Do budgets really rule Soccer?

Do budgets really rule Soccer? Of course they help, but if wrongly used can also ruin a team, a club and even affect a region. A Soccer club is the flag, the most important “company” of a city, a village or even a region. Every weekend the population waits for a win so they can have a better weekend.

These days money, investment and budgets are very common words between football supporters,no doubts about it, but is it possible to build a winning and competitive team without a big budget? Yes. If we look around, startups are also a bigger and bigger reality these days. Companies that start with very low or non-existent budgets and lead the world of business. All of them have things in common, a good team that matches together, have the same target, principles and harmony. Recruiting people who fulfill the needs, that have the same spirit and passion for the project and may not be necessary the best, but they are for sure the ones to be there. Is football so different? It’s not. The big challenge is the harmony that good recruitment brings.

A player can make the difference and lead his team to glory but can also ruin it. Just as the HR department is a crucial department inside a company, in football, a scouting department is also and it’s time to clubs understand it.

Sometimes we think that we should have the best players for each position in terms of skills and football quality, but this is not necessarily true. We are all asked at some point why top teams in the world don’t have the best players for some positions when they can afford to buy any player they want? It’s simple, they understand that balance and harmony are the keywords. Players
that don’t compromise this, bring to the team and managers exactly what they need. Players that don’t mind staying in the shadow and letting others shine. Players that know their limitations but have a very strong team spirit and do exactly what their manager asks sometimes even without talking much.

Most of the teams that took years to build their success went through different stages, identifying the core of the team and recruiting influential leaders (if not yet in the team). Other positions need reliable players more than just skillful players. Each position has a different weight on a team and each one needs different players and many times even different personalities. The next step is to improve more positions until a balanced squad is reached and it’s when the recruitment changes it’s priorities to unite skills and talent to other points. All this is a process that can take time but if properly done – and always accordingly to the club’s philosophy, can only bring us closer to success.

In resume, going from the worst to the best players is not the solution every time. We all want the best ones, but there are timings and steps that are essential in order to have them.
This is the beauty of scouting, working in the shadow for this to happen so on the weekend we can all be a bit happier.

Find more about Soccer Scouting in one of our courses.
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