Chris O’Loughlin: Upsetting the odds with Union Saint-Gilloise

Training Ground Guru Podcast

Our guest on Episode #59 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Chris O'Loughlin.

Chris is the Sporting Director of Union Saint Gilloise, one of the most innovative and interesting clubs in the whole of Europe.

Despite having a stadium with a capacity of just 9,400, and a budget that’s dwarfed by the biggest clubs, they are top of the table in Belgium.

Chris told us how the club scout for character and how they use data to punch way above their weight.

SHOW NOTES=>

02:13: Background. Born in Limerick, move to Cape Town at a young age. B Licence at Larne in Northern Ireland. Break with Bibey Mutombo at Orlando Pirates.

09:25: Move to Belgium with Yannick Ferrera at Sint-Truiden.

12:09: Becoming a Sporting Director with Union Saint-Gilloise. Strong believer in culture. In his experience, clubs hadn't included considerations about culture in their decision-making, especially in terms of squad building.

14:48: History of USG. Potential in Brussels. Stadium is romantic/ 104 years old. Budget is low and has been growing step by step. About building a foundation and strategy.

17:07: Never met or had a conversation with Tony Bloom. Alex Muzio is the day to day President and now majority shareholder. Reasons why the duo chose to buy the club.

21:48: First role was to create a behavioural culture and performance culture for the club. Establishing five key values for the club. Recruiting to those values. Human being qualities they look for. People can get confused about what humility actually means.

30:40: Example of Victor Boniface. Went deep into his social media and found how he had helped a mother in Nigeria. 'We don’t need an angel, we just need a person with a good soul.'

32:33: Creating a 'common denominator' among the players/ having something common in their spirit and soul, which creates cohesion and togetherness. Richie Barker at Charlton told him about creating a common goal. Looking for hungry, humble players.

35:47: Analytics used as a filtering system. Look for undervalued, underrated players. Don't recruit for a specific style of play.

43:54: Ambitions for the club - new stadium, focus on Academy, challenging for trophies in Belgium and qualifying for Europe regularly.