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Crystal Palace have added experienced scout Barry Simmonds to their backroom staff.
His appointment means that he has been reunited with Roy Hodgson, who was his manager for three years at Fulham. Simmonds has been credited with unearthing talents such as Chris Smalling and Mousa Dembele, and Hodson, who also drafted Simmonds in to his England set-up, will be hoping he can find some more gems.
As The Daily Mail reports, Simmonds arrival is part of an overhaul of the recruitment process at Crystal Palace, as the club follows the trend of other Premier League sides and begins to adopt a data-driven statistical approach to client recruitment. Chief Scout Tim Coe has left Palace in recent weeks, as his role had effectively been phased-out.
Despite this there remains room for more traditional scouting methods, and Simmonds is said to be once again travelling round, watching matches on Hodgson’s behalf.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.