BARRY Hunter might have been forgiven for pleading pressing work commitments last month, rather than attending the 40th anniversary dinner of SuperCup NI.
However, his attachment to the tournament formerly known as the NI Milk Cup, and the benefits he feels it can bring to young players, ensured Liverpool FC's chief scout came over to Belfast despite hectic activity on the transfer front.
At that time, the Reds were moving to secure the services of Hungary captain Dominik Szoboszlai, so in-between media duties Hunter was fielding calls from Mike Gordon, president of Liverpool's owners FSG.
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Coleraine man Hunter's remit reaches from that top level down to the underage ranks.
Liverpool are back at the SuperCup, fielding a team in the four-team Elite event, alongside arch-rivals Manchester United, German club Hertha Berlin, and Spanish side Valencia, who are the Anfield Reds' first opponents, at the Ballymena Showgrounds on Monday evening (7.45pm).
"It was important that our guys came back this year," said the 54-year-old. "It's always a showcase game. The crowds always turn up, the pressure is always on.
"The lads go away with a story about Portrush, Portstewart, ice cream – they don't quite get the dulse…
"There's the pressure of what it is to wear the Liverpool shirt, even at a young age. People travel from all over to come and watch. It gives them an early idea, if they don't already have it, of what that's like."
Indeed facing those three opponents might in some ways be less testing than some of LFC's previous matches here: "I remember when Trent [Alexander-Arnold] was in the team and County Antrim beat them – it was unbelievable, the scenes! It was frightening.
"They're used to that target on the back, coming through the Academy. Academy Director Alex Inglethorpe does keep their feet on the ground, Nick Marshall, Matt Newberry. It's about good people around them.
"You have to have drive, be resilient, be able to handle bumps on the road. Most players have had a difficult time, whether it's injury or not being in the team, or difficult circumstances."
Hunter's own experiences at the inaugural Milk Cup in 1983, and subsequent tournaments, helped him to a professional career, mostly with Wrexham and Reading, and to 14 international caps with Northern Ireland in the late Nineties.
"It was a start for me. Played in the first three editions, got to the final. In those days you played two games in a day and went home. Because some of our lads were from Limavady and further afield they'd just crash at our house.
"It was just 'patch yourself up and play'. By the time we got to the final, played Motherwell, they were here as a pro unit and we just managed to get here all bandaged and taped up.
"It was magical. You got to meet lads from outside the area that you wouldn't have come across, cross-community, which was important.
"Subsequently, when you meet people in England and you mention Milk Cup or Super Cup, straightaway they identity with it – 'Oh, I played in that'.
"Obviously my dad [former NI goalkeeper Victor] was heavily involved in it, a lot of other characters: George Logan, Victor Leonard… Magic times, good fun."
Hunter ended his playing days at Rushden & Diamonds, then moved into coaching and management there, before becoming a senior scout at then Premier League Blackburn Rovers in 2006.
Via Norwich City, then Manchester City, he has been chief scout at Liverpool for more than a decade.
"I did coach, managed briefly, then someone asked me to go watch some players for them and it sort of developed from there. This was really when scouting was the last department to be modernised… It was still very much scraps of paper, that old traditional view.
"You still read a lot of simplistic ideas about how it really works that are so far off the mark.
"It's more than that. It's a really important department of the club. There's savings you can make. It was being modernised and it's really grown. Now, obviously, the platforms we use are data-driven, data-led, as well as all the other bits and pieces. It's totally changed in 15, 16 years."
The old school of a talent-spotter is largely gone, as Hunter points out: "It's not about one person. People who talk about 'I found him' – it doesn't really work like that. These players are in front of everybody.
"It's more: Does he fit? Does he suit? Can you afford him? Is he available? It involves a team of people.
"There are three aspects to it: live viewing, video, and data. They all complement each other.
"But you still need the soft stuff, particularly for us: what type of character is he? Does he fit in? What's his lifestyle like? You need to have that information. Of course you need to see him live, 100 per cent that applies."
However, going in disguise might still be required, although Hunter says that's pointless for the likes of Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp:
"Unlike in the past the manager doesn't go out – because he can't, he's obviously well recognisable. He also doesn't have the time.
"He's just a normal guy. It's a big name, but it's about the people. It doesn't matter whether it's Linfield, Coleraine, Rangers, Celtic, Man United, Liverpool – it's the people behind the name and he's very much part of that. He is as he comes across, a very straight guy.
"We have a group of people all around the world and it's a filtering up system; they just filter up information and then we're able to decide.
"There's two parts: the ID part and then there's the recruitment. This is more recruitment time.
"Ultimately the manager makes the decision. You just need to provide as much information to him, your opinion, as well as to the ownership, in terms of budget, availability, and all those bits and pieces."
Hunter isn't the only NI man at Anfield, as he points out: "At Academy level, for younger players, it [scouting] is a little bit more difficult. It's a bit more of a gamble.
"We have a guy Matt Newberry, from here, from Bangor, who heads that up for us, a great guy. We've quite a wee Northern Ireland contingent in the club now, which is good."
Yet the likes of Tyrone lad Conor Bradley, who has returned to Liverpool for this season after a successful loan spell at Bolton Wanderers last term, still has to prove himself, despite the presence of those fellow Ulstermen, insists Hunter:
"The world has opened up for everybody. It's been closed again, certainly for Academy recruitment, since Brexit, but wherever players are – it doesn't matter where they're from, really.
"It's difficult because the level has become so much higher. Then again, the level here [in NI] is higher, so you can maybe drop into the EFL [English Football League]. There's always somewhere for everybody, in that respect."
Bradley is a fine example for those hoping to step up from the SuperCupNI to the Premier League.
As the tournament enters its fifth decade, the production line will roll again this week.
See supercupni.com for fixtures and other information.
