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Development is a two-department job. If scouts and coaches don't share a picture of what a player becomes, raw talent stays raw. The @Brewers swept the @Dodgers in the NLCS. Read both executives. Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold, asked about home-grown starters Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson: "A credit to the scouts that were there at the start, the coaches that have been a part of their journey." On Misiorowski: "I think all of these guys when they first get here, or sooner, they're more throwers. He has evolved in a way where he really does know how to pitch." The Dodgers' Andrew Friedman, a day later: "It's hard to transition young players onto your roster. It's a hard adjustment from Triple-A to the Major League level. We've done it some over the years. Some guys we haven't had the patience long enough to kind of see it through." He also said the Tarik Skubal trade "eats into" the next wave. In football terms: "more throwers" on arrival is a recruitment choice. Buy the stuff, coach the craft. One series proves nothing alone. Each model needs its weakness managed on purpose. When this applies: any club with a pathway, above all one under pressure to win every week. Watch out for: - Patience as a mood. The next result will always beat it. - Win-now trades with no pipeline cost counted. - Recruitment and coaching using different definitions of a finished player. Two-department checklist: 1. Before signing, write what the recruit should become, and who coaches that gap. 2. Credit scouting and coaching together in your development story. 3. Protect the pathway in writing: minutes targets, review dates. 4. Price every win-now deal in future academy minutes. Does your recruitment department know what your coaches are trying to build?

Never decide at the whistle. Always state the test. Deferring is fine when the criterion is public and the clock is short. @f95 is the worked example. After a 1-3 home defeat to Saarbrücken, sporting director Samir Arabi deferred any decision on head coach Alexander Ende. Per the Rheinische Post via liga3-online, he named the test: "We have to have the feeling that these approaches exist — because in the end it's always about the club". The next morning the club freed Ende. Arabi: "after thorough analysis we came to the conviction that we now need to give a new impetus. Jens Langeneke knows the club very well and has earned, through his work and passion, the right to take over the team until further notice". Langeneke joined Fortuna as a player in 2006 and has coached in the academy since 2015, most recently the U23. Ende's contract ran to 2028. The contrast, same 24 hours: Preußen Münster, five without a win, backed Thomas Wörle. President Christian Pander to BILD: "We will stay calm and keep working with focus". Both can be right. What would be wrong is either club not knowing why it chose. When this applies: any coaching call after a bad result. Watch out for: - Promoting the U23 coach with no academy succession ready. - Long contracts as protection. They only raise the cost of being wrong. Deferral rules: 1. Name the criterion out loud before you decide. 2. Set a short clock: a night, not a fortnight. 3. Check the external market before going internal. 4. Have the U23 succession ready before you promote. 5. Write down why you sacked or backed. The next decision will be judged against it. The verdict matters less than the rule behind it. Could you state yours?

Your sale can depend on a third club you've never spoken to. Map every condition on the buyer's side before you plan around the money. Erik Lira's move from @CruzAzul to @AS_Monaco is the worked example. @excelsiorrdam reported terms agreed and his medical accepted. Monaco needed to free a non-EU registration slot, and that depended on Folarin Balogun leaving. Balogun's move to @Everton fell through in the window's final hour. Lira's fell with it. Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro, the next day: "The agreement was ready, the player was ready to travel once we pressed the button, but there was an element in the deal that would be triggered by Balogun's place in the squad." The seller's president, Víctor Velázquez, had said the day before: "I understood Monaco had already freed the slot". Then the human cost. Lira missed two @LigaBBVAMX matchdays while it was finalised and, per Excélsior, attended the Atlas game at Estadio Banorte "as a way of saying goodbye." He went straight back into full training. When this applies: any sale near a deadline, any buyer with slot or permit limits. Watch out for: - A "done deal" in the media treated as completion. - A replacement signed on money that isn't registered. - A player who has said goodbye with no plan for his return. Deadline-sale checklist: 1. Ask for every buyer-side condition in writing: slots, outgoing deals, permits, board sign-off. 2. Confirm status directly with the buyer's SD in the final 48 hours. 3. No replacements until registration. 4. Keep a second buyer warm in parallel. 5. Write the reintegration plan before deadline day. A deal is done when it's registered, not when it's agreed. Do you know what your buyer is waiting on?

