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« on: October 16, 2014, 04:53:26 PM »
Now, as the dust settles on a manic first three months at the Baggies, Day’s mission is to avoid a similar experience in 2015.
Amid some high-profile comings and goings in the close season, the club’s head of recruitment arrived with little fanfare.
But the 59-year-old former West Ham and Leeds goalkeeper played a significant part in the major overhaul of Albion’s squad during a baptism of fire.
“The club let 12 players go and 11 came in,†said Day. “That’s a massive turnover and we hope not to be in that position next year.
“Terry Burton was in a month before me as technical director, working very hard with the recruitment department, and they’ve done a fantastic job to get the squad to where it is at this moment in time.
“On my first day I looked at Alan Irvine’s tactics board, where all the names were, and there was nothing down the sides of the pitch.
“So we looked at it thinking we had to get some wide players, both defensive and attacking, and that became a massive task, as well as all the other bits and pieces we needed to fill in.â€
It meant Day, who was recruited to pull together the Baggies’ list of potential transfer targets, had to hit the ground running.
He had to place his trust immediately in head European scout Tony Spearing and chief domestic recruiter Stuart White.
The latter had held the department together following last season’s turmoil that saw the head of technical performance Dave McDonough, who had assumed control of scouting, depart.
McDonough was accused by players of stepping outside his remit when he attempted to influence coaching under Pepe Mel, whose ill-judged appointment he had championed.
And, when he left the club in the wake of a players’ revolt, McDonough left behind a demoralised staff.
Yet still, White and Spearing did much of the groundwork for the summer transfer window alongside ‘special projects’ scout Jeff Baskerville.
Day said: “We had a bit of involvement but a lot of the stuff that had been done over the previous year or two was on file.
"It was a case of trying to present what we had, with Tony and Stuart, to give the new coaching staff the best information we could.
“I had seen certain people first-hand – all the English boys and one or two of the others – but in terms of saying I’d seen them and could recommend them, I wasn’t at that point.
“I saw them all on DVD but it wasn’t the same. There are very few secrets in football.
“If you look at our database we will have reports on certainly every player in this country and a lot of players in Europe – not so much in South America.
“We’ve got a comprehensive database but the trick is to keep it constantly updated and current so we can pick out those players that fit the West Brom DNA.â€
The World Cup gave the Baggies’ new football hierarchy, led by Burton and including new head coach Irvine, the chance to watch a couple of targets first-hand.
Full-back Cristian Gamboa and winger Silvestre Varela were among those in action in Brazil.
But players including record signing Brown Ideye and left-back Sebastian Pocognoli were recruited on the recommendation of the Hawthorns scouting network.
That was headed by Spearing and White but including dozens of part-time field-scouts, employed by the club on a retainer and covering the majority of Europe.
The men on the ground provide the Baggies with thousands of reports – either match documents assessing several players or in-depth player reports detailing a potential target’s every movement on and off the ball.
Day said: “There is a whole host of things that could trigger in interest.
"It could be an agent’s call, it could be a member of your coaching staff seeing someone, it could be one of your field scouts or it could be that you have seen someone on TV.
“We will then have a look on ‘WyScout’, which is a company that provides a subscription service to DVDs from all over the world.
“Then we might decide we need to get a field scout to go and watch, and when we’ve got a certain number of reports in at a certain standard it will go on to Stuart or Tony watching them.
“Before Alan goes, Terry or myself would go, and then if we think it’s worth Alan going we would make every effort to get him to a game.
“Then as a department we would provide a recruitment dossier with all the facts and figures, with strengths and weaknesses.
"The powers-that-be would have all the information about why, as a recruitment department, we think it’s a viable target for us.
“We have a recommendation process that has to go through quite a few phases then, in terms of the package we present, we hope we’ve done all our homework.
“We try to get as much information as possible to de-risk it, but whenever you bring anyone to a new environment it’s a gamble.
“You just try to minimise it as much as you can.â€
Having helped the Baggies perform major surgery on their squad this summer, Day is now looking to the future.
And the experienced former gloveman, who served as Alan Curbishley’s assistant at Charlton and West Ham and has also scouted for Fulham and Brighton, is intent on avoiding a repeat of his first few weeks in the job.
“Our main thrust is June and July because we know who’s in contract and who is out of contract, we know Andre Wisdom will be going back to Liverpool, so there are certain givens we’ve got to be addressing,†he said.
“But we also have to be aware of what might happen in January.
“Our job is to have an immediate list, but also a longer-term list and a really long-term one.
“That is what the department is – a library of players so we can provide, at any stage of the season, a list of those in any given position, who are possibly available to the club.â€
From the Express and Star , another good insight into how we work behind the scenes.
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