Alumni of the month – January 2014
Scott McLachlan
MSc Science of Sports Coaching, 2003
Scott McLachlan is currently Head of International Scouts for Chelsea Football Club. Having risen through the ranks of the football scouting industry, he attributes much of his success to the skills and knowledge acquired during the MSc Science of Sports Coaching he gained at LSBU.
Scott began his career in professional football working at Wimbledon FC in the Premier League as a Performance Analyst working under the innovative manager Egil Olsen: “During my time at LSBU, I was with Wimbledon FC in their development academy and also assistied in the development of their performance analysis programme. I chose performance analysis as my dissertation topic and it subsequently became my sports science specialism.”
He decided to pursue his postgraduate study at LSBU as the course would develop his specific scientific knowledge and experience. He was also able to continue his role at Wimbledon FC thanks part-time flexibility of the course and LSBU’s easily accessible location: “The course was designed to attract a class of multi-sport practitioners, and our class certainly met that profile with students from sports as varied as ice hockey and boxing.” Studying provided Scott with an open forum to share, explain and investigate the experiences each student had accrued in the coaching arena: “I found the camaraderie among our class and the support of tutors to be a key contributor to my enjoyment. As such, I was able to develop my theoretical and practical knowledge of sport science and its application.”
Over the past decade, Chelsea FC has emerged as one of England and Europe’s most dominant teams. As the demand for success grows, the need to develop talent streams has intensified: “Player identification and recruitment is a key component of any successful sports team. Football clubs are becoming increasingly systematic in their scouting processes and the market is very competitive.” Whilst advances in video technology have enabled many clubs to expand their scouting with a cost-effective global perspective, there is more pressure to identify, confirm and execute their recruitment in order to acquire the elite talent within the global market.
Saturday May 19th 2012. This date will live long in Scott’s memory as the elite talent at Chelsea FC provided him with one of his biggest professional achievements: “Clearly my proudest moment would be witnessing Chelsea win the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history. It was remarkable and a pleasure to be a part of the experience.” Scott is now committed to ensuring Chelsea FC continues to be viewed as an exemplar of best practice in talent identification and recruitment.