Long post, I’m bored of doing endless client edits on a report.
I don’t think we should worry about our recruitment, and being competitive in that particular arena because the recruitment process seems to have worked mostly over the last two years, and we have a fairly strong squad of players already here. Whoever we bring in has to be better than we already have or is a backup to what we already have with a view to future development.
We no longer have the methodology of waiting until the season starts when there is apparently a plethora of out of work players looking for 90 quid a week.
But what about every other championship team.
Birmingham – absolute basket case of a club at the moment, in the middle of what seems to be a very dodgy takeover , half opened ground – no manager / head coach - recruitment pretty much non-existent. They were lucky last year to not go down it will take a lot of luck again this year to stay up.
Blackburn – the perennial under achievers maybe; with wealthy owners who have a decidedly strange way of running the club which has led to 8 years of mediocrity. A new manager might be the answer, but he will have to be backed not necessarily financially but he will need time to get his methods across, and if Blackburn have a lacklustre start and the fans get on him then the board will probably respond as they always do, in a reactionary and destructive way.
Bristol City - an also ran club, they should be a biggish club they have the population and the attendances, and maybe even the history but they are the footballing equivalent of Meh!! Can they attract players and coaches and keep them, no more I think than Blackpool can.
Burnley – solid structure and several years in the PL but new owners seems to have damaged what was a very well run football club. Can probably pay more for players, but the nature of the owners is that they HAVE to get back to the PL as quickly as possible. Kompany for me is the wild card - very good player, but possibly unproven as a head coach / manager and if they don’t start well you could see the owners making snap judgements.
Cardiff – another club with impatient owners likely to make snap decisions again they might be able to pay for pricier players but they seem not to have any long term plan beyond getting to the PL, and reaping the financial reward.
Coventry – having come out of a crisis they now seem a reasonably well run club with good support. They do have financial limitations and they have some legacy issues to overcome, and again do they have resources better than blackpool – I don’t think so.
Huddersfield – make or break this season if they don’t get promotion and not exactly a stable club in terms of its ownership. Can make more expensive signings but the risk factor if they don’t go up is fairly large, I would say they have a slight advantage because of parachute payments but it isn’t much and again I would say long term planning would tell me they will be more conservative.
Hull – another basket case club, did reasonably well in the second half of the season but their problems are not going to go away anytime soon. They might make one or even two high profile signings but they will have a weak squad in general.
Luton – decently run club punching well above their weight, very good head coach who attracts a lot of players, whether they can repeat last seasons efforts and also keep the coach who might be the key to their current success is anyone’s guess. Again I would say they are in a similar position to Blackpool with regards attracting talent – the manager is probably key
Middlesbrough – Meh, blah blah, blah blah blah, blah bah. I have nothing to say about middlesborough they are like Bristol city only more Meh, Run of the mill, and again I can’t see why they are in any better of a position recruitment wise.
Millwall – nobody likes us and we don’t care. They are a mid-table side with a small fan base. They simply exist, what history they have is largely negative, and they have no culture of good football again recruitment is second tier at best.
Norwich – better known for pies rather than football. They will probably do well this year, but last year they were truly awful for the simple reason they had a championship quality squad. Outside of the parachute payments, which they seem unwilling to spend, meaning they have a rank average recruitment capability. The need for players to have a tractor license might place some additional restrictions on recruitment
Preston – Broken – mostly exist to amuse those of a tangerine tinted persuasion, and secondarily exist to amuse fans of burnley, blackburn, Bolton and probably Fleetwood. Apart from the place itself (a city my arse), there is a nasty smell around the club, which is demonstrated very aptly by a big fat boo.
QPR – should be up there at the top of the champ, but the reality is they are a second string London club with all the issues of a second string London club. They might periodically ascend the consciousness rankings but it is fleeting and its not as though they have owners who are particularly stable either. Like most London clubs the fans and the owners seem to think they are special. They aren’t
Reading – basket case club, and they have made it significantly worse by appointing Paul Ince as manager. Reading is a proper shithole with no redeeming features at all and the club is much the same, why would you go there unless you had no-where else to go.
Rotherham – coming up from L1 they will be concerned with survival. Small club, its really a suburb of Sheffield, but the owners are building the club in the right way. Definitely less recruitment capability than Pool.
Sheff Utd – have built a good squad and with PL money and a large fan base can outbid many in the champ. But again they HAVE to succeed this year, so the pressure on players and the recruitment process might be more conservative with the potential of not gaining promotion.
Stoke – if I was a player who was overrated, or had one specific talent, then stoke is where I would go. They would pay me handsomely to play in a team that largely plays kick and rush and percentages. Even if they did outbid us whoever they did recruit would be shit because of the way they play.
Sunderland – unstable ownership, passionate but equally unstable fans, player management that borders on the schizophrenic (loaning what would have been their best player to a rival is one example), the fans and the owners are deluded into thinking they have entitlement to the top tiers of football, and I think players that join them take on that mentality. They will outbid for many players in comparison to many in the champ but will still do very little.
Swansea - play good football usually, but again another club where ownership is an issue, the fans aren’t happy, and assuming players and their agents talk then recruitment might be an issue for them – certainly they don’t have millions to splash around.
Watford – seriously dodgy owners, will pay handsomely or find other ways to recruit in ways that other champs clubs probably cannot or will not. they will spend to get back to the PL. when they don’t they will probably be on the big slide to full basket case and receivership.
West Brom – another club with dodgy owners who seem to have something of the Oyston about them, The club is a financial vehicle for them. PL status an absolute must and in Steve Bruce they have what is the most Meh manager / head coach in the division
Wigan – just come up don’t have the finances to really recruit at champs level.
In reality I think there are maybe 5 or six clubs who can out-recruit Pool when you factor in a combination of finance, structure etc. There is a biggish pool of clubs who are more or less on a par with us give or take twenty percent or so. Then it comes down to manager, the football etc.
There are at least 6 clubs who are significantly financially worse off than Blackpool.
A majority of clubs in the division have some level of dodgyness to the owners which we don’t and we have a plan for the future which at least seems to be about more than just getting to the PL for the money.
My one concern if I have one is whether MA has the draw for loanee players.
I might be completely wrong of course – which I often am.
