 It's time to unveil the latest new signing here at AFC Bournemouth. Hello and welcome to the debut episode of the official AFC Bournemouth podcast. This is where we're hoping to give you a unique insight into life here at the Vitality Stadium and beyond. I'm Chris Tempel, I've been covering the cherry since 2002, commentating with Big Willow for BBC Radio Solent. Everyone at the club is very excited to be part of this new podcast, none more so than my co-host, the one and only Mr Neil Parrott, who of course for decades worked for the Daily Echo in Bournemouth, now part of the club's media team here. One of the broadcast gurus in fact Neil, which is why we've specifically got you involved in this podcast, are you excited first of all? Absolutely, can't wait Chris, can't join by a fantastic guest as well. 2002 Chris, that's a relative novice I think. I started covering the club in what 1995, seen so many ups and downs, lots of downs to start with, lots of fantastic ups in the last few years. It's been a fantastic journey and great to see it from both sides of the fence now as well. And if we're told you're going to be involved in a podcast as somebody, you and me have had our battles down the years, broadcast against written press, but you're here as part of a broadcast, you're leading this Neil. Chris I had to look up podcasts to see what it meant just before we did this, I have never heard of them before, but no that's not strictly true, it was listicles and things like that when we were in the newspaper business, but yes if you'd have said to me ten, even two, three years ago that I'd be sitting here now in your illustrious company, Chris, then you know you would have had to take me away Chris. Just about got himself back on level terms there. OK there's plenty of games of course at the moment and loads of action to contend within this busy championship season, so initially we're going to be releasing this podcast around about once a month, but hopefully it will bring you, we'll bring it to you more regularly as the season progresses. We'll be sharing some of the stories of our combined 50 years we reckon of covering the club, some special guests to give you a great lesson coming up as well, so whether you've been a cherry four, maybe 50 plus years back to the Ted McDougal days and beyond, or you're a junior cherry recently joining the Bournemouth journey, hopefully something for you. Now, Neil, just before we introduce our very special guest, who we're delighted to have on this debut episode, interviewing of course is the main part of podcasting, the main part of why we're here. We've done I mean probably hundreds down the years, maybe thousands I reckon in your case, then always go to plan, though, do they got any immediate sort of horror stories from interviews down the years? Well, every Friday morning we used to carry out our pre-match press conference at Canford School in the old days when Sean O'Driscoll was the manager and Sean on this particular Friday morning had forgotten that we were doing the press conference and he was miles away setting out some cones on a pitch. I know that you were there that day as well. So you and I traipsed off across about four or five football pitches, you know, I was well out of breath by the time I got there. And you obviously led the questions with Sean. You asked him one or two questions, and he gave you one word answers. And I remember the third question was something along the lines of, Sean, you know, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. And he looked at you and said, All right, I won't then and walked off. And stomped off across the Canford training pitches. Our guest is smiling in the background because he was part of that. I'm sure that resonates a little bit with him as well. But I think Sean, I mean, Sean interviewing wasn't Sean's favorite, favorite topic, was it? Okay, let's waste a little bit of time and get on and introduce our very special guest for this official AFC Bournemouth podcast. He played 185 games for the club over two spells and six years. He was a full Scotland international. And he's now the technical director here at the club. It's a very warm welcome to Richard Hughes. Thank you very much, Chris. Privilege to be your first guest. I was going to say you fit in the heat to be in the first guest. Well, at least I'm glad I'm like Sean, I've turned up. She's a good start. I mean, you'll that will resonate with you won't you that Sean was sometimes the communication issue, particularly with the media wasn't his favorite? Yeah, he was a good communicator with the players. More importantly, I think we always knew what you wanted. We always knew how he wanted to play. So I guess you guys got a rougher ride than we did. Okay, let's let's start straight away with with your job, shall we technical director? What does the technical director do for those who maybe don't haven't aren't completely aware of your role here? Well, it changes club to club. This particular club essentially is heading up the recruitment department. So working alongside management and liaising with Neil Blake in terms of squad planning, squad structure. But the main job is to head up the recruitment department and and oversee that and and sort of educate the scouts into what the manager is looking for them and what the club are looking to to recruit. I know there's obviously been some changes recently related to the change of division. But when you say recruitment department, just give us an insight into what that entails here. Sure. So we've got I think when I started doing this, when I just stepped off the training ground, I think we had about five scouts, four to five scouts, of course, the Fletcher was one of them. And more recently now, I think we've got eight scouts, one based abroad. So that's a chief scout in there as well, head of domestic scouting, which is Andy Ho, Eddie's nephew. And yeah, that's that's pretty much it. And, and we're not the biggest recruitment department country definitely went in the Premier League. And we've we've cut our cloth accordingly post Covid post relegation. But we're competitive and we hopefully do a good job for the club. We're here recording this, you know, in the morning of a you know, a weekday the day before a game, for example, if you weren't sat here with us at the moment, what would you what would you be doing? What would a recruitment technical director be doing right now? Well, not two days of the same, I think you just find me stepped out of the transfer window. And those are pretty stressful days, because even though it's a transfer window we had where we only recruited two players every few days, picking up the form to agents is speaking to people you don't necessarily want to speak to on a daily basis. And what would I be doing today when the season is sort of fully underway and the windows closed, probably having meetings of some description as a meeting in this day and age as everyone's used to. And I'm just planning for for the subsequent window and planning, it starts 10 weeks, three months out, because you can't just wake up one day and sign the player. So those are the main daily interactions I have. If I'm looking at a player, of course, because the scouts will bring players to my attention and before they go in front of the manager, then I obviously have to cast my eyes or something like that. I think Chris, but but no two days are the same. It's pretty flexible. We'll come on to we'll come on to the specifics of the window just gone very shortly. But interesting, you mentioned zoom there and and how that has changed, I guess everybody's landscape. How has it impacted the whole COVID situation with the work that you do? And can you have transfer negotiations over zoom realistically? We kind of have to. Yeah, I mean, they did happen. You don't necessarily have to be always in zoom. You can you can pick up the phone, of course, and do it that way, because you don't have to necessarily see each other the whole time you're having a negotiation. But I think because we had a relatively quiet window from an incoming perspective, and I think that would that help to sort of bed into the new the new way of recruiting as it were post COVID. If we'd had a window where we're signing six or seven players, I think it would be very challenging. But but yeah, the main differences are in terms of into what the plan is and what the structure is. And of course, we have to cut a cloth accordingly. And most clubs up and down the country have been quieter, I think in this window, I think the stats are there to prove it that that has not been a lot of of action compared to previous windows. But I think it's something quite good about actually not having to travel to have a meeting and just picking up a phone having a Zoom chat. I've got to say, just when Neil comes in, Jason Tindall's is press conferences at 830 in the morning. Now, I've got to say, not having to travel to the ground for those and just rolling down to my front room is a lot better than having to travel to the stadium for them. I can tell you that half an hour in bed. Just ask you about our most recent signing Cameron Carter vickers. Now, it's not a case of just we need a defender who's around. There's a lot of work. There's lots of lists and stuff like that. How does that work with your department? Yeah, good question, Neil. And no two signings are the same. We came into this window, not necessarily knowing what we needed from an incoming point of view, because a lot depended on who we kept. And that's clearly out with the recruitment department's control. And we just needed to be prepared and have names in positions just in case. So we had extensive lists as you alluded to that in that regard. And also, during the course of preseason, Jason changed the formation that he used or that he has started a season with. So suddenly from sort of having centre backs and playing in the back four, you're therefore having to be a little bit more extensive and and finding players that can play in the back three. I think you also have to be reactive in this side. You can have all the best plans you want. You cannot have all the best preparations or think you're well prepared. But you have to be reactive. And in Cameron's case, of course, we had a new member of the coaching department who'd, who'd managed Cameron at Luton. So clearly the input coming the other way. It's not all one sided input that scouts and myself giving opinions to the manager that comes in. The feedback comes the other way as well. Perhaps more at this level, I think at the Premier League level than when Eddie and Jason were sort of facing opponents, you know, nine times out of 10 household names, international stars, it wasn't uncommon that they've come back wanting to recruit players that we couldn't, obviously. But at championship level, I think that it will happen as the season goes on that they like players that they play against and that impressed them. So we have