11 Questions with Tim Keech

The pursuit of wisdom in any walk of life quickly reveals that what you think you know is not nearly enough to get you to where you want to go. As I'm starting out in my football scouting journey I challenged myself to reach out to those already working in various roles in football to answer a short list of questions. My goal wasn't to get answers but relevant perspectives on the game within the game.

Here is Tim Keech, cofounder of @insightMrkt

How did your first opportunity in football come about?

Just over one year ago I started writing about football. I had been running my own company for around 10 years working mainly with government departments and healthcare, almost always these departments needed to save money and had to think about how to be as efficient as possible. When I had a gap between contracts I decided to fill my time with blogging, generally themed around how from the outside, it looked like clubs were really inefficient, particularly at player recruitment. I was invited both to the Opta Conference and to write articles for Statsbomb, and through this got a chance to work with a football agency producing detailed data-driven scouting reports for clubs. 

A few months later I decided to team up with a few others and produce a case study on how we'd go about a major restructuring of a Championship club. We chose Swansea City, published the report and a few weeks later were invited to work with them.

What attracted you to scouting/analytics? What’s more intriguing now names or numbers?

I think the gateway drug to analytics was probably computer games, such as Championship Manager (now Football Manager). However, I have always been someone who just loved spotting emerging talent. In the early 1990s when I was really getting into football there was nowhere near the availability of information, you had to buy World Soccer magazine to see results and scorers from European games. When you couldn't see players play you judged them entirely on numbers. I cannot overstate how exciting international tournaments were too, this was the only time when you got to see players you had heard about, the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann, Lothar Matthaus, Maradona, Van Basten and many more were just names and statistics until those glorious summers of football on TV. 

Who/what is the first player/concept you "found"? What caught your eye?

This isn't very groundbreaking but my concept has always been "do your research". There are loads of great players who have made the wrong move early in their careers. If you can identify those players by looking back at the data and performances that earned that move, rather than only looking at current video and data you'll find some unfulfilled potential. An example of a player like that was Patrick Vieria who captained Cannes as a teenager and got a big move to Milan. I watched one of his two appearances for Milan and became convinced he'd be good. 

Who/what is the player/concept you "missed" on? What did you learn from it?

A few years ago there was an England youth tournament when Harry Kane was leading the attack. I'd not seen him before, he missed chance after chance, from memory Barkley was playing as a 10 and created at least 4 great opportunities for him. He never looked like scoring, the general consensus after the game was he'd be lucky to play League One football. I also watched Hallam Hope a lot at Everton and for England in various youth tournaments, he played like Alan Shearer at youth level. He would score headers, volleys, long-distance goals and looked every bit a star. Yet he is now in League Two. 

The big lesson is that player development isn't linear. Some peak at 16, others don't get going until 22. 

If you could start over what skill would you build on first?

I hadn't really intended to start in the first place, I never considered football as a realistic career option. The advice I always give everyone is blog and tweet a lot. Build a body of work that people can look at. Every client we have at MRKT Insights has come about through reading our blogs and tweets.

Do you see player development as more of an art or a science?

I don't think it is an either/or issue. I think if clubs gather together good people, who have a common vision of how the game should be played, recruit players who fit that style, and coaches who understand how to train players to play in that style then players will develop. I also think there are some players who are just naturally brilliant. Wayne Rooney was going to be a star regardless of the system. I think Trent Alexander-Arnold is brilliant too but if he had come through under a different manager, in a different team, he'd not be playing the role he is now and would be nowhere near as effective.

What is your favorite sports moment? Why?

The Federer vs Nadal finals at Wimbledon were just about as good as sport gets. Epic matches, unbelievable levels of skill, absolute sportsmanship at the end. 

What coach/player/team inspires you? Why?

Ralf Rangnick and the entire Red Bull "franchise". I know as a football fan I am supposed to despise corporate takeovers of clubs but this has been the case since the 1890s when Liverpool FC was formed as a commercial entity to fill Everton's old stadium. Now almost every club is owned by dodgy billionaires or investment funds. So if you are going to be owned by some soulless corporate entity then you may as well be run brilliantly. Rangnick was given the task of building up a group of clubs that played exciting, attacking football, generated their own revenue through player sales and won things. He has done this. It is everything I want from MRKT Insights in the future.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into scouting/analytics?

Write, write, write. If you don't write you won't get noticed. Oh, and be nice on twitter.

What is your favorite app/tool to use (for work or fun)?

We couldn't run our business without the use of Slack.

What other sport/hobby/discipline do you feel improves your work as an analyst/scout? Why?

Just listening to people who think things through, it doesn't really matter what it is related to. I'd also recommend listening to really great communicators, again the field or subject isn't really important, but people who can put across incredibly complicated concepts in a really clear manner are vital for getting buy-in to what you are doing.