Arsenal Football Club

Data at football clubs has gone through three phases, and most clubs are seemingly still stuck in the second one. Phase one: Luke Bornn has spoken about his first football data role being very siloed. A data department formed because someone at the top was told data was becoming a thing and therefore needed. Data walled off from the rest of the football operation. Traditional ways of working over here, this new explosion of information over there. Phase two: teams began realizing that when used properly, data could be very influential and informative. A seat at the table, but the table was still very disjointed. Senior leadership still having to manually decide the best way to merge all areas of expertise into their decisions. (Hey team, what's my Tableau password again?) Phase three is something we embraced the better part of a decade ago at Arsenal and what Mo Dabbah wrote about yesterday: ensuring that all systems, people and technology, are connected. This is far more than a big data lake, player entity resolution, or a shiny new model. As Mo put it, football's biggest data challenge isn't technical, it's cultural. Blending all forms of intelligence, whether it be human-derived or mathematically-derived, into clear workflows and process that actually move the needle. The needle can come in various forms, but primarily should be focused on efficiency, insight, and most importantly alignment. It's not about a new shiny chart or dashboard or a singular metric to rule them all. Those are great, and should certainly be celebrated. The focus should be on ensuring all those small or big wins compound into the bigger workflow and ultimately help move your org forward.

"I saw this incredible platform at a conference. All it did was visualise numbers. Twenty-five minutes in, I was lost. What problem are you actually trying to solve?" I continue to have conversations with Sporting Directors, Technical Directors, and decision makers at top clubs globally. This particular Sporting Director articulated a pattern I'm hearing more about as data settles further into football. As more metrics, more numbers, more algorithms are developed, what's being done to embed these values into a process that actually helps clubs manage their recruitment pipeline and final decisions? The most rewarding work I did at Arsenal revolved around bringing this process together. I'm not a data scientist; I certainly understand football data and have had the chance to work alongside some of the most forward thinking data scientists in the sport, but I'm not a data scientist. I'm also not a Sporting Director. I've never had to sit across from another club or agent and negotiate a deal that the whole world will inevitably cheer on or scrutinise from their devices. I have however worked closely with those making the decisions and those helping the decision makers have the clearest picture. It's the work of tying together what the scouts are saying and what the data team is producing from the hundreds of thousands of pounds a club is spending on data. And then packaging all of it in a way the people making the final call can actually use. It's harder than it looks, even for clubs at the highest level. I thought I'd found most of the answer. Every conversation since has shown me how much further there is to go, and this particular gap, between having the data and actually making the decision with it, keeps turning out to be where the most interesting work is. #football #footballtech #sportstech #footballanalytics #recruitment

Applications for Arsenal in the Community's Coach Development Programme for 2026/27 are opening soon- 1st May! No prior coaching experience is needed, just a willingness to dive into an exciting learning environment, invest in yourself and the local community, and to throw yourself into as many opportunities as possible. This year for the first time in 20 years, we had an equal number of male and female coaches and the impact has been incredible! For the second year running, our Kevin Campbell award was won by one of our female coaches, Olivia, who is a shining example of the embodiment of Arsenal and Super Kev's values! More information can be found on the website and I'm happy to discuss the role with anyone interested in joining us next year! https://lnkd.in/eUrCNXyd #COYG

The gap worth closing in football data isn't really the one most people talk about. Four months of conversations with more than 30 clubs have only made me more convinced of that. Since leaving Arsenal, I've been speaking to Sporting Directors, Heads of Analytics, Data Engineers, performance staff, and everyone in between about tech, process, and decision making inside the club. The conversations have been honest, open, and sometimes even cathartic. One sporting director put it better than I ever could: "We're information rich, decision poor. We've got access to everything." That line has been rattling around my head ever since, because it's exactly the shape of the problem. The talent isn't the gap. Clubs at the top of the game already work with some of the sharpest data minds in sport, and some of the best scouts and recruiters in the world. The data isn't the gap either. Most clubs are already paying for good data. The opportunity is in the connective tissue: the layer between the data a club already owns and the people inside that club trying to make better, smarter, faster decisions with it. That layer is harder to see than most of what the industry tends to talk about, and I think it's the one that matters most over the next few years. That's the gap we've created Sentrum to close. We're opening a small number of design partner spots this spring. If you're inside a club wrestling with any of this, send me a DM. Happy to walk you through what we're building. #football #footballtech #sportstech #footballanalytics #recruitment

What an experience for Hayden, one of our brilliant Coach Development Programme volunteers, being surprised by Gabriel Jesus at a recent visit to Sobha! Hayden is a big Arsenal fan and had no idea this was coming! A well deserved reward for all of his hard work and great attitude this year! Applications for our 2026/27 cohort will be opening up in May, so I'm asking anyone who thinks this programme would suit them or someone they know, to share with their networks and keep an eye out for updates! https://lnkd.in/ec4CD6Ep