to be reactive to that as well. So more, more personally for Cameron's situation, it was an 11th or probably a 12th signing. And I think we had 45 minutes. I don't know how Alice Jean's the club secretary managed to get all the paperwork done in time. And but it was clearly that was in a a reactive signing to Joe Rodin having joined Tottenham so late notice. So again, you can, you can go a whole day without making a meaningful phone call in this job. And then suddenly it's all systems gone. That was the case on transfer deadline day. So Cameron was obviously alone signing just just going to maybe a permanent signing, a signing perhaps that's going to cost quite a lot of money. What how does the procedure work involving the owner, the chief executive, the manager, you, do you all sit around a table and say, well, we're going to have to pay X for so and so. And who sort of would would make the final decision if you like, because there's a lot of a lot of talk to go on internally. Yeah. And again, a very good question and one that I'll try and answer as succinctly as possible. But it's sort of in that question, you have a microcosm about how recruitment can go wrong. And the good fortune that we've had at this club is consistency. Because I think if one of those components change, let alone a couple of them, like it has happened that happens all the time, it clubs up and down the country, then clearly that there can be a disjointed nature to, to, to the recruitment. And it's, it's not easy to get, there's no guarantees rather to get signings right. But clearly you can, you can limit the chance of mistake with good communication. And we've always had that we've always, I say we've always had that we've had that in this in this era of the club. Because I wouldn't know what happened before, to be honest, Neil, and how I was signed for this football club and on two occasions is a mystery. But from from from this side of the fence, and director is clear from the owner, the communication between the owner and the chief executive, Neil Blake, is excellent. I'd imagine on a daily basis, especially during a transfer window. And you come into it with, with, with a plan, you kind of, you kind of did in windows gone by summer windows, especially we've always looked to, to be progressive, to, to improve the squad that we had, which was, as well as a want, it was an accessibility as well, because we had a very good team here, of course, a great team that achieved promotion, won the championship title with a group of players that without having the average age to hand was probably the wrong side of 25. And so to, to survive five years in the Premier League, you know, you're going to have to recruit in order to do that. And every window there was an understanding that would come from the manager, primarily his, his, his belief. So, so Eddie, how it would have had first and last word on a signing. But clearly in between that first and last word, there's a whole, a whole order process of important conversations going on with people of the level you, you describe their owner, chief executive, et cetera. But there was always a great understanding and a belief in where the message was coming from, the fact that the message in the first place was an accurate one. And therefore, the, the owner always wanted to, and always has back that and, and allow the chief executive to, to, to negotiate said deal. And, and hopefully come out of the transfer window with a more competitive squad than we went into it with. Clearly when you come down the level, this is the first time I've been in this job that that's happened. And of course, it wasn't the plan to ever be in that situation. But we had to be reactive to it. You chuck COVID into the mix. And it makes it a situation where you have to be, you have to be careful, you have to be prudent. We knew that certain players would go, we didn't know exactly how many. So therefore the list that the recruitment department had to have were pretty extensive. And we, I think, we, having lost three players to, to sales and then a number in terms of out of contract and, and Harry Wilson, of course, the long going back, I think probably eight or nine bodies shortened where last season. But the belief from everyone coming into the window, and that if that was the number that, that we lost, it probably would only take one or two and, and a little bit more luck on the injury front to have a more competitive squad to attack the championship with. So it's it's evolving conversations. I'm going on a lot here, Neil, but it's you've asked me a very, very relevant question to the process. And, and I want to give an accurate answer. But fundamentally, the key to having a good recruitment or as good recruitment as possible is good communication from the leader down. And we definitely have that here. People want to hear from you, Richard. They don't really want to hear from me or Chris. Just just a quick one. It's quite topical at the moment. I'm not going to talk about other clubs, businesses, but sometimes there can be disputes between technical directors and managers. What's it like for you to a Eddie how and then Jason Tindall X teammates? What's it like to have worked and be working with them? How important is it that relationship? Yeah, fundamental. I'm very lucky that the only two managers have had doing this are two people that have known since, since my teens and understanding them from a human perspective, as well as a footballing perspective, I think it is crucial to the job that I do. And I really feel sorry for people in my role that try and do that will do do this and a very good job in times as well for people that they don't necessarily know as well as I do. Clearly that proves that it's not essential, but it gave me a head start definitely and working alongside a manager as successful as Eddie also helps because he can make bad decisions look indifferent and decent decisions look great. So, you know, that I think is the key. I think how you recruit a player clearly varies between club and club and everyone will have their own policy. It's my belief that the best chance you have of having a successful signing is that the manager is a huge part in that recruitment process, which we've always had. But it's also true that that manager can't be in multiple places at one time. So, therefore, if Jason is preparing for the game tomorrow and tonight it's unlikely that he will manage to cover the six or seven championship games that are going on and that's why it's someone else's job to make sure that that's done properly. So, that for me is what the job is and the better the understanding between the person in my shoes and the person picking a team and coaching the players then one would assume the better the chance for success. It buys an all guarantee because the magic question you want answered is how is that player going to do at this club with these teammates, this manager in front of these fans at that time, an impossible question to ask fully. So, you're in the lap of the gods a lot of the time, but if you narrow down the chances of a mistake by doing your homework correctly and making sure that you need that position clearly in the first place then there's all sorts of things that you can do to limit the mistakes and ensure that there are more good succinings than bad ones. Let's just stay on the recruitment theme just for a moment. Lots of people are fascinated with how transfers happen. There's all sorts of reports about, you know, there were reports in this window about X's that agreed terms with this club before they've the clubs have agreed fees, etc. Take us inside a transfer deal Richard from your point of view. Pretend I'm Neil Parrott's agent, Neil is under contract at another club. He's obviously got multiple agents, a man of his ability, and you want to sign him. What happens first, you know, somebody, if it's all done, everything's done above board, of course, by all the clubs doing it right. What happens first in terms of this player's not a free transfer, he's under contract somewhere else, you want to sign him. What's the first approach you make, and how does it move from there to potentially getting the signature on the paper? This is the point where I should tell you we approach the football club and do things. You want the official, you're on the front EFE. Not really. Okay. No, I think it's clearly once you've narrowed down onto what target you want to recruit, that there are various conversations that need to take place. Clearly the most important, there's three parties to it, the selling club, buying club, and player. You don't have an agreement unless you have the yes from all three. No, it is, I think most clubs accept that there is a level of conversation with representatives throughout the course of the year, which will help you identify what players' situations may be. It's not quite being blind to that. That happens otherwise. There would be a whole segment of months out with the transfer when people will be doing nothing. So conversations are taking place with agents and they're telling us the situation that their clients may face in the next coming windows. Fundamentally, you have to agree a fee with the third party, with the club and the selling. That can change drastically between different situations. Honestly, I would say that no two signings have ever been the same. We all know, even when a player's coming for us, we all know that obviously if a club's knocking on our door to buy a player, there's a good chance that the player might want to go there as well. I think that's also part of what's taken as a given during the process. Negotiating the transfer fee is something that at this football club is the responsibility of Neil Blake, Chief Executive, so he will touch base with his counterpart or whoever is in charge at the other club. They will try and do a deal then when, given the green light to do so, it's there for the process when Neil or myself will speak with the agent. Chances are I've been speaking to the agent in the months leading up to about any number of things and we're trying to reach a deal with the player. So those are just, I don't want to trivialize in those aspects. So those are aspects that you want to know how and they're all different. Some of them are very straightforward and very easy. Sometimes you, if my information I've gathered for the Chief Executive in between windows is accurate, then the process is a lot smoother. If it's not then there can be some 11th hour work in terms of frantically trying to achieve a deal but I think what we've always tried to do here is to barring a couple of isolated incidents. I think we've always tried to do the work fairly and give ourselves enough time so that we're not frantically scrambling around for a last minute medical and with that comes all the things that we said before about the good communication, the identification being the accurate one and again having had, well a