Chain of Command / Responsibilities / Hands-on Approach

I've just been thinking about the background staff side of the game. Bear with me while I essentially once again brainstorm my ideas and try and create something coherant before my mind frazzles out.

At present, the FM chain of command is essentially two-tier. There's you, as manager, and everyone else below you, reporting back and under your direct commend.

a:

            Manager
               |
               |
Coaches  Scouts  Assistants  Physios

While this is simple, it doesn't seem to me a very likely nor particularly workable system in reality.

I'm thinking maybe both the roles and responsibilities of assistants and other staff need to be enhanced, and in particular there seems to be a need for heads in each area.

For instance:

You, as manager, have a team of coaches, of scouts, and of physios. You employ coaches to treat certain areas, scouts to focus on the talents of specific areas, and physios to treat specific injuries.

Do you want everyone reporting back directly to you? I doubt it.

So you have you assistant. It's his job to pass on what you need to know in your direction. Perhaps he relays back to you promising scouting targets, injury news and training progress. This is, to an extent as it is in game. However the difference is that the other staff are reporting back to him, and not directly to you. While you could ask scouts directly more about the results of their work, it should maybe be your assistant's job to inform you of the most promising targets.

b:

        Manager
           |
           |
       Assistant
           |
           |
Coaches  Scouts  Physios

Obviously, your assistant isn't perfect, and it'd be wrong to expect him to do all the work. Perhaps then, you need more chains of command in the specific areas. A head coach to coordinate training and to feed back more specifics to you on player development.

A head scout to give a second opinion on potential targets and maybe too to suggest where to send scouts (to watch a player, a tournament, or just look for hidden gems), and maybe even to report back on how effectively the other scouts are doing their jobs.

Maybe also a head physio to report on the details behind players recovery and maybe to comment on what kind of injuries players seem to be picking up and/or what they're most effective at treating.

c:

        Manager
           |
           |
       Assistant
           |
           |
H. Coach  H. Scout  H.Physio
    |       |       |       
    |       |       |       
Coaches  Scouts  Physios

The crucial thing in all of this however is the role of the manager. They're his staff, and thus (largely) under his control. There's nothing stopping a manager taking the very hands on approach of example a but most managers, if they could, would surely like to pass on some of the responsibility.

Also a deciding factor is the size of the club. c can only be a distant dream for most clubs, and even when it's a potential reality the quality of the staff must impact whether or not handing out such responsibility is a good idea.

What I'm suggesting is that FM needs to have more than just the ability to hire more nondescript staff as the club grows.

Any thoughts?

Could there possibly be reason to include more specific physiotherapists, or would it be unnecessarily complicated?

What about other roles? eg. recruitment, sports scientists/analyists, advisors..

I've always wanted to see a Head Scout role for sure.

Although i've never thought in depth about the other staff areas, I do agree that more roles could be made available, especially based on the amount of backroom staff IRL..

However, whether this would make it unnecessarily complicated as you said, i'm not too sure. I imagine it depends on how much you immerse yourself in the game, so it gets a from me.

I'd like to see a minor expansion in the breadth of staff with the addition of a couple of new roles (such as psychologists or marketing directors available to the bigger clubs) but I suspect that an expansion in depth would complicate the game more than enhance it. The reason is that any information necessary and relevant to you the manager must be presented to you; otherwise it might as well not exist. Thus, a middle tier of management would exist almost entirely as window-dressing. I can't easily envision any sort of information-filtering or management function that would justify the added complexity.

Good to see you back Hershie - you been lying low?

I think this very issue has been raised a few times with every incarnation of FM. Both vertically as you propose and horizontally as AytchMan suggest have been proposed. SI took one step forward with the backroom advice in FM10, but I hope they focus much more on developing the support staff - along with training for FM11. For me these are 2 areas that have been pushed down the list of priorities for too long.

Some good ideas there, definitely food for thought.

Not really been lying low. Just a combination of doing other things, being lazy, and not having anything worth contributing..

Training is definitely in desperate need over a serious overhaul imo.

I already kinda have a head scout, when i've had a player recomended to me i send him out to check, very informal i know, but i give him a bit more money. But it would be nice to make it formal.

I agree that the Head Scout role would be an excellent option. E.g. You give him certain parameters that you would like to have scouted for and he assigns your scouting team accordingly. Obviously, for all those micro-managers out there, you could disable this function.

E.g. Its February and you know that you would like to improve your wingers, need a new first choice goalkeeper and are keen on expanding the U-19 squad. Your Head scout then assigns jobs to the other scouts and filters their results before presenting you with a report on their findings.

I'm just thinking out loud here, maybe there's no need and its already duplicating existing funtionality. It would be nice though, I think.