Never let one person hold the coach's job and the job of evaluating the coach. When the hirer holds the job, nobody below the board can judge either role. @SomosTigres is the worked example. Guido Pizarro left early in the Apertura, citing personal reasons, weeks after extending his contract. After sporting vice-president Gerardo Torrado's exit, the club named Víctor Manuel Vucetich, 71, as vicepresidente deportivo and interim head coach. Fox Deportes then reported Tigres would keep Vucetich on the bench for the whole tournament while he settled into the executive job. El Informador reported that, unless Tigres win the title, he will leave the bench and focus "100%" on the role he was hired for, and that the club has narrowed its coaching list to two names. Those are press reports, not club statements. If that's right, the sporting VP is shortlisting for the bench he occupies, with a title condition tied to his own results. The clean alternative sits next door. @Rayados sporting director Dennis te Kloese on Matías Almeyda: "For me Matías was always the main candidate". At Atlas, EFE reported the decision to appoint Hernán Crespo was "taken by the Spaniard Andoni Zubizarreta," the sporting director. Each hire has a name on it. When this applies: any interim who is also the executive above the bench. Watch out for: - The evaluator's future tied to his own results. - A coach hire nobody can attribute. If you must combine the roles: 1. Time-box it with a date. 2. Name an independent reviewer. 3. Let the board own the shortlist. 4. Write the exit condition up front, not tied to his results. Accountability needs a name per decision. Who signs off your next coach?

When control changes hands, the new regime's first call is usually the coach. Document the sporting department before the handover, or it leaves with its people. @LigaBBVAMX is the worked example. The league is ending multi-club ownership. Owners approved the sales of Atlas, from Grupo Orlegi to PRODI, and of Mazatlán, leaving Grupo Pachuca as the last multi-club owner, per AP. At Atlas, PRODI took over on 1 July. Within about two weeks the coach ratified for the season was out, per La Lista's list of coaching exits. EFE, via Milenio, reported that the decision to appoint Hernán Crespo was "taken by the Spaniard Andoni Zubizarreta," the new sporting director. At León, the statutes may do the deciding. RÉCORD reported league president Francisco Iturbide saying a buyer must take at least 80% of the shares, and that no current directivo could stay in the new organisation chart. Single-source. Owner Jesús Martínez Patiño told Excélsior his son "will remain within the León structure". How those reconcile is not public. When this applies: any sale, forced or voluntary. Watch out for: - Recruitment lists, player plans and staff roles living only in heads. - Staff futures that depend on deal structure, not performance. - Mixed public messages, and staff left guessing. Handover file, before control changes: 1. Staff roles and processes, written. 2. Academy pipeline and player plans. 3. Contract calendar and scouting database. 4. Your evidence on the coach, for whatever you'd recommend. 5. Advice on what the statutes mean for your own job. Owners change. The pathway should outlive any regime. If your club were sold tomorrow, what would survive?

A youth-minutes rule is a pathway KPI wearing a compliance badge. Plan it as a rule and you meet it late, with whoever is available. @LigaBBVAMX is the worked example. Its competition rules require each club to give at least 1,170 regular-phase minutes to qualifying young players, with a cap of 225 counted minutes per match. Infobae's table after 11 rounds: Tijuana 1,795, Atlante 1,665 and América 1,502 were already past the quota. At the bottom, Querétaro 495, Monterrey 469 and FC Juárez 441. Querétaro were joint second on points with fewer than 500 youth minutes. Juárez were last on both lists. Compliance isn't results. It's a constraint carried into the decisive weeks. América's case is the warning. TUDN noted that a club often slow to comply was close this time because, with no early reinforcements, coach Guillermo Almada "bet on the young players". The rule got met by accident of the market, not by plan. The second scoreboard is the sale. Chivas sold Armando González to Olympiacos; the club said his development "began in 2018 when he joined the academy." AS México reported around €10 million plus €2 million in variables, with 20% retained. Media figures, not official. When this applies: any home-grown quota or minutes rule. Watch out for: - Back-loading minutes into the run-in. - Reading compliance as quality. Pathway-minutes plan: 1. Set a monthly target with the coach before matchday one. 2. Name the players and positions, not just the number. 3. Front-load minutes so selection is free when it matters. 4. Review monthly. The director owns it. 5. Track sales and retained percentages as the financial result. A rule opens the door. A plan decides who walks through. Who owns your minutes target?

