Sandro di Michele: Swindon Town technical director wants to emulate Brentford recruitment

Sandro di Michele works with Swindon head coach Scott Lindsey (pictured)

Swindon Town's new technical director Sandro Di Michele said the club would "love to emulate Brentford" in their approach to data-driven recruitment.

Di Michele was appointed in June to oversee football operations at the League Two club.

He was previously head recruitment analysist at Wigan until April, playing a part in the club securing promotion to the Championship.

Swindon reached the League Two semi-finals last season.

"Brentford are a club that we admire and we have huge respect for, Brighton would be another club and there are a handful that we could talk about. Absolutely, everything that Brentford have done would be what we're trying to do," Di Michele told BBC Radio Wiltshire.

"We'll try to do it in our own way and there's different approaches to how you use data and where you take your data from, but I think Brentford are an incredible model, they're an incredible success story, they are an established Premier League club."

Brentford were promoted to the Premier League in 2020-21 for the first time in their history and finished 13th last season during their maiden campaign. The Bees' recruitment strategy and use of data to spot and find talented players has been widely praised.

The club sat in League Two in 2007, when owner Matthew Benham became involved, and have gradually climbed through the leagues since.

"It's outrageous really, what they've done and what they've achieved. Data is a part of it, and it's a big part of it, but it's not the only part of it.

"The philosophy is the same, identify players that you believe are undervalued or underdeveloped, play a brand of football that showcases them in the best possible light and ultimately be prepared to let them move on."

Di Michele - like Brentford's owner Benham - worked in the gambling industry before moving into football, working in odds compilation and risk management for a bookmaker.

"That was where I really started to understand data," he continued.

"You start to get a really good understanding for numbers, and applying data and statistics to percentage chances of football teams winning matches, or players scoring goals."