John Stephenson Head of Football Operations

D

Danny Ocean

Well-known member
John Stephenson has written a book available on amazon about the scouting and recruitment of professional footballers. In the book, he outlines
his proven system of recruiting professional footballers that he has used to get teams to the premier league. He has been brought in to mastermind the
recruitment process at Blackpool.

In his book, he outlines that the recruitment process for a championship club is based on one of four objectives.

1) Promotion to the premier league.

2) Playoff Challenge

3) Mid-Table consoldation

4) Survival in Championship

So which objective do you think Simon Sadler has set for the management team at Blackpool?
 
Danny Ocean said:
John Stephenson has written a book available on amazon about the scouting and recruitment of professional footballers. In the book, he outlines
his proven system of recruiting professional footballers that he has used to get teams to the premier league. He has been brought in to mastermind the
recruitment process at Blackpool.

In his book, he outlines that the recruitment process for a championship club is based on one of four objectives.

1) Promotion to the premier league.

2) Playoff Challenge

3) Mid-Table consoldation

4) Survival in Championship

So which objective do you think Simon Sadler has set for the management team at Blackpool?
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1
 
Personally I would be happy with survival, and think that mid table consolidation is the ultimate aim this coming season, yes going for the prem straight away would be nice, but is a bit unrealistic imo.
 
Onwards and upwards trust the team we have now at Bloomers to push forward and deliver success. Very confident in the future, proud of our club and what it has become.
 
Ambition says 1, but Sadler seems to have his feet on the ground so probably 3) but December plays a key part in season planing IMO. If the team is working as one and in an upper table position i dont see why he would not invest in a final push for options 2 and 1
 
The fact Sadler brought him in whilst in league 1 shows long term ambition. I think play-offs will be the target, otherwise why pay for Stephenson to come to Blackpool? He can’t be cheap!
Perhaps not next season, more of a 3-5 yr plan, but who knows.

The fact we have him and Mansford gives me confidence we will do well in the Championship, if the Stains can keep us up and get us to the Prem who knows what we can do now.
 
Sadler and the board seem ambitious and I'm sure they'll be looking to put a squad together than can hold their own in the Championship, so for me its:
3. Mid Table Consolidation

That being said it is a big leap and it will be challenging, you are up against clubs with huge budgets/wage bills and years of extra Championship revenue under their belt. It would be in no way a bad reflection on the club/board if we're drawn into a relegation scrap by the end, I have faith we'll stay up though.
 
A newly promoted side that spends wisely will mean (4)
But who knows, did anybody think we would have had such a remarkable season?
Past history has shown what Blackpool FC can achieve.
Onwards and upwards, maybe (2) 👍
 
From his book, John Stephenson looks at setting the objective for the year, rather than a 3-5 year plan.
My gut feeling is that the objective will be the No 2, or No 3 option. It may be obvious what the objective will
be with who we move on that is under contract in the next few weeks.

If the plan is the No 3 option then I would expect Lubala, Robson, and Thorniley to be moved on.

If the plan is the No 2 option then there may be a least one other moved on from Mitchell, Anderson, and Ekpiteta.

If the plan is No 1, then I would expect at least two moved on from Mitchell, Anderson, and Ekpiteta.
 
Just looked up the book on Amazon - "The Scouting & Recruitment of Professional Footballers and the Recruitment Service: The Player Recruitment Service and the Recruitment Process: Volume 1". Paperback – 9 Jun. 2012, by Mr John J Stephenson (Author).

The blurb says:

Signing players in a professional football club is the single most important business activity that the club will undertake. Get it right and success will follow and revenues will increase. Get it wrong and disaster both on and off the pitch looms closer. Millions of pounds of revenue can be generated when a signed player is successful BUT more importantly Millions of pounds can be lost when a signed player fails. Getting it right almost all of the time can make a huge difference to the club, so how can you increase your club's chances of achieving that? This book sets out step by step a player recruitment process that reduces the risk of failed signings and has a proven track record. It sets out the backdrop to successful player recruitment and the 6 stages that will give the club their best chance of getting it right.

It costs £15.99 for 142 pages, but if it saves you millions it's worth it.

Just think how accurate your predictions of BFC signings could be with this book! 😁

To answer the OP - definitely 3-2-1 🍊🍊🍊
 
Danny Ocean said:
From his book, John Stephenson looks at setting the objective for the year, rather than a 3-5 year plan.
My gut feeling is that the objective will be the No 2, or No 3 option. It may be obvious what the objective will
be with who we move on that is under contract in the next few weeks.

If the plan is the No 3 option then I would expect Lubala, Robson, and Thorniley to be moved on.

