Barry Simmonds is a professional football coach, player recruiter and administrator notable for managing the New Zealand Knights in the Australian A-League prior to its licence being transferred to new ownership and renamed Wellington Phoenix. He was the Director of Football Recruitment and on the Executive Board at Norwich City FC for the Premier League promotion winning 2014–2015 season. He was appointed having held a similar position at Fulham FC over several years. In December 2017 he rejoined Crystal Palace FC having held previous roles at the London-based Premier League club.
Biography
He has developed a successful reputation with clubs in the UK and abroad including Crystal Palace, Cardiff City, Viking FK and Fulham for signing both undervalued lesser known players and established internationals at relatively low or no fees some of whom were sold on for much higher figures. Whilst at Fulham this included Chris Smalling and Moussa Dembele who were transferred to Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur respectively. Several of the playing squad which achieved the record highest league placing in the club's history and a UEFA Europa League Final were signed following Simmonds' appointment. These included in the starting line up for the final in Hamburg on 12 May 2010 against Atletico Madrid, Mark Schwarzer, Dickson Etuhu, Zoltan Gera, Damien Duff and Bobby Zamora. Schwarzer and Gera arrived on free transfers. More players of note followed including Dimitar Berbatov, Scott Parker and Giorgos Karagounis. With Karagounis the signing came after the then 35 year old Greek national team all-time record appearance holder was persuaded to postpone his retirement. At Norwich City the capture of Cameron Jerome and Gary O'Neil proved decisive signings in achieving promotion to the Premier League. In his 2013 award-winning book "The Nowhere Men' author Michael Calvin credited Simmonds with being at the forefront of modern player recruitment through the combined use of statistical analysis and traditional scouting methods. Simmonds has cited the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team selection methodology and American statistician Bill James as influences. Revered for his work in Major League Baseball James highlighted how underrated players could be recruited which Simmonds saw parallels with in professional football. Following his departure from Norwich City it was reported in the British media that he had been contracted by The Football Association to work as a member of England manager Roy Hodgson's staff for the national team's preparation and final tournament of the 2016 UEFA European Championship.
