More clubs are embracing data and analytics as part of their managerial searches, the report says, mirroring the way teams now rely on analytics for player recruitment.
The report notes a contrast between the heavy, year-round investment clubs make in player recruitment — with backroom scouts, analysts and multiple sporting directors at some teams — and the ad hoc way many appointments for head coach or manager are made. The report cites Manchester United’s leadership duo of Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox as an example of a small group making a hire, and says Real Madrid ultimately follows the preferences of president Florentino Pérez.
Hudl’s Director of Customer Solutions, Edward Sulley, tells ESPN that coach recruitment is undergoing an evolution similar to player recruitment. Sulley warns, however, that building an in-house capability is costly. “If you’re hiring data engineers, you’re talking perhaps $200,000 per person, plus all the infrastructure, software and data sources … it racks up fast; you’re talking well in excess of $2 million per year in operational costs,” the report quotes him as saying.
The expense and the frequent urgency of coaching appointments have opened a market for specialist providers. The report says ESPN spoke with Hudl, Analytics FC and MRKT Insights about services aimed at helping clubs identify managerial candidates. Analytics FC’s CEO, Alex Stewart, tells ESPN that most club approaches come under pressure: “Most of the time it’s ‘we have just, or are just about, to sack our coach — and we need help on who to replace them with.'”
The report explains that those firms typically begin with a conversation to build a shortlist and ask basic preference questions — for example whether a club prefers younger or more experienced candidates, whether language fluency is required, or whether experience in specific countries or cultures matters. Sulley adds that football remains relationship-based and that owners under pressure often receive input from agents and others, which can complicate decisions.
Per the report, these initial practical questions are followed by more complex analysis, and the companies interviewed have structured businesses to deliver faster, data-informed recommendations to clubs that lack the resources to build their own costly recruitment teams.
