Most Clubs Do Not Fail in the Transfer Market. They Fail Before the Shortlist.
Most clubs do not lose control of recruitment on transfer deadline day. They lose control months earlier, when nobody has defined what the team is supposed to become.
By the time a shortlist reaches the sporting director, a lot of the important work should already be done. The club should know how it wants to play, what types of players fit that model, where the academy connects to the first team, and how decisions are made when pressure arrives.
When that work is missing, recruitment becomes personality-led. One coach wants one profile. The next coach wants another. Agents fill the silence. Data is used to justify decisions that were already emotional. The squad slowly loses logic.
Recruitment should be a system, not a reaction
The transfer market rewards clubs that know exactly what they are looking for before the window opens. That does not mean every signing is predictable or risk-free. It means the club has a repeatable way of moving from football idea to player profile to shortlist to decision.
The best recruitment departments are not just asking: is this player good? They are asking a better question: good for what?
1. Define the game model before the player
A clear game model gives recruitment a target. Without it, a club can only describe players in generic language: strong, quick, technical, experienced, young, proven. Those words are too vague to build a squad.