Photo via Creative Commons
Good scouting is about intelligence. Cutting through the stats, knowing when a player is underperforming, identifying easily-fixable weaknesses, knowing the difference between two locations, 4,146.90 miles apart…you know, the complex stuff.Iceland and the Czech Republic played a friendly on Wednesday and Jose Mourinho and co. apparently didn't bother to look up where the match was actually being played, because a Manchester United scout showed up in Reykjavik to watch it only to learn upon his arrival that it was actually being played in Qatar. Forgetting to look up the match location and booking a flight anyway is like showing up to work, only to realize you forgot your pants.
Confusing, indeed. Maybe look at that ticket next time, bud and you won't be standing in frigid Iceland instead of balmy Qatar.Anyway, Mourinho has been talking a big game about ramping up Manchester United's scouting efforts, and saw this maybe as an opportunity to get a good deal. And why not look to Iceland? The nation of 330,000 people somehow produced a World Cup team, so they must have some kind of secret, right? The first step to figuring out that secret, however, is showing up.It's unclear who Man United had their eyes on—it could have even been a Czech player—but maybe they didn't even think that far ahead. Jose truly proving each day that he is The Special One.According to Icelandic website fotbolti.net, the United scout arrived at the national stadium, Laugardalsvoll, and was confused as to why the lights were off and the venue empty.