Comunicado Oficial: SCOUTED sign Jake Entwistle
Comunicado Oficial: SCOUTED sign Jake Entwistle
We're back and we have news.
Dear readers,
We’re back. Well, more specifically, I’m back. I meaning me, Tom. Steve and Llew have been holding things down while I’ve been away, and I return refreshed and ready for the new season (gulp).
Taking time away when you work for yourself is scary. Especially when you work on the internet - it always feels like if you stand still, you’ll disappear. But I’ve returned to find our subscriber base holding very strong. If you’ve stuck around while our writing has come a little slower, thank you so much. Genuinely. It means the world. And now we get to repay the favour.
I wanted to mark my return with a brief message about something very exciting happening here at SCOUTED HQ - something that will change the complexion of this newsletter moving forward. Paid readers of The Technical Area learned about this last month, but now it’s official.
Drumroll please. Ah, I’ve spoiled it in the title. Never mind. Drumroll for dramatic effect anyway:
Jake joins SCOUTED
We’re supremely excited to announce Jake Entwistle is joining the SCOUTED team full-time, starting next week.
Jake has been behind-the-scenes with us for many years, doing whatever he can around an all-consuming day job. Now he’s diving in headfirst and joining our collective dream of building an independent, sustainable media business.
Jake arrives with over a decade of experience in football media. You’ll definitely know him from his eight years leading Squawka’s social efforts, in particular.
I asked Jake to share a few thoughts with you all as a means of introduction, and he provided these deeply moving paragraphs. So I’ll hand the floor to him.
Joining SCOUTED full-time is an extremely personal decision. I am excited to consistently contribute to a project that I believe can be a monumental success - it already is. But the somewhat brutal truth is that I was forgetting who I was.
I was extremely comfortable in my old job, which I understand is a privilege. But for anyone who’s watched Big Mouth, I was starting to realise that this particular comfort was being provided by the fluffiness of a fuck-off massive purple cat. I do not think I was depressed. I know how serious the subject matter is and do not refer to it lightly. But I do believe the early signs were there. I want to address that openly and needed to get ahead of it by making a drastic change. The fact I brought myself to tears in a WeWork when explaining I wanted to leave my previous job confirmed it.
The reason I have decided to devote my time and energy to SCOUTED is because it is the one thing I know is ‘me’. Discovering the next generation of excites me. Doing all of this before anyone else motivates me.
Those two things are what I have lacked and it is what I want to rediscover. I can’t wait to set ambitious goals and explore new ideas as a means to meet them. I can’t wait to dive into rabbit holes about a player’s 1-vs-1 invincibility, a divine dribbling sensation, or the next ambipedal marvel - search ‘ambipedal’ in Google and a video I scripted for Squawka is the top hit. But most importantly, I can’t wait to be myself again.
See you soon,
Jake
We can’t wait to have you with us, pal. Welcome to the team.
If you’re not familiar with Jake’s game, you will be soon. Go show him some love.
This season
SCOUTED has always been built with passion first, by a group of friends doing whatever they can around other commitments to keep the lights on. This has meant we’ve always been throttled by our available labour and resources - we have always felt strongly about building a small business with the financial incentives that produce the best, most ethical journalism.
For the first time in our history, we now have four people giving everything to build SCOUTED together. We have so much work to do to make this sustainable, but I’ve never been so confident we have everything we need.
It’s been a long road. This is just another chapter. But it’s gunna be the best one.
For a (much) longer breakdown on how this new look will manifest itself in the newsletter, paid subscribers can read the Technical Area from last month:
For now, I’d really like to stop talking and get back to work. I could yap forever about our plans, but it’s time to show, not tell.
Thank you for being here. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming so - we’re building the best youth football magazine on the internet, and this season, with Jake’s enormous talents in hand, SCOUTED is going to be your indispensable companion. That’s a promise.
Enjoy the football,
Tom