Jay Lefevre : Head of Scouting Operations

Just came across this on YouTube

 

Been here since last season?

 

No idea hadn't even heard of the guy until I found this video, I thought Nicky Hammond was head of scouting

 

Aye I looked it up said he's been in since May last year..

 

Thanks for posting, interesting listen.

However, the worry is the mindset that the Huns are the benchmark.

Let's hope the new DoF and new coach install a vision and mindset they that goes beyond domestic parity with The Huns.

 

Came in last year to try and sort out the * mess BR and Congerton left us in.

 

Hammond is head of recruitment I think, guess we need a Head of Scouting too..

Both may be shown the door under a new regime.

 

He’s just a random scout in Celtic’s FM department, if that’s of any use

 

Any good wonderkids to buy on FM I’m struggling and just started playing it.

 

Won't listen to it, our recruitment is too *. Does he say that our goal is basically to be one point better than Sevco?

 

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jay-lefevre-94b4314a

First I had heard of him, suppose there is more than just Strachan and Kennedy at times, but even still. How has this not been made known more than it is?
Coming from Arsenal probably isn't a great thing to put on your CV when you are a scout, but it does seem like he was more in charge of video analysts than anything else there.
Dec 19 - to now is interesting, between him and Hammond they need to take responsibility for the summer gones transfer dealings.

 

Why coming from Arsenal isn’t a great thing to be put on your cv?

 

Just being silly,
Arsenal aren't exactly known for great recruitment.

 

Haha I hope that’s a joke! Arsenals scouting team is unreal at youth level and also uncovering players in the 18-21 age range. Doubt we’ll be picking up the same players though, we’re losing them all instead!

 

One remark that leapt out at me from that interview was that the Club is understaffed.

That is astonishing. How is that possible at a club of Celtic's size?

I have said it again and again, but the people in charge of the Club have acted negligently for a long, long time. They are parasites.

 

Skip to 48 minutes and he starts to talk about his (and at Celtic) short-medium-long term goals.
Naturally he is trying to align his and Celtics goals.

Some points to note "My goal has been to be associated with a world class scouting and recruiting department. "

"So the short term goal is, I need help, so I've been backed on that now. So I got 2 job adverts I've got to put out there now....to help me and modernize the department"

"I have a road map in my head on how to achieve the bigger picture (talking about his and Celtics goals)"

"I am realistic, it is not going to happen over night. But the progression in the last 12 months has been night and day and I am proud of that"

"So my medium term is to bring in more individuals and further enhance the data analytic side of the department to make us more, just more analytic driven really within a department."
"I want to improve the standard of how we work"
"That's not knocking the people in the department, but there is a certain level I want to achieve and I need to improve as well. And how can we become more efficient within the transfer market"




Some interesting comments.

He's young, brought in as a 28 year old (only 29 just now), in regards to how some people would perceive a head of such a department, but he talks well and sensible. Seems to be very detailed in his work from the comments in the video.

Good to note that he was brought in though and that he talks about understaffed and that he's been given the green light for multiple staff to come in to his department.
Signs of the "restructure" talk seems to be that it was on the cards for awhile, maybe as far back as bringing this lad in.

The fact he wants to grow a department, add value to the club and see the club modernise/expand and has been given the go ahead - with everything else we hear, perhaps this is actually happening.

 

That doesn’t surprise me, I think the full Peter Lawwell approach was nothing goes anywhere without him knowing. He had quite the reputation for micromanaging and the posts and salaries we seem to offer reflects that people on the football and non football side don’t have full responsibility.

Someone shared a Commercial Director/lead role not that long ago with me and the salary was far lower than I would have expected for a post of that level for a club the size of Celtic, like not far off half.

 

I’ve said this before but that is down to Brendan Rodgers and Congerton.

Our set up before that we had over 50 full time scouts and an ‘unofficial’ network, using guys like Lubo and other ex players.

We had a database built of every player we had scouted, our scouts would also be in contact with the players we knew we were going for to help sell the club. It’s how we got Moussa Dembele and Van Dijk.

They were ‘tier 1’ targets, there was tiers below that we would move to when it became clear we wouldn’t get a player or Lawwell veto’d it due to money.

This was the system built under Park, manager would go to the scouting system say, ‘look I need a solid tall right back’, and they’d say sure here’s Swedish international Mikael Lustig coming up on a bosman. Manager would watch him himself to confirm it’s the fit he wanted and Lawwell would make the money side happen.

When Rodgers came in he got carte blanche to revolutionise the club on and off the pitch. He brought Congerton in to do the scouting department side. Congerton ripped everything up, by the time he left we had 4 scouts left on our books, no system in place and an absolutely monumental job on our hands to sort the * mess out.

 

Aye, I remember you posting that a couple of month back that we'd went from something like 50 scouts to about 5. I was shocked!

Also, I had no idea that Gary Penrice was appointed head scout until some time around that post of yours.

Our set up is nothing but a complete and utter abortion.

That being said, I think almost to a man every * and their dug was "on paper" delighted with our summer recruitment.

 

Who is in charge, then? Lefèvre or Penrice?