Investors Club: Analytics and Academy Insights with LCP and Gary Issott
Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP) and Crystal Palace Academy Director Gary Issott were the special guests at our third Investors Club event.
Building on the success of our last two Investors Club events —the Price of Football live special and an evening with Rob Quinn and Dom Fifield — our third event saw current and prospective members of our Investors Club get together in central London for a deep dive into transfer analytics.
Our Chairman Ed Warner took up the role of host again, kicking off the evening with some fascinating insight from LCP, who explained the ins and outs of their recently published report on the financial sustainability of men’s football clubs in the English pyramid.
LCP’s Head of Football Analytics Bart Huby and Senior Consultant John Parnis England guided the group through the report’s findings, covering subjects like the financial health of football clubs, the unconventional nature of the football business model and where Palace stands in comparison to other Premier League clubs in terms of their football sustainability index.
Delving into the data
Into the second half of LCP’s deep dive into the various quirks of English football clubs’ financial models, Ashley Mould, Senior Analytics Consultant at LCP took the group through their remarkable data-scouting software, called TransferLab.
TransferLab — which is currently being used by a number of top-tier clubs, and covers global coverage of both men’s and women’s football — was devised by LCP and Analytics FC (a football consultancy), and provides clubs the chance to enhance their player recruitment process by providing data that helps clubs predict future performance, unearth hidden talent and find optimal replacements.
LCP’s Ashley Mould ran through the data and dug around for the latest data behind the Palace squad and summer transfer window dealings. After a flurry of excellent, and to-be-expected questions from our members, Gary Issott, Crystal Palace’s Academy Director, took the hot seat to chat with Ed Warner about his work developing footballers for more than 15 years in Academy football. Gary spoke about the role data plays in building a successful Academy programme, how Palace works to identify talented young players, and the importance of their overall personal and professional development, and how the Academy and Palace for Life can work together to achieve that.
Ed Warner and Gary Issott in conversation
The Investors Club is a group of incredible Palace fans who are supporting our Made in South London campaign by making a donation of at least £1,000 a year to help support our work in south London. Our Investors Club events are great way for like-minded Palace fans to chat about their club, and get some exclusive know-how in the world of football.
That’s not all, there are loads of other benefits too. Check out our Investors Club page for more information.