Chief scout Geoffrey Moncada has outlined how AC Milan go about getting a comprehensive report on a potential transfer target.
Since American hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation took control in 2018, the club have shifted more towards a youth-led recruitment strategy based around signing young players with high potential that could form the future backbone of the team and improve the accounts at the same time.
A huge part of that has been Geoffrey Moncada, regarded as one of the best scouts in the world and the man who built the Monaco side which competed on all fronts in 2016-17, winning Ligue 1 and reaching the Champions League semi-finals.
Moncada gave an interview to The Athletic in an article which documents Milan’s meticulous way of going about getting back among Europe’s elite, and he began by describing the process of scouting a player.
“I’ve seen us described as 007 in the press and to be honest it is a bit like that. You have to get there first or at least try to. All the big clubs, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, for instance, do an incredible job of scouting at youth level,” he said.
“If a 20-year-old player has a terrible game, gets a four out of 10 in the ratings, but has great potential, that’s more important to me. I like it when a scout looks at it that way and says to me: ‘Look, he didn’t have a good game today, but he’s gifted’. We keep tracking him and watch him again.
“In the end we have a comprehensive report with all the info and the statistics.”
Talking more specifically about what he wants from his scouting network, Moncada stressed the importance of human relations.
“I don’t need a scout who only goes to games. I need one who watches training, talks to the parents, the academy directors,” he said.
“It’s too easy to go see a game, write your report and be done with it. We can do that from the office. We have to have the intel — the contract situation, what’s the family like, the small details make the difference. Human relations make the difference.”