lot of experience working under Eddie and in a couple of situations working on the Jason where there's a clear remit makes it a lot easier for me to sort of not have a list of five or six players because then you end up spinning plates which is part of the job, which every one of my position will refer to in terms of spinning a plate and you can imagine what that means. It's like you having to sort of play keen on a number of fronts when actually you want Planny to come in and probably it's because I'm such a morally sound and honest person I don't like to spin the other plates I like to you know for us to be successful with Planny and a lot of time because of the backing we've had from above the technical side of things then we've been fortunate with that. I want to just finally before Neil comes in on transfers will always talk to my commentary partner about the Harry Redknapp days when they'd say right get them straight down the beach any new signings potentially go and show them the beach go and show them the sea front and they'll sign for anything else of course in this COVID world we're talking about you presumably can't do things like bring people down have a look around before you sign them. No we can but we were taking a leaf out of Harry and Willow's book there it was something in terms of you play your trump cards when you when you're recruiting and the ones that we've had again sorry to harp on historically but with only two signings deep in this new era but clearly on a revolution from where we came from to Premier League was a well-documented story and it was a story that people out with the town perhaps didn't know a lot of the time and you're educating people on that front it's a really good story and we told it and the people that play the part in that story as well as the fans of course you know principally was Eddie so he's your trump card and you go into into that negotiation saying we've got the brightest young English manager in the country and you wouldn't have anyone disagree with that so suddenly again it makes my job easier and then not far behind Eddie is the beauty of the of the local area and and that's again that's what we we played that card every every time we could not so much as organizing meetings according to weather forecasts or anything but it was we then we then developed a recruitment video which surprised and not actually entered other people's circulation now you send them out by email you never know where they go but in those emails we try to split it into three videos the history of the club the coaching and the technical side of things and that's where we'd feature heavily on the on management and coaching staff and the development of players which is something that we pride ourselves on doing and then of course a separate video for for the location just educating the people that may never have been to Bournemouth may never have heard of Bournemouth in certain cases and and and those videos sort of pack it up and and either show them in person if if situation allowed or we hadn't managed to to show the individuals via their agents in previous situations but that is a big part of it because you have to play your trump cards and especially when we were in the Premier League and not being disrespectful to ourselves but if you're going to go try and fight off the top teams in a country for a Lloyd Kelly for example you're not going to be able to show the trophy cabinet or the amount of Champions League you've won but you may focus on geography to an extent but in the case of coaching and development of players and pathway so those we we try to show in person if we could but we had the video there to help us along where we couldn't you forget in the 1984 football league trophy we won not not at all no no no what was that against me it was a whole city i believe Sean O'Driscoll tells the story about it was so dark that night when they were getting the medals they were being thrown at them by Graham Taylor or whoever it was um just moving on to the role the role of a certainly a domestic scout Richard I was at an under 18 game last season standing with our scout there and we were playing Plymouth and he had most incredible knowledge about Plymouth Argyle under 18s and I said how on earth do you know so much about that team he said well it's one of my teams and he sort of explained how he's detailed to cover a certain amount of clubs in the country just explain what how that works well tell me who it was and we'll make sure we get fired for letting on their trade secrets to excellent broadcasters like yourself Neil um so yeah so so in in what we try to do and again the the the scouting um the scouting uh pathway situation is something that has evolved in my five six years that have been here always searching for the best outcome um and always knowing that in five or six years you're not going to have reached there so you're going to have to constantly evolve and add layers to it and that's something that we've done as we've as we've gone on and it became apparent to me and after a couple of years of doing this that uh it was what what is who you didn't sign that was as important as who you did and uh and there was often situations where eddie would ask me about a player uh and it wasn't good enough for me to know to tell him i didn't know who it was just because we were focusing on someone we preferred i thought there had to be an accountability and responsibility um from me in the department to give eddie an answer to that question and the only way with the best way we found of doing it is that all other 91 teams in in the football league and Premier League were accounted for from a uh from a scouting perspective and um essentially it's like a man marking system if you like of the the scouting um the scouting process rather than sort of there's only marking as saying who's who's missed that kid that's uh tearing up trees at acrington it's like at least you can turn around and actually look the person in the eye who's missed that that player at acrington if that situation arose which i'm sure it doesn't because that's the next process of man mark them and man mark them properly um and uh and and everyone that we've had is has always been very committed into that level of detail that that um that you say so it probably ended up between 15 and 23 teams apiece depending on on on what scout um was a portion to Plymouth i have to go back and look at who that was and uh and uh yeah so so they would have had 15 to 23 teams and then clearly um it takes a number of weeks to get through all 23 teams because you have to be accountable to all of them and then once you've done that there's no point watching um Plymouth's first team 10 times if if you pretty much know everyone that that's in Plymouth's first team so then coming down the levels and watching these younger age groups and uh 23s and then 18s is is something that we we've always encouraged the the guys to do to be as accountable as possible because i mean Lloyd Kelly is an interesting example of that i don't necessarily like to mention examples um individually but it is a relevant one where Lloyd Kelly it wasn't just his appearances for England 21 and Bristol City's first team that where we had scouted and there was a body of work that got into him in his younger age groups and in Bristol Bristol City's underage groups which which gives you um the ability to act quicker i think so when Lloyd comes on for example and does really well in one championship game um you kind of know that that was always going to happen if you've looked at him beforehand so um that that's what we we try to do we haven't evolved that process too much from them because accounting for all 91 other teams is uh is hard enough in itself to do um but uh yeah so does that answer your question do you in terms of certainly does the next one is the international scout 20 years ago our international scouts would have covered the Isle of Wight signing people like Sean Cooper maybe the Channel Islands Brett Pittman but you've obviously cast your net a lot wider now just tell us about the role of the international scout so again that came came about because of your accountability and and as it won't be surprising to you because you know Eddie how it's all well it is every department wants to improve and impress essentially and there and when we got promoted to the Premier League again even though perhaps we wouldn't necessarily have delved into the foreign markets um too often or too soon we still needed to tell uh Eddie who and go look at it was who was signing for for Leicester City because on match day three or four he would play against them and therefore if um if there was um an opinion uh to add to what the technical staff would have seen in the first two or three Premier League games um that season then then I thought it was our job to be able to do that so um not having uh comparative to top Premier League clubs anyway that necessarily the the resources from a a man per point of view um we we tried to um through various platforms like Weisskirk where you can access um pretty much every game within 24 hours of having been played so there's there really was no excuse and there is no shortage of time to be able to to to look at all these players from uh from far and wide but still trying to make it relevant to um to our recruitment process which is the most important thing and uh and it became it became obvious um within a couple of seasons of having focused our attentions um internationally as well as domestically um that that Eddie and Jason liked um players from Spain um they like the the Spanish way of playing I think there was a lot of similarities between how um our Bulma team played um compared with a lot of La Liga teams it's that sort of uh that um ball retention um heavy possession based um but you know high high level of technical um ability as well to um you know to create and go forward to go goals etc so so they particularly liked watching Spanish football and therefore when you'd like watching a particular brand of football it became becomes obvious that there's players in in that league that you like and and that's where the only internationally based scout that we have uh is based in Madrid um it's not by accident of course and uh and that's why um two or three signings since then have come from Spain um and that was the it was essentially me reacting I was reacting to to to Eddie's likes and uh and trying to cast that net as far and wide as feasible as well as possible and uh and if you again uh Eddie's level of detail on Jason's level of detail wouldn't be such that we would just take a punt on someone we'd have to again produce a body of work um to go along with the recommendation and and you can only really do that if you if you've got so hands and feet on ground and picking up sort of character references as well as as well as what your eyes can see on on a tv screen you mentioned why scout there will move