A sporting director title means little without decision rights over the head coach. Before you accept an interim seat, get those rights in writing. Al Ahli is the worked example. After a summer of fan anger over transfers, the club and sporting director Rui Pedro Braz parted by mutual consent. His deputy, former Saudi international Osama Hawsawi, became interim sporting director, per Arab News. Twenty-four days later Hawsawi resigned. A Bola, citing Arriyadiyah, linked it to "disagreements over the management of the team". Okaz, as relayed by Goal, went further: Hawsawi wanted coach Marino Pusić replaced; the executive committee refused, "pointing out that the coach is under contract and must be given a full chance." Those reasons are press reporting. I found no on-record statement from Hawsawi or the club. If the reports are right, the structure that removed one director under fan pressure would not let his interim successor remove the coach. The committee kept that decision for itself, and used it. "Under contract" is a cost argument, not a football one. Boards may make it. A director should know in advance if it always wins. When this applies: any interim role, any club with a committee above the SD. Watch out for: - Fan pressure standing in for a review process. It removes people; it doesn't define roles. - Leaving in silence, so others write the story. Interim-seat terms, before you say yes: 1. What do I decide alone? 2. What do I recommend, and to whom? 3. Who has the final say on the coach? 4. How does the board treat coach contracts? 5. When is the coach formally reviewed? The title is easy. The decision rights are the job. Would you know yours on day one?

Money and decision rights can freeze mid-window. When control is moving, know exactly who can sign a deal. Saudi Arabia is the worked example. The Ministry of Sport began transferring the remaining 25% stakes in Al Ittihad, Al Ahli, Al Hilal and Al Nassr to the Public Investment Fund, with the nonprofit boards dissolved, per Arab News. Al Hilal finished early. Arab News' deadline-day review: "By Sept. 3, everything had already been sorted." Then it named Richard Hughes sporting director with a team "alongside Hughes": five people from technical director to a Saudi youth technical director. The statement thanks the owner "for funding the contracts of the sports management team." Whether those staff came with Hughes is not stated. Al Nassr had the opposite window. Arab News, citing Arriyadiyah, reported debt above SR800 million and the club "blocked from renewing player and staff contracts at all levels," with the presidency vacant. Its verdict: "the starkest illustration of what happens when a club loses clear leadership during a period of institutional upheaval." When this applies: any takeover or board reset that overlaps a window. Watch out for: - Extended board terms, frozen powers or vacant seats, each changing who approves a deal. - An imported department with no local owner for the academy. Control-change checklist: 1. Lock signings and renewals before the switch if you can see it coming. 2. Get a written list of who approves deals during the transition. 3. Re-confirm your mandate with the new board. 4. Know which colleagues you'd bring, and who funds them. 5. Keep a named owner for the youth pathway. A big hire often buys a department, not a person. Does your board know what it's buying?

A strategy that should outlast you needs a named successor in plain sight. Succession that only exists on paper rarely survives the handover. NEOM is the worked example. Sporting director Kyriakos Dourekas, formerly Nottingham Forest's director of football, explained the model to Arab News. On age and resale: "If you sign many 29- or 30-year-old players, you are not going to make your money back. Our goal is to make the club sustainable, which is why we invest in young foreign and Saudi players." On using a smaller fan base: "We are not a team with the fan base of the top clubs in Saudi Arabia, so we have the luxury of fielding Saudi — and young Saudi — players in our starting lineup." On purpose: "to ensure that most of the players representing the Saudi national team in 2030 and 2034 have come from Neom." Then succession. With a year left on his contract, per Arab News: "When my time at the club comes to an end, my hope is that Ahmed Hegazy will be ready to take over and continue the work we have started." Hegazy retired as a player at NEOM and moved into an assistant sporting director role. That gives the successor time, a real job and legitimacy. The board's view isn't on record. When this applies: any long-term model run by one person on a finite contract. Watch out for: - Naming an heir who has no real role yet. - Boxing the board in through the press. - A target tied to one coach, not to the club. Succession that holds: 1. Name the successor while you still have time on your contract. 2. Give them a real job now, not a promise. 3. Agree the plan with the board on paper. 4. Set targets that outlive the coach: graduates, local minutes, resale. The work should be easier for the next person than it was for you. Who would carry yours on?

