ARDLEY KNOWS THE WAT AHEAD

NEAL ARDLEY insists the digital revolution in football has reached down to National League level and even below – and reckons clubs simply now have to embrace it.

- Tony Banks

Ardley left Solihull Moors in the summer after guiding the Damson Park club to the National League play-off final in 2022.

The 50-year-old former AFC Wimbledon and Notts County manager, embraced the new technology fully when Danish entrepreneurs Alexander and Christoffer Reedtz and their Football Radar statistics firm bought County in 2019, and brought it fully into use for player recruitment at Solihull.

And Ardley, who also took Notts to the play off final in June 2020, now reckons that scouting platforms like Wyscout, Info.scout7.com and Instatscout are crucial for recruiting players – at every level of the game.

“There is no hiding place for footballers any more,” said Ardley, who played over 400 league games for Wimbledon, Watford, Cardiff and Millwall. “The data tells the story.