on to some supporters questions towards the end but jamie has actually asked a question about why scout first of all he's not asking but explain what why scout is first of all but he's saying to what degree are transfers based on various statistical models out there compared to the eye test surrounding specific players and well why scout first and foremost is uh is a platform um where it is if you haven't seen it it's incredible really and I still try and get my head round how they actually managed to make it work basically the platform consists of a plethora of flags on the uh uh on the home page and you click on whatever flag it is it opens up the the leagues of the of that country uh and then before you know it you can be watching third division football in in the most remote leagues uh in in the world and uh again it's a bit of a nightmare for for us in a recruitment department because suddenly there's no hiding places so if you don't know a player there's no excuse you just haven't worked hard enough and uh and and why scout within 24 hours sometimes less sometimes a little bit more and every game that's played is um that's every game 99 percent of games um that are played uh have been there they've been they've been clipped as well so you can go on and just look at the events of a particular player I actually have a little bit of fun going back historically and and seeing how bad I was going to come back and view events from my last uh games in football wondering why I wasn't given a contract uh at the end of the season and the answer is pretty obvious um but uh I like to watch a whole game and not necessarily just cut it to the events but there's so much you can do with it um and and and you can sort of watch a player's best actions which is always a dangerous thing to do because clearly best actions aren't exactly that and they're cutting out a lot of what happens in between so you can be fooled and uh make anyone look good in a in a sort of uh a cameo of best actions but that that's what why scout is and I think an essential I'm sure that are others out there and perhaps uh why scout should sponsor this particular session of of this podcast but uh um that's the platform we use and it's always been very good to us in that regard and statistics question of statistics yeah very interesting question and it's something that we've um more than flirted with uh at this football club in the last um six years um we at one point had um someone who who saw role it was the club to um crunch data um achieved from opta or obtained from opta um and uh and to make that uh personal and relevant to Bournemouth um which uh I'm trying to simplify it here but it's someone a lot more intelligent than I um you know devising an algorithm essentially and and so of getting comparative players to players that have been successful to us or players that the manager has liked um always very useful when particularly when it's a league you can't get to uh readily so if uh it can be your your first port of call as well so say for example you don't have a uh someone with um hands and feet out in Austria scouting but the numbers may flag up nabby cater for example when he was at uh at Saltsburg and and suddenly you don't have to watch 50 odd games of the the Austrian um Premier Division you can just focus in on that one player whose numbers are good and and then it depends club to club um and we have always been uh you know the eye the eye test essentially as I said before the manager's got um first and last say in terms of I want this player with this type of player and then in the end deciding whether the type of player that's been put in front of them is the one that he wants um and and that in the body of work that goes in between yes that's play play a part um I wouldn't want to overemphasize that the part that they played because it's interesting numerically to to sort of um either confirm what you think you see or correct what you may have seen wrong and um I'd say that it's something that um we've always wanted to be progressive with um and the incorporation of a data scientist one day into into recruitment department um would be something that would be of uh of huge interest to myself and recruitment coordinator Craig McKee um because that will give us uh more information and anyone who who's blind to wanting more information or deaf to wanting to hear more information for me is not doing the job properly um we're going to come on to your playing career very shortly Rich which I know you'll be delighted about um but just before you mentioned there about um going to watch players and statistics and various others in the current COVID climate I think I'm right in saying that scouts have certain rules by which is it the next two opponents you can go and watch matches so this is a two-part question one is just tell us how the restrictions at the moment affect what your department would do and secondly how do your recruitment department split up you touched on this earlier watching players for future signings and watching opponents for future games coming up um yes so you're absolutely right in terms of the scouts a lot of it's next three games the next three opponents um rather than two but absolutely yes um that's the situation now um the the more experienced scouts let's put it that way find a way um to to know someone who knows someone who issues the tickets so again I'm saying all this is someone might get in trouble from it I'm sure we don't do it at this club by the way I think I'm sure we stick to the rules but um the scouts um that we have uh this club are very adept at sort of annoying when perhaps and not all of the next three opponents have taken up their allocation and that's where it's possibly a question for the club secretary more than more than myself in terms of at what point are you allowed to reissue a ticket to someone else so we have found ways as a department to to to get into games um in this season so yeah we'll focus on them so I mentioned earlier to Neil that the 91 teams that we have covered and we won't necessarily apportion any of that to opposition scouting so if we can go to the next three opposition next games of so the next three opponent's games um then we will use that as a sort of recruitment scouting if you like or traditional scouting and because um Garvin Stewart who heads up the opposition analysis and the analyst side of things um he and Ryan Dawes and their team they they do this most of it by computer in fact that the pictures that they get um are not necessarily that sort of traditional TV screen that they're sort of wide angled or high view so being a game from an opposition um perspective I I my personal opinion I realized pretty quickly how redundant that was um because apart from the fact the manager has the ability to watch that team as many times as he wants on on the computer so he's not going to listen to someone else's opinion who was at the game and had a one without being able to rewind and pause and start again so uh you see them um when when people live underground people like sort of literally writing down set pieces and what they're doing and I wonder why they do it because you know every club um I'd imagine every club in the football league will have um you know analysts chopping up data on set pieces as well and and and going by the screen themselves so I think those scouts that go to the game and actually waste of time taking a sort of a still picture of what's happening and uh on a corner is a waste of time it's my opinion and so we've had to try and um cope where we can't go to whatever games we can that are relevant but also this is where why scout again sort of sponsor them again and this is where it becomes more and more important that uh that are scouts that that that believe that um that you can only you can't sign a player without having seen them live and whilst I I subscribe to the sentiment I didn't have to see Lionel Messi live to realize he was a good player so it's if you watch people enough on other platforms then you can definitely reach a an opinion of sorts clearly it goes without saying you want sort of proper um sort of eyes on the ground and and you go you want to get to the stage where you're going to a game watching a player to to see what he does when the opposition have not actually taking in the game or the context around the game but just focusing on that one player out of the 22 you want to get to a stage where that's how you're scouting a player but it's not always possible and it's definitely challenging in this climate certainly sounds like scouting's moved on since uh willow he'll tell me used to drive to middlesbrough write the formation down on the back of a fag packet and maybe forget half the players and I'm not doing him down by saying this is how he describes it back in the day signing players like me then Neil Joe I was just going to ask you um Richard about your um upbringing in Italy uh you were born in Glasgow but you were raised in Italy how how how did that all come about um so my my parents and my all the brother were living in the land at the time my mum was expecting me and um uh because she had just moved over to Italy from Glasgow she didn't speak Italian and she wasn't comfortable having a uh a baby even though that was the plan originally she wasn't comfortable eventually when it came around to uh uh to labour time or close to it that she wasn't she wasn't uh totally confront of uh of beings of barked orders by Italian doctors so um she came uh she went back to Glasgow I had me and within a month we moved back over um to join my my dad and my brother and so it's purely my dad's job that brought him there he um he worked for a publishing company um Penguin um my branch of Penguin um so distributing books for um Italians learning English so essentially it was uh we were expats living in Milan and um it was it was clearly all I knew um the upbringing was at a British school so I did the British schooling system um and football was played for my originally my local teams so it was of English in the house English at school Italian at the house um from a language and a cultural perspective um and at the age of um actually at the age of 10 I got um signed up by AC Milan and um I didn't want to go I was a shy boy that um clearly that that moving from a British way of living to an Italian culture was was still quite tricky and confusing perhaps but and that's my excuse for turning down the opportunity of going to AC Milan ridiculously at the age of 10 um but I was fortunate that a year later uh Atalanta who who if anything haven't still do a better um youth system um picked me up from my local club and and brought me in there when I was um a youth team player for seven years and just tell us about how important you speak Italian you obviously speak English how important has has that skill been in your your role now yeah language is clearly for communication when um it's a the biggest attribute I think