When central money follows a formula, the formula is part of your recruitment brief. The Saudi Pro League is the worked example. Its central recruitment programme, PACE, now splits support by formula, as reported by Arab News: 22% shared equally, 22% linked to average league position over three seasons, 28% to television viewership and 28% to commercial performance, both also over three seasons. CEO Omar Mugharbel: "We want every club to know where it stands, and why. Every criterion is based on specific data." And on what it doesn't do: "The PACE program does not determine which players clubs sign, negotiate on their behalf or interfere in how they manage their budgets." Asked if the TV criterion simply rewards the club with Cristiano Ronaldo: "Some clubs possess larger fan bases, while others have stronger squads. That is not something we can or should control." "We don't pick your players" is true and incomplete. The league doesn't choose signings. It does decide what they're worth to the club in central money. Three-year averages reward consistency. One heroic season barely moves the number. When this applies: merit payments, central funds, broadcast pools. Watch out for: - Valuing signings on one season when the formula measures three. - A smaller club chasing the criteria it can't move, like audience share. - Mistaking central support for control. The club still owns the decision and the mistake. Formula-aware recruitment: 1. Get your league's distribution formula in writing. 2. Put each criterion into the recruitment model. 3. Value signings over the formula's time window. 4. Pick the criteria your club can move and build around those. 5. Expect the formula to change. Keep squad flexibility. Every league pays for something. Do you know what yours pays for?

A head coach is not a strategy. If the game model leaves when the coach does, the club never owned it. North Africa is the worked example. Rhulani Mokwena since Mamelodi Sundowns: Wydad Casablanca (2024/25), MC Alger (2025/26), Libya's Al-Ittihad from March 2026, Pyramids FC from July 2026. Goal reported he left MC Alger mid-season via a release clause worth two months' salary. Al-Ittihad ended its deal with Khaled Ben Yahia, who then took over at MC Alger. A coach swap in reverse. Espérance de Tunis replaced Laurențiu Reghecampf with Pablo Franco. Reuters: Reghecampf's "second spell in charge ended after four matches with Esperance top of the Tunisian league standings." Three wins in four. Franco had just led Maghreb Fès to their first Moroccan title since 1985. Fès named Rui Almeida for a single season, and the research file notes sporting director Badr Kadouri left around the same time. The champion changed anyway. When this applies: any league where coaches move between rivals every season. Your only continuity is the game model, the recruitment profile and the pathway. That needs an owner who stays. Watch out for: - Changing coach while winning, with no written criteria. The next coach gets judged on a standard nobody wrote down. - Cheap exit clauses. Write them in, expect to use them. - Assuming a title buys stability. Success often triggers the departures. Continuity checklist: 1. The SD owns the game model. Coaches are hired to it. 2. Criteria for a coaching change are on paper before results force it. 3. Every release clause is priced as a succession trigger. 4. A live shortlist exists the week you win the league. If your coach left tomorrow, what would still be yours?