I have been asking for a Director of Football for quite some time. It would essentially get this to make more sense. The diagram would be as follows:

Board /Chairman

l

Director of Football - - Youth Coach & Reserve Manager

l

Manager - - H. Coach H. Scout H.Physio

l

Assistant - - Coaches Scouts Physios

This would free the Manager (you) from dealing with the lower sides but still allow for conversation on transfers and training with support from your Head Staff and information from your assisstants.

Directors of Football should be in the game, but obviously only at a small number of clubs. In my opinion, the fact of a club having a DOF could be a major factor upon which to agree/reject a contract, depending on how hands-on you like to be.

If you're a top manager, perhaps it'd be a good idea to be able to negotiate directly with the board on matters such as limiting the role of/getting rid of the director of football, the amount of staff you'd be allowed (and to do what jobs), and how much of the job they expect you to do.

As for the diagram, I certainly don't think the Youth Coach/U18s Manager & Reserve Manager are above you. You will most likely have final say over their players selection, future and contracts unless you pass the responsibility on (or of course have a head of youth development/director - with whom you'd share ideas and exchange feedback) and ultimately thus they're below you, and could (if you want them to) follow your selection/tactical guidance.

Good ideas and I defo agree about DoF... Take Reading for example, Nicky Hammond is the DoF but in the game he is down as a Scout... Sure he does do some scouting but he is the DoF and the game always tends to aim to reflect reality right?

Directors of Football should be in the game, but obviously only at a small number of clubs. In my opinion, the fact of a club having a DOF could be a major factor upon which to agree/reject a contract, depending on how hands-on you like to be.

If you're a top manager, perhaps it'd be a good idea to be able to negotiate directly with the board on matters such as limiting the role of/getting rid of the director of football, the amount of staff you'd be allowed (and to do what jobs), and how much of the job they expect you to do.

As for the diagram, I certainly don't think the Youth Coach/U18s Manager & Reserve Manager are above you. You will most likely have final say over their players selection, future and contracts unless you pass the responsibility on (or of course have a head of youth development/director - with whom you'd share ideas and exchange feedback) and ultimately thus they're below you, and could (if you want them to) follow your selection/tactical guidance.

They wouldnt be above. Just tricky to get a good diagram up on here What I was trying to put was the youth/reserve coach being at the same level but responsive to the DoF rather than to you, so you would say something to the DoF and he would say something to you rather than you going directly to the youth/reserve managers since this would make them sound like AssMan which they're clearly not.

I think it could work a number of ways, depending on how much responsibilty each have. While the amount the DOF has will be up to the board, I think everyone else's would be more or less up to you - providing the board and the DOF are satisfied.

The point is we need the possibilities, the choice and the room to negotiate it all.

Hershie, loving the OP, some good ideas in there. I'd definitely like my assman to filter out some of the nonsense that comes my way!

As for jsolloso and his DOF idea, I've always been strictly against the idea, but used in conjunction with some of the other ideas in here I may just be softeniing on the idea.

Certainly needs to be more filtering of scout reports etc!

I mean, it's the night before a big European game and you get a memo through to your office:

Hey Boss,

I'm in Peru, and well I've found no-one very good.

Well actually I found this centre-back who can't head, tackle or jump, and I think maybe that if we were in League One he'd be a decent signing.

Okay, well, here's everything you could possibly want to know about him (see attachment #1).

-----------------------------

I also found a 36 year old striker who might be a decent signing if we were in League Two, but he probably wouldn't get a work permit.

Here's everything you need to know about him, plus a note he wrote to Jim'll Fix It that we intecepted. He told me he'd be happy to play for just £40k/week, and I've heard he's a rather lazy and confrontational individual so he probably wouldn't fit in too well.

I've also attached a photo of him, his CV, and a scan of his forged passport. (see attachment #2)

He also recommended that I take a look at his four sons, and this bloke from down the pub. There's no way they'd ever be good enough for us, even if we were in the Conference and had no money, but nonetheless here's 40 pages detailing each of them. (see attachment #3)

Wish you were here boss.

xx

Staff should be much more proactive. If I loan out a player I should be able to say, "I want reports on him! Every single game." Your head scout or someone will then bombard you with emails and updates. You shouldn't need to tell which scout does what although you are free to override (maybe this will annoy the head scout and he will begin to seek a new job).

The head scout if you like can also be in charge of scouting although he takes input from you and perhaps your other staff. So for example your head scout needs solid man-management skills (as does anyone in a management role) in addition to being a good judge of (scout) ability and (scout) potential (i.e. Martin Ferguson sees Regen A as potentially being a brilliant scout despite the fact he recommends Eric Djemba-Djemba to Manchester United on a consistent basis). So your head scout is largely in charge of scouting players, sorting out where scouts go and hiring scouts (again taking input from you). He'll help you identify weaknesses ("I believe Scout B is enjoying Amsterdam too much. We should assign another scout there.") and you can either make a move yourself or let the head scout do it himself.

