The Athletic had a really interesting piece about Chelsea’s scouting and transfer system, and there were plenty of interesting snippets to pick out.
One part in particular we liked was the descriptions of how the actual scouts attended matches. Rather than going through official channels, they regularly just turn up as paying fans and watch the games incognito.
Even if you did happen to sit next to one, you wouldn’t know what they were writing. As the writers of the piece note:
“When notes are made on smartphones or iPads, technological precautions are taken to ensure they are not seen by the wrong eyes… Like several other top clubs, they have developed over years a language of code and abbreviations that no one on the outside can understand.”
Quite what that language of code was writing about Danny Drinkwater and Davide Zappacosta we’re not quite sure, but they’ve had their fair share of successes over the years too.
The piece says that Frank Lampard has been in constant communication with with scouting and transfer teams, and we can at least hope that this hiatus means he can really spend some time deciding what the strategy for this summer (or whenever the next window is) so we can proceed quickly and effectively.
