Inside Chur’s Winter Recruitment Thinking

As Chur step into the 2033 winter transfer window, activity has come early and with intent. Sitting in the top half of the Dieci Challenge League, the club are no longer operating in survival mode, but neither are they free of constraint. Every decision remains shaped by scale, budget and identity. In a rare, extended conversation, club president Simon Hofer offered an unusually clear window into how Chur are attempting to bridge ambition and reality, and why recruitment has become the club’s most important competitive weapon.

“We’ve changed how we work,” Hofer explains. “We have three scouts at the club now, which might not sound like much, but for Chur it’s a huge step. It’s allowed us to branch out properly into France and Germany rather than relying on opportunistic deals or agent-led suggestions.” That geographical focus is not accidental. “French and German are spoken languages here, alongside Romansch. For us, building a shared language and culture matters. It’s not just about what a player can do on the pitch, but how quickly they can integrate into the group.”

That cultural logic dovetails neatly with Iñaki Arriola’s increasingly data-led recruitment vision. Hofer is candid about how the manager shapes the process. “Inaki identifies the leagues. He tells us where he thinks we should go, and then we work backwards from there. The second tiers in Germany and France are fully professional, and so is most of the third tier. Wages are high, and it’s extremely hard to attract a player to drop down to part-time football. So we’ve had to be creative and look a little lower.”

Looking lower, however, comes with its own risks. “We accept that data from fourth-tier clubs can be misleading,” Hofer says, without hesitation. “That’s why we’re ruthless. We don’t just look once. We watch players repeatedly, we share video across the scouting team, and we challenge each other’s views. Numbers start the conversation, they don’t end it.” That methodology was refined in the summer, when Chur’s statistical groundwork underpinned the arrivals of David Jacovic, Brian Farinas and Brandon Soppy – three players who have contributed well so far this season. “Those deals gave us confidence,” Hofer notes. “Now we have greater scope to look further and wider.”

Yet recruitment at Chur is inseparable from sales. With the smallest budget and one of the lowest attendances in the division, sustainability is non-negotiable. “We are aware that we need to keep making sales to grow,” Hofer admits. “We rely on prize money and careful trading. Realistic sales have to be considered. I know that’s not always easy for the fans, but we’ve always promised that when we sell, we reinvest when we can.”

That reality was underlined by the departure of Adriano Onyegbule, who left for Luzern in a straight, cash-up-front €240,000 deal after twelve months at the club. The move was emotive but inevitable. “Selling Adriano was tough, but it made clear sense,” Hofer says. “His wage demands were four times what we could afford. He made it clear that he wanted to play at a higher level, and he deserves another shot in the top tier. We wish him well.” Hofer is also frank about the inherent risk. “When you sign a player who has played at the top and dropped down to restart their career, there’s always a chance you’ll lose them again once they rediscover form.”

Chur’s response was not to like-for-like replace Onyegbule, but to reframe the profile entirely. Xabier Iriondo arrived from Orléans in French National 2 for just €24,000, a fraction of the outgoing fee. French and Basque, Iriondo fits neatly into the club’s linguistic and cultural framework, but it is his physical profile that excites Arriola’s staff. A tall, ball-carrying winger with six goal contributions in fourteen league games this season, he offers verticality and presence rather than pure finesse. “Xabier is exciting,” Hofer says. “He’s a similar profile in terms of impact, but at ten percent of the cost.”

There is a deeper personal thread, too. Iriondo emerged from the Gernika youth system, a name Arriola recognised from his time in the Basque football ecosystem. “Inaki was aware of him,” Hofer explains. “He hadn’t reached scholar level when Inaki was there, but that familiarity helps. It’s not nostalgia, it’s context.”

The same applies to Iker Huerte, signed from Toulon in French National 2 for just €5,000. Another French-Basque profile born in Bilbao, Huete is a physically robust striker shaped by the Tudelano youth system, with two seasons of third-tier experience behind him. He is not a prolific scorer, never surpassing ten goals in a season, but that is not what Chur are buying. Huete’s value lies in his ability to apply intense pressure from the front, to work channels and to fit into Arriola’s collective pressing schemes rather than define them.

“We want options,” Hofer says, returning to the broader philosophy. “Inaki is a master tactician, and I want to back him with the opportunity to use that. That means different profiles, different tools, and a squad that can evolve.” He is also clear-eyed about turnover. “We will continue to move players on if the price is right and we can sufficiently replace them. There has been significant change, but that’s because there has been significant growth. The signings we make now are with a long-term focus in mind.”

In an era where recruitment is often framed as either data-driven or romantic, Chur are quietly carving out a third way. Shared language, cultural alignment, relentless video and analyst work and hard financial truths sit alongside tactical foresight and statistical modelling. It is not glamorous, and it is rarely comfortable, but as Chur consolidate their place in the Challenge League, it is increasingly clear that their sharpest edge lies not in the transfer fee they pay, but in the thinking that comes before it.