#1 The Jamestown Seven: Data + Character = Hearts’ winning formula
How Braga and Kyziridis passed the personality test
Award-winning sportswriter Stephen McGowan writes monthly investigations for Nutmeg FC. This week, he examines the injection of new talent into Hearts following the buy-in of Tony Bloom and his Jamestown Analytics data company.
Today we consider forward Claudio Braga and winger Alexandros Kyziridis, hearing from Tynecastle head coach Derek McInnes and two key figures from the players’ past lives.
🗣️ Tomorrow: Part II — We get insights on midfielder Eduardo Ageu and forward Pierre Landry Kabore.
🗣️ Friday: Part III — The focus turns to midfielder Tomas Bent Magnusson, full-back Harry Milne and defender Oisin McEntee.
By Stephen McGowan
Described in a Times profile as ‘the most cutting-edge data company in football’, Jamestown Analytics operate from a small, modest office in Camden, North London. It’s their mission to rewrite the rules of player recruitment by being low profile and high impact in everything they do.
Information is currency. Share the secret of their success with others and the risk of competitors doing the same — or better — increases. In a sport where marginal gains are critical, Jamestown draw a veil over the nuts and bolts of what they do.
Their carefully guarded strategy transformed founder Tony Bloom’s Brighton and Hove Albion and turned Union Saint-Gilloise into the champions of Belgium. They worked with Como in Italy before agreeing to provide data to Heart of Midlothian. Bloom has since invested £10million in the Edinburgh club and believes Hearts can win the SPFL inside the next 10 years.
While Derek McInnes’ side suffered their first league defeat in Aberdeen on Sunday, they remain four points clear at the summit of the Scottish Premiership. This despite spending a fraction of the sums outlayed on players by Celtic and Rangers over the summer.
Jamestown see value where others see risk and are reshaping the Hearts football strategy. They see virtue where others see flaws.
The aim is to scout unexplored markets in search of the hidden gems. To pluck players from relative obscurity and develop them into world-class stars like Moises Caicedo and Kaoru Mitoma.
Hearts believe that filling the squad over a number of windows with players who rank highly on Jamestown metrics will make them better. Compiling a list based on position, playing style and cost, they signed players from Estonia, Norway, Slovakia and the Portuguese second division in the summer. While the data uncovers physical and technical attributes, underpinning the Jamestown ethos is an unwritten rule: never buy a bad egg. At Brighton, they call it the “no dickheads” policy.
The task of going beyond the data to assess the player beneath falls to head coach McInnes, who told Nutmeg FC: “When you are signing boys from your own country, it’s easy to pick up a phone because there will always be someone you know who has worked with the player.
“The added complication with signing players from outwith is that sometimes you don’t know until you know. But you can get a feeling for it and you can gauge it and you can see why all these players have been flagged up in the first place.
“The key then is to gauge the personality, the hunger and the motivation side of things. And I am delighted that we have managed to sign good people as well as good players.”
Here, Nutmeg FC delves into the stories of some of the players spearheading a Hearts title challenge.
CLAUDIO BRAGA began his career in the Boavista and Rio Ave youth systems, playing in the lower leagues, before a significant move to Norwegian third division side Moss FK in 2022. Progressing to Aalesunds in Norway’s second tier, coach KJETIL REKDAL changed the Portuguese’s position and rejuvenated his career.
“Claudio was a big investment for Aalesunds but we were not doing well,” states Rekdal. “When he came, I changed the system and I put him up front because he had been playing in midfield or on the left or right side.
“I put him up front as a striker and I gave him more freedom. That was easier for him and he started to score goals.
“When I came to Aalesunds he wanted to do too much — he wanted to do everything. He wanted to take on one player, two players, three players and then the next one after that. He wanted to show how good he was all the time.
“I put him up as a striker so the team could afford it when he tried things then lost the ball. More than if he played in midfield or in our half.
“We had several players last autumn who impressed when we came from last in the rankings to finish ninth — third in terms of the second part of the season. And we knew that, in order to build and invest and progress, someone had to go.
“There was interest in Claudio from another club before Hearts and he could have left in January, but he stayed to help us.
