Jobs4Football meets John Brown
Have you ever wanted to know what it is like to be a talent scout? Travelling across the world watching football and using your knowledge to handpick potential hidden gems to improve your team.
John Brown is the regional scout at Blackburn Rovers and has been involved in scouting for over 11 years, working for clubs such as York City, Rotherham United, Newcastle United, Oldham Athletic and Blackburn, where he has been for over five years.
After so many years working as a scout what is it that Brown looks for when identifying a player he feels might be good enough to succeed at the Lancashire club.
“When people ask what do you look for, it’s hundreds of things that a player needs, but for me generally it’s that unorthodox player that pulls something out at a particular time in a game, who makes the difference. He might not be a leader vocally, he might be a leader through his performance, but in a nutshell it’s someone that shows me something I haven’t seen before.”
“However, it’s attitude over ability because attitude is something really difficult to coach, with ability there are coaches that can bring the best out of people. Obviously there are certain players that have got greater ability than others but it just depends on the club you’re working for and what you need at the club, but attitude goes a long long way.”
Clubs across the world often put a lot of resources into their scouting network to try and discover upcoming talents for a good price, but for clubs not at the elite level or with unlimited finances, attracting these players can be difficult due to the fierce competition they face.
“You can go watch a player and be impressed by them but then you find out someone might’ve already acted on it first before you do and there is not a lot you can do about that to be honest. It’s one of the most frustrating parts of the jobs but obviously you know you’ve seen them, and you have put together the report on them and that is as much as you can do, but there are so many reasons why deals don’t get done in clubs.”
“I’ve travelled over to Paris to do some European scouting, I have to been to Plymouth doing match reports for the first team and I was up in Scotland not too long ago either. This year I have done a lot more non-league football so the job is ever changing with whatever the club see but obviously budgets can change, clubs change, head of recruitments ideas change, so it is dependent on the strategy of the club at the time.”
In the summer transfer window, Blackburn made a net profit of over £15 million, largely due to the transfer of Adam Armstrong to Southampton, which places the championship team third in entire league for net profit, only behind recently Premier League relegated Sheffield United and West Brom.
Despite the lack of spending, Blackburn currently find themselves 7th in the league and level on points for the play offs, which is testament to the good recruiting the club has done over recent seasons.
“We have had a fantastic recruitment in terms of the side and it’s showing now with people like Ben Brereton getting called up for Chile and various other players performing and exceeding expectations. At the moment we have a very young squad and apart from the Fulham game we are probably overachieving, and we are still in touch with the play offs, so it has been a success so far.”
“The best thing about scouting is I might see a player and think the world of him whereas someone else might see him and say it’s not for them, scouting is not an exact science, I can’t tell you that every player I see will become a professional footballer or make the grade at Blackburn. I might see things in a player that others can’t see but they might see things I can’t see so it’s very difficult but that’s the beauty of it.”
Brown snapped his tibia and fibula which stopped him from playing football, but he was still involved in the coaching and management side of the game until a friend of his from Rotherham got him involved in the recruitment of scholars from the North East and the Darlington local has never looked back since.
“I remember my first game as a scout at grassroots level was at Maiden Castle, I was watching a Durham County U18s game and it was raining, it was horrible but you’re still trying to make your notes on the side of a field. I quickly found out you don’t use ink to make notes you use a pencil because it doesn’t smudge in the rain.”
But what tips would the former head of academy recruitment at York City recommend to those who are thinking about getting involved in scouting.
“It’s very hard to get into a professional football club you’ve got to be very lucky as well as dedicated and be willing to put in the hours. You have to make sure you build up your network that’s the most important for me, you’ve got to know the grassroot coaches, the local scouts in the area, the pro scouts in the area, the agents etc.”
“Scouting is hugely about building up your relationship up with everyone in football, even those guys on the gates letting you in every week they have an amazing amount of knowledge about the game and the players, so it is building that network up so you know everything that is going on and you’ve got your finger on the pulse at all times.”
Brown is currently in his sixth season with the former Premier League champions and is loving life with the Lancashire club, admitting it is the best environment he has worked in, and after a good start to the season we could potentially be seeing him and the club back in the top flight before too long.