Diary of a Scout: Welcome to Wyscout | OneFootball

No stadium, no problem

After the initial buzz of my first live scouting experience, I was brought crashing back down to earth with the realisation that finding a role within a club was going to be much more difficult than I thought. I’d scouted a player at a Gillingham match in September 2024, but a month later I felt rather lost.

I was still working through a handful of courses, but sending countless emails to various teams around the world was proving fruitless. From Tottenham to Tonbridge I wasn’t hearing a peep from anyone. I must have sent a covering letter and my CV a thousand times to various heads of recruitment, academy managers and coaches without reply.

Networking is key

LinkedIn was and still is, a great place to build a scouting network, message fellow peers and seek out mentors within the game. Job opportunities will also pop up from time to time. Many of them would be on a voluntary basis, which is quite cheeky, especially from the bigger names in the English leagues. But in these early stages of my career I was willing to do it without pay, fuelled by my passion for the game, I just wanted to build my experience.

Deadpay

Then on one uneventful evening, scrolling through a lot of rubbish, I stumbled on a posting for a scouting position from Wrexham Football Club. Yes. That Wrexham.

The National League underdogs who have swiftly turned into the Hollywood darlings of football. I would say English football, but they’re Welsh and have somehow sneaked their way into the English pyramid without many people battering an eyelid. Surely this new juggernaut of the sport would offer some sort of payment to their new scouts?

Think again. Millionaire actor Ryan Reynolds may offer his star striker a cameo in the latest Deadpool movie, but he wasn’t offering talented scouts a dime to travel up and down the country to find the next Marvel-ous soccer hero. I was pretty flabbergasted to be honest. If a club with such a rise in fortunes over a short period of time and a blockbuster series on Netflix can’t pay some of their employees, then who can!? (Editor’s note: the documentary Welcome to Wrexham airs on Netflix in the UK; in the U.S. on FX/Hulu).

Scoutpool

I briefly toyed with the idea of getting some red spandex tights on and a cheap Deadpool mask with the intention to film a short video type interview to send in.

It would be the worst showreel in the world, but if it landed me a job with the Red Dragons then who cares!? I quickly snapped out of this ridiculous thought process (although looking back I kind of wish I’d done it now!) and carried on with my search for scouting roles.

Rantpool

I’ve felt really deflated many times since I started this crazy journey, but this was a new low. Clubs in the lower divisions really struggle financially and I get that, but these guys are sponsored by a major American airline and have an owner worth around $350 million! That’s not taking the cool $50 million co-owner Rob McElhenney is reportedly worth into account either. No wonder these penny pinching ‘celebrities’ have so much dough eh? A stark difference in cash, but I guess Reynolds is movie-star rich and McElhenney is TV-star rich.

Anyway, enough of my ranting. My main concern was that I wasn’t getting to enough live matches to build my knowledge. However, it’s 2025 and luckily we have sites like Wyscout where I can watch a link from different games and that’s exactly what my course education included.

Wyscout is a great tool for scouts. It’s a streaming service exclusive to us and we can binge watch as many 90 minute episodes as we please (but you only get 3 clicks on one match link!)

I was happy that I could scout in some shape or form without the hassle of traveling to some obscure town in the south-east of England.

It’s always sunny in Shropshire.

By being so cheap, Mr. Reynolds and McElhenney not only missed out on having the services of one of England’s greatest up-and-coming-scouts (me), but also on a player I’d been watching: Leo Castledine.

Their documentary might be Emmy-nominated, but Castledine (on loan from Chelsea to Shrewsbury) is a potential Oscar winning midfielder.

The match in question was Shrewsbury vs Leyton Orient in League 1. The Shrews ran out 3-0 winners on a lovely summer’s day with Castledine bagging the opening goal.

Interesting fact to end on, his older sister, Kitty, currently stars in Eastenders. The acting quality in that soap is definitely better than what we saw in Green Lantern…. In my opinion.

JP Scouting player in Focus: Leo Castledine

Castledine has already represented England at U19 level (5 caps; 2 goals) so he’s definitely one to keep tabs on for the rest of the season. When he goes back to Chelsea at the end of his loan it will be interesting to see what they do with him.

He clearly has a lot of ability. Scoring the opening goal, but he needs to get on the ball more often and try to make things happen. When he does this he looks exciting.

His attacking play was impressive. Defensively he could work harder to track back, but he won most of his aerial duels and is definitely a useful goal threat.

Disappointing to see him subbed off on 79 minutes. He was playing well enough to stay on in my opinion. Would like to see him play a full 90 minutes and definitely needs to be watched again this season.

Technically he is very good, grew into the game and showed more confidence in the second half. He saw more of the ball and produced neat skill with his turns in the second 45 minutes. Lacks some physicality and strength, but at 19 he’s still young and can develop/build his physique up.