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FC Copenhagen's transfer triumphs: Johan Lange explains their success

FC Copenhagen have become experts at finding value in the market. Ahead of their Europa League tie against Celtic, Adam Bate spoke to the clubs technical director Johan Lange to find out how they do it...

www.skysports.com

Here's an article on his time at Copenhagen that someone found on reddit. Here are some pertinent points from the article:

"We have to look further afield. The days when we could have a Scandinavian international within the club for four or five years have gone. The turnover of the squad is faster than it used to be. That demands even more from our model. The onus is on us to upscale young players who can perform in Europe faster. Without a clear strategy, it would be impossible.

"We have had to recalibrate our approach to the market to stay ahead. We have had to search for tomorrow's competitive advantage. We have had to embrace new ideas."

"At the identification phase, our process is very data driven," explains Lange. "We are trying to find players earlier in their career. That is difficult to predict but it is important to try.

"The partnership between myself, the manager and the scouts is crucial. We take time at the start of the process to establish exactly what we are looking for. Then we can set the parameters with the data. It is only after that stage that it becomes about live scouting.

"It helps that everyone knows their job and that Stale Solbakken has a clear style of play. It is difficult for the scouts if the style is changing from season to season. Our scouts know that their job is to find players who have the potential to play European football for Solbakken's Copenhagen with the capacity to be sold on to a top-five league within a few years.

 

[felmani26]

If Paratici remains on the scene then we were never going to go with a heavyweight replacement and the nuance being is that Lange is more heavily data driven much like Lee Dykes operating under Phil Giles at Brentford

In the corporate world, it doesn't apply that he needs to have a good pedigree to be a success but Lange is supposedly well regarded in those circles and considering the inordinate amount of time we've taken to oversee this appointment then due diligence would have been thoroughly done.

I take Villa fans viewpoints with a massive pinch of salt considering we weren't long ago lambasting how shit our recruitment has been before being realised under a progressive manager.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

If Paratici remains on the scene then we were never going to go with a heavyweight replacement and the nuance being is that Lange is more heavily data driven much like Lee Dykes operating under Phil Giles at Brentford

In the corporate world, it doesn't apply that he needs to have a good pedigree to be a success but Lange is supposedly well regarded in those circles and considering the inordinate amount of time we've taken to oversee this appointment then due diligence would have been thoroughly done.

I take Villa fans viewpoints with a massive grain of salt considering we weren't long ago lambasting how shit our recruitment has been before being realised under a progressive manager.

I’d be so curious to know how Paratici’s involvement was laid out to Lange. How much autonomy does he really have and how much weight is given to Paratici’s suggestions. In general I’m curious how much say he has, I think it’s a fairly good bet it goes beyond “consulting” even if it doesn’t officially step over the line.

 

[ukdy]

Pat will probably still do his thing from the sidelines. Filling in the gaps and adding value where the data driven approach misses, or someone who to the eye has something… the data turns down.

Plus a bargain, an opportunity, a player looking to leave, rumours, double-swap-exchange-discount-loan to buy-creativeness.

Player acquisition isn’t a one size fits all these days.

 

[Pekoni]

Let him cook

 

[JamieSpursCommunityUser]

Villa have bought in a lot of U18 players under him.

Omari Kellyman, Josh Feeney, Tim Iroegbunam, Kerr Smith probably the best of the bunch (besides Rory Wilson who seems to be a Gerrard pick up from Rangers).

May have something to do with it.

In addition to Bentancur he was also in for Mata-Sarr and Bissouma fyi.

 

[Nine while nine]

For those wondering what our new technical director supremo looks like, here's a Lange meme from the Villa forum, where, it seems, one particular attribute of his will be sorely missed...

Spoiler: Can't smile without you

He's the one in the top right in case you're not sure...

 

[mark87]

 

[newbie]

Would have preferred Gabi, they seemed a good team, shame he left

 

[newbie]

View attachment 133211

Avb also talked a good game.

Only time will tell, Ange also had a say

 

[bomberH]

Ange > Lange. I’ll donate £4M to SC if our next recruit is someone called Flange.

 

[HildoSpur]

I know almost nothing about this guy but am glad that we have finally recruited somebody for the role. Wishing him the best of luck and hope he does a really good job.

 

[muppetman]

Christ, what a cheery bunch in here!


I know nothing about the guy but many had reservations about Paratici and he turned out all right in the end (other than the illegal stuff obvs! )

 

[SonicSarr]

If Paratici remains on the scene then we were never going to go with a heavyweight replacement and the nuance being is that Lange is more heavily data driven much like Lee Dykes operating under Phil Giles at Brentford

In the corporate world, it doesn't apply that he needs to have a good pedigree to be a success but Lange is supposedly well regarded in those circles and considering the inordinate amount of time we've taken to oversee this appointment then due diligence would have been thoroughly done.

I take Villa fans viewpoints with a massive grain of salt considering we weren't long ago lambasting how shit our recruitment has been before being realised under a progressive manager.

Villa have only become half-decent in the last 2 seasons. How long has Lange been with them? Maybe he is behind their resurgence?

Open mind on this. He seems to fit the data driven approach and with big Pat still being a 'consultant' it could be a very good thing.

 

[Misfit]

Phew. That's all I wanted to know.

 

[Misfit]

Johan Lange confirmed.

Villains abserlooterlee mudded!

 

[Westmorlandspur]

Problem with these Sporting directors or whatever they are called is that you don’t know how good the signings are until a few seasons have gone by. Monchi, who is now in charge at Villa, made some great signings at Seville. Got him a move to Roma where he made an arse of it, back to Seville and did nothing.
the bloke at Leicester who signed Kante and Maghrez, was hailed as a genius. Got a move to Everton and got bombed out after a load of failures.
Commoil didn’t seem that great when he was here, looking back he made some good signings.
lot of luck involved in all this stuff.

 

[ButchCassidy]

Its pretty clear that we’ve tried to recruit this role with some specific characteristics - data driven, youth focused, happy to work within the recruiting framework that Fab overhauled, happy for Fab to remain involved as a talent id consultant. Someone who will carry forward an approach that already appears to be paying major dividends, who won’t necessarily feel the need to rip up lots of things and reshape them in their own image. That already would have ruled out most of the “big name” candidates.

He won’t have the same job as Fabio, who was asked to fix a horrendously broken club from the ground up. Lange simply has to keep what looks like a pretty well-oiled machine running smoothly. If he and Munn are successful, the next couple of windows will just feel similar to the last few.

 

[Hazelton]

We've mugged Villa right off in that announcement. "Helped Villa reach the top half of the table" is hilarious, bet their fans are going mental.

 

[spursfan77]

From what I have read i’m not particularly convinced. Hopefully he will step up at a bigger club tho. Time will tell, personally I would have much preferred we’d kept Gab but we have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Sounds like he did a good job at Copenhagen.

FC Copenhagen's transfer triumphs: Johan Lange explains their success

FC Copenhagen have become experts at finding value in the market. Ahead of their Europa League tie against Celtic, Adam Bate spoke to the clubs technical director Johan Lange to find out how they do it...

www.google.com

We’ve no real idea what he will do with us but we’ve had enough time to find someone. These people never tend to last long with us anyway.