2020 is coming to a close and it’s time to reflect on the past year. Well, that’s what we are told to do and reflect on the whole COVID-19 situation. That’s something interesting for sure, but I wanted to focus on a bit of a strange position I find myself in: I’m working in recruitment and analysis for the club I’ve supported since I was a young boy.
During the 2014-2015 season, a friend and I, revamped the website Venlonaren.net and made it the biggest fan platform about VVV-Venlo. We wrote loads of articles, went to every training and visited every game. Home and away. We were at every event and visited important meeting, where we were represented as stakeholders of the club. The greatest achievement we got at the end of that season: we were asked to work part-time in the media & press office of VVV-Venlo. I couldn’t have been more happy. I never dreamt of doing such a thing and now I was involved with the club I love the most.
The 2015/2016 was immense for me. We finished above all expectations, second of the league and while we didn’t get promoted at the end of the season – we were well on our way to the Eredivisie again. The 2016/2017 season was all about promotion and becoming champions: we were back! The story continued for me and although the responsibilities were different in the Eredivisie, the 2017/2018 season was amazing for me – and also the last season where I was involved in this capacity with the first team. I moved to Rotterdam and did nothing spectacular for the club – I concentrated on my website and tried to give the fans a different insight on it.
Come the season 2019/2020 – which was a turning point for me. The club had asked me to be involved in a media officer role with the reserves/U23 team. I had no idea what to expect, but I was still glad to be involved. Perhaps it has been the role where I’ve learnt the most. I was not only tasked with writing match reports, social media reporting and the occasional interview – but I also filmed a couple of matches and was really part of the staff: discussions on the bus about tactics, formations and specific roles were always present. And a very open and exciting conversation with Lee Cattermole, Haji Wright and Jerome Sinclair. Unfortunately the season was cut short due the COVID-19 crisis. I knew one thing for sure: I loved the football side of working for the club more than the media side.
I kept showing up at matches of the U19 team in the 2019/2020 season and analysed some games for the U19 staff, which I really loved. Analysing data to improve matches, I thought I was doing some basic stuff – but it helped the players and that made me rather happy. I never thought I would be a scout for the academy or first team, but at the beginning of this season I was asked to be a scout and coordinate other scouts as well. A real wtf moment for me, I’m actually scouting for an Eredivisie club. On top of that, I’m an analyst for the U14’s of VVV-Venlo.
Now this seems a bit arrogant to some, but I’m really proud of the roles I have had within the club and I would do a lot to grow more within the organisation and make it more sustainable to have a good operating scouting division.
So what’s difficult?
It’s all fun and games when things are going great with the club, but the results have been not too positive in the majority of the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 season. We escaped relegation in the last season and we are on the brink of serious difficulties in this season. The club have never issued anything that would forbid me of talking about the club, but it’s really a strange thing.
I loved to have a proper discussion about players, formations, tactics and the way the club was run – but that has changed. Being more involved with (data) scouting and analytics, means that you look at the game differently and to talk with people who purely support the team without wanting or having the data, is a whole different spectrum. Discussions become different.
I’m still a fan and sometimes I’d like to push my own agenda supported by data, but who is it helping? No one. Sometimes it’s hard to make a distinction between analysing and doing something as a fan. Could I talk about my club on social media? I could. But would it be wise? I don’t think so. Perhaps if I were only to present data dashboards or something like that, but it feels strange to do that. In the end I just want my club to succeed and win.
Perhaps in the future it will change, I’m a scout/analyst first at the moment and that relationship should always benefit the club. Not myself.
