Out of the ordinary and successful scouting examples.

[Hap Hapablap]

Listening to TalkSport on the way home and a big discussion was being had about Jude Bellingham, (what a player and young man by the way) and it got me thinking about his move to Dortmund from Birmingham City.

Was this a brilliant piece of work by a Dortmund scout or is somebody that good at that age on the radar of every club and Dortmund just offer the best all round package? Transfers like that don't happen very often, European giant plucking a young boy from a lower division and it being a massive success.

Would love to know about other examples, 2 that I can think of is Jamie Vardy and our own Bobby Russell.

 

[TheFantasticNinetiesFox]

Rab Douglas

 

[DarthVader]

Morelos and Tav

 

[Bouncebackability]

Morelos and Tav

Was about to say a certain Colombian by way of Helsinki.

 

[ssblue]

Bellingham was well known and linked with every top club when he went to BvB.

He played 40 odd games as a 16 year old.

 

[Mount_Bear]

Birmingham retired his shirt number when he left such was his profile. It was almost like waiting for the #1 draft pick to announce his chosen destination.

 

[RS_Jam]

Hansen from Partick to Liverpool?

 

[John Knox's Trumpet]

Haaland to Salzburg and then Dortmund.

 

[eeboh]

Listening to TalkSport on the way home and a big discussion was being had about Jude Bellingham, (what a player and young man by the way) and it got me thinking about his move to Dortmund from Birmingham City.

Was this a brilliant piece of work by a Dortmund scout or is somebody that good at that age on the radar of every club and Dortmund just offer the best all round package? Transfers like that don't happen very often, European giant plucking a young boy from a lower division and it being a massive success.

Would love to know about other examples, 2 that I can think of is Jamie Vardy and our own Bobby Russell.

Was going to reply regarding Russell, always wondered who saw him at junior level and thought he'll make it as a pro. What a player he was.

 

[Beechwoodboab]

Calvin Bassey

 

[Hap Hapablap]

As much as a great find Morelos was I never thought about him as he came from the top league in the country he was playing in.

Was thinking more about players that big clubs plucked from levels below what would be seen as the highest level of competition in that country.

 

[drgriffen]

Crystal Palace signed Ian Wright from non-league football when he was 22/23.

Palermo signed Paulo Dybala from Instituto who were in the Argentinean 2nd division.

 

[RAFBob]

Listening to TalkSport on the way home and a big discussion was being had about Jude Bellingham, (what a player and young man by the way) and it got me thinking about his move to Dortmund from Birmingham City.

Was this a brilliant piece of work by a Dortmund scout or is somebody that good at that age on the radar of every club and Dortmund just offer the best all round package? Transfers like that don't happen very often, European giant plucking a young boy from a lower division and it being a massive success.

Would love to know about other examples, 2 that I can think of is Jamie Vardy and our own Bobby Russell.

Alfredo Morelos
James Tavernier
Calvin Bassey

 

[Daleboy91Watp]

Aribo

 

[¥ungblazebo¥]

if you’re ~18 years old and have good ability, and you have ambitions of playing for Real, Barca, PSG, Liverpool etc the best thing you can do is sign for Dortmund, even if the aforementioned clubs are in for you at that age. Their track record for developing talent and getting them from being a young talent with potential to being able to make an impact at the top level is phenomenal.

If Dortmund are interested at that age, you go there, no matter who else is in for you.

 

[Grigo Yossarian]

Was going to reply regarding Russell, always wondered who saw him at junior level and thought he'll make it as a pro. What a player he was.

Eric Morris was bought around that time but wasn’t quite as successful.

 

[¥ungblazebo¥]

Sancho would be another example, he was an academy player, Bellingham was arguably Birmingham’s top player when he left.

Sancho has been unlucky with England, and Man Utd is a basket case club, but he is a top player.

 

[BunsenHoneydew]

Would Messi count? I can't imagine there's too many kids being signed at 13 by a club halfway across the world, so they can pump him full of growth hormone to turn him into one of the best players in history?

 

[Hap Hapablap]

[/QUOTE]

Crystal Palace signed Ian Wright from non-league football when he was 22/23.

Palermo signed Paulo Dybala from Instituto who were in the Argentinean 2nd division.

Great shout

 

[Angus Og]

Where were Raith Rovers when Baxter was bought for the princely sum of £17,500?

 

[A Magician Named Gob]

Mahrez, Vardy and Kante at Leicester was pretty decent scouting.

 

[Tomted]

Think one of our best signings was Carlos Cuellar. There had been no talk about Carlos coming to us from Osasuna but he proved to be a great asset. Memory is unreliable when you get old but I seem to recall that it was John Brown who had scouted Cuellar.

 

[dennytrueblue]

Think one of our best signings was Carlos Cuellar. There had been no talk about Carlos coming to us from Osasuna but he proved to be a great asset. Memory is unreliable when you get old but I seem to recall that it was John Brown who had scouted Cuellar.

Heard John Brown speaking at Argyle suite at the Braga match and he is back scouting for us

 

[Hoojar McKinney]

Glen Kamara.
Ian Rush.

