Glenn Roeder says that he is going to do his own research when he
looks for players - and not just rely on scouts'
recommendations.
"We had plenty of scouts out at the weekend, and this year we will be covering games that we select ourselves rather than worry about agents telling us where to go," he says.
"If we can find players ourselves I think that is of more interest.
"When you just follow agents a lot of the trips turn out to be wild goose chases.
"There is nothing more frustrating for the scouts than being told how wonderful this player or that player is, only to get there and see very quickly we haven't been told the truth.
"To be fair, there is a certain group of agents who are selective but we won't be following every call we get from agents - and we will do a lot of homework ourselves."
Glenn has taken on as scouts Nick Haycock, who has worked at Wolves and Watford under Graham Taylor, and Paul Haverson, who worked for QPR for 12 years, to replace Peter Eustace, a one-time Hammer, and Stuart Morgan.
Ted Pearce remains chief scout.
Explaining the changes, he says:
"It is very important when you have scouts working for you that they see the game the way you do - it is a waste of time if they see it differently."
As for the transfer search, Glenn admits:
"I have got to change my ways and keep things closer to my chest, because in the past month or so I have been much too open, and every so-called target has ended up in the papers.
"That doesn't help me and it certainly doesn't help our supporters who are waiting for the next signing.
"I can only re-emphasise how hard we are working at it but I want to keep things a little low key at the moment.
"I feel we are moving in the right direction and we don't want to give any clues away."
"We had plenty of scouts out at the weekend, and this year we will be covering games that we select ourselves rather than worry about agents telling us where to go," he says.
"If we can find players ourselves I think that is of more interest.
"When you just follow agents a lot of the trips turn out to be wild goose chases.
"There is nothing more frustrating for the scouts than being told how wonderful this player or that player is, only to get there and see very quickly we haven't been told the truth.
"To be fair, there is a certain group of agents who are selective but we won't be following every call we get from agents - and we will do a lot of homework ourselves."
Glenn has taken on as scouts Nick Haycock, who has worked at Wolves and Watford under Graham Taylor, and Paul Haverson, who worked for QPR for 12 years, to replace Peter Eustace, a one-time Hammer, and Stuart Morgan.
Ted Pearce remains chief scout.
Explaining the changes, he says:
"It is very important when you have scouts working for you that they see the game the way you do - it is a waste of time if they see it differently."
As for the transfer search, Glenn admits:
"I have got to change my ways and keep things closer to my chest, because in the past month or so I have been much too open, and every so-called target has ended up in the papers.
"That doesn't help me and it certainly doesn't help our supporters who are waiting for the next signing.
"I can only re-emphasise how hard we are working at it but I want to keep things a little low key at the moment.
"I feel we are moving in the right direction and we don't want to give any clues away."