Setting up a data department at Sunderland AFC

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The Chris Gill Podcast

Chris Gill

85 episodes

2 days ago

Sports analysis, scouting and recruitment. Hear from football analysts, scouts and sporting directors to learn what goes on behind the scenes of a professional sports club. We cover video and data analysis, squad building, coaching and much more.

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Setting up a data department at Sunderland AFC - James Young #68

The Chris Gill Podcast

1 hour 35 minutes 34 seconds

9 months ago

Setting up a data department at Sunderland AFC - James Young #68

Setting up a data department at Sunderland AFC - James Young #68 James Young is currently head of sports partnerships and data and tech company, Genius Sports. Before that, he was recruited by Sunderland AFC to set up and manage a new data analytics department. Starting with a degree in mechanical engineering, James always had the goal of working in sport. From biomechanics, to publishing, he then headed up the Performance Analytics division at Deloitte which is where he eventually left for Sunderland. After joining Sunderland (as one of the first hires under new owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus) they went on to gain promotion to the Championship and begin to rebuild in their pursuit of getting back to the Premier League. James helped integrate data into many aspects of the club including recruitment of players and head coaches. 0:00 - Introduction

2:09 - James joins and gives some background

9:40 - Working as a biomechanist

12:19 - Time out working in publishing

15:57 - Working at Stats Perform (Opta)

22:22 - Joining Deloitte (Performance Analytics Division, The FA)

30:10 - Joining Sunderland AFC

43:14 - James opinion of Sunderland and the feeling around the club at the time

46:41 - Getting promoted

50:06 - How the other staff took to the data revolution

54:23 - Aligning with the recruitment department

59:52 - James' 5 'pillars' when working with data

1:08:14 - External consultancies supporting clubs (Serios, Sports4Cast etc)

1:14:07 - Head coach recruitment

1:16:42 - Genius Sports (player tracking)

1:19:43 - Any future predictions?

1:24:31 - Advice for future analysts (specialist or generalist)

1:28:37 - Working towards becoming a Sporting Director

1:31:58 - Book recommendations, summary, wrap up #safc #sunderland #football #sportsanalytics #footballanalytics ◽️◽️◽️◽️◽️◽️ USEFUL LINKS 💻 Video Analysis Software (Tag your videos, add drawings, create playlists) - https://www.in-playsports.com/software/individuals 🐍 Learn PYTHON for football analysis – https://mckay-s-site.thinkific.com/courses/football-analytics-course?ref=3f7c5c ⚽️ Football Analysis Education (Use code Gill10 for 10% off) – https://apfa.io/course/ref/chrisgill_UK/ 📊 Become a data analyst with DataCamp: https://datacamp.pxf.io/WqBZGA FREE RESOURCES 📋 CV Template – https://cvtemplate.chris-gill.com/download 📝 Cover Letter Template - https://coverletter.chris-gill.com/download 📚 Ultimate list of sports analysis/coaching books - https://books.chris-gill.com/download MY OTHER SOCIALS 🌍 My Website – https://www.chris-gill.com 🆇 X/Twitter – https://www.twitter.com/chrisgill_UK 👨🏼‍💻 LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgilluk