It’s not often that signings behind the scenes at football clubs get a lot of recognition but that’s not been the case for Southampton’s new scout Jaime Ferrero.
Ferrero joined the Saints from Atletico Madrid last week, joining them as the head of their operations monitoring Spain and Portugal.
it marks the latest step in a rapidly rising career for the Spanish scout, who has been working his way up the ladder in Spain over the last few years, culminating in him joining Atletico.
His work there seemingly earned him attention from Southampton, with them adding him to Nathan Jones’ backroom team earlier this month.
Ferrero has since detailed exactly what he will be doing for the club moving forwards, explaining that attracting talent to St Mary’s remains top of the list of priorities.
According to them English teams ‘sign who they want’ while everyone else signs what they can, and this has now turned to coaches and backroom staff members as well.
Atletico haven’t been able to ‘escape this situation’ either, having spent the last few years watching the Premier League signing their playing talent as well.
The ‘sporting and economic attraction’ of the best league in the world has not only left them without players but also professionals from other fields who have been ‘working quietly’ at the club for years.
That’s the case with Ferrero, who has ‘packed his bags’ for the Premier League without seemingly looking back after five years scouting talent for the Colchoneros.
He at least showed some remorse when posting on social media about the switch, insisting he will carry Atletico in his heart and thanking them for helping him to reach this point in his career.
That, though, is scant reward for the Spanish side, who are now frustrated they have to try and stop Premier League sides from hiring their backroom talent as well as the talent on the pitch.