you can have or try to have in in this side defense is communication and that that that's internally and externally as well it's trying to be a good sportsman a good ambassador for for the football club and um given that at times uh definitely from a recruitment perspective I will be the first um the first face uh the first voice that that that people hear from the football club um if you can communicate in in different languages um it clearly helps now it have helped more of the manager like Italian football than uh than Spanish but uh I'll try to I'll try to uh yeah uh tailor my ways to to theirs and I actually did do one Spanish lesson and gave up after one just through through time restrictions more than anything else but yeah I I speak French as well I did French to um to A level um so that that was you know it's come in handy a few times as well with their French speaking players and um under scouting was um quite heavily based in in in France um after after promotion and uh I can't think of any or least must say of course a max grader with the two recruits of spring to mind I don't think I'm forgetting anyone from from France but but clearly in that case in Lisa's situation uh definitely with them with the family in his agent having the ability to speak to them in in their mother tongue at times was uh was clearly beneficial and how did you find your way to Arsenal because that's obviously where we signed you from yeah so um when I was uh well I got to the stage I was 17 and and the awkward thing about Italian um football at the time uh was there was apart from fact there was a loophole in regulations and uh Gennaro Gattuso had just left um I think it was Salernitano Perugia I'm not sure which one but he just left there and gone to Rangers and a loop pool and a contract so um he wouldn't have been able to go to another Italian club but to a British club he went for next to nothing and and I always had that in the back of my mind that that's what I would try to do only because um it was a situation where my my schooling had come to an end I'd done my A levels the Italian schooling system finished a year later than the British one so um lots of my uh all the the boys my age at Atalanta at the time had another year's worth of studies to continue so I got to the stage where my A levels had finished I was either going to have a pro contract playing football or I was going to go to university um and if I had stayed in Italy I'd have had to have waited 12 months for a resolution to this and um so Arsenal um having I assume seen me play for Scotland under the 18s at the time and uh and Liam Brady who was the head of um of youth development at the time at Arsenal uh has his roots in Italy as well from his time at Sampdoria and Juventus so he was uh he was he was keen to bring me to to Arsenal and that's how it came about and it was um it happened pretty knowing what I know know how unlikely the story was at the time I can I only realize now at the time it was like all right okay well okay I'll leave at Atalanta I'll go to Arsenal and that's where my uh how my career will pan out and uh I've always wanted to come back to but even though I I love everything about Italy I love 99 99% of things uh in Italy um and from a footballing perspective I all all my education of course to the Italian way of playing um I'd always had a fascination of of of playing football over here and it was maybe some of the passion and uh and the crowds um uh because growing up in the 80s and 90s in Italy even though um people focused on hooliganism over in in the UK but believe me it was in the stadiums it was rife in Italy at the time and there was something quite intimidating about the Italian match day um situation what is in England I think post um post Hillsborough perhaps things had moved in a in a more friendly family orientated manner or at least that's what seemed to me as a Scott growing up in in Milan so I always had this this dream and vision that I would come back and play in in the UK and that's how turned out so then obviously big willows shown male mate in the back of your your name on the back of a fag packet and you signed here just tell us about your first impressions of what you saw yeah that that was quite an interesting one uh I spent a year at Arsenal um reserves uh and and like lots of footballers completely deluded to the fact that I um um thinking I was better than I was I'm wondering how I couldn't host people like Petit and Vieira from Arsenal's first team and this was just a joke I should be playing in this in this double-winning Arsenal team so you get a little bit um I got a bit frustrated and disillusioned that the first team seemed like a mirage which it should have been with the players that we had there um so the opportunity came to come and talk to Mel Machen at the end of my as it transpired only season Arsenal even though I had a two-year contract and um when I came to talk to Mel um one of my first questions to him or my father's question my father was um other than my father was also my agent at the time um which is something he did for five or six years and um and we asked Mel where he saw me play because I'd actually in Italy I had uh I had played at left back I played center back before I played central midfield and um and he told me he wanted me to play left back but when I come to Arsenal um I came as a left back and then they had a pretty decent left back and he used to be called Ashley Cole so I was ousted from that position thrust into midfield um and so I thought that this country would only know me as a central midfielder when I asked Mel that question he said he wanted me to play as a as a left back um and I sort of scratched my head and I was like when when would you have seen me play left back and he goes out southampton and south Hampton reserves and I was like and I was like oh I remembered that we had an injury during the game and I went to play left back for five minutes and uh and I was like I said that to Mel I was like oh yeah oh yeah yeah south Hampton he had played there for five minutes and he looked at me and I then I got to normal and I know he's deadly serious he goes you played well for five minutes son so there was it it was back of a fact paper and five minutes worth of football that that earned me um four-year contract to Bournemouth and a lifetime of happiness it's an interesting story about the left back because another player who will remain nameless told me a story once about Mel said to him after a game you played left back today son and you you weren't very good with which the player turned around to him and said well why did you play me there then a valid question major debut august 98 alongside eddie njt played 56 games in your first season do you what can you remember about that nowadays that will be unheard of wouldn't it I can remember having a hernia at the end of season and having an operation it saw me out the whole of the next one it's it's um yeah I just loved it I loved um it was quite daunting um coming it it was a new country essentially to me I'd only been in UK for a year uh and I'm suddenly um in my second year of being in the UK I'm having to be okay I was an adult was 19 at the time but live on my own fend for myself um all things that uh that at the time I probably took for granted but it was quite quite a challenge um and amongst that trying to forge away in in in this career and that I had decided to to embark in and uh but but I love the the the feeling of results mattering at the at the end of the day was uh was um something that I I knew I wanted but I wasn't quite ready for going to play so that that season you know there's so many games that I remember I remember that Lincoln city debut um I remember the Wolves um winning the cup a couple of months later at Molyneux um one of my most enjoyable seasons I've had I thought we were such a good team um that that season a team that was very unlucky not to to reach the playoffs I thought we were easily one of the best teams in league in at a time where there were some really good teams weren't they in in in a league and the likes of Manchester City and and and Stork uh for example big clubs that had just dropped down and um and I really enjoyed it um and ultimately ended in disappointment with a pretty bland nil-nil draw at home to to Wrexham on the last day of the season um where we we had like the last five or six games we'd sort of run out of steam a little bit and uh and that was that but there were other great teams at Bournemouth a couple of years after that one of course the the Jermaine the full team um but probably and and I don't know if Eddie and Jason will thank me for saying this because they were obviously two uh fantastic teammates um in that four-year stint that I had at the club first time around but the changing room I enjoyed most was when I came back and um and and and that team that uh we got promotion uh that season from league one uh coming second and then the first season in the championship until until I retired um but that was that that was probably my my happiest year in football that that season we we came up from league one and and that's even taking into account all the the good times I had done at all the Portsmouth as well in between. Just going back to um 1998 um Eddie Jason both in the team was a really good team Mark Steen Ian Cox Steve Robinson Steve Fletcher and the late Mark Ovendale someone I know that you were very close to. Yeah Mark was um Mark was great um with me when I first arrived he was uh he was a big kid but he was uh he was a proper adult he was in his mid-20s and he had a family uh and he took me under his wing um when I arrived here because I was sort of on my own and um plenty of good friends but um uh Mark uh easily um one of the closest and um just just a great goalkeeper as well I mean part of the reason that we were such a good good team that year um was because Mark was uh was just so good you know and uh and that was probably moving up from youth team football to reserve team football and then reserve team football first team football that's what I really noticed uh you know the difference because you're suddenly playing with a man in goal who's whose goal coverage was uh was excellent um and um yeah and an altogether great person um I think it was only it was only a couple of seasons he was before he got signed by Luton um or was at the end of that season yeah was it one and a half sorry catching you off guard there but uh he was um uh Mark was a great teammate a great friend um and um yeah someone I remember very fondly indeed. His son's playing in the wessex league for broccano sound doing doing very well for people who don't know you you spoke about one or two flirts with the playoffs none more so than 2000-2001 the germain season which believe it or not 20 years ago was when he went on that amazing run of 10 in a row yeah I mean that that was again another good team uh really good team and we were