Anybody who knows anything about football will tell you that the winning run that Manchester City are on is an astonishing feat. But if it’s a fan of a rival club it will come with a caveat; Yeah they play great football but it’s because they spend so much money.
From this claim, abused at nauseam by fans of any club not ten points clear at the top of the English Premier League, we can counter-argue two things. First, of course having money gives a team an advantage, but it by no means guarantees trophies. And second: not being able to spend money doesn’t mean a team can’t be successful.
As we pass the halfway mark of many European seasons we see teams who spend much less than their vying for positions near the top of the table.
Leicester City currently sit 4th in the Premier League. RB Leipzig are just two points off top spot in the Bundesliga. Sevilla are hovering in the top four as usual in Spain and in Ligue 1 the table reads 1. Lille 2. Lyon 3. PSG.
I’m not saying these teams never spend any money. Every team needs to spend money. But what these clubs have proven is that cashing out on their biggest names doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice a chance at trophies.
Lille currently sit top of Ligue 1, four points clear of PSG. The team that Lille are picking from was purchased for a total of €133.3 million while PSG bought their team for €765.4 million. Remarkably, in the last two seasons Lille have sold five players including Nicolas Pépé and Victor Osimhen to fundraise €248.5 million. Not only are they top of the league, they had a net profit of €108.2 million.
Clubs that have a policy of promoting academy graduates and scouting extensively to find players with potential have shown that it’s not always necessary to spend big to win. On the other side of the coin, spending big doesn’t always mean that a team will win. Chelsea’s rebuilding venture should be enough proof of that.
So what does it take to find club success and economic stability at the same time? It takes an exceptionally brilliant figure who understands players. Call them a technical director, scout, sporting director or something else, the following three men know how to spot talent. These men are the very best. Buy low, sell high.
First let’s take a look at the Englishman. Paul Mitchell. The 39-year old former midfielder had a respectable 10-year playing career for teams such as Wigan, MK Dons and Wrexham. But when he made the switch to recruitment he reached a new level of success. His first scouting role was for his former club MK Dons. They hired him as their Chief Scout in 2009. It didn’t take long for Mitchell to make a bigger jump, straight to the Premier League when Southampton brought him to the club in 2012.
From there, Mitchell scouted and signed Victor Wanyama and Fraser Forster from Celtic, Dejan Lovren, Toby Alderweireld, Nathaniel Clyne, Graziano Pellé, Dusan Tadić and Sadio Mané. Mitchell is also credited with opening negotiations with Celtic, whom he had a good relationship with after the Wanyama and Forster deals, for world-class defender Virgil van Dijk who Southampton would buy for €15.7 million and sell for €84.65 million. Southampton would go on to sign the Dutchman after Mitchell left the club but once again it was his eye that saw what the defender could become. The club would finish in an impressive 7th place in the league in 2014/15 and were very sound financially after selling academy products Luke Shaw to Manchester United, Adam Lallana to Liverpool and Calum Chambers to Arsenal for a combined €88.73 million.
It’s no wonder Mitchell was heavily sought after and his next project would be much bigger. From 2017 to 2020 he would oversee the development of Bundesliga phenomenon Red Bull Leipzig and more of the Red Bull conglomerate, in both New York and Brazil with Red Bulls New York and Red Bull Bragantino respectively.
Leipzig were promoted to the Bundesliga in 2015/16 and amazingly finished second to Bayern Munich in just their first season in the top tier. Since their runner up finish in 2016/17 they have finished 6th, 3rd and 3rd while losing in the semi finals of both the Europa League and the Champions League. Not bad for a team whose record signing, Naby Keïta, was only €29.5 million.
Most recently, Mitchell has moved on to the Sporting Director role at AS Monaco, a club where another of our connoisseurs of talent found great success.
Luís Campos. When we talk about league success while also generating funds there’s no better example than what Campos did at Monaco… Except for maybe what Campos did at Lille.
