Harford discusses Luton's overseas scouting operation and the 'tricky' January transfer window
Town have signed two players from Belgium in the last 12 months
Luton chief recruitment officer Mick Harford has highlighted just how different the Hatters’ scouting operations are now, particularly abroad, during what he labelled as a ‘tricky' January transfer window.
Like so many other clubs, Town are now starting to look further afield in their attempts to bolster the squad, as it was proved last season with the addition of Japanese international full back Daiki Hashioka from Belgian top flight club Sint-Truiden. Despite not having an overseas scouting network, Luton have continued that strand of recruitment this term, bringing in midfielder Lamine Fanne from Swedish side AIK, and then returning to Belgium again when snapping up young defender Christ Makosso from RWD Molenbeek, both players signing as U21s, which won’t impact the 25-man squad new boss Matt Bloomfield can name.
Discussing the change in strategy, the 65-year-old said: “It’s different, very, very different. Scouting abroad is very different and difficult because we haven’t got scouts abroad, we’ve never had scouts abroad. Our scouting network is spread, so we do it individually. We go across there and it takes a long time to get an idea of a certain country’s way of playing and style of football, will they fit into the way we want to play?
"It’s a different phenomenon, a different scenario in terms of going out there and selecting just one player from a certain team. What we did over a period of time, especially Phil (Chapple, head of scouting operations), he went over to Belgium mainly and got an idea of what the levels were, whether they could play in the Premier League or the Championship, and we’ve got a good grip on that at the moment.
"We’ve used a lot of data, we’re data led through Jay (Socik, head of recruitment analysis), so that helps us to identify the players before we actually go over there and put our eyes on them. It’s really, really interesting and we’ve come a long way in a short space of time.”
Meanwhile, on the hopes of doing some more business ahead of the deadline passing on Monday, February 3, Town freeing up a space by releasing Erik Pieters recently, Harford added: “It’s always a tricky window trying to recruit players in the mid-season windows, it’s really hard as you’re just getting the scraps really.
"We were fortunate enough to sign a couple of players and they joined us on January first and they've looked good in all fairness in training, so that was a real bonus for the team and the squad. We are still active and looking to recruit in this window, we believe it’s a good squad, but maybe one or two additions will enhance it and make it better in certain areas.”