third from bottom I think um uh before germain came in on lawn um eddie here tries to say that it was it culminated with his return uh from injury at the same time and they both made their uh their come well eddie made his come back at stork and germain made his debut at stork uh we could beat two one because someone missed the penalty again and that was me and uh and uh but but it was a really good team and um and a team that um I can't quite explain how we didn't manage to to to see that game out at running it would be one of the most mysterious games I've played perhaps a little bit of um uh maybe too much youth if anything in a time like that with three one up with 10 15 minutes to go and then eddie howe and jason tindall get themselves into tango and give away a free cake in the hecht of box and uh and they're three two with 10 minutes to go just uh was a little bit too much for us to to call by steven petrus should have scored actually to make it four three there after wouldn't he hit the crossbar but it was um if we'd have got if we'd have got into the playoffs with that team we came seventh in the end didn't we missed out by that by that goal uh if we'd have got into the playoffs I think that's why redding were sort of so uh treated treated it so seriously I think they were in the league at the time so they would have played us don't think they've enjoyed that I think jermaine would have would have found his way to put them through the sword again and we'd have got to the the championship but uh as it transpired we had to wait nine years yeah I'll just add you to my list of all the people that taking the credit for jermaine's 10 goals that steve letcher weighed earlier both said that they supplied them all I think you'll find that his great goal at oxford that he's got you know that one where he'd think to give a I'd get an assist for that for passing it to him on the edge of it on box so uh flech can take all the credit he wants but uh that was my assist on that one the best goal I've ever seen live for us was that very goal on boxing day it was he chipped the goalkeeper and the goalkeeper was virtually on his line yeah but more about the assistant the assist was a good one wasn't it now I just got a quickly touch on your disciplinary record here 37 yellow cards and two reds that's almost harry r2s isn't it um well actually unlike harry a good friend of mine most of my yellow cards were actually wisely taken uh I think um I was and this is part of my I guess upbringing in the game I always went went into a game thinking that yellow card wasn't a negative you're allowed one of them and depending on the position you play and as a defensive midfielder and at times a tough tackling midfielder I would think that um I was allowed to get one yellow card as long as they didn't get two of them in the same game and and they're sending us for Bournemouth would have been oh well yeah one was in my second penultimate game for the club um where the manager played me for the knee injury and I couldn't really move um but uh the first one was against qpr at loft of fraud which I thought was a really harsh double yellow I think I got the ball in that case but my disciplinary record as say differentiating it between myself and and those who who may get a yellow card or two for shouting at the referee I I saved them for incidents that actually helped the team that was my that's my excuse for that you left at the end of 2001 2002 for Portsmouth Warren Feeney James Hayter Carl Fletcher Wade Elliott all went on to play in the championship really good team surely that team was too good to go down do you think uh yes yes it was uh and again something I can't put my finger on quite what happened I think injuries play the large part uh in that um and uh whilst not being able to recollect funnily enough of all the seasons I've managed to forget the one sitting in court well and I'm trying to I'm racking my brain for that one um I do know that I was injured a lot not saying that uh there were other injuries as well uh and of course Eddie left in in March which was a big big loss um to us for the for the remainder of the season um but yeah that was um yeah no reason for it um it was um I think that the sort of uh the basis of that team ended up sort of fighting its way back from from a league below didn't as well so they proved that they were sort of too good to go down um but yeah it of all the four years that I had first time around funnily enough that's that's the one that sort of I can't remember as uh as well as the others just going back to Sean O'Driscoll the man who was the manager at that time obviously Chris and I both had our difficulties and differences dealing with him from a media point of view Richard but every single ex player you speak to about him has nothing but high praise for him as a manager but years ahead of his time some have said yeah very much so I thought um the fact that that so many people that were part of that team that Sean had are still involved in the game in some capacity and not necessarily always in managerial positions or coaching positions but um in no small part because Sean invited a group of young players to think about the game differently to to think outside the box and uh and you didn't do you didn't go through a session um just for the sake of it and um lots of sessions that I've had had as a professional footballer in the 16 years um would have fitted that build out they would have you know just a means for getting through the week and and playing a game at the end of it but as Sean actually invited everyone to think and there was no there was no way you could sort of relax out there you were always learning it was an education um he was a a proper coach a teacher almost of the game um and uh and he was he was that mild mannered very so placid um so there was nothing not to like from from a player's perspective um for him he was uh definitely not a uh a teacup throw or anything like that so as a young player you wanted someone that sort of would educate you rather than chastise you when when things weren't going right um and uh and yeah what you guys experienced in the media I mean he was probably he didn't give the the cliche answer that people expected as well he if there was a question asked of him he wanted to uh to give and some sometimes that ended up with him talking in riddles you know it wasn't as if we and you've got to find the next question with us we've just got to get on with kicking a ball around afterwards and it was sometimes that uh I remember well that he would maybe stop a training session and say there was the orange bibs against the yellow bibs and he's like who's in control will he stop okay everyone together who's in control and it's like everyone quiet someone go oranges and he go no some of the yellow bibs go yellows he goes no neither of you so the answer was always a cryptic one with Sean and that was uh that that was something I think uh was very useful to all of us that we embraced it and we and we did think more I've got to say the same actually applies I've always said to people actually working with Sean as a journalist back then I is when I started my career I was very wet behind the ear someone said I still am um but if you ask Sean a bad question he'd let you know so if I asked him a closed question he'd say yes or no like as and then you're like okay well I need to be a lot better here one sticks in my mind at Brentford and I don't know if you remember the game when Neil Young kicked Stephen Hunt up in the air and got sent off and I said to Sean have you been to speak to the referee about his performance and he just said you go and speak to him and it was just one of those interviews where I think you were next to me Neil won't you that day it's funny enough I didn't go to that game Chris but I remember one when Marcus Browning missed a couple of penalties or miss certainly missed one penalty here and in the press room after the game Steve Wilson an ex colleague of ours said um how's Marcus Browning feeling in the changing room there Sean what is a grown man with kids ask him yourself is he from Yorkshire so yeah there's a number of those those examples there are but yeah no fundamentally great nice it's a bit of a segue because Sean's obviously been working in the youth centre at Portsmouth isn't he in recent times just a quick reflection on your Pompey career in one answer richam the two most notable achievements winning the FA Cup and getting Cristiano Ronaldo sent off yeah it's a poor career when that's your biggest claim to fame isn't it and my my son who was he's only five so he clearly that way didn't see me play a little long back then and and he can't quite get his head around no pun intended that Cristiano Ronaldo introduced his head to mine um and yeah that that I would take away the FA Cup you know Chris not I say that to people because I I wasn't in the matchday squad that won it I wasn't in the matchday squad that won the semifinals even though I played the rounds up until then and I don't know where my my FA Cup winners medal is to be honest and it's not something that I feel that I achieved I genuinely don't think I think my um my biggest moment in Portsmouth was when we played against AC Milan in the UEFA Cup because it tied a lot of things together someone who'd grown up in Milan have watched the great AC Milan teams play as a season ticket holder back in the 80s and 90s and and to have the opportunity of playing against them in European football which is my my pinnacle and international football isn't I don't I don't like international football but um international club competitions that I love very much and uh and to have that opportunity to play in an unbelievable night and night that even Portsmouth fans have been lifelong fans look back on that day as one of their highlights and it certainly was for me in my career and I was there that night that would but yeah I was and I still can't believe you didn't win no and neither I was I went from being absolutely devastated that we didn't win clearly to to sort of to really sign off and you're finest footballing moment with a win would have been would have been the pinnacle but you know there's something that um I find that quite like now the fact that the reason we didn't win is because Ronaldinho scores an unbelievable run on the in your stifle style free kick and Philip Winsag he did what he did for years and years and brought records internationally for doing so by scoring a scruffy equalizer in a 93rd minute so if you're going to not win let it be those those two things that that stopped us we've taken up a lot of your time which already and we're just going to wind up we've got a few fans questions to finish with one just a couple of other ones I wanted to put you before we get to that um just touching back very briefly on the recruitment um obviously just in this uh recent couple of months you've made what 80 million pounds in fees on players