Draw the ownership chart before the org chart. A recruitment process that doesn't route through the real signatory is decoration. North Africa runs four ownership models, each with the signature in a different place. Morocco: Le360 reports the FRMF pushing clubs to convert into sporting companies. At Raja Casablanca, the club says the sporting company now has capital of MAD 250 million: the association 40%, institutional investor Impact4Ports 60%. The company runs the men's first team, women's team and futsal. The association keeps the academy. Raja says settling 36 disputes worth over MAD 31 million lifted its transfer ban. Algeria: El Khabar reported that Sonatrach, MC Alger's majority shareholder, ended the functions of president Abdelhakim Hadj Redjem, who per FootBiz had won three straight titles. The shareholder, not the table, set the leadership. Egypt: Al Ahly's board approved a football restructuring from two elected officials "who have been tasked with overseeing football affairs." When this applies: any interview, new club or takeover. An investor with 60%, a state energy company, a telecoms operator and an elected board run on different time frames and tolerate a bad season differently. Watch out for: - First team and academy in different legal entities. Someone has to own the hand-off and the economics of a sale. - State-company models where the shareholder overrides results. - Treating governance as off-pitch. Raja's restructuring created recruitment capacity. Signatory map: 1. Who signs transfers? 2. Who signs coaches? 3. Who signs the budget? 4. What are the transfer rules between entities? 5. What is the owner's real planning horizon? Can you name the person who actually says yes?

For a selling club, the second transfer can be worth more than the first. Negotiate it the day you sell. Paradou AC is the worked example. Yacine Titraoui left Paradou for @SportCharleroi in summer 2024. He played 74 games, with 7 goals and 5 assists, and earned a place in Algeria's World Cup squad. Then Charleroi sold him to @RCLens Fennec Football, citing journalist Sacha Tavolieri, put the fee at €8 million. The bigger winner was Paradou: a clause on his first move "garantit au club algérois 40 % des bénéfices générés par cette vente, soit un virement de 3,2 millions d'euros" (guarantees the Algiers club 40% of the profits generated by this sale, a transfer of €3.2 million). For a club just relegated to Algeria's second division. All media estimates, not club disclosures. The first fee bought the player a pathway. The clause bought the club a share of where it led. When this applies: any exporting club, any academy that sells before peak value. Watch out for: - Vague base. Sources say "profits" while the arithmetic matches the gross fee. Nobody outside knows which. - Buyers who keep players. A clause is worth most with a buyer who develops and sells. - No register. If you can't say whether you hold a percentage on a former player's next move, that's a data problem. Sell-on checklist: 1. Write the sell-on before agreeing the headline fee. 2. Define fee vs profit, in writing. 3. Set thresholds and cover loans with options and intra-group moves. 4. Track every former player's next move. 5. Budget sell-ons, solidarity and training compensation as one academy revenue line. Which of your past sales still pays you?

Write the coach-appointment rule before the search. If the board can veto the sporting director's choice on cost or familiarity, he must know before he negotiates. @ZSCOfficial is the worked example. The club won the Egyptian league with interim coach Motamed Gamal, then confirmed Gamal as head coach with "full authority to manage the team's affairs," and the same day accepted its sporting director's resignation, per Ahram Online. Al-Ahram Weekly's account: the SD had reached terms with a foreign manager, while President Hussein Labib and board members favoured Gamal on familiarity, results and cost. One outlet's reporting. The board had good reasons to keep a title-winning coach. The problem is sequence. Either the SD didn't know the board's real criteria, or the board didn't share them. The seat then stayed empty through pre-season and the window. Youm7, via YSscores, reported Hossam El Zanaty agreed terms as the next SD, with the club defining "his powers and responsibilities within the football sector." He reportedly set regular payment of players' dues as a condition, and "it was agreed to exclude the youth sector from his responsibilities." Not officially announced. A candidate who watched his predecessor's exit negotiates the job, not just the salary. When this applies: any coach search with a successful interim. Watch out for: - An empty SD chair through a whole window. - Youth carved out of the remit, no named owner. Coach-appointment rule, four lines: 1. Who proposes? 2. Who approves? 3. What is the budget ceiling? 4. Is the interim a candidate, and on what results? If those exist, nobody resigns over the answer. Could your club write them today?

