The NSNO Everton Forums

Risky wrote: ↑Wed Jan 14, 2026 11:07 am So you're wanting to see some scouts sacked then? That's basically what you think needs to happen?

Held accountable

They are paid to do a job and imo not a very good one

Cereal Killer wrote: ↑Wed Jan 14, 2026 10:24 am Just clutching at stuff we don’t know

Was it one scout who listed all the names? Or 5 scouts gave 5 separate names?

How high on the list was the name? As we tried for a whole bunch of players that turned us down I’d wager not very high

If the scouts only ever listed sure things for fear of being canned, we’d have very short lists of players that would be completely unattainable for us

Not sure pinning anything on some scout that gets paid less than a teacher is worth worrying about

Are you a scout

Milky1971 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 14, 2026 11:36 am Held accountable

They are paid to do a job and imo not a very good one

What do you mean by that then, if it's not sacking them? Do you want a club press release stating that scouts have had a stern talking to?

We are where we are, we should hopefully see improvements in our recruitment processes and scouting over the coming seasons. But it will mostly all happen in house and the proof will be in hopefully us making far better recruitment decisions that we have over the recent past. Do we want better scouts, well yes obviously, but it's a far wider structural improvement that's underway and making a thread to single out scouts is just a bit pointless.

Milky1971 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 14, 2026 11:36 am Held accountable

They are paid to do a job and imo not a very good one

Barking up the wrong tree

What if scout said Barry could be decent if giving enough time to develop, we should pay no more than £15m for him

Not the scouts fault we paid loads more than that and threw him in straight away, with some people demanding instant results

You need to realise how the scouts work before pointing fingers I reckon….they don’t just go willy nilly watch a game and think “I know I’ll recommend him he had a good game”
The normal process is the club (nowadays director of football) speaks with the manager and coaches…they identify positions they wish to strengthen / recruit….they then identify players who they feel need looking at…they then inform the scouts who they’ve identified….the scout will go and build a dossier over a period of time which could be a couple of months….they present the portfolio and usually a second scout will go and watch the player and confirm or refute the dossier….then either the sporting director/manager/senior coach will watch the player…then the management team will decide they do/don’t want to follow it up…..
And it’s not just a case of oh yes he scored a couple of goals we’ll take him or he can run fast we’ll take him….they also gave to gauge other outside influences..language ability to adept to adapt to new cultures etc….
It’s a very long drawn out process…..in some instances too long because they can’t make a decision by which time the targets gone !!!

Cereal Killer wrote: ↑Wed Jan 14, 2026 11:58 am Barking up the wrong tree

What if scout said Barry could be decent if giving enough time to develop, we should pay no more than £15m for him

Not the scouts fault we paid loads more than that and threw him in straight away, with some people demanding instant results

Did you scout Barry

Cereal Killer wrote: ↑Wed Jan 14, 2026 10:25 am Because they’re Man City, multiple Premier League winners, Champions League winners, one of the worlds best managers and basically unlimited money

We’re Everton

And still have 115 chages against them and nothing happens about it.

Risky wrote: ↑Wed Jan 14, 2026 11:07 am So you're wanting to see some scouts sacked then? That's basically what you think needs to happen?

I think its a fair point that our scouting appears to have been awful for a number of years now. Wouldn't we all like to see better scouting

777Kidnappings wrote: ↑Wed Jan 14, 2026 2:01 pm I think its a fair point that our scouting appears to have been awful for a number of years now. Wouldn't we all like to see better scouting

Yes, obviously and I've mentioned that in my following post. It's such a fair point that it hardly even needs to be said.

I want to know who is scouting the scouts, they should be held responsible.

And who appointed the scouts scouting the scouts - who is accountable for that?

Arkela obviously

I like Barry.

Aznou is one of the top LB prospects in the world.

Dibbling - one of the best talents in his age group for England and could well be a superstar.

Is it scouting? Is it profiles they are asked to scout? Is it what actually gets signed from the shortlist? Is it what we can afford? Is it the fact we just bought a data analyst firm that seemed to have done fuck all before we bought it?

Who knows. But I'd be very surprised if the issue was scouts tbh

Next summer will be the time to start judging the new recruitment set-up, as others have said.

Last summer was a needs must, get bodies in kind of operation (and we still managed to get some talented young players in).

We'll see what they do when they've had some time to plan their recruitment.

777Kidnappings wrote: ↑Wed Jan 14, 2026 2:01 pm I think its a fair point that our scouting appears to have been awful for a number of years now. Wouldn't we all like to see better scouting

Just our scouting, or our organisation as a whole, top to bottom?