If the best ones do their work undercover, and can drift in a crowd without being recognised, Mick Oliver is off to a flying start.
The new manager Craig Levein wanted a full-time scout to watch any country Scotland were about to play and he decided that the ideal man for the job was someone he had known since he was a teenager. Whichever teams Scotland draw when the Euro 2012 groups are decided next month, Oliver will be sent to watch them. He will ghost in, compile a dossier, help produce DVDs for Levein, and then move on to watch the next opponent.
Oliver’s name more recently popped up as the agent for ex-Celtic players Bobo Balde and Jeremie Aliadiere, among others. In 1998 he started his own sports consultancy business and was hired by Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic to scour Europe for players. Levein also hired him on those terms when he was at Dundee United. They met back in the dark ages, when they were both young lads playing with Cowdenbeath.
Oliver’s playing career also included spells at Falkirk, Queen of the South and Albion Rovers. The call to international football never came then. It has now. He had spells as Albion Rovers manager, Ayr United’s No.2 and general manager of Clydebank, all before mastering the dark arts of work as a players’ agent.
“I am honoured to be offered the chance to come and work with Craig and the national team,” said Oliver.
“Hopefully I can have a good impact on the squad’s preparations and have a real go at creating a good picture for Craig of the teams he will face. I have been scouting Europe for a number of years now for Premiership clubs so I am used to watching this standard of player.
“I will be looking to watch every player a team has available to them, and hopefully be ahead of the game by knowing about any wee gem who may be about to break through.” Oliver will watch international games and also foreign club fixtures. If Scotland were to draw Holland, for example, he might take in an Ajax versus Feyenoord game.
Scotland has never had a full-time scout before. Levein felt that one was required and the SFA made the money available. “It is extremely important to me that my players know something about every player in the opposition’s squad and not just the starting 11,” said Levein. “At club level I didn’t like it if the opposition brought on a player I hadn’t briefed my players about.”
Levein’s first game is a friendly against the Czech Republic on March 3. Oliver will be nowhere to be seen at Hampden that night. His work will be under way, as a man alone somewhere in Europe.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article