The Brighton trick that Ipswich Town and Kieran McKenna can now use – It could be a game-changer
Ipswich Town are set to receive a Brighton transfer boost this summer following their relegation to the Championship.
Kieran McKenna did plenty of shopping last summer to try and prepare his team for the Premier League season ahead. Despite the millions that they spent, it proved not to be enough and now the club is back where it was a couple of seasons ago.
One disadvantage they may have had once they made the step up to the top flight was in the recruitment department.
It had been reported that Ipswich were using Jamestown Analytics, a firm set up by Brighton chairman Tony Bloom that uses data analysis to find desirable players.
Ipswich Town could make Brighton recruitment move this summer
The Seagulls have become infamous for their ability to spot and develop unseen talents from around the world. However, Jamestown only allow one team per division to use their services, rendering Town unable to use it if they wanted to once they were promoted.
Now that they are back in the second tier, where no other club is said to be using the data-driven service, Ipswich will be able to get help from the premier analysts.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has explained to the East Anglia Daily Times how this could help the Tractor Boys. “When Ipswich were in the Championship, I think they used Jamestown Analytics, who are also being used by Grimsby Town in League Two.
“What Jamestown say is that they will operate with one club per division because they don’t want a conflict of interest with two clients being recommended the same players.
“Jamestown, if Ipswich choose to re-engage with them, will do the nerdy stuff. They do the filtering of players. For example, Ipswich will say, ‘Right, we want a left-back with the following attributes. Age: 19-22. Strengths in the following four areas, because that’s how we intend to play this season’.
“Then they will send it off to their magic box. Nobody knows the secret recipe of Tony Bloom – it’s the closest guarded secret in football.
“It will churn out a list of names, and then what will happen is that the club will do their own background checks. The old All-Blacks’, let’s say, ‘No idiots’ policy.
“On the back of that, they will make a decision in terms of price, length of contract, whether it will be a cultural fit coming to the UK, language skills and so on.”
Brighton recruitment move should be a no-brainer for Ipswich
Data is such a large part of high-level recruiting in football these days. Brighton have proved to be the best at using this method to find gems, so if Ipswich can, in essence, access their services, then that’ll be huge for Town’s hopes of going straight back up.
Even though they have lost Liam Delap to Chelsea for £30 million, Ipswich, so far, have retained a lot of their top players. Adding some players who are perfectly suited to how McKenna wants to play, which is what Jamestown will find for them, to the established Championship talent they already have will make them a very tough force to stop next season.
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