If Liverpool’s success in the transfer market in recent years has often appeared like a club with the Midas touch, the reality has been much more complex behind the scenes.
Fewer things are more fraught with the potential for mistakes and missteps in modern football than recruitment and for a club like Liverpool, whose resources don’t always stretch as far as their direct rivals, it often requires smarter thinking and harder working to keep them ahead of the curve at that level.
As you would expect for a club of its size, the Reds scout players from all over the world and are generally assessing a large number from most leagues at any given time. It can be a source of frustration for those doing the job at times when their presence at games across Europe is revealed as a result.
While it always intrigues supporters to hear what games the club have dispatched their talent-spotters to, those working in the field itself will counter that they are simply doing their job and therefore it is not worthy of coverage or analysis. In an age that is becoming increasingly in thrall to the idea of transfers, however, it does allow fans to begin dreaming up just what players might be on the shortlists.
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Scouts rarely go to a game with a view to watching one player specifically, though. If someone representing Liverpool attends a Ligue 1 or La Liga match, for example, it is to cast a critical eye over a number of potential prospects and occasionally those involved are spotted through chance as opposed to any long-term or wider strategy.
Checks on the on-loan Pedro Chirivella, while at Willem II in Holland in the 2017-18 season, led to scouts noticing the talents of an up-and-coming left-back by the name of Kostas Tsimikas, who was also temporarily with the Eredivisie side at the time.
Those keeping tabs on the Greek defender had noticed significant improvements by the 2019/20 campaign, particularly in the Champions League and Tsimikas had started to gain interest from clubs in France and Italy before checks on his character led to the establishment of positive terms with his representative, Paschalis Tountouris.
Diplomacy and professionalism helped Liverpool clear the pathway in the pursuit of Tsimikas at the turn of 2020 when work started to be undertaken toward that summer’s transfer targets. Sevilla and Leicester City attempted to join the race for the defender but Tsimikas had already committed his future to Anfield, thanks, largely, to the friendship that had been struck.
Establishing relationships, perhaps more than any other aspect, is the key to modern scouting. If identifying ability is the relatively easy part, it is the willingness to create those working partnerships with agents and family members which can sometimes be the defining factor in a transfer saga.
Two years ago, Liverpool had earmarked Luis Diaz as a summer transfer target before the Reds were alerted to sudden interest from Tottenham in the closing days of the January window after his agents, the Colombia-based Carlos Van Strahalen and Portuguese representative Raul Pais Da Costa spoke privately to those working on the club’s behalf.
It means Liverpool were able to nudge ahead of Spurs and get them into a position where they could complete the transfer after leaning on yet more relationships within the game when the club’s South American scout, Gonzalo Siegrist, gained permission for Diaz’s medical to be undertaken in Buenos Aires, Argentina while on international duty with Colombia at the end of January 2022.
The courting of Stefan Bajcetic allowed Liverpool to steal a march on Manchester United at the end of 2020 with the midfielder’s family – specifically his father, Srdan – having already established positive terms with the Reds to ensure it was Anfield that was chosen over Old Trafford. That could yet prove to be a hugely astute piece of business in the years to come.
Bajcetic’s capture was overseen by Head of Academy Recruitment, Matt Newberry, after he had been identified as a multi-functional player with the potential to become a star with the right guidance and a deal for the teenager was expedited in December 2020 to ensure they signed him before new European Union guidelines were introduced at the turn of the year that would have impacted the transfer.