An interim spell should be designed, not improvised. Clear roles, a clear horizon, and the permanent decision kept with someone else. AS Trenčín is the first worked example. Bottom of Slovakia's Niké liga, it replaced Ricardo Moniz with B-team coach Marek Ďanovský. The club named his assistant and his B-team successor in the same statement. Ďanovský, 35, said his deal runs to the end of the autumn part, called that "completely normal" for academy coaches, and said no points target was put on the table (my translation, via Zamerané's repost). It was possible because the bridge already existed: Moniz had regularly sent first-team players to the B-team, so several already knew his methods. The second: @hrbfc1921 in England's National League South, split the job three ways. Co-interim managers Max Kretzschmar, still a player, and Craig Saunders run the team. Lennie Lawrence mentors them: "There's no contract, we are doing it on a week by week basis whilst the club looks for a permanent manager." The permanent appointment, he said, is "the prerogative of the owners and the chairman." Even the mentor names what he doesn't own. When this applies: any mid-season exit, any club with a B-team or academy coach ready to step up. Watch out for: - A points target that judges a young coach on three matches. - The people running the team also choosing their replacement. Designed interim, five lines: 1. Who runs the team, and until when? 2. Who supports them, and with what limits? 3. Who runs the permanent search? 4. What is the review point: a date, not a points figure? 5. What are we learning about our own staff? The bench you promote from is built before the crisis. Is yours?

Before you sack the coach, audit the window. If the squad profile is wrong, the next coach inherits the same players. @SuperLigaSrbija is the worked example. Sportske.net counted seven coaches dismissed after only 11 rounds; other outlets count slightly differently. Dragan Okuka, president of the @FSSrbije coaches' organisation, put the two questions every board should answer first: "A deeper analysis is needed. Did we get the transfer window right? What player profile does this club need?". He speaks for coaches, but the questions are right. @FKPartizanBG chose to keep Saša Ilić, and did it on terms. B92 reports Ilić offered his resignation twice and stayed, with sporting director Radosav Petrović among those who intervened. President Rasim Ljajić, via Kurir: "We're not thinking about replacing Saša Ilić." He called it "a serious crisis," set a winning run before the winter break as the short-term goal, and said: "There will be departures in January." Ilić drew a line too. On fines: "That's not my domain, it's the leadership's." When this applies: an early-season slump, a board under fan pressure. Watch out for: - A sacking no one can explain beyond the table. - "Full support" with no target and no date attached. Pre-dismissal review, one page: 1. Did the window deliver the profiles the coach was promised? 2. What profile does the squad actually lack? 3. Would a new coach fix that, or inherit it? 4. If we keep him, what is the next target and by when? 5. Who owns discipline, and who owns sanctions and contracts? If dismissal is free, it becomes the default. Can your director show the analysis first?

Patience without a diagnosis is drift. Patience with one is a strategy. @s04 is the worked example. CEO Matthias Tillmann, who started in January 2024, told WDR he found "no clear playing idea" when he arrived. On the approach: "Always looking at how we can save ourselves from weekend to weekend gets us nowhere... knowing that you won't see results straight away." On the pressure: "The pressure was enormous, and clubs often react with knee-jerk action. But we wanted to resist exactly that pressure." And the cost: "I didn't expect the impact on my family and those around me to be this harsh." Two public votes of confidence show the other half. @Titans CEO Burke Nihill, with the team 0-5, per NFL.com relaying ESPN: "The first thing I would say back to the fans is just that we're sorry." Then: "there is organizational belief in Mike, in Robert." @FulhamFC owner Shahid Khan, after a defeat at Ipswich: "Let us support Álvaro and the squad." Those calm the building. But votes of confidence often come before a change. They only mean something when tied to a plan. When this applies: any bad run, any board told to "do something." Watch out for: - Activity mistaken for action. Changing something every weekend isn't a strategy. - A vote of confidence with no criteria and no date behind it. - Forgetting the person absorbing the pressure. Before you wait it out: 1. Name the problem a quick fix can't solve. 2. Write what you expect to see, and by when. 3. Agree who decides if it isn't happening. 4. Acknowledge the fans' experience first, then explain the plan. 5. Keep the criteria internal if you must, but have them. When your club last backed someone publicly, what plan sat behind it?

