Robert Graf launched the first organizational changes at Hajduk: scouting, academy and loans enter a new working model
Hajduk sporting director Robert Graf presented three organizational innovations with which the Split club wants to connect scouting, analytics and the development of young players more precisely. According to the available information, this involves merging the data and scouting departments, introducing an Individual Development Department into the academy, and creating a new role for a person responsible for monitoring players on loans and dual registration.
Hajduk is entering preparations for the 2026/2027 season with a clearer emphasis on the internal reorganization of the sporting sector. Robert Graf, the Polish expert who took over the role of sporting director of the Split club in April, announced changes that do not relate only to the transfer window, but also to the way in which the club will identify, develop and monitor players in the long term. According to his words in an interview for the official club channels, Hajduk has already launched processes in scouting, the academy and the system for monitoring loaned players. These three areas are important because they directly concern the model in which the club, with limited financial possibilities, must make sporting decisions faster and more accurately. Graf also emphasized that the focus will be placed on precisely defined player profiles, individual work with the most talented players and constant monitoring of footballers who are developing outside the first team.
Merging analytics and scouting
The first change concerns the merging of the data department and the classic scouting department. Graf explained that these two areas have now been combined into one working system, with the aim that scouts and analysts use the same criteria when assessing players. Such a model should reduce the room for inconsistent assessments, especially in a period when the sporting sector must react quickly on the market. According to Graf, the club has introduced player profiles because it is changing the type of footballers it wants to have in the squad. This means that the scouting service is no longer looking only for players who generally correspond to the level of competition, but for players who fit into very specific technical, tactical, physical and financial frameworks.
Graf emphasized that the scouting department now knows exactly what it needs to look for, but also that the task is not simple because of financial limitations. According to his statement, Hajduk is looking for free players or players it can bring in on loan, provided that they match the specific profile the club wants. This confirmed that sporting policy is not based only on the coach's wishes or impressions from individual matches, but on criteria set in advance. In practice, this should mean that potential reinforcements are assessed through a broader picture: quality, age, development potential, tactical compatibility and financial feasibility. Such an approach is especially important in clubs that cannot often pay high transfer fees, but must find value on the market before their competitors.
The change in scouting also follows on from what Graf said at his official presentation at Poljud. At that time, according to Hajduk's announcement, he said that the club must be smart in scouting and that in the transition period it would work differently than before. President of the Management Board Ivan Bilić emphasized at the same conference that the club's financial situation is not ideal and that, when choosing the sporting director, competencies such as working in demanding conditions, working with young players and achieving results were considered. In such a framework, merging data and scouting is not just an administrative change, but an attempt to make squad decisions with less improvisation. If the system takes hold as announced, every potential arrival should go through a joint assessment by the scouting network and analytical data.
A new department in the academy for the most talented players
Graf's second innovation concerns Hajduk's academy. It is introducing an Individual Development Department, conceived as a separate unit that will work with the most talented players. According to Graf's explanation, this group should include 16 to 20 footballers to whom the club will devote additional individual attention. The focus will be on the technical, tactical and physical aspects of the game, and the basic goal is to accelerate the transition from junior to senior football. In a club that traditionally attaches great importance to its own school, such a department should serve as a bridge between the academy and the first team.
The introduction of a special department for individual development shows that Hajduk wants to manage the most sensitive phase in a young player's career more systematically. The transition from junior to senior football is often a period in which talents lose continuity, especially if they are not immediately ready for the demands of the first team. The club therefore wants to create an environment in which progress will be measured through concrete tasks, not only through the number of appearances or a general impression. Graf announced work on several dimensions of the game, which suggests that development plans will include technique, understanding of the game, physical conditioning and adaptation to senior intensity. This reduces the risk that young players will be judged too early as insufficiently ready or that they will remain too long outside a clear development plan.
The context of this decision is also important because of Graf's biography. According to Hajduk's official announcement from April 2026, Graf was born on May 7, 1980 in Wrocław, and in his career he worked as a coach of the youth categories of Śląsk Wrocław, participated in development projects of the Polish Football Association and led the Lechia Gdańsk Academy. He first became sporting director in 2018 at Olimpia Grudziądz, after which he worked at Warta Poznań, Raków Częstochowa and ŁKS Łódź. Upon his arrival, Hajduk emphasized that at Warta he participated in the period of the club's return to the Ekstraklasa and its later fifth-place finish, while at Raków he was part of the sporting sector during the period of that club's greatest successes. Such a background explains why player development is one of the topics on which Graf has placed emphasis from the start of his mandate.
Special monitoring of loaned and dual-registered players
The third change concerns the introduction of a new role for a person who will be responsible for players on loans and dual-registered players. Graf explained that this person will handle the details related to all players who are outside the direct squad of the first team, but still belong to Hajduk's development system. According to him, the club wants to create a development path for such players with certain indicators they must reach. If it turns out that a player is not progressing in the intended direction, the plan should be adapted. In this way, a loan is no longer viewed only as a solution for playing minutes, but as part of a controlled development process.
This role is especially important for clubs that have a broad base of young players, but limited space in the first team. A player who goes out on loan often finds himself in an environment that has different priorities from his parent club. The club to which he has been loaned may seek an immediate result, while the parent club wants the development of certain abilities and preparation for a future return. Without constant communication and monitoring, a loan can easily be reduced to an administrative agreement in which it is not clear what the player needs to improve. Graf's model tries to solve precisely that problem: someone at the club should continuously monitor appearances, training sessions, minutes, role in the team and the fulfillment of set development indicators.
