ground Guru

Being at Training Ground Guru Live this week reminded me of something that I thought of and wrote about back in 2021. And how I could be ready to adapt it. Firstly, a massive thank you to Joe MacDonald and Simon Austin for enabling me to be at the event. The discussions from Merijn Zeeman and Stuart Webber brought to mind that focus on culture. Everyone focusing on the goal and making strides under good leadership is a powerful ally in success. It is not an easy thing to achieve. The Sporting Directors chat with Leigh Bromby, Simon Wilson & Ross Wilson brought that to the fore. The right ideas can be in place, but there are so many intangibles within football that a steady ship sailing in the right direction can easily be blown off course given one strong wind. I originally came up with a concept for my Blackburn Rovers recruitment document in 2021, where I hypothesised that to attain success, in the case of the context I was applying at the time, promotion to the Premier League, a (non-rich) club had to go through a period of one of three things: * Exceptional Coaching * Perfect Resource Allocation * Sustained Overperformance It is a bit simplistic but if you don't have plenty of money, I think that roughly speaking, most successful team has had one or two of those facets. My theory was that if a club could aim for the middle one, Perfect Resource Allocation, across the club, not just on the pitch, then every penny would be working towards the desired outcome, and success could be achieved against greater budgets. Where I could be willing to adapt now, especially in light of TGG Live, is that culture probably needs a space. One could argue that it perhaps falls into Exceptional Coaching, or perhaps Resource Allocation. Does AI/Data Systems need its own space? A lot of what Reed Shaffner said, combined with Liam Bailey and Teamworks' recruitment session did make me realise how close we are to an AI-driven decision making process, especially across the top clubs. Could it be that a club with the best AI integration becomes the one that achieves success? If you didn't catch me at TGG Live and you wanted to say hi, then my DMs are still open. Would be great to discuss any of these matters. or GBE, of course!

A busy week, with two days at Old Trafford for Training Ground Guru, and the opportunity to lead this year’s Sporting Director breakout session alongside Sebastien Coustou. Having the opportunity to facilitate discussions around a role that continues to evolve across the game was particularly valuable. Much of the work involves conversations about structures, decision making, leadership and the processes that underpin successful football organisations. Speaking in front of your peers can feel daunting, but the reality is that these are conversations taking place across the industry every day. Creating an open forum to share experiences, challenge perspectives and discuss how we can continue to develop the role is what makes these opportunities worthwhile. Grateful to Training Ground Guru for the opportunity and to everyone who contributed to the discussions over the two days.

Two days at Old Trafford for Training Ground Guru Live. Once everyone had finished talking about the elephant in the city, there was plenty of football to discuss too. Our team sat down with sporting directors, heads of recruitment, scouts and analysts from dozens of clubs. Almost every conversation came back to the same problem. Clubs across the game now have access to largely the same data. So where does the edge come from, in the transfer market and on the pitch? The answer we kept hearing, and the one Marquee is built around, comes down to two things. Context and speed. Data only becomes an advantage once it is read through your own club: your system, your squad, your budget, your way of playing. And that advantage only counts if you act on it before everyone else does. At our stand, clubs put their own questions to Marq, our AI analyst, and got answers live in seconds. Ranked shortlists, full 360 scout reports, market opportunities, and pre-match, post-match and set-piece reports, all grounded in each club's sporting DNA and powered by 12 proprietary ML and AI models. We also spent time with our client Reading Football Club at their training ground. Hearing how their staff use Marquee day to day, and what they want from it next, is the feedback loop every feature we build comes from. Thank you to Training Ground Guru for a great event, and to every club that stopped by. Dean Bracha Jonathan Hazut Elad Ofer Gerard Esteban Jarrod Basger

I had the pleasure of attending Training Ground Guru Live 26 this week at Old Trafford. It was incredible to visit such a historic ground and listen to some of the industry's leaders discussing the intricacies of modern-day football. A topic that came up repeatedly across both days was leadership, and how it boils down to fostering a high-performance culture within your club or institution. Caring for and developing fellow staff members is as important as producing football players. It's a topic that's often overlooked or ignored in Romanian football. We've become accustomed to leadership being intertwined with ego and decision-making power, yet everything in elite football points to open and sincere collaboration between highly specialized departments and roles. I think it's up to the next generation of football leaders in Romania to shift the paradigm over the next few years if we are ever going to compete at the highest level again. Loved speaking to everyone I met. If we didn’t get a chance to connect or exchange LinkedIn profiles, hopefully this ends up on your feed somehow 😅 #TGGLive26 #FootballLeadership #SportingDirector #Football ——————————————— Am avut plăcerea să particip săptămâna aceasta la Training Ground Guru Live 26, pe Old Trafford. A fost incredibil să vizitez un stadion atât de istoric și să ascult câțiva dintre liderii industriei discutând subtilitățile fotbalului modern. Un subiect care a revenit constant în ambele zile a fost leadershipul și felul în care acesta se rezumă, în esență, la cultivarea unei culturi de înaltă performanță în cadrul clubului sau al instituției tale. Grija pentru ceilalți membri ai staffului și dezvoltarea lor sunt la fel de importante ca formarea jucătorilor. Este un subiect adesea trecut cu vederea sau ignorat în fotbalul românesc. Ne-am obișnuit ca leadershipul să fie împletit cu orgoliul și cu puterea de decizie, însă tot ce înseamnă fotbal de elită arată spre o colaborare deschisă și sinceră între departamente și roluri înalt specializate. Cred că le revine următoarei generații de lideri din fotbalul românesc să schimbe paradigma în următorii ani, dacă vrem vreodată să concurăm din nou la cel mai înalt nivel.

Thanks to Training Ground Guru and Simon Austin for the fantastic event at Old Trafford Manchester United Day Two - Coaching, Analyst and Performance, certainly lots of take away and inputs from keynotes and panel discussions Also a great pleasure to meet industry professionals, sports veterans and very impressed about the rich knowledge and people in the room today. Misty rainy Manchester morning with #TGGLive26 became sunny and inspiring afternoon... #SportsProfessionals #CoachingPerformanceAnalysis #MedicalPerformance #Football #HighPerformance

Plenty of posts today re the excellent #TGGLive, two day event held at the Theatre of Dreams, for me it’s often what’s not said rather hinted or implied or adapted that resonates. Reassuringly humanity still has a huge part to play, the connectivity or chain of events and the quality of an end user decision remain critical. Risk reduction, probability and prediction tools most certainly are now embedded in the “randomness” of our beautiful game as positive disrupters, the future mix looks fascinating to behold and embrace #progress #luck #galwayunitedacademy