which is probably about a 55 60 million pound profit um the club's recruitment has taken a bit of a bit of a battering down the years in terms of some expensive signings that maybe haven't quite worked out as well as people hope do you feel criticism from those who don't really know the the ins and outs of how all this comes together do you think sometimes that's a bit unfair um perhaps or but that's because I'm invested into thinking that I think it's um it's one of the the elements of the industry where everyone has an opinion right because not everyone can have the the brains of a master master tactician not everyone can play football to the levels that they wanted to not everyone has a degree or or the expertise in sport science to really know that element of the game we can all have an opinion on the players we can all have an opinion on on the transfer window I mean there's broadcasting companies have made a lot of money and um advertising around it because it is something that sort of people want to know about and people want to have an input in so I would never criticize people for having an opinion we all have it even if it's not recruitment that directly involved the club that we're involved in or support I do think that working this side of the fence I think you have to be uh you have to accept the fact that you don't know all the elements that go into the equation of determining whether something is good bad or indifferent um there are plenty of examples down to site one Aston Villa when he got relegated from the Premier League um going back would have been five years ago now and and their recruitment came under fire but actually in that recruitment the Idris Agui was signed the Dama Troore who even though he wasn't play at the time is now of course more than the household name and Jordan Veritu is running the midfield for Roma so these were three signings and two of them were in Veritu and Troore's case were deemed the failure but in the end it wasn't the right time at the right club with the right people perhaps in terms of of a wrong um a wrong situation I think that sometimes people may forget that in an evolution that the club has gone under in the last six years definitely post promotion from championship to Premier League I touched on it earlier that the average age of the team that got promoted meant that eventually we would have to recruit and replace and um at some stages last season Eddie Howe was uh or even the season before actually Eddie Howe was naming a a team full of Eddie Howe signings no longer were there any of the lads that that that perhaps he had inherited so when you're doing that at the sharpest end uh in the sharpest league in the world it's always a challenging situation you you're clearly going to have to recruit more therefore by by pure statistics and numbers you that are going to be ones that are uh not necessarily successful because you're not no one's going to get 100% right so even some people say if you get two out of three right you're doing well and and and if you're signing um 20 players then forgive me I've got no calculator in front of me but so one third of 20 could potentially be a failure and it's still be generally speaking a success um and um and and then also that the the exact chemistry needed um at a club like Howe was um where uh a team that functioned so well uh for such a number of years and to break into that team is very difficult um and um but I don't look I don't personally don't look at it as uh as uh anything but over the piece successful because otherwise we wouldn't have stayed in in the Premier League for for as long as we have otherwise we wouldn't have had um a team that's very competitive in the championship no if the recruitment hadn't been um more bad than good that's just my opinion Chris so it's not it's not one that uh I think the most misleading stat out there and that's something that perhaps um more of the uh the media nationwide rather than the people actually who know what's going on at the football club and the fans it was a statistic where a net spend was as high as it was and that was a particularly annoying stat for me to sort of try and tell everyone that how misleading it was because um actually I think I haven't seen that um funnily enough I haven't seen that table um since a 80 million pound sales but I think it'd be we might find ourselves below by Munich and Barcelona and Liverpool now um but that was always a um I'm a misleading one just because of the level of investment that had to have been made um to make us uh competitive uh and the fact that um not until recently will we able to sort of um prove that some of those assets were were worth um not only more than what we had bought them for but a sufficient amount to readdress that imbalance which that league table had us on um yeah just before we get to the fans was Neil you've got a couple you want to sneak in I just want to ask you that European adventures that you had with Portsmouth involved some flying rich just tell us about your uh you're not a keen flyer is that fair to say I'm totally cured totally cured and I am I'm fine now but during my playing playing days I was I was really bad and uh I don't know what happened it was just being on too many flying caravans up and down the country and getting back to the run in the wind and then I was like well why am I doing this I'm risking I felt like I was risking my life every time we had an away game and uh but especially we went to Europe where I was in my height of my fear and um and uh yeah that that wasn't easy but um we went to Portugal twice I think and and Germany once and Germany was a particularly bad adventure uh because it took some doing to get me on the plane and Tony Adams was a manager at that time and he didn't even get on the plane he sort of went train both ways um but when we got to the airport I think we were in Hannah we played Wolfsburg away and we were in Hanover airport after the game and as a as anyone who's fearful of flying will know you're sort of listening out to everything and David James is trying to get me to play cards and I'm not really interested I want to know what that sound is and why that lights doing that um and then smoke started filling in the cabin so I'm like seat belt off and I'm like right down to the front we haven't obviously we we haven't left the runway yet obviously wasn't um completely breaking rules and I was like look I need to get out this and they're like yeah you know no pilots just going to make an announcement as that irrespective of what the announcement is open the door I'm out um and I was wondering why I was the only one kicking up a fuss and uh I was like Jermaine Defoe was equally bad at flying and uh and looked at the back of the plane Jermaine had big headphones in and was oblivious to the smoke having sort of filling the cabin I made a mistake of telling letting Jermaine to what was happening and he was scrambling are you trying to get him out in front of me uh in the end we didn't fly um but the the next day we um we were told it'd been a change of aircraft uh and uh Sam um lovely lady in charge of the travel uh just pulled me aside before we got on the plane and said look they've they've asked me to tell you it's a different plane but I'm not going to do that it's the same plane but they fixed the problem and I said I was down at hair it's rent a car and me and Jermaine had a wrong version of trains planes and automobiles that from northern Germany one one final question about your plane career Richard seven years ago you made your final appearance do you miss playing not so no not so it's I think what I when I was lucky that had a year that I'd um not played the game um essentially which was um forced retirement after a contract with dispute at Portsmouth and I didn't necessarily see it uh ending the way it did I I thought people would pick up the phone and uh and sort of offer me a contract when I was 32 at the time and just in the back of having seven or eight years in the Premier League and one in the championship so I perhaps naively thought that that I would still be in some degree of demand but I wasn't so I ended up out the game for a year um and then when the phone rang 12 months later uh it was Paul Groves who'd managed me at um at Grimsby originally he was a player manager there and he asked me not necessarily making the association of my um my my link down here and the fact that even in my Portsmouth days I'd still lived in Bournemouth and asked me if I'd come back he said he had a really talented group of young players and he just needed um one or two experienced players to go with it and even though I didn't fancy it if I'm honest at the time I just thought I'd bug my my girlfriend now wife so much about how was it possible that someone as talented as me is watching Gillette soccer Saturday every week at the age of 32 that uh I jest about the talent of it of course but I thought it was uh and as she said well you've borne enough about it for a year and someone's asked you you're going to do it so I did it and um essentially the rest is history and that's uh I was obviously very grateful with it okay which we're going to get into the fans questions to finish off with um a couple of which we've already sort of answered in roundabout ways so for example thanks to uh to Shiv Meeker Eddie Mercer, Boscom St John's on the social media who have asked questions that we've pretty much already answered and the AFCB fan page as well about Covid. Jack Wilson asks who has been the most difficult signing to get across the line since you took on the recruitment position? Um actually it was um it's not a signing that went too well um it was Juanito Urbe and the reason for it being so difficult is um apart from the fact that that Juan and his entourage didn't speak any English at all and that's what we were saying earlier Neil about how important it was to speak languages. Juan was actually at Watford's training ground at the time and I've flown over to uh to to Roma to try and convince Roma that we would have better fit than um than Watford for for Juan's services to the end of the season and um the Roma Sporting Director already had an agreement with um Watford to people who of course are Rudienes as well so there was also some politics involved and uh and it was trying to convince Juan and his agent that um that that we were better suited to him um Watford obviously clearly wrong in the end because it didn't go it didn't go as well as uh as we'd envisage but in terms of difficulty about getting a deal done and it just shows you know the difficulty of getting a deal done isn't necessarily guarantee success I mean that this was a player that had signed from um FC Porto as it was he had he was unknown from Porto to Verona and had a an unbelievable season at Verona he was um said he has what I said he has best players easily and um and uh at the end of that season um Verona had a an option to buy uh exercise that obviously