The same goes for your coaching staff. Your assistant may suggest that the squad needs more coaches and may suggest some or even hire them himself. Again you get input. For your youth team, not all managers are hands-on (I believe Wenger is the exception to the rule): The academy director is the one who largely controls things and maybe one day whines about needing more coaches or better training facilities. Your coaches will be the ones responsible for organising training: You basically set up targets ("I want Rooney to be better at finishing than van Nistelrooy by the end of the season." "But Boss, that's impossible!").

For scouting, we could even break it down further. Depending on the level of investment you give to scouting, you could have regional scouts and country scouts - for example, I think Manchester United have a head scout for South America and one for Europe. They could be responsible for setting up regional bases and becoming managers themselves in some way - hiring scouts in that country and building contacts in that country or region. You may of course decide to build a scouting base in Brazil or realise that you don't need a scouting base or 40 scouts in Moldova and tinker with things yourself (or tell your scout to reduce investment there).

So it's more like you get a budget and you get to play with sliders detailing where all the investments go. Then you are only really in charge of hiring upper-level staff, like your assistant(s) and head coaches (first team/youth), head physios and head scouts. Say you hire a brilliant head scout who isn't the best at scouting but has excellent man-management skills. You chuck him 25% of your budget and a season later you see he's managed to establish a solid scouting network all over the world with excellent head scouts for the Americas and Asia, and lots of good scouts for Europe. He tells you he's still looking for a head scout in Europe but can't find anyone suitable, but is happy to receive lots of emails instead from European-based scouts while waiting for one to become available. He tells you that the head scout of the Americas is actually quite good but the wage budget only allowed him to be on a one-year contract - he needs your permission to give him a better salary for a longer contract. He tells you Joey Barton is actually a maniac unlike what the UK and Ireland scout says. He also believes that there's too much investment for scouting and would recommend toning it down, perhaps increasing the wage bill for the staff including the head scout of the Americas, unless you would like to aggressively expand which has little immediate reward with a high risk and high cost (long-term planning, not short-term planning). He doesn't know why you asked a scout to look in Antarctica and recommends moving him elsewhere.

Contrast with a rubbish head scout who by the end of the season has managed to assign 30 scouts to San Marino and American Samoa and has managed to miss out on every single promising youngster in Europe. He's also recommended some players for you who have turned out to be just terrible. Your assistant believes the head scout is poor but one of the San Marino scouts is actually quite good and deserves a promotion to a head scout role.

Big thumbs up to that. :thup:

Really seems that staff do sod all once you think about what they could/should do.

How about instead of head scouts etc, being able to set up a youth academy in different countries, similar to how feed clubs from abroad works, so you just go to your board you would like to set up an academy and they come back to you with a clist of countries that they can build one in and how much the inital set up is and running costs after that. Then in the club information maybe you get it listed where you have an academy and players just appear in your 18s at the start of the new season when new gens are made or adding a small gen of them during the jan transfer window.

That's a completely seperate idea and largely one that he manager would have little input in.

I do think there is a need for better scouting of youngsters and better identifying of 'talent hot spots' - perhaps by the head scout.

That's a completely seperate idea and largely one that he manager would have little input in.

I do think there is a need for better scouting of youngsters and better identifying of 'talent hot spots' - perhaps by the head scout.

i started realising that more and more as i typed it but i thought i'd just "go with the flow" as it were

I like the plan of academies abroad. Surely though this would be the role of the board to administer with feedback from a head scout. Actually atm the scouts, physios and coaches dont really have a head person. They seem to just take whichever role suits at the time they were hired. Makes it a little pointless.

Hershie.

I am in full agreement with all of your suggestions.

It would be great if scouts, coaches especially report to a head scout, coach who will then sort out "the wheat from the chaff" & give you reports back on all the important items.

The only problem I can forsee is will these "head" people need a different "stat" put in to define them from the others or would you make the choice

I'd imagine heads would need good man-management skills, as well as perhaps a level of professionalism and pressure-handling, so the manager would need to be able to see detailed staff personality. As for everything else, I think it'd be up to the manager to decide who to take the position, and maybe as they'd be perhaps doing less specific training/scouting tasks there'd be more need for assistant-like attributes.

As for any additional attribute, I can't really think what. Maybe organisation/recruitment abilities, or a staff 'decision making' attribute - ie. not just to know who's a good target but when and what to report to you. They might be great at finding players but poor at getting the information around.

i started realising that more and more as i typed it but i thought i'd just "go with the flow" as it were

Always good to brainstorm.

Bumping this incase anyone has anything to add.

Got quite a few scattergun ideas that I could try and put down, but that'd probably best come out in conversation/debate.

Just found this thread going through my stuff. Shame there was never a real discussion because I still really like the ideas in here and hope to see them in the game one day.