Work with me — Davide Gualano

Recruitment work,
scoped and priced.

A recruitment question rarely needs a full-time analyst. It needs someone to take the question seriously for three weeks and hand back an answer you can act on. That's what I sell: a defined piece of work, a fixed price, and the method handed over with the result.

What I do

Four ways in

Each one below is a process I've already run and published in full. Follow the links — the free version is the specification for the paid one.

Second opinion

€700 1 week

You have a target. Before the money moves, I stress-test him: role fit for how your team actually plays, whether his output is sustainable or noise, adaptation risk from his league to yours, and the comparable profiles you may be able to get cheaper. You get a verdict, not a hedge.

You get

A 6–8 page written verdict, conclusion first
Comparison set of alternative profiles
45-minute call to argue with me about it

Already done

Immobile to Bologna → — a single signing, a clear verdict, the squad-context reasoning behind it.

And the same calls graded a season later → — eighteen verdicts checked against what happened, misses included.

Shortlist brief

€2,500 2–3 weeks

The full commission for one position. We define the profile together, then I filter across the leagues your budget and style actually reach, cluster candidates into data-defined roles, rank them on what matters for that role, and land on a recommendation with every step exposed.

You get

Ranked shortlist of 5–8 names
Full profile pages for the top three
Methodology appendix your analysts can audit
Presentation to your recruitment staff

Already done

Finding Juventus' missing midfielder → — the identical process, start to finish, on a squad I don't work for.

Market map

€3,800 3–4 weeks

Not who to sign — where to shop. I rate stylistic similarity between your side and every club in the markets you can realistically buy from, then measure how often transfers along each corridor have actually worked. The output is a buying strategy, not a single name, and it stays useful for several windows.

You get

Corridor risk report across your reachable markets
Ranked target leagues and feeder clubs
A scoring framework your staff keep and rerun

Already done

Which leagues actually produce successful transfers? → — six seasons of event data, corridor by corridor.

Visualisation & tooling

€400/day scoped per job

The thing I do best, and do daily. Recruitment dashboards your scouts will actually open, match and player visuals for editorial or presentation, or a custom metric for something the standard data misses — built, validated, and documented so it survives after handover.

Typical jobs

Internal scouting tool your staff can query
Editorial and broadcast graphics
A bespoke metric, with validation against an external benchmark

Already done

Throw-in analysis app → — a research pipeline turned into something non-analysts can use.

Visual gallery → — shot maps, pass sonars, carrying maps, xG trends.

No surprises, either direction

Scoping call

Thirty minutes, free. You describe the question. I tell you whether the data can answer it — including when it can't.

Written scope

Deliverable, timeline and price, fixed in writing before anything starts. 50% up front.

Mid-point check

One review while there's still time to redirect. Nothing lands as a surprise at the end.

Handover

Presentation to your staff, and the method documented so it doesn't leave when I do.

The questions I'd ask too

Have you worked inside a club?

No. Which is why I publish the method instead of asserting the experience.

The recruitment work is entirely my own: six seasons of publicly available event data turned into corridor models, role clustering, custom metrics, complete mock commissions — and a public audit of my own transfer calls a season on, misses included. All of it at The Cutback, with the method open.

What my client work gives me is production discipline: visual and editorial output delivered on deadline, at scale, for audiences that notice mistakes. The two streams don't share data. They share standards.

You can judge the quality of both before paying for a minute of it. Very few people you could hire will offer you that.

Whose data do we use?

Yours. Clubs and agencies already licence a feed that covers the players they'd realistically sign, and I work inside it. Published work on The Cutback runs on publicly available data — which means a paid project has deeper coverage than anything you can read for free.

How fast can you start?

I work as a freelance analyst with existing commitments, so I take a limited number of projects at a time and quote timelines I can actually hold. If the window is tight, say so on the call and I'll tell you honestly whether it fits.

What if the data can't answer the question?

Then I say so on the scoping call, before you've spent anything. Event data is very good at some questions and poor at others — defenders and goalkeepers remain genuinely hard, and I'd rather tell you that up front than deliver a confident answer built on thin evidence.

Do you work in English?

Yes. Italian native, English professional, written and spoken.

Do you take retainers?

After a first project, yes — around €1,800 a month for ongoing shortlist and analysis support through a window. Better for both of us to start with something scoped.