At the start of Campos’ time in Monaco, the club had a very different transfer policy. At roughly the same time as Campos was brought in, the club splashed €113 million on Falcao, James Rodriguez and João Moutinho and finished second in the league the following season. During Campos’ time there there for the next three seasons, Monaco qualified for the Champions League every year. The 2016/17 season would be particularly special for the club as they were crowned French champions and also reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.
After the initial spending spree, Monaco decided to use Campos’ magic and allow him to do what he does best; find budding talent. Campos would scout and sign Bernardo Silva, Fabinho, Benjamin Mendy, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Anthony Martial, Thomas Lemar, Tiémoué Bakoyoko and many more. Alongside their somewhat unlikely domestic success came the astonishing statistic that Monaco, having spent €71.75 million on these players, would eventually pocket €360.5 million when they were sold elsewhere. Although Kylian Mbappé was in Monaco‘s youth set up when Campos arrived, he is widely credited with being the man to develop him and show the faith that led to his ultimate €145 million transfer to PSG. Buy low, sell high.
The next stop for Campos was French rivals LOSC Lille. Currently, Lille sit pretty at the top of Ligue 1, four points clear of PSG. From 2017 to 2020 Campos worked his magic at the club and although he is no longer there, the residue of his design is evident every time Lille take the field, as evidenced by their league-leading status.
The funds generated by Campos came largely from the sale of two players. Nicolas Pépé and Victor Osimhen. The pair were bought for €32.4 and sold for €152 million, making them the two most expensive African players in history (Osimhen to Napoli for ~€80 million and Pépé to Arsenal for ~€72 million).
While these results are stunning, there’s one man who tops our list, because he’s been doing it for more than 20 years. He is so famous for his abilities that his name has become a synonym for a talented scout: The Monchi of Portugal or The club has their very own Monchi.
Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo. Known simply as Monchi. Sevilla FC. After finishing his playing career (as a goalkeeper) for Sevilla, he stepped into the behind the scenes duties and the rest, as they say, is history. In 2000/01, Sevilla returned to the top flight of Spanish football from Segunda División and ,at the same time, Monchi took his post as Sporting Director. Since then, Sevilla have never finished lower than 10th in the table and has moved top quality players to bigger clubs on a seasonal basis. Having stayed with Sevilla for 17 years, from 2000 to 2017, Monchi decided to take on a new challenge with AS Roma before returning to Sevilla in 2019 where he continues to wheel and deal and make Sevilla a powerhouse domestically and on the European stage.
Monchi’s resume of acquisitions is impressive but the trophies are what speak loudest. Since his appointment Sevilla, with a net profit of around €180 million in transfer fees over 20 years, have won the Copa Del Rey twice, the UEFA Cup in 2006 and 2007, and the astonishing haul of Europa League trophies in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2020. Such success is said to be reserved for the clubs who spend the money to compete on that stage but Monchi has shown us that there are alternatives. His genius doesn’t lie in just the transfer, but also the loan move. To incredible affect, Monchi has capitalized on loan deals for top players who come in, do their job, and return to their parent club. In fact Monchi’s very first signing for the club was a loan move for a young Brazilian fullback named Dani Alves. Alves was a player who would re-define what was expected of a fullback after he moved from Sevilla to Barcelona in a €35.5 million deal.
Currently, Sevilla’s central defenders, Diego Carlos and Jules Koundé, are valued at over €100 million but will likely fetch more than that this summer to represent a solid return on the investment for the €40 million that was spent to sign the pair. That’s the name of the game: buy low, sell high.
There are countless other sporting directors who also manage to work wonders with limited resources, but these three stand out among their peers. It’s not always all about the money, as Mitchell, Campos and Monchi show. Rather, they highlight that having football knowledgeable people in leadership roles is also a very important tool for success.
Do you agree with Eddy’s list? Let us know in the comments.
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