Norwich City’s sporting director Ben Knapper may have labelled the shift from David Wagner to Johannes Hoff Thorup a ‘new direction’ but continuity is the buzzword in the club’s scouting strategy.

Mariela Nisotaki has been the Canaries’ head of emerging talent since September 2021, which has spanned a number of managerial changes in the dug out at Carrow Road.

But the close season appointment of Thorup will not trigger a radical shift in recruitment.

“A clear game model helps with team scouting. I’m sure if we discuss a player we would say they fit Barcelona or Ajax or another club because those clubs have a clearly defined game model,” she said. “That can help with scouting. We had a very defined game model in the beginning, although you have to be ready for a different coach, but in general we look for similar profiles.

"The objective is to get this club in the Premier League, so we know physicality plays a big role, in terms of profile, but we have to be creative with that. We are not only looking for physical players, they need the technical characteristics.

"When you talk about emerging talent, it is a little bit different because it is potential rather how they might fit in a squad right now. But you are still looking for those characteristics. What I do sits in between, because we felt there was a lot of occasions when you have players who maybe sit somewhere between first team and academy, and no-one really picks them up. ”

Sporting director Knapper arrived with a reputation forged at Arsenal for harnessing an increasing use of data within the game to inform decision-making.

In football recruitment circles that has prompted an on-going debate about whether data will make the role of the traditional scout redundant.

“We have a robust process, but also we try to be flexible. We don‘t have a big scouting team but that allows us to be flexible, and the communication is more direct with Ben and the scouting department,” said Nisotaki, interviewed on the ‘What the Footie podcast’ prior to the opening of this summer’s window. “We are trying to be efficient. We live now in a world we have a lot of information, it would be stupid not to use everything. I don’t get the debate about data versus scouting.

"It is both, to make better informed decisions. We use data a lot in the process for filtering – because you can have every match action from a player – so that can help identify the interesting profiles.

"But we won’t sign a player solely on that. We watch them on video and live, which is massive, you can see more about their personality and how they carry themselves. If I g to live games in different countries, especially south America, I can understand the context and culture better because I have experienced it.”

Norwich City technical director Neil Adams and sporting director Ben Knapper have a busy summer ahead (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

Nisotaki has been a key figure in helping establish the Canaries in a market which produced the signings of Gabby Sara and Marcelino Nunez in 2022. Knapper has already gone on record to state south America will remain a territory of interest for future player recruitment.

“It is true English football is very specific and very demanding physically and athletically. But that isn’t only about size. The most important thing you have is the intensity,” she said. “That is an indicator which shows if a player can make it in the next level.

“There have been players who stand out in the last two or three years playing at youth level for their countries. I remember watching Gavi for Spain's Under-18s, and he came from the bench and despite being the smallest he came on against France's U18s and dominated.

"Even in south America, I remember watching Julian Alvarez playing four years ago for Argentina’s Under-20s, before he had appeared for River Plate, and the same with Enzo Fernandez. I watched them both for River reserves and they stood out. It is good to see those players because you can then compare with others at a similar level.

"All of those I mentioned had a different tempo at that young age. But to go back to the point about context, good scouting is understanding you might be watching a good player but will they fit into your game model?”

Manchester City and Argentina forward Julian Alvarez was a stand out youngster in south America (Image: PA)