Marko Pantelic

Not got his email, and besides, I don’t want to sound like I’m undermining him.

I’m just a fan…..but I reckon I know a good player when I see one. I’ve seen him play for Hertha, and he was class. I then saw him on telly last season, for Ajax, and he looked class. I heard Spurs were linked with him, last season.

In all seriousness, and no, don’t respond with ridicule, I DID reccommend a few players I had seen to Paul Jewell. The first was midfielder Jiri Jarosik, who went on to Chelsea and Birmingham, when he was at Sparta Prague. The second was a striker, Maciej Zurawski, of Wisla Krakow. (went to Celtic) The third was a defender, Alexander Madlung, of Hertha Berlin, a similar player to Alcaraz, who won the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg, last season. And the last was Marko Pantelic, when he was at Hertha, in 2007.
I think all those players proved I was right about them. But Jewell thought we couldn’t attract players like that. (He told me that) He actually said to me later, when we met “So you’re the f**kin chief scout, are ya?” when he met me at a fan forum. He was only half joking.

I just don’t think he ever saw us as a club who could progress further than we did, and had a ‘we’re a small club lucky to be here’ mentality. Did a great job, but I just think he saw us like that.

Don’t mock me for doing this. All I was trying to do was to help MY club, and give MY club a heads-up on a promising looking player. You see that’s what you do, when you want your club to do well…… :roll:

It might surprise you how many clubs actually use this software for player scouting, they are very accurate. If you have played them it is no co-incidence the quality of players that appear in the game seem to be mirrored in real life.

I do suspect though that there are millions of armchair fans who can switch occasionally to ESPN and catch a player or two and think they know all about a player. If you were that good at it you would be doing it for a living.[/quote]

Mate, if I knew how to get into it, I would. A lot of scouts are retired folk, these days. And let’s be honest, there always seems to be a ‘cloak and dagger’ mentality surrounding the game, between those in it and those outside of it. Perhaps if I’d played 17 games for Rochdale once, I might have a chance. :lol:
I am currently thinking about doing coaching badges with regard to coaching kids. I’ve actually been over to Amsterdam and visited the Ajax academy, and seen how they coach the youngsters. I genuinely believe that for us to sort out the national team over here, there has to be a complete overhaul from young children upwards. More emphasis on technique. I’m also a big fan of ‘futbol do salaó’, the small sided games played by young Brazillian kids. They use a smaller, weighted ball, to encourage ball control, and technique.

Changes have already been made, over here, but it’s something that will take time.