Promotion is the deadline for the next-level plan, not the start of it. The club that starts planning on promotion day is already behind. @AJA owner said so himself. Marking ten years at the head of the club, James Zhou told Le Journal du Centre: "After our first return to Ligue 1, I hadn't prepared well enough for what came next." Owners rarely name a specific mistake in public. He added two more lines a director can use. On the academy: "a high-performing academy isn't built in a day. It takes history, a football culture, a real identity." On ambition: "I don't want us to still just be talking about survival... I want AJA to play in Europe." Le JDC also reports Zhou, still unable to leave China, holds weekly video calls with the club's leadership, including sporting director David Wantier and head coach Will Still. When this applies: any promotion race, and any club run by an owner at a distance. Watch out for: - A promotion window spent starting the plan, while prices rise and every promoted club chases the same players. - Academy targets set on a two-year horizon for a ten-year asset. - With a remote owner, decisions that wait for the weekly call. Two-outcome plan: 1. Map squad, wages, staff and infrastructure for the higher league while still fighting to go up. 2. Build a squad core that works in either league. 3. Write contract clauses that adjust on promotion. 4. Keep a target list ready for the higher division. 5. Agree in writing which decisions the local leadership takes alone. It costs time during the race. It saves a season afterwards. If your club went up this season, is the day-one plan already written?

A young player's development should follow the club's plan, not the market's price tag. And youth-minutes rules belong in the recruitment model from day one. Tijuana's Gilberto Mora, 18, is surrounded by transfer figures. His agent Rafaela Pimenta told TNT, per El Imparcial: "we don't want to break the toy. A young player who is growing needs his space, his time and doesn't need pressure." On who decides: "It's structure, club, coach". She's an agent, but the order is right. Meanwhile, one claimed offer is denied and other figures are unconfirmed. Querétaro built its squad with data. Chief sporting officer Álvaro de la Torre told RÉCORD: "you find talent before others discover it; it gives you a better position, extra negotiating power." But Liga MX requires 1,170 minutes for Mexico-trained players born in 2004 or later. After matchday 12, TV Azteca listed Querétaro 554 minutes short. A model built to find undervalued players doesn't automatically find eligible ones. When this applies: any teenage star, any youth-minutes rule. Watch out for: - Letting media figures set your valuation. - Treating an eligibility rule as compliance instead of a recruitment filter. - Minutes that tick a box but come with no role and no development goal. Young-player governance: 1. Give the player a written development plan his camp can buy into. 2. Value him on your plan and his contract, not the headlines. 3. Label every figure: claim, estimate or confirmed. 4. Add age and eligibility to the recruitment model before the window. 5. Track minutes with a purpose, not minutes for compliance. Who sets the timeline for your best teenager: your club, or the market?

A sporting structure should outlast the people who appoint it. If the coach and sporting director fall together, the club loses its memory. CS Sfaxien. La Presse reports the club ended coach Nabil Kouki's contract amicably after a defeat on matchday 5, and its committee also separated from sporting director Tarek Salem, without giving reasons. Mosaïque FM calls Salem's exit a resignation. Either way, the people who knew the squad plan and the reasoning behind the coach's hire left at once. @WACofficiel Moroccan outlets report the board decided to end Paulo Sérgio's tenure after a 1-1 draw with Amal Tiznit, after president Ibrahim El Asri reportedly tied his future to beating them. I found no club communiqué. When a president ties a coach to one result in public, the coach is judged on 90 minutes, not on the brief. @ZSCOfficial Jarayid, quoting the club's media director, reports Hossam El-Zanaty appointed sporting director. Al-Dostor reports his tenure is tied to the board's term and that he has no role in the club's football company. When this applies: clubs run by elected boards. Watch out for: - A sporting director appointed on the board's clock. Every election resets the plan. - Public deadlines on a coach. The dressing room hears them too. - A sporting director with no role where football decisions are actually made. Structure-survival checklist: 1. Coach and sporting director shouldn't fall together. One keeps the plan. 2. Keep coach evaluation private and criteria-based. 3. Push for sporting director terms that cross election cycles. 4. Know where decisions sit: board, football company or sporting director. 5. Treat reported decisions as reported until the club confirms. If your board changed at the next election, would your sporting plan survive it?