Non-League Gems

The biggest move of the window sees Hertford Town left-back Kurai Musanhi complete his move to the Premier League by signing his first professional contract Crystal Palace Football Club... ✍ 🦅 The 18-year-old had a season to remember in the Southern League Division One Central (Step 4), playing over 2700 minutes across 31 league appearances as he took home Players' Player of the Season, Young Player of the Season and Supporters Player of the Season at the club's end of season awards. The majority of professional clubs across the country will quickly hear of the young striker scoring a hat-trick in the National League but its much harder finding players who don’t make the headlines with their goals. The clubs that apply a data-informed infrastructure to their non-league scouting consistently generate leads which enable them to find a left-back in the 8th tier. A left-back who is ready to play Cat 1 football despite never being in the academy system previously. #NLG

Congratulations to striker Adrien Thibaut who has signed a professional contract with Crewe Alexandra Football Club .... Adrien becomes the 3rd player from the June 2024 edition of the Non-League Gems Showcase Event to turn professional over the summer after Jahiem Dotse (Wycombe Wanderers) and Ralph Vigrass (Dagenham & Redbridge)... All three players were picked up by the NLG algorithms whilst playing for Bradford Park Avenue (Step 3), Blackfield & Langley (Step 5) and Bracknell Town (Step 3) respectively and therefore invited to this year's event. Less than three months later, 17-year-old Jahiem made his professional debut in the EFL Trophy against AFC Wimbledon last night... #NLG

A week to remember for Crewe Alexandra Football Club forward Fin Roberts as the 18-year-old followed up his professional debut in the EFL Cup last Tuesday with a place in the match day squad against Chesterfield in League 2 on Saturday... A reminder that at the end of April, he was finishing the season with 8 goals in 9 games in the Isthmian South East Division (Step 4) for Beckenham Town... In just a matter of months, he becomes the latest example of the high potential late developers signed from Steps 3-4 of non-league football who are judged to be EFL ready in their first season in the professional game. #NLG | #CreweAlex

A professional debut for former Wealdstone academy striker Jaiden Bartolo as the 18-year-old came off the bench in Wycombe Wanderers Football Club opening day defeat to Wrexham AFC ... The Gibraltar international only signed for the club two months ago and is already getting minutes in a League 1 first team... There is an abundance of talent in non-league football just waiting to be discovered. #NLG

A lot can change in a year… Last summer, Han Stevens was named MOTM at the Non-League Gems Showcase Event after dominating the midfield for the Yellow team in a 4-2 win… Now he’s competing in the UEFA Conference League against FC Copenhagen… #NLG

A remarkable rise for striker Jahiem Dotse who has signed his first professional contract with client club Wycombe Wanderers Football Club 📝 💎 The 17-year-old scored 8 goals in just 12 league starts for Blackfield & Langley in the Wessex League Premier Division (Step 5) as he finished the season top scorer in their successful fight against relegation... This form led to him being picked up by the NLG algorithms and therefore selected for the NLG Showcase Event last month, where he was named MOTM after picking up a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win for the Grey Team. Prior to signing, Jahiem had never been at a professional academy and had never been on trial at a professional club...discovered in the 9th tier and now putting pen to paper on his first professional contract with a League 1 club. #NLG | #Chairboys

Due to the number of inbound demo requests, we have recorded a 20 minute video providing a quick run through of the Non-League Gems Scouting Software. During the demo, you’ll get an in-depth look at the platform’s features which already provide many clubs in the Premier League, EFL and National League with a time-saving and cost-effective solution to discovering emerging talent from the non-league market. If you work at or previously worked at a professional football club and would like to receive the demo link, please send a DM with your email address. #NLG

Scouts - how do you distinguish the vital few from the trivial many? 🤔 If you’re looking for the next non-league gem, you might get excited by a player who was in the academy system since he was 9, excelled in all the age groups, played in the FA Youth Cup but is currently at a non-league club having been released after his U18 season. Now aged 19-21 (let’s say), he sounds an interesting prospect to sign as a development player / fringe first team player. However, it turns out being released to the non-leagues after your u18 season is a hard setback to return from. From the past decade, thousands of players have been released after their scholarship at U18 to non-league football, yet of these players: •⁠ ⁠⁠No one has appeared in the Premier League. •⁠ ⁠No one has made 50 appearances in the Championship.  •⁠ ⁠40% signed by League One clubs were released back to the non-leagues within 2 years. So, if you’re a club looking to generate revenue from player sales, there are a million data points within our system suggesting you should be looking towards late developers on steep upwards trajectories. These players were not particularly interesting at 15, 16 or 17 but at 18, 19 and 20 are flourishing playing senior non-league football. These players have small profiles, less exciting CVs and they don’t appear on the usual online sources or data providers. To find players like Kellen Fisher (Bromley Football Club to Norwich City Football Club), Martial Godo (Margate FC to Fulham Football Club), Ollie Tanner (Lewes Football Club to Cardiff City Football Club) and Fletcher Holman (Eastbourne Borough Football Club to Wolves) you need to know how to distinguish the vital few from the trivial many. #NLG

The £100 million window - the reward for investing in high potential late developers 📈 📈 As we see yet another big non-league move go through with Chatham Town (Step 3) left-back Harvey Broad signing for Championship side Coventry City Football Club, it's at the other end of the market where clubs are reaping the rewards of investing in high potential late developers from the non-leagues… Max Kilman (£40 million), Iliman Ndiaye (£15 million), Ronnie Edwards (£3 million) as well as an impending move for Jaden Philogene (circa. £16 million) are the headlines in a summer which could see the sum of transfer fees received for former non-league players creep up towards the £100 million mark... It's a trend seen further down the EFL ladder too with players such as Macaulay Langstaff, Klaidi Lolos and Tommy Leigh all bringing in relatively large six figure fees to their respective League 2 clubs. Shopping in the non-league market is proving smart business. #NLG

It has been a productive couple of weeks for the non-league market which has seen a wave of players from across the pyramid moving into the EFL on long-term contracts with Dan Ellison (Bristol Rovers), Fin Roberts (Crewe Alexandra), Reuben Swann (Portsmouth) and Ethan Mann (Stockport County) some of the highlights... All four featured for clubs at Steps 3-5 of the non-league pyramid this season and all four were flagged as a priority to get eyes on on our emerging talent scouting software.... Ahead of the new season, if you'd like to hear more about how your club could benefit from a data-informed approach to navigating the non-league market, then please get in touch. #NLG