“We know that, as a small club, we have to sell players when bigger players come in. We can’t stop that, so when he started doing well, I wasn’t surprised that Hearts came. I was happy for him.
“If he keeps fit and avoids bad injuries, his data will show up well. He is a special guy and he wants to get higher and higher and higher.
“But right now he is doing well at Hearts, and Celtic and Rangers are struggling, so this could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Hearts to be champions. Why would he want to leave quickly?”
From his holiday home in America, DEREK McINNES held an early morning Zoom call with Braga and immediately identified a player who could add qualities to Hearts on and off the pitch.
“Claudio is just a smiley, bubbly boy who loves football. He looks at times as if he is playing in the street or the playground. He just lives his life that way. He is obsessed with football.
“I go back to my first Zoom call with him. Ideally, you get a chance to speak to players face-to-face before you make any signing. But he was on holiday and I was on holiday. But as soon as we spoke I felt a warmth, a connection. I was drawn to his personality and his enthusiasm, and while that’s not the biggest criteria in signing a player, it is a factor.
“The reason we were having the conversation was because we had done the work as a club, we had seen his footage and I was keen to work with him. But that conversation needs to be had with every player and I felt a lot of comfort from our chat.
“He is loving life at Hearts. He has come from a small club in Norway and took a risk leaving his homeland to go there in the first place. It showed a bit of courage because he has taken himself out of the comfort zone and I think he has grasped his opportunity brilliantly.”
En route to meeting McInnes at the Hearts training complex at Edinburgh’s Oriam, Nutmeg strolls behind Braga as he chats away happily with a trio of young players making their way to one of the indoor football pitches. He gives his time and his conversation freely.
“It’s getting harder and harder for players to have that real connection with supporters,” adds the Hearts boss. “They are crying out for heroes and idols they can hang on to, and they have taken to him unbelievably well. I think all these things help.”
Beginning his career in Greece with Volos, ALEXANDROS KYZIRIDIS saw little first-team action until he turned 20 and gambled on a move to Slovakia. FC Vion public relations manager MATEJ ZIMA recalls a move which started well before going downhill quickly.
“Kyziridis was an exceptional, game-changing player for us with tremendous potential. We expected him to transfer from our club to a bigger team for a significant fee. He was very close to being considered one of our club legends and top players, but during the 2022/2023 season, we changed our head coach, and Alexandros had a conflict with him, which led to his departure after just four matches.
“I must emphasise that the fault was entirely on Kyziridis’s side — mainly due to his lack of respect toward the coach.
“He even missed a training session, along with another Greek teammate at the time, because he needed to pick up his partner at the airport and didn’t inform anyone about it. In short, he was arrogant, stubborn and unwilling to listen to anyone, and he started to negatively influence other players as well.
“In Slovakia, this behaviour became well-known during that season, which is also why his market value on Transfermarkt dropped. So yes — in terms of football ability, he was an excellent player, but mentally, he was harmful to our team.”
After moving to Hungary with Debrecen, the Greek wide man then returned to Slovakia with unfashionable Zemplin Michalovce and had an outstanding season. Snapping him up under freedom of contract, McInnes saw a player who could score as well as assist others, and he already has five strikes in 16 appearances, including a fine goal against Celtic.
McInnes: “I told him that we were not here to mess about and that this was what I expected of him. As a wide player I want him to contribute goals. I think it’s important that he can’t just be a crosser of the ball and a provider.
“He wanted to place that demand on himself and when he came in for pre-season and started to interact what you saw straight away was a very popular boy. A boy who was eager to impart himself on everybody else and not shy away in the corner.
“He’s not coy — he is engaging, he is out there and the players took to him straight away, which is something you are always looking for as a manager.
“He immersed himself in everything and he was similar to Braga in that he was very bubbly. He has adapted brilliantly for us.”
The latest issue of Nutmeg is nearly ready to be sent to subscribers. It’s the ‘free-kick’ issue (have a ‘virtual’ flick through below) and features Stephen McGowan, Jonathan Northcroft, Charlie Mulgrew and a cameo appearance from the free-kick genius himself, Andrea Pirlo. The best deal to get on-board is our annual pass, which gets you full digital access AND the next FOUR copies of the magazine.