because they were going to flip Juan on to either Juventus or Roma who had um who were both desperate for to sign in for I think it was 25 million euros at the time and the fact that Roma uh saw off Juventus in that competition led to in part to Antonio Conte leaving the club uh Juventus because he was questioning if if we can't even win the battle domestically to sign the best players what chance have we got to to conquer internationally that was one of his quotes at the time when he left Juventus and uh so clearly he was a player 25 million euros signed from from Roma who'd fended off Juventus to sign him and a year and a half on we could get him on loan it was you know it was a difficult one and that clearly to get over the line but uh Juan was a great guy um really really good person um so it was you know it was just a shame that it didn't work out in terms of uh I said to people afterwards I could be in this industry till um uh Greer and older and uh and I don't think there'll be anything quite as complicated as that one Will Partridge on social media asks what one thing about the club's immediate future are you the most excited about I think the amounts of um uh of talent that we have in in in the squad I think in the in the day and age that we're in now well documented said COVID at a lot of time before it's it's not it's not an ideal time for for watching football is it let's be honest it's it's a pretty pretty soulless situation playing in empty stadiums and uh I think I could be excited about two things the one thing I think it's just perhaps resonated clearly if anyone needed it how important fans are to the game um and when when we do manage to get to a time where fans are allowed back I can't see a time where they're ever if they ever wear but in situations where they were taken for granted that will never happen again um and um from a born with perspective so therefore focusing what we can control and that's what you know the actual the football that's happening on the pitch and the fact that we've um the transfer window closed this summer with still so many talented players at the club um a team that's um hopefully going to be very competitive has already been competitive in the first seven games of this season and I think there's a lot more to come from as well um and um I think we saw with the the sale of the three players this summer that finally um a redressing of circumstances where the an acknowledgement that there is talent in this uh in this squad and the three players that the that went um in Nathan's case and to one of the very very best um I think that just shows the pathway is there um and sort of completes um the journey of um scouting and recruitment at this club where the vision of um having players come here giving them a real pathway playing for a really good uh really good club uh really well managed and coached uh and then to progress them on to to playing for the very best and I think there's there's plenty of players in there that will have seen what's happened this summer and we'll we'll want to achieve that themselves but most importantly for us help us get back to the Premier League just like to say Chris that um we'd like to urge people to get their questions in for the next podcast I'm not quite sure who it's going to be yet but as and when the time comes around feel free to get on social media and get some questions sent into us like Boscom St John's lad is asking your most memorable match you played in for Bournemouth I've got to say you haven't seen these you haven't seen these questions in advance either so we're putting you right on the spot and I want to give a a good answer as well so I'm I'm going to think about it um uh for I mean memorable obviously um allows for it to be negative as well as positive I'm afraid and uh and that Reading game that I described earlier I mean I can replay that in the mind as often as I like because it was uh it was such a good team performance and um but ended up um not the way we wanted it to do and so memorable for the wrong reasons memorable I thought the transfer window was shut there and it is an agent no one behold I will be calling David back so that um so so uh a season a game that went well I'd like to pick a game that went well obviously from a memorable point of view I can't lie to you you know that that Reading game sticks out because it is a bit of a what if for me because I think we'd have got into the championship if uh if we'd have won that game um I mentioned the Wolves winning the cut but I win against West Brom in the FA Cup was also um an important moment um oh god let me pick my first goal when a 3-3 draw home to Jillingham and my first goal in professional football um a serial I can envisage it now um and uh a goal past my former teammate and former Bournemouth goalkeeper himself and Vince Bartram um who was a teammate of mine at Arsenal um and that that's memorable for so many reasons because it was that it's a dream come true for any child sort of wanting to to grow up and play football to scoring a goal in front of fans that means something I'll go for the 3-3 draw our home to Jillingham it's a dream come true as a Jillingham fan which I could imagine for anyone to score against Jillingham is that is that where you aim for? Chris if I'd remembered I would have changed it then it was uh yeah you ended up getting to play our final and it had that goal for you against Man City. Let's talk about the following here shall we? Come on let me wiggle um just but Neil before you come on to your last one actually that segues into Chris Hubble's um question which is what is the favorite goal of your career is that the same answer is that a different one your favorite goal? No my favorite goal was um uh was one of only a couple of scored for Portsmouth and it was a meaningful goal and we knocked Liverpool out the epic up and um that's sort of um another surreal moment not someone who scored a lot of goals and able to score more if I scored a few of the penalties I missed down the years when Neil was see you thinking away in the back. Do you know I wasn't going to go there? No no but uh what about the other players who let me take them Steve Fletcher, Eddie Howe, Jason Tindall they were on the same team they were man enough to step up to take them. The the baton was shared around by so many players and eventually Steve Robinson had quite a good record I think? Yes Rubble was particularly particularly good um but I didn't score a lot of goals in my career so definitely as a consequence not too many meaningful ones and that that Liverpool goal um sorry to not have put a Bournemouth uh sort of tinged to to the to answer that question but it was a one-nil win and and the goal against um such a top team was was clearly memorable. Right last one Rich um a humorous one to finish with uh now that you hang around in directors boxes more than anything else at match days of course prawn sandwich your best Italian food or nips and tatties. Oh no it's gotta be the Italian food it's not even close. I said I said earlier that uh 99% of everything Italian I love and miss uh and food is uh right front and centre of that so much so that we uh um myself and my brothers um started up a couple of Italian restaurants in London um which are obviously hit by hot times at the minute but uh uh that was a passion and another dream come true to to sort of uh bring Italian food in some capacity to to England so it's a it's an easy answer there. Well that has been uh an absolutely fascinating what best part of well over an hour Richard we've we've had you here as the first guest on the official AFC Bournemouth podcast it's probably realized for you I'm sure how much you miss being interviewed back from your playing days and things isn't it sitting here facing the questions. Well not all the interview uh interviewers that as talented as you two gentlemen I will end with a loving that you two started off with at the time and it's it's been a real privilege to be your first guest. You've given Y Scout such a good plug there but you haven't mentioned the name of your restaurant. That is a good reason it's closed because of COVID. It's been a true pleasure I'm sure for everyone listening Richard both from Bournemouth fans and maybe football fans generally to hear not only the insights behind some of the stuff at the club here that people don't realize but also from from your career as well so for myself and Neil thank you so much for your time it's been an absolute pleasure Richard. My pleasure indeed thank you Chris thank you Neil. So that was our first guest here on the brand new official AFC Bournemouth podcast Neil what a cracking way to start. Absolutely fascinating wasn't it and the fact that he scored against Jilling and what what a line that was I love any player who scores against Jilling and Chris because every time we used to go there we used to get battered. I've been making sure that I bet gets edited out so no one knows what you're talking about in fact it's fantastic to hear from the I guess the upper echelons of the club sometimes you know we don't hear maybe as much as fans would like sometimes so from that point of view it's good to hear some of the processes as well behind a lot of stuff that myself and you we've been knocking around this this club and this game for quite a while and lots of parts of the process that even we wouldn't know about. Well it's like Richard said you know 20 25 years ago you know most clubs maybe had one scout or two scouts and how it's developed and with the internet and watching all these games that they can watch all the time as well without having to go anywhere and got scouts in foreign countries and scouts watching the youth teams and stuff like that that was all fascinating stuff and giving us a real insight it's going to be a real hard act to follow but we're certainly going to be doing our best to make sure that we we can. Absolutely yes this is the first of a brand new series here on the official AFC Bournemouth podcast don't forget to mention some mention this on our social media channels as well maybe ideas for future guests people you'd like to hear from what you want to see make sure you include the hashtag AFCBpod as well to suggest not only future guests but also when you see the yet the new guest advertised make sure you send us your questions this ultimately is for you guys so please do let us know what you want to hear don't forget to subscribe to wherever you're listening right now to the pod as well you can check out all the club updates on the website afcb.co.uk and you'll be able to find out when you can listen of course to the next edition of the official AFC Bournemouth podcast and of course in the meantime you can watch all of the games all of the championship action live on AFCB TV live if you haven't found out yet how to do that details on the websites as well but for myself Chris Temple Neil Perry and our guest Richard Hughes it's goodbye for now