‘High pedigree’: The man who holds key to Portsmouth transfers critical to Championship hopes - as former Manchester City and Rangers man steps up
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And Blues boss John Mousinho has acknowledged the importance of the club’s mysterious head of recruitment, with it a little over four weeks until the winter business gets under way.
The club are set to tackle their second window with Brad Wall within the football set-up, with the stakes high when it comes to Championship hopes.
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Hide AdThe former Wolves and Rangers man arrived as Phil Boardman’s successor last May, after his departure to Everton, with Mousinho pleased to land someone of his calibre and that nous crucial for what lies ahead.
‘We had that change in the summer with Phil deservedly departing the club to go to Everton. He was a massive part of what we did last season and gutted to lose him - but really pleased to bring Brad in.
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Hide Ad‘The vast majority of players will start with the recruitment department and filter through to myself and Rich. Then we work together at the front and back end to make sure we bring the right players into the football club.
‘It’s been great to working with Brad and we’re looking forward to hopefully having a really successful January.’
Wall’s knowledge of the European market has been spoken about since coming into his Pompey role, with his influence felt in the signings of Elias Sorensen and Abdoulaye Kamara.
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Hide AdThat’s not to say that’s where his expertise solely lies, however, with the Pompey boss highlighting the importance of a wide recruitment knowledge base.
Mousinho added: ‘The key to being successful and a successful recruiter these days is you can’t afford to have just one specialist area especially at our level.
‘We need a head of recruitment who knows the 21s market, that knows the loans market in terms of Championship and Premier League players not playing. These are the sort of markets we look at.
‘They need a really good knowledge of League One and League Two players. Then the art is to look at those League One and League Two players and think who can make the step up. I’d extend that to the National League as well.
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Hide Ad‘Then there’s the European market. For the majority of the time that will be based on connections in Europe and who you know - certainly people on the ground who can direct you to the right places.
‘Then it’s the ability to scout players from video rather than watching them live, that’s really important. That’s where I think we were successful in bringing in players in from Australia. It’s a combination of that and then watching them live as well.
‘So I think you have to have a number of different strings to you bow to succeed in recruitment.’
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