We need to start looking in Eastern Europe

Recoba

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You can get really good players for a fraction of the price it would cost buying from England etc.


Look at that Josip Ilicic last night, strong, amazing left foot delivery and shot on him, signed for Palermo from Maribor for 2.3 million Euro, then signed for Fiorentina for 9 Million Euro, now at Atalanta.

This is just one example.
 
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Totally agree with you mate, have been saying for ages that we cannot shop in the English market for decent players as the price is totally unaffordable. We need to find new markets where quality players can be identified at realistic (in our current financial environment) prices. Until Brexit, eastern Europeans would be able to come straight in, without the complications of work permits, which we would need to address if we tried to sign South American or African players.
 
There's 2 guys at Slavia Prague who I think would walk into our team.

Simon Deli (Centre Half)
Michael Ngadeu Ngadjui (Defensive Mid)

Also, Zmrhal would be a good shout for a wide man.

First two are African. Zmrhal is Czech.
 
Also the Rosenborg captain who is Danish would cost about 1- million, centre mid, quality player

They are out there we just need to start gtting into these areas.
 
The argument has always been that British players or 'guys the manager knows' are ready to hit the ground running and need to time to settle...we've found that not be the case.

We do need to scout markets that we can actually afford to shop in.
 
Has there been any improvements to our scouting network since Allen's arrival? Has he brought anyone in or reallocated the resources we previously had? I'm genuinely curious here, not trying to be critical of Allen.
 
Has there been any improvements to our scouting network since Allen's arrival? Has he brought anyone in or reallocated the resources we previously had? I'm genuinely curious here, not trying to be critical of Allen.
Not sure mate, he said thats his first focus but i would imagine it may take time to get going
 
Has there been any improvements to our scouting network since Allen's arrival? Has he brought anyone in or reallocated the resources we previously had? I'm genuinely curious here, not trying to be critical of Allen.

The 'best signings' were either already in the pipeline (Dorrans), local and presumably scouted by club (Jack) or JJ's superb find in Morelos. Not sure MA has had time yet but didn't he have a hand in Elton's loan spell with us?
 
No doubt it'll take time, I'm sure he has his hands full, but as mentioned above, we have to start getting quality/value from the right markets.
 
Problem is the market is all but cornered.

Ilicic would have been known long before he moved, and would he choose us over Serie A Palermo? Maybe.

We should definitely be looking at these markets - but they're busy now. Sweden - The young fella on the right of my avatar should have been a Ranger (And would have been if PLG got his way) but the equivalents in today's Allsvenskan (Kerim Mrabti - £60k, Felix Beijmo - £300k for starters) are probably already out of our reach due to Bundesliga and Dutch clubs cornering the market.

So in short, we need to be there but I fear we're 15-20 years too late.
 
A superb quote was from an Ajax coach in Scandanavia talking about how much harder it was getting due to EPL cash...he went to visit a player aged 16 in a remote town and as he pulled up he said: "I saw the huge, brand new 4 x 4 in the drive and knew Man City, or Chelsea or someone like that had got there first...."
 
A superb quote was from an Ajax coach in Scandanavia talking about how much harder it was getting due to EPL cash...he went to visit a player aged 16 in a remote town and as he pulled up he said: "I saw the huge, brand new 4 x 4 in the drive and knew Man City, or Chelsea or someone like that had got there first...."

Exactly - the two players I've mentioned are destined for bigger things, and although no deals done they'll know roughly who's interested in them already.
 
Eastern Europe, Scandinavia even Benelux. There are still good players out there we can afford
 
Problem is the market is all but cornered.

Ilicic would have been known long before he moved, and would he choose us over Serie A Palermo? Maybe.

We should definitely be looking at these markets - but they're busy now. Sweden - The young fella on the right of my avatar should have been a Ranger (And would have been if PLG got his way) but the equivalents in today's Allsvenskan (Kerim Mrabti - £60k, Felix Beijmo - £300k for starters) are probably already out of our reach due to Bundesliga and Dutch clubs cornering the market.

So in short, we need to be there but I fear we're 15-20 years too late.


I know what you are saying which is why we need to get them when they are young, he moved to Maribor for 80k at age 20
 
We should scout all of the balkans leagues far better players with technical ability then Scotland

I'd have a permanent scout based there watching games
 
We need to look at Morelos level....not a world beater but suitable for us and possibly able to learn more and increase in value.
 
The 'best signings' were either already in the pipeline (Dorrans), local and presumably scouted by club (Jack) or JJ's superb find in Morelos. Not sure MA has had time yet but didn't he have a hand in Elton's loan spell with us?


Yes he must have him being Welsh and all, Nemane also looks good but we havent seen enough of him yet so i would say its a good start by Allen.
 
We should scout all of the balkans leagues far better players with technical ability then Scotland

I'd have a permanent scout based there watching games


deffo, all nations i would keep an eye on, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia Serbia etc
 
I'd like more game time for Nemane as I'm not a huge Windass fan at all.
Me either, Nemane skinned Tierney when he came on and nobody else did that the whole game, he deserves a chance but i could see him maybe sytarting against Killie or something at Ibrox.
 
Surely Sweden and Denmark as well,always seemed better technically than us,especially Denmark,served us well in the past. Surely decent bargains can be picked up or even Porto.
 
This would make perfect sense for us going forward. Not sure what the situation is regarding our scouting network, but it's hugely important we get it up and running asap.
 