 

[napierblue]

Think one of our best signings was Carlos Cuellar. There had been no talk about Carlos coming to us from Osasuna but he proved to be a great asset. Memory is unreliable when you get old but I seem to recall that it was John Brown who had scouted Cuellar.

Didn’t he play against us the season before he signed? Always assumed he caught someones eye that night

 

[SwingLow9]

Lambert to Dortmund

 

[valencia05]

Jamie Vardy - from hatchet-faced non-league nonentity to Wagatha Christie trial witness (okay, he's done well I suppose)

 

[Prso09]

Sasa papac, most people didnt think he would stay too long after le guen left

 

[Tomted]

Didn’t he play against us the season before he signed? Always assumed he caught someones eye that night

You are spot on. Managed to trace back and Cuellar was playing against us.

 

[Main Stand]

Lambert to Dortmund

Don’t think that was marvellous scouting.

I’m sure he practically wrote to Dortmund asking for a trial after playing against them in a pre-season game and they said ‘what’ve to lose’

Now, Scott Booth to Dortmund is a bizarre one!

 

[A Magician Named Gob]

Sasa papac, most people didnt think he would stay too long after le guen left

Evening Ian.

 

[Unicorn]

Villa signed David Platt from Crewe who were in the old 4th division at the time, a little over a year later he was playing in a World Cup semi final and shortly after moved to Seria A.

 

[andy1872]

Billy Gilmour to Chelsea

 

[Ross]

Didn’t he play against us the season before he signed? Always assumed he caught someones eye that night

When Osasuna knocked us out Uefa Cup not long after Walter came back, after we topped group under Le Guen.

 

[BertsEBT]

Leicester picking up both Mahrez and Kante completely changed the club's history.

 

[Alex_Bear]

Hilarious that mahrez was on trial at st mirren and had to steal a bike to peddle like furk for the airport to escape the misery.

 

[eeboh]

Eric Morris was bought around that time but wasn’t quite as successful.

I had to Google him Grigo, scored a goal for us...lived the dream haahhaa

 

[Pickle Rick RFC]

Hilarious that mahrez was on trial at st mirren and had to steal a bike to peddle like furk for the airport and escape the misery.

I heard that. Also that st mirren rejected him and Gus MacPherson preferred Billy Mehmet instead . That sums up Scottish football. Mahrez Wasn't deemed physical enough so was let to go back to the French second division and a big shitey hammer thrower striker preferred instead

 

[ibrox1975]

Was going to reply regarding Russell, always wondered who saw him at junior level and thought he'll make it as a pro. What a player he was.

Thing that made absolutely no sense at all with Bobby Russell was he went straight from Junior football to be a certain 1st team starter for a glorious Rangers team that won the treble in 1977-1978.
So he went to the very very top in one move.
Fantastic player and extremely under valued.
Also brilliant with Motherwell when he left us

 

[Hap Hapablap]

Villa signed David Platt from Crewe who were in the old 4th division at the time, a little over a year later he was playing in a World Cup semi final and shortly after moved to Seria A.

This is a great example

 

[Robert Marshall]

Graham Roberts

 

[valencia05]

John Brown scouting Kamara from Dundee for Rangers has got to be up there.
£50k to maybe £10-15m now

 

[FSM]

Junior Messias is a brilliant one.

Originally from Brazil, he moved to Italy at the age of 20, then played the next four years in their equivalent of Sunday League football (while working as a delivery driver), it’s not until the age of 24 that he becomes semi-professional in the fifth division of Italian football, then he only becomes fully professional in the second tier at the age of 28.

After one good season in the top flight last year for newly-promoted Crotone, he joined AC Milan on loan this season, where he played (and scored) in the Champions League and won Serie A, at the age of 31.

Genuinely unbelievable, it’s the kind of story that would have sounded ridiculous 30 years ago, never mind today.

 

[Punpun]

Gabriel Martinelli - Brazil Serie D to EPL Arsenal

 

[Kowloon72]

John Brown scouting Kamara from Dundee for Rangers has got to be up there.
£50k to maybe £10-15m now

Gerrard used Brown as a scout? Never knew that.

 

[Kowloon72]

Not at the same level as some listed on here.

But Hibs signed Nisbet from lower league Dunfermline for buttons in summer 2020. Was a Scotland international by the end of the season and they could easily have punted him down south for a few million.

 

[Boabinho]

Dougie Arnott Pollok to Motherwell

 

[Souness’s Moustache]

Eric Caldow, Muirkirk to then become first player to captain a British team in a Eurpean final.

 

[Cooper 11]

Big Jock signed Ian Wilson for Leicester from Elgin after a friendly when Elgin were still a Highland League side. Wilson got 5 caps while at Leicester.



Side note & a good pub trivia question: Gary Linekar only scored one goal in Scotland - that game versus Elgin.

 

[Cooper 11]

Don’t think that was marvellous scouting.

I’m sure he practically wrote to Dortmund asking for a trial after playing against them in a pre-season game and they said ‘what’ve to lose’

Now, Scott Booth to Dortmund is a bizarre one!

Motherwell played Dortmund in the old UEFA cup mid-ninties. Hitzfeld liked the look of Lambert and picked him up on a Bosman at the end of the season.

I think Booth was signed on the basis he’d be a mate for Lambert who was struggling with the lingo.