Steve Round

[dave.woodhall]

You have extra time. The meeting has been put back.

Forward.

[eamonn]

What are the main similarities and differences you see at Villa having worked both at Everton and Yanited ?

[SheffieldVillain]

Not a question for Steve Round, but I thought this article would fit best in this thread.

Les Reed talking about his role at Southampton. I guess/hope many of the things in here would form part of Round's job.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/37954971

[amfy]

Thanks everyone! I will do my best to shoehorn these into our conversation if the other attendees let me get a word in.
If the club track social.media he should have his answers ready!

[dave.woodhall]

Just one thing - to echo what Amfy said about a similar occasion, a lot of what's said at these sort of meetings is 'You had to be there' type stuff. There's not a great deal of hard fact talked about so please don't expect a fully-minuted state of the union summit.

[amfy]

There'll be a fuller write up from other sources that were there as they are getting a recording - and they'll be something in the programme. I have had to rely on some random scribbles to remember stuff.

Broadly, I asked the first question - about what his role was and how it interfaced with the manager, and then he talked for ages and I think pretty much covered everything else barring condiment and owl/gibbon preferences.

It was all really positive as you'd expect.

He is responsible for the manager and first team coaching recruitment, and all recruitment across the club. In the case of Steve Bruce, he asked a data analysis company to anlyse his top 10 choices to help him to get the shortlist down to 6. His first choice was Steve Bruce, and the stats totally backed this at every level - not just things like win ratios, but also media presence and 'softer' targets like that. They interviewed 5 managers, and Steve Bruce just remained a clear leader throughout the process.

He is a firm believer in using data to test and back up your instincts, not to replace your instincts. He has a degree as a Sports Director but this is backed up by his football experience. He has taken his academic skills out across a range of sports to test out the theory, and data works very well in sports like cricket, but football has more variables, and stats don't apply as completely as they might in other sports. He is clear that data has a place, but isn't everything. He is a really good combination of academic and practical skills, and he has really thought about how his football knowledge combines best with his learning.

He talked about using data to study how other teams play, and feeding this into how we play. He explained how this fed into Baker's free kick  against Brighton, but there's no way I could translate what he said into words on here. The entire coaching team had a set piece meeting with him and the manager - coaches at all levels to brainstorm ideas and then practice them. We are starting to see the results.

He talked very much about Villa's footballing philosophy and how he saw it. He has a clear memory of how Villa have been over the years. He sees us as a front foot, running team, flair backed by determination. That needs to be instilled. He said what we have all seen - starting with being more solid, getting some good results on the board, then starting to build in flair.

He also talked of always knowing this club as a 'class act', a place that knows how to treat people well and be respected.

He has been busy with recruitment across all disciplines, scouting, coaching, medical, psychology. He believes they now have higher quality people in place but the budget has actually reduced. He has also tried where possible to recruit talented people who also have an affiliation with the club and understand Villa. We now have a head of European scouting and a head of domestic scouting, and is recruiting a network of scouts who know the game to work under them. He feels we are putting ourselves in a gong position to approach the January window with some good targets.

He gave his short term goals  as winning games and promotion, with good player recruitment in Janiary as part of this.
Long term - building Bodymoor Heath a into an elite performance environment with a sustainable culture of excellence. He is concerned that the academy has fallen away and it needs to be built back up, using the scouting network, to attract the best talent in the area.

He said that Steve Bruce deals with everything to do with players and the media. He is responsible for player discipline and Steve Round is more to do with their right of appeal in the way we might all have greviance structures to higher management in our workplaces. Round liaises between Bruce and the CEo & owner. The owner asks him for updates on innovation, change, structure, recruitment, etc. No one would be signed without Bruce wanting that player, and they look at potential targets together. He said the owner is very engaged, very intelligent and very ambitious for the club. Round wouldn't have joined before, but now believes the club can be turned around.

He said the initial task has been the vicious circle between confidence and winning, where confidence could not be built because we kept losing. They have fed into confidence all week in everything they do to turn this around, and sometimes this has meant being tough with players who are getting stuff wrong, so that they can start to get it right - this too builds confidence. every one in the club right through to the ticket office has been made to think about how and what they contribute to a Villa win, and to stop behaviour that doesn't help us win.

He said Villa is like a massive ship that if you get it moving in the right direction there will be no stopping it, but for too long the direction of travel has been the wrong way. He feels we have had to take a big turning circle but are just starting to get the direction of travel right.

He is clearly delighted to be here and has big plans and talks a lot of sense. I really hope I haven't ended up saying more than I should, or interpreting something wrong.

[Risso]

Brilliant, thanks Amfy.  That all sounds decidedly heartening.

[The Left Side]

Wow, superb summary amfy... very impressed with that all round.

[olaftab]

Excellent. Thank you.

[peter w]

Thanks Amfy.

Have to say that I'm still very much in the 'I'll wait and see' camp as we often hear how well someone speaks and says the right things. Ultimately I want to see results. I've just gone down too many blind alleys to be overly positive just yet.

[amfy]

To be fair - there were things that made him more believable than stuff we've heard in the past - possibly I  the 'had to be there kind of way that Dave mentioned.

I am encouraged that some.possibly less naive participants than me on Twitter seem equally impressed.

[Diablo]

Great summary, thanks Amfy.

[JD]

Great summary Amfy, it certainly sounds promising.

[Scratchins]

Thank you Amy, very encouraging.

[AV82EC]

Thanks Amfy, good write up and as others have said sounds v encouraging. As ever proof of all of this is a team on the pitch that wins games.