The first London course was held at one of the most legendary clubs in the capital city, Millwall Football Club.
With a fantastic stadium boasting a 20,000 all seating capacity it was an honour for IPSO to be invited down to deliver the Level 1 scouting and analysis course. It was held in Arry’s bar named after Millwall legend Harry Cripps, were we had an excellent conference room that was the perfect setting for the course.
As per normal on all IPSO courses we had special guests.
On this occasion it was club captain Steve Morison accompanied by first team players Byron Webster and Shaun Williams. All three footballers participated on the course as they looked to see if the scouting and analysis information could help improve their knowledge within the game. IPSO tutor Colin Chambers greets the footballers.
Club Captain Steve Morison said ’’In preparation for my football retirement and as I’ve just done my UEFA A license, I thought this would be a good opportunity to pop in and see what IPSO had to offer in the scouting and analysis side of the game. It was an excellent course and fully enjoyable. I picked up some great points that would only stand me in good stead in the future.’’
While out injured with a cruciate ligament problem Byron Webster attended the course, Byron said ’’What an eye opener, it was really interesting to see how scouts at the highest level work. The attention to detail they have to explain to their chief scouts/managers was very meticulous and they left no stone unturned. I fully recommend the course as it was very informative and delivered to the attendants with great scouting knowledge from this IPSO tutor.’’
The third player on the course was central midfielder Shaun Williams. Shaun had this to say. ’’It was really good and worthwhile, it had lots of things that I already know, but also lots of things that I didn’t know and this will help me further down the line when I come to the end of my playing career.
Scouting & analysis, coaching, managing or even if I became an agent, this was all good material that would really help. The content covered many aspects of scouting that I didn’t know, like statistical scouting and how to build up a data-base. It was a really intense and interesting course. I would advise anyone who’s coming to the end of their careers to go on the course and improve their football knowledge.’’
The class of 23 students were very happy to have professional footballers on the course as they could chat with them personally and gain their experiences within the game. We had a world-wide audience of students from Cyprus, Poland, Hungary, Greece and Japan.
Also on the course was Millwall’s Head of opposition analysis Steve Jones, he was accompanied by Head of analysis Dan McLoone and Millwall academy scouts. All were impressed with the course and what it contributed to the staff of the club. Other students on the course comprised of football agents, youth coaches and others who are just starting off in the football world wanting to know about scouting and analysis.
Another great weekend and thank you Millwall FC for the great hospitality shown as we look to deliver more courses at the Den in the near future.
