Return of the King

[Pipes of Peace]

Come on, give Pearce a break. He's probably playing Football Manager as we speak while looking for the latest hot prospects. After that, he'll put Fifa on.

Oh please, like we have a computer in our recruitment department.

We’ve got a few tattered printouts of Ashworth’s last scouting trips and a few names Brucey’s mates have recommended on the back of takeaway leaflets.

Quite a step backwards from the dartboard we used under Terry Burton and Pulis’s torn out Panini sticker album pages for Man United in the mid noughties.

I heard a fascinating interview with Ashworth a month or so back. Spoke in depth about about the scouting department he put together at the Albion and how it all worked. I can't remember what he called the video room now but essentially his team watched hundreds of hours worth of individual players, 24/7, until they all agreed on the player. Only then would he fly out and watch the with whoever the manager was.

The meticulous planning and vision of the bloke was first class. There was no wonder he got to where he has. Just look at the players he bought in to Brighton who they've just sold on for massive profits. Trossard and Macallister are worth big bucks now too. Already looks like he's carrying that on at Toon now.

Absolute class operator imo.

he is the man that made our success.  it took a vision of peace to get him involved, but he was the technical mastermind.  I doubt we'll ever see that level of skill and commitment again.