Jake's Road Report is Gemini Sports founder Jake Schuster’s weekly update from professional football's frontlines. He travels globally, meeting club executives to share candid insights on AI's role in football. These raw, actionable thoughts are delivered weekly, with meeting details kept confidential and specific intel omitted.
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So many sporting directors I talk to tell me the prices they negotiate for a purchase or sale are entirely dictated by the team across the table from them or the agent managing a deal.
Does anyone think that's good enough?
When I hear this, what I'm really hearing is: "I'm letting other people determine my club's financial future." These are the same sporting directors who obsess over expected goals models and progressive passing metrics, yet they walk into negotiations with nothing more than gut feel and whatever Transfermarkt says.
Publicly available pricing models are inherently flawed. Algorithmically guiding your negotiations isn't a nice-to-have—it's imperative. If you believe you can sell a player for $10M in a year or so, whether you buy them for $5M or $2M has a massive impact on your bottom line.
When we look at professional investors in the business world, they’re as sensitive about entry points as they are about exit potential. Investing in a startup at a $10M valuation rather than $20M means a massive difference when it gets acquired for $100M. Football clubs should operate the same way.
The best clubs I work with enter negotiations knowing exactly what a player is worth to them—not based on what other clubs have paid, but based on objective metrics and discipline. They know when to walk away. They know when they've found genuine arbitrage.
Do you actually know how much your players should cost? What they're worth to your club, in your system, with your resale opportunities?
In a market this competitive, blind negotiations are a luxury no club (and no club executive) can afford.
The price is rarely right by accident. Make sure you know what right looks like before you sit down at the negotiating table.
