Stoke boss believes network gives him the advantage.
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New Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has paid tribute to the club’s scouting network and believes that their knowledge has put them ‘ahead of the game’, according to Sky Sports.
Hughes, who replaced long standing boss Tony Pulis at the Britannia Stadium last month, has already added Erik Pieters from PSV Eindhoven for £3million and Marc Muniesa from Barcelona on a free transfer, who were both recommended to him by Mark Cartwright, who joined the club as technical director in December and heads its scouting and player recruitment department.
And the former Wales and Blackburn Rovers boss believes that the knowledge held by Cartwright and the rest of the scouting network, have given him a significant advantage in jumping the queue when it comes to signing new talent to the club.
“It’s working well. We have the right people in the right positions to make things happen and we have good contacts all over Europe,” he told The Sentinel.
“With my contacts and those of Mark and the rest of the recruitment guys, we have a lots of bases covered.
“It has had a good start with Erik Pieters coming in as well as Marc Muniesa, who we had to move quickly on. That is reassuring because we are able to get a young player who might have been off the radar of most clubs because they didn’t understand the situation.
“We were able to conclude it quickly, which you have to do when an outstanding player comes available. You have to move either before these players come on the market, or before their situation becomes known.
“With the insight we now have into most markets, we were ahead of the game.”