If the plan is the No 2 option then there may be a least one other moved on from Mitchell, Anderson, and Ekpiteta.

If the plan is No 1, then I would expect at least two moved on from Mitchell, Anderson, and Ekpiteta.
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I think that’s harsh, Mitchell, Anderson and Ekpiteta are young and Critchley will no doubt improve them more.
 
Unfortunately, the more ambitious the objective the harsher we will be with the current team. Already we have seen KK contract not
extended. Last season we moved quickly to replace MJ Williams who was 24 years old at the start of last season when it was obvious he wasn't good enough for a team aiming for promotion.
 
Danny Ocean said:
Unfortunately, the more ambitious the objective the harsher we will be with the current team. Already we have seen KK contract not
extended. Last season we moved quickly to replace MJ Williams who was 24 years old at the start of last season when it was obvious he wasn't good enough for a team aiming for promotion.
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Critchley, Mason and even Grayson when he was here have all said that the club is now all about continuous improvement. The team did the business in league 1, got us promoted and we enjoyed the celebrations. But.....now its all about how to we improve/evolve to be successful (whatever that looks like next season) in the Championship. In a sense the club is now ruthless...if your nor deemed to be good enough your gone and someone else comes in. For me that's the right approach and all successful teams are like that.
 
Could we not have just spent the £15 and read the book rarher than get the author in?

He'll be going for promotion this year, whilst Championship finances are a bit mangled post Covid.

Then we will be playing in the Europa League (or whatever is called) in 5 years.

It's ambitious, but doable.
 
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In all reality at the start of Ollie's season in charge, with the squad we had and having finished 18th the previous year, did anyone predict that the squad in 2009/10 would get promotion to the Prem? Sometimes these things aren't a science.
 
If you can afford it you go for number one, what's the point in aiming to stay up, what if you fail?
 
In his book based on his time at Watford when Brendon Rogers was manager, with Graham Taylor as chairman using that he devised they
achieved a 500% return on investment during his time there.

Which got me wondering that maybe Shayne Lavery is being brought in because we will be selling Jerry Yates and
re-investing into 4-5 more players. Which we will need for a playoff push.
 
Huge gap between League One and The Championship.
A lot of teams have gone straight back down. I would settle for survival right now, but obviously hope for more.
Promising signs today, but are these first teamers coming in or inexperienced young players to underpin the first team.
I suppose we don’t know yet.
 
No, I didn't ghost write his book 😀 I couldn't imagine it's sold many, or made him any money. But the setting of strategy and the introduction of systems for the investment and recruitment of players is the complete opposite of how we operated under the Oystons. Its already clear
that the recruitment process is starting to work with promotion last season despite covid and lots of injuries to key players.
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
If you can afford it you go for number one, what's the point in aiming to stay up, what if you fail?
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You could say that about the Premier League as for many that exactly what their season entails.

The other option of course is stay just ahead of the clubs in meltdown where there's always eight or so teetering in that position. Something online today about the Venkies shoving something into Blackburn to keep them afloat,which to be honest surprised me but demonstrates how much is needed to tread water.
 
Danny Ocean said:
3) Mid-Table consoldation
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I would say that has to be the Primary objection. You have long established clubs in the Prem, as well as recently relegated sides, and so to expect back to back play offs is probably unrealistic. I would say in Simon's business plan that the Championship was in his first two/three seasons. Don't forget you need big money for the Prem and an entirely different business plan which I can't imagine has yet been drawn up. Mid-table and a good FA Cup run will do me.
 
Simon Sadler in his statement said that he wants option 3, mid-table consolidation, and has ruled out option 1. He obviously wants to be cautious about what he tells the press and public, his last prediction of promotion within three years would have put a lot of pressure on the team if we had lost at Wembley. But if the real target is option 2 and he doesn't want to spend big then the management team will have to be creative if the budget is tight. The last time we gained promotion to the premier league we had Adam and Coleman(loan) that went on to play for a few seasons in the premier league, also we had the experience of Brett and DJ that had played at that level. Unfortunately, the current squad is lacking
at the moment.

In order to leverage the existing footballing assets then we would have to sell Yates for 5 million-plus, and use the money for signing 4 or 5 premier league U23 players on £ 15-20000 per week on a season loan. If for example, we resigned Simms and Ballard and added similar quality for another striker, left-winger, and right back. Then I don't think we would be that far from being a team capable of a playoff challenge, as we already
have Garbutt, Dougall, Ward, and Stewart, Maxwell that are championship quality, and CJ that has the potential to be premier league quality
with his speed, if his end product was more consistent.
 
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