Scouting network definitely needs to be expanded with emphasis on Scandanavia, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Players there are far more affordable and play 1st team football from a young age so have a bit of experience even when they are still 19/20 years old. We can sell ourselves as a stepping stone to the English league as that's where they generally want to go but if we get a good couple of years from a player and sell them on at a tidy profit then everyones a winner. I realise the DOF hasn't been in th edoor long and will take time to get the building blocks in place but I hope this is a road we go down going forward. Makes financial and football sense.
 
It would be good to know from the D.O.F. what exactly is the plan and how far afield are we looking.
 
From SP 01/10/17

Many of the summer signings at Rangers were players already known to the manager and his backroom staff.

That could soon change, with Rangers about to launch a new scouting network that’s being created by Director of Football, Mark Allen.

Caixinha revealed: “We didn’t have a scouting system in place, so we went in one specific direction, using the direct contacts we had.

“In Mexico, when I was in need of one specific position, I was receiving reports on 10 players and selecting a shortlist from those players.

“We are trying to organize everything so that when we have identified one need, you just click a button and the information is there to allow you to make a decision.”
 
I always thought that North America is an area where we have been successful before and I hope that we are at least looking there.
 
From SP 01/10/17

“We are trying to organize everything so that when we have identified one need, you just click a button and the information is there to allow you to make a decision.”

sounds like southampton's method
 
I completely agree, but there must be recognition from the support that these won't be 'finished article' players.

Some still seem baffled that a 22 year old signing from Accrington makes mistakes, and plenty want the 23 year old from Setubal sent back already.

Frankly, Ibrox is a terrible environment to learn the game, and it's largely because of the support.
 
I know what you are saying which is why we need to get them when they are young, he moved to Maribor for 80k at age 20

This is our only chance - the values I listed earlier were for their first domestic move.

The problem is, they won't be developed enough at that point to play in our first team, and our support will just get on top if they don't click straight away. It's a tough one.
 
We need to be looking all over, Morelos being a perfect example. There's no value in 'british' players, many clubs look to Eastern Europe, it's not a secret
 
There's 2 guys at Slavia Prague who I think would walk into our team.

Simon Deli (Centre Half)
Michael Ngadeu Ngadjui (Defensive Mid)

Also, Zmrhal would be a good shout for a wide man.

First two are African. Zmrhal is Czech.
I’ve seen the Simon Deli guy in the flesh, definitely worth a punt.
 
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sounds like southampton's method

It's every decent sized clubs model, that is part of the problem that we will face.
Their is nothing groundbreaking about having a database of players that you can tap into. What we need to do going forward is identify them at the stage that Ajax, Benfica and the like do and offer them the opportunity of European football while playing on the EPL's doorstep, as that is the ultimate aim for most.
 
The Swiss clubs are very good at identifying talent. They seem to scout the world, South Americans , Africans and Europe they pick up some very decent players.
 
The argument has always been that British players or 'guys the manager knows' are ready to hit the ground running and need to time to settle...we've found that not be the case.

We do need to scout markets that we can actually afford to shop in.

Agree with this, and there seems much better value in this region and not too dissimilar from our climate, culture etc
 
Never, never, never sign a player from Eastern Europe or South Anerica, it just doesn't work out.

(Apart from Dado Prso and Claudio Cannigia...)
 
You can get really good players for a fraction of the price it would cost buying from England etc.


Look at that Josip Ilicic last night, strong, amazing left foot delivery and shot on him, signed for Palermo from Maribor for 2.3 million Euro, then signed for Fiorentina for 9 Million Euro, now at Atalanta.

This is just one example.

Illicic went to Maribor for about 100k, played five games, then moved to Italy for millions. Nothing dodgy going on there at all.
 
Agree with this, and there seems much better value in this region and not too dissimilar from our climate, culture etc

It's very dissimilar! There is a reason most of best former Yugoslavian players end up in Italy and Germany.
 
Never, never, never sign a player from Eastern Europe or South Anerica, it just doesn't work out.

(Apart from Dado Prso and Claudio Cannigia...)

Sasa Papac, Arveladze, Petric, Jelavic , Amato and Weiss...

All have had success and hopefully Morelos lives up to his early promise.
 
There's 2 guys at Slavia Prague who I think would walk into our team.

Simon Deli (Centre Half)
Michael Ngadeu Ngadjui (Defensive Mid)

Also, Zmrhal would be a good shout for a wide man.

First two are African. Zmrhal is Czech.



So, to sign them all what are you talking here money wise ?.
 
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“We are trying to organize everything so that when we have identified one need, you just click a button and the information is there to allow you to make a decision.”


Sounds like we're getting laptops with the Football Manager database.
 
Problem is the market is all but cornered.

Ilicic would have been known long before he moved, and would he choose us over Serie A Palermo? Maybe.

We should definitely be looking at these markets - but they're busy now. Sweden - The young fella on the right of my avatar should have been a Ranger (And would have been if PLG got his way) but the equivalents in today's Allsvenskan (Kerim Mrabti - £60k, Felix Beijmo - £300k for starters) are probably already out of our reach due to Bundesliga and Dutch clubs cornering the market.

So in short, we need to be there but I fear we're 15-20 years too late.


This. If anyone thinks that any club with any half decent money to spend does not look at the areas mentioned then think again. That's not to say we should not be looking but it's hardly unchartered waters.
 
A club our size should be scouting world wide. This is what should have happened when we were in division 3. This set up instead of spending stupid wages of spl journeymen. That was our chance. I would honestly settle for the 10 in a row if I felt we were putting in a superb world wide scouting system such that the long term was very much looked after.
 
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