Such an approach can also be important for assessing when a player is ready to return to Hajduk and when he needs a new loan or a different competitive environment. According to Graf's explanation, the goal is not only supervision, but the creation of a clear development path. If this system is implemented consistently, the sporting sector could have better information before decisions on contract extensions, returns to the first team or outgoing transfers. For a club that wants to reduce risk in squad policy, this is just as important as finding reinforcements on the market. Loans then become an extended part of the sporting plan, not a separate process that is monitored only occasionally.
Preparations begin on Monday, Bled follows
Graf's organizational changes come at a time when the first team is preparing for the new season. According to Hajduk's official announcement, the team begins preparations at Poljud on June 15, 2026 under coach Gonzalo García and his coaching staff. In the first week, the players will train in Split, and on June 22 they travel to Bled, which will again be the base for the central part of preparations until July 1. The club announced that players who had national-team duties will begin preparations on June 18, while Bruno Durdov and Roko Gabrić will join after the end of their appearances with Croatia's U-19 national team at the European Championship in Wales. Three friendly matches have been arranged in Slovenia, and Hajduk announced the possibility of arranging another opponent.
The schedule of tests already provides the framework for what awaits García's team in the first part of the summer. Hajduk will play against Shkendija from North Macedonia on June 23, against Ukrainian side LNZ Cherkasy on June 27, and against Celje, the reigning champion of Slovenia, on July 1. These matches are important because they come before the start of official obligations and should show the coaching staff what condition the players are in, especially those fighting for a place in the squad. For the sporting director, such matches also have additional value because they can reveal where the team's greatest needs are. If scouting, analytics and the coaching staff work in a unified system, the preparation matches can also serve as a check of already defined player profiles.
According to the SuperSport HNL announcement, the new league season begins on August 1, 2026, and Hajduk visits Varaždin in the first round. The Croatian Football Federation announced that the schedule was determined after the draw of competition numbers at the Federation's headquarters and the application of Berger tables. In the first round, Rijeka and Rudeš, Dinamo and Slaven Belupo, Istra 1961 and Lokomotiva, and Gorica and Osijek also meet. For Hajduk, this means that the summer work will very quickly receive a competitive test away from Poljud. In such a calendar, there is little room for late corrections, so Graf's message about the need for faster, more precise and more coordinated work by the sporting sector gained additional weight.
Financial limitations and the goal of competitiveness
At the official presentation in April, President of the Management Board Ivan Bilić said that Hajduk's goals for the next season remain competitiveness, fighting for trophies in domestic competitions and entering the European group stage. At the same time, he emphasized that the financial situation is not ideal, which is an important context for all of Graf's moves. A sporting director in such an environment must connect ambition and reality, that is, seek solutions that do not depend only on large investments. That is precisely why the emphasis on data, scouting, the academy and loans has strategic importance. If the club cannot constantly buy ready-made players, it must make better use of its own base and choose opportunities on the market more precisely.
Graf himself also said at the presentation that he is not a magician and that the club will do the best it can. That statement was not a renunciation of ambition, but a warning that results cannot be built only through individual moves in the transfer window. Hajduk must have a clear picture of what profile of player it is looking for, which young players it wants to accelerate toward senior football and which loaned players it sees as realistic candidates for return. This shows the connection between the three announced changes. The merging of analytics and scouting should help with arrivals, the Individual Development Department should raise the value of the academy, and the new role for loans should prevent the loss of control over players who are developing outside Poljud.
An additional signal of such a direction also came through the arrival of Anđelo Šutalo, a 19-year-old midfielder who signed a contract until the summer of 2029. In its official announcement, Hajduk stated that Šutalo spent the past four years in Dinamo's academy, that last season he made 17 appearances and scored five goals for the junior team, and that he is a member of Croatia's U-19 national team. Graf said on that occasion that he is a young player who has shown quality, maturity and continuity, and that the club's task is to provide him with the appropriate environment and support. That message fits into the broader model that the sporting director is now announcing: young players will not be viewed only through potential, but through a concrete development plan and clear support.
Changes that will be measured by their effect on the pitch
The announced changes are currently an organizational framework, and their real value will be measured by results and player development. The merging of scouting and analytics will make sense if Hajduk finds players who quickly raise the quality of the team and at the same time do not burden the club's financial plan. The Individual Development Department will be successful if some of the most talented players move faster from the academy toward senior football. The role responsible for loans will carry weight if the club can assess more precisely who can return, who needs additional development, and for whom it is best to seek another solution. Graf presented the changes as three main things that are now being introduced, with the expectation that they will help better manage the development of young players.
For Hajduk, this process is also important because of the pressure of its surroundings. A club with a large fan base and high expectations can hardly sell a long-term project without results, but it can advance even less in the long term without an organized sporting system. Graf is therefore trying to establish a model that should simultaneously serve the first team, the academy and market policy. The first tests will come already during summer preparations, the transfer window and the start of the championship in Varaždin. Until then, the key questions will be how quickly the sporting sector can find players who match the new profiles, how much space young players will get and whether loans will become part of a clearer development chain. The answers to these questions will show whether the announced changes are only a reorganization on paper or the beginning of a different way of working at Hajduk.
Sources:
- HNK Hajduk Split – official presentation of sporting director Robert Graf and statements from the press conference (link)
- HNK Hajduk Split – official announcement on the arrival of Robert Graf and an overview of his career (link)
- Index Sport – interview in which Robert Graf presented three new organizational measures at Hajduk (link)
- HNK Hajduk Split – official plan for the start of preparations for the 2026/2027 season and the schedule of friendly matches (link)
- SuperSport HNL / Croatian Football Federation – draw of fixtures and schedule of the first round of the 2026/2027 season (link)
- HNK Hajduk Split – official announcement on the arrival of Anđelo Šutalo and Robert Graf's statement on the development of the young player (link)