Crystal Palace are considering an approach for Middlesbrough head of football Kieran Scott after the shock departure of Dougie Freedman - it should serve as a reminder for just how important Scott is to Boro.
The Boro official has taken a lot of flak after a difficult January transfer window, and a lot of that criticism has been unfair. Undoubtedly, for both Scott and Boro as a whole, there will be lessons to learn from the January window. But it’s too black and white to pin the blame solely on Scott - and football is rarely as simple as black and white.
There are always mitigating factors and lessons to be learned from any transfer window. While Scott is ultimately the public face of Boro’s recruitment, he’s by no means a dictator. Financially speaking, he ultimately answers to Steve Gibson and Neil Bausor. Talent identification-wise, he and his team of scouts are recruiting for the club and the coaching team, not themselves.
They are factors worth remembering when considering many of the decisions that look like being misses as things stand from Boro’s January transfer window. Perhaps the biggest complication of January was Emmanuel Latte Lath’s sale to Atlanta United. A record sale for the club, it’s another feather in the cap for Scott and his recruitment team’s ability to find talents with future sell-on value.
Selling star players is never an easy sell for supporters, but, with a need to work within the Championship’s profit and sustainability rules while remaining competitive, raising revenue from player trading was the only realistic way of doing that. It’s exactly why Scott was poached from Norwich City back in September 2021.
Boro sold Latte Lath in January, and they understandably had to leave it late as they waited to receive an offer they deemed acceptable. Boro were right to hold out for a high fee, but that made Scott’s role of replacing him all the harder. While targets were identified, nothing could really happen until it was certain Latte Lath would be leaving. It was quite clear at the time that their first choice was Slovakian striker David Strelec.
As far defensive decisions, it’s well-documented now that Michael Carrick chose not to sign a new centre-back after selling Matt Clarke. He told recently of his decision being made based on the number of defenders already at the club, and not wanting to upset the balance of the squad and the mood of the dressing room.
The injury crisis that followed was perhaps foreseeable, but also incredibly unfortunate luck. Despite that, Scott and co. did provide options. As with any good recruitment process, the coaching team must be allowed to make the final decision. Scott has previously made clear he would never sign a player without the head coach signing off on it.
The one element of protection for Boro is that the majority of the signings were loan signings. Boro will still have a lot of the money from the Latte Lath sale to improve their squad in the summer, and indeed, despite links to Palace, that is exactly where Scott’s focus currently lies.
For Boro’s sake, we should all hope that there is no Palace approach, or that if there is, Scott believes the club can his ambitions enough to continue the project he started in September 2021. Boro have been on an upward trajectory since his arrival.
In many ways, that summer transfer window just before Scott’s arrival feels symbolic of the transformation Boro recruitment has undergone since. That summer saw two of Boro’s most expensive mistakes in Britt Assombalonga and Ashley Fletcher leave on free transfers. Wages factored in, that was around £25 million of investment leaving with zero financial return.
As far as incoming signings were concerned, the likes of Matt Crooks and Sol Bamba proved shrewd additions, but a window that felt fractured between two directions also saw the arrivals of the likes of James Lea Siliki, Andraz Sporar and Martin Payero. They got somewhat fortunate in the years ahead that Marcus Tavernier came through the academy, Djed Spence thrived while on loan and Chuba Akpom transformed his fortunes almost by accident. It gave Scott some sellable assets in a squad otherwise lacking them, which allowed him to really kickstart his recruitment mission after the arrival of Carrick.
Scott has been on record to speak of the difficulty he faced in transforming Boro’s playing squad. The key to the policy at Boro is finding value in the market and players with future sell-on value. Assets. If you develop them right and sell for profit down the line, you strengthen, over time, your own ability to spend and strengthen your own squad. Without breaching PSR, it’s the only chance to compete with clubs in receipt of parachute payments.
It’s taken some time. Boro’s squad is undoubtedly in a better position now thanks to the work of Scott and his recruitment team. Successes like Morgan Rogers and Latte Lath are exactly why Palace, and numerous other Premier League clubs, are interested in his services. The likes of Rav van den Berg, Aidan Morris, Finn Azaz and Tommy Conway are examples of Scott and co’s ability to find gems at just the right time to ensure the club gets good value for money.
There’s an appreciation that Boro need to build their own squad for success too. The ultimate aim is to use profits to build a squad to get back to the Premier League, not just turn a profit and be self-sustaining in the Championship. It’s for that exact reason that Scott’s exit would be such a blow to Boro.
With that in mind, there’s continued appreciation for the need to bring a bit more stability and only minor tweaks window to window than has so far been the case since Scott’s arrival. There’s an increased appreciation that you can only have so many flair players without the muscle. Attempts to sign Glen Kamara were an example of that.
Scott’s arrival was always a project with forward thinking in mind. Time was always going to be needed. Having already more than justified his role with the profits made on Rogers and Latte Lath alone, Boro are on the right track under Scott’s stewardship. One disappointing window with mitigating factors shouldn’t change that thinking or lead to a complete restart unless it’s taken out of Boro’s hands. Hopefully that won’t be the case.
January should reinforce the need to back Scott’s vision and trust in his project if given time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but project rebuild-Boro is still moving in the right direction, even if it hit a snag this winter. Scott’s importance to Boro should not be undervalued. Remembering what came before is evidence enough.