Technical Director Andy Scott spoke to CharltonTV about a busy month following the appointment of Michael Appleton.
He touched on a variety of topics including the men’s first-team’s recent unbeaten run, the deadline day signings, building the recruitment and analysis departments, adding an additional coach and much more.
The interview is split into two parts, which can be viewed below.
Below is a summary of some of the points covered.
On the men’s first-team’s five-game unbeaten run…
“Obviously it was a big decision for Dean [Holden] to leave, but so far it has been a positive response from the players and Michael [Appleton] who has come in and performed very well. We have liked what we have done on the grass.
“He is obviously still learning his team and the players, but it is a start – and that is all it is. We are not getting carried away, that is for sure. We still look at the league table and know we are a long way off where we want to be.
“There are elements that we need to improve and Michael is very aware of that. But we are five games unbeaten and that is a good thing to be moving in the right direction. We have a couple of games between now and the international break where we need to get two more wins under our belt and look forward to our games after that.”
On appointing a Director of Performance…
“That has taken a while, I have got to be honest. It has got to the point now where we are in the second interview stage. We had two interviews yesterday and we will complete that process at the beginning of next week and hopefully be in the position to appoint someone soon after.
“We have been very pleased with the level of candidates that we have spoken to and that have applied. We hope to have someone who fits with what we want to do and can take us to a level of detail and quality that we need to improve on our performance side and can give the guidance and help that everybody in our staff needs.
“The Director of Performance will cover nutrition, psychology, sports science, strength and conditioning and medical. That person will align with the women’s first-team and the academy. They will implement structure and processes to ensure that we cover everything and give guidance to those staff members of the women’s first-team and academy that need help, so that our best practices in sports science and rehab are carried throughout the whole club so there is an understanding of what looks good, what is good and what works.”
On building the recruitment and analysis departments…
“We had a couple of scouts here previously that have now left us. Adverts for full-time scouts will be going out today or in the next few days as we want to bring in a couple of full-time scouts.
“We have had really good discussions with Michael from day one when we had the interview about the profile of player that he likes and how he wants to play. We have got a huge amount of data that we can use and we are in the process of working out specifically what Michael’s profiles are. From there we can work out the metrics and get the data so it is an initial filter.
“We then need the eyes on the players and watch them properly. From there we can present to Michael what options are out there and then he can pick the player which he feels will fit best. That will be a collaboration with the coaching staff and Michael once we have got scouts in place and got the reports and information. We need to build a robust and thorough department that can cover all bases and make sure that we take as few risks as possible.”
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