West Ham’s Head of Player Care Hugo Scheckter has been interviewed by Hammers sponsors Betway to explain how he settles incoming signings.

“I believe that player care is the new wave of difference-making in football,” says Scheckter.

“In the ‘90s it was medicine, more recently it’s been video analysis, and I think player care is the next area where clubs can really get an advantage over each other. By having players who are set up properly and looked after, it means they can focus on nothing but football as soon as possible after they walk through the door.”

“We’re trying to make sure that everything is not just taken care of, but taken care of in the right way, It’s our ambition to have one of the best player care departments in the next two years. That is more than I’ve ever dealt with, I’m more used to about five or six,”

“We try and sort the six main things: the house, the car, the bank account, the family, the phone and languages. Once we’ve got those basic things, everything else falls into place, Player care sometimes gets seen as like running a concierge or nanny service.”

“But if you or I moved to a foreign country aged 20, we wouldn’t know what to do because we haven’t grown up in that environment.

“When someone comes here, we need to make sure that everything’s explained. Someone like Fabian Balbuena, for example, has never lived outside of South America. There’s so much different stuff that they have to get used to, it’s about trying to work out the gaps in their knowledge.

“Whether it’s council tax – we’re the only country in the modern world that has a council tax-style system – or even knowing you need to stop at a zebra crossing. A lot of the time, we’re just translating English into English, when people speak with an accent or use flowery language, so they’re not confused and know what they’re signing up to.

“We’re there to protect them, as well, because there are a lot of people who see these players as a potential money source.”

“We go for some of the best players in the world, some of them do speak English and some don’t, we found that even in a couple of weeks of being here, players pick up the language really quickly. Barney [Bossom] speaks Italian and Spanish fluently and I have basic French, so unless we’re signing a player from North Korea, we’ve got it covered within the squad.”

The full interview can be found at https://blog.betway.com/football/premier-league/how-west-hams-head-of-player-care-helps-new-signings-settle/