From Grassroots to the Professional Game: A Journey – Tony Kinnear, Pivot Six

Football has been a part of my professional life for almost 20 years, but the route into scouting, analysis, and leading player recruitment functions was far from straightforward. It began in the grassroots, playing and coaching in local leagues – competitive but hardly glamorous – before attaining coaching qualifications and working as a football coach in schools.

A first break in professional football came with a scouting role at Premier League level, a lofty spot to start in the full-time game. This sharpened an eye for talent while teaching that success depends as much on people and processes as on ability. From there I moved down the ladder, to non-league, but in a much more impactful role, advising ownership on both gaps in on-pitch playing performance and off-pitch player recruitment – it suited well. 

It was a move that taught whether multi-million-pound transfers, or offering a deal for a part-time player, talent identification and recruitment is never easy – especially when priorities in the boardroom and dugout are constantly shifting, significant constraints are imposed and every penny counts.

2014 saw a move to the Scottish Premiership, another scouting role, focused on uncovering talent beyond obvious hotspots, followed, a few years later, by a step up to Head Scout, a position held for five seasons in which time the club I worked for achieved a league title followed by four consecutive promotion play-off runs. 

In that role, I introduced clear frameworks, structured processes, and data-informed approaches to support consistent and transparent recruitment decisions, while, alongside this, consulting once more at non-league level in England, offering opposition assessment, scouting support, and recruitment strategy advice.

Away from football, in building a career as a data, risk, and then business analyst, I worked on major projects such as the UK’s first rollout of chip technology on to bank cards, and the transition of major UK banks to digital cheque clearing. Experiences such as these sharpened my expertise in successful execution of strategy, change management, process design, and data-driven decision-making – skills to directly benefit my work in sport.

Recently, in combining football and analytical expertise across multiple roles: supporting the English FA’s Match Official Pathways (to promote referees from the National League to the Football League), men’s first-team scouting at EFL Championship level, and cricket match analysis for StatsPerform / Opta, further valuable insight and experience has been gained.

All this shaped a desire to create Pivot Six a consultancy dedicated to helping clubs strengthen both their player recruitment capability and their on-pitch playing performance, the aim – in a bespoke manner – to facilitate clubs to make better decisions, enhance performance, and turn small margins into meaningful results.

Off-pitch, the business will help create high-performing player recruitment teams, aligning strategy, embedding effective player recruitment processes, facilitating the smart use of data, while utilising experience in playing budget management and the execution of value for money player acquisitions. On-pitch, it delivers effective opposition analysis, squad depth reviews, player development assessments, set-piece support, and independent skilled scouting/analysis services.

For enquiries or just an informal conversation, Tony Kinnear can be contacted at: tony@pivotsix.co.uk

Website: pivotsix.co.uk