Tony Mowbray insists he is happy to sit out the 'long slog' aspect of Sunderland's data-driven recruitment process before entering at the decision-making stage. Head coach Mowbray is operating under a different recruitment structure on Wearside than he did at his previous clubs where, as manager, he had more control over signings.
At Sunderland, player signings are overseen by sporting director Kristjaan Speakman and head of recruitment Stuart Harvey - who worked with Mowbray at Blackburn Rovers - supported by a team of analysts. Mowbray is involved in the initial stages when the areas to strengthen and the type of player to target are discussed, but then it is the recruitment department's job to identify potential signings and whittle them down to a shortlist before the head coach adds his input once more.
"Stuart Harvey is a friend of mine, and I worked with him for five years at Blackburn Rovers," said Mowbray. "I talk to Stuart all the time, but I'm sure there are lots of meetings that go on between the sporting director and Stuart, and the owner [Kyril Louis-Dreyfus] and Stuart.
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"I know Stuart has done a lot of travelling over recent weeks, with games to watch, international stuff, tournaments to see. I'm happy to come in at the end of the recruitment [process], watch a player that the club really likes and then give an opinion and say 'yeah, he could really fit in'.
"There are millions of footballers out there … my job is to coach the team, not necessarily to sit for hours and hours in the data room looking at the data and saying 'why don't we check that league' and 'why don't we see what that player's like because he has scored a lot of goals or he's put the most crosses in, what's he like - is he fast, is he technical?'. That's their job, and what they do is put the ones they like in front of me and I'll then give an opinion on whether I like him or not.
"It's a collective, really, at this football club. Sometimes it can be a burden on a coach to spend hours and hours in video analysis rooms watching players that, in the end, there's no chance - not for us.
"You spend an hour watching him because of all the things he can do and then you find out he's worth £15m - if you'd said £150,000, we might have taken him, but £15m? Nah, not for us.
"That's what recruitment is like, it's a long slog and then the end product spits out the players that the fans have to either love or think 'what are we doing wasting money on that?' That's why it's such a tough job, you have such a responsibility.
"I'm in a fortunate position really because I don't see all of the hard work on the ones that are not for us, I just see the ones where they say 'here's three right-wingers' or 'here's four left-backs' or 'here's six centre-forwards, which one do you like?'
"Generally, you end up picking the one that costs the most and yet you don't know it, because you've just been given the choice and asked which one you like. That's what football is, really. That's why we try to buy young [players] and then polish them up."
Speakman has previously set out Sunderland's strategy to recruit young players with the potential to improve, and who fit the criteria of being 'industrious, creative, and bold'. That template has seen talents such as Jack Clarke, Dan Ballard, Dennis Cirkin, Abdoullah Ba, and Edouard Michut join the club.
Mowbray has expanded on that theme, saying Sunderland wants to fashion a team capable of playing attacking, possession-based football. He said: "We work to a bit of a remit.
"This club wants to try and dominate the ball, they want to play with the ball the majority of the time, and yet sometimes when you're playing against teams that have just come out of the Premier League it's hard to dominate the ball because they have much better players than you have. They're good with the ball, that's how they play.
"So if you can't dominate the ball, you have to find a different way. Against a lot of teams, we have to sign players that fit into what we are trying to do.
"We want to be an in-possession team if possible, we want to get the fans out of their seats, try and create goalscoring opportunities, try to be creative and effective. Can we create a team that epitomises that? We're trying."
Following promotion from League One, Sunderland brought in six players on permanent deals last summer, and three more on loan, before going on to add three more permanent signings in January and another on loan. The Black Cats will strengthen again in the summer and planning for the next wave of recruitment is already well under way.
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