Kynan Duffy was not recruited from another academy. Southampton found the winger playing for Slough Town, outside the professional academy system, and invited him to a showcase match. For Chris Robinson, the discovery shows how technology can make the search more efficient, while the scout still has to recognise what a player might become.
“We signed a player that we saw playing for a local team in London, Slough Town," Robinson recalled to Football Presse. "We invited them in to come and play an Under-14 — it was then, right at the end of the season, about this time last year — showcase game at our training ground. We saw this boy, Kynan Duffy. We liked him. He came on trial that summer. He signed in August as an Under-15. Never been in any academy before.”
Robinson, Southampton’s head of academy recruitment, added that Duffy had played for England by October. Southampton’s official account confirms that Duffy joined from Slough Town and has since progressed into its Under-18s, signing a scholarship ahead of the 2026/27 season.
“That's fantastic, you know, to see that opportunity. So, yeah, you want the very young ones, you want to build them up. But there's still a lot of talent out there that you can pick up if you get the scouting right. And that's very exciting.”
Data narrows the search
Data means scouts no longer have to watch every team in a competition. Robinson says it can identify players who fit a club’s immediate needs, letting staff focus their time where it is most useful.
“We subscribe, like a lot of clubs do, to a data service that is specifically aimed at telling you about young players, 16, 17, 18, 19, who are playing in first-team football in non-league. There's a whole data service called Non-League Gems, which is very good, built around that, and that's because the clubs know that there is talent there.”
He gave a practical example of how the process works when Southampton needed a left-back for its Under-21s.
“I said to the Non-League Gems guys, ‘We need a left-back in our 21s this season, so I'm looking for someone 18, 19, don't really want them to be older than that, want them to be playing in the top five steps of non-league, regularly at left-back.’ Straight away, they come back: ‘Here's the top 10 on the list.’”
Instead of trawling through every non-league side, scouts can concentrate on a smaller group, identify suitable candidates and use video to decide who merits closer attention.
“They can even help us get a video as well, which is even more time-effective, cost-effective. So, using data in that way to narrow down your focus is absolutely the way to go with cost-effective scouting.”
The human judgement still matters
Robinson estimates that video accounts for the vast majority of first-team scouting. But footage and numbers help scouts decide where to look; they do not remove the need to judge whether a player can cope with a higher level.
“About 95% of first-team scouting is by video now. It's so cost-effective to do it, so, yeah, you can go a long way with the data before, and use your live scouts to really be the refining parts of the data at the end.”
That final assessment depends on experience. Scouts may be watching a player below the level their club wants to recruit for, or assessing a teenager who will not be ready for senior football for years. The question is whether the player's qualities will survive the step up.
Having spent more than 11 years in Chelsea’s academy recruitment department before joining Southampton in 2024, Robinson draws on first-hand experience of developing and assessing players such as Conor Gallagher and Mason Mount.
“Your experience gives you reference points as well. You can say this kid at 14, he reminds me of Conor Gallagher at 14, or actually, Mason was like that. So you've got the reference points, and although every player's an individual, you can say, ‘Yeah, I can see where he might go, or what he might be,’ because I've seen that sort of player.”
Scouts also need to distinguish between a player who dominates because of a temporary physical advantage and one whose qualities will translate to a higher level.
“Your experience gives you all these reference points and context, because all we're doing when we're watching, we're watching a game of football, we're watching a player. There's no other context other than that. You have to bring the context of where do they fit in the scheme of things.”
Duffy’s route from Slough Town illustrates why Robinson does not see data and traditional scouting as competing approaches. Technology can widen and target the search; video can make assessment more efficient; experienced scouts then decide who deserves a closer look.
The talent may be outside the academy system, but finding it still depends on knowing what to look for.