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Recruitment strategy

edited July 2022 in Football

There's been some moaning on here from the usual suspects about who we're bringing in, but none of them have actually explained what they think our recruitment strategy should actually be, and how it should be paid for.

As I understand our current strategy, we're looking for the diamonds in the rough - young raw players with good skills and the right attitude - that we can bring through the development squad, nurture into 1st team regulars and sell on at a sizeable profit. The benefits to this are, I would have thought, blindingly obvious: Anis Mehmeti - picked up from non-league Woodford for nothing - was the envy of most teams in the division last season and quite a few from the division above. When he eventually moves on, I'd expect him to go for a club record fee. You only need to find one of those every other season to make the club profitable and sustainable and ensure that our kids will have a club to support and bring their kids to.

So, if you're one of those whining about signings, I'd love to hear what you think the clubs recruitment strategy should be and how it should be paid for.

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Comments

  • I thought @Wanderers82 and @trevor had very succinctly explained why our recruitment strategy was shyte @drcongo!

  • But failed to explain what it should be and how that should be paid for.

  • LACK OF AMBITION

  • ...which we were all expecting, of course.

    This is all shite! Ainsworth has no idea

    Why?

    You are all sheep. Don't want to hear another view. I know things

    What?

    This is all crap.

    You just seem to post pointless negative things to wind people up.

    Stop cyberbullying me!

  • DCFC had ambition, Portsmouth had ambition, Bolton had ambition all with much bigger fan bases than us. Bury had ambition with a similar fanbase

  • I've just realised that I've given this thread a title of two words that are both a bit too long for our resident moaners to understand so they're probably never going to respond.

  • edited July 2022

    Brentford had a similar lack of ambition. Look what a pickle they have found themselves in. Cautionary tale.

  • I followed the link to the Cambridge managers comments about the forward we were allegedly interested in.

    i tried (but failed) to copy and paste it yesterday as it struck me reading it how the poor Trevor’s of Cambridge must feel having to support a club that tries to run itself properly.

  • So far the development squad has a good record - two first team players in two years. If that can be sustained, with a few of them subsequently attracting six or seven figure transfers, then the approach looks to be justified.

    I would be interested to know how much we need to generate in player sales for the development squad to wash its face. My guess would be circa £1m a year. Although of course that doesn’t factor in the benefit of actually having those players in the team as well.

  • I don't think anyone doubts that it's a good policy to develop players and then sell them on. It's why most clubs still have a youth set up and reintroducing a semblance of that through the development squad is uncontroversial. But we can't just rely on development players and loans. Which is why we signed Sam Vokes last season on what I assume are significant weekly wages. And for those arguing that it's better to sign young rough diamonds than journeymen, do you really think we'd be more successful with a squad full of players like Andre Burley, Jean-Baptiste Fischer, Malachi Linton, Olly Pendlebury, Adam Przybek and Max Ram then we would be with a squad featuring the likes of Jack Grimmer, David Wheeler, Ryan Tafazolli, Joe Jacobson etc etc?

  • @aloysius No-one is suggesting a team of ONLY youth players or journeyman are they? Surely adding youth to the experience core we have already is not a bad thing...and we might get a surprise. The fact is the window is not yet closed, Vokes was signed late...and some people who seem to have the memories of goldfish or have never experienced an Ainsworth transfer window are already deciding we are doomed as nobody (small child or OAP) they recognise has signed with the first game two weeks away. It may be the management (and the open letter writing owner) believe we have enough quality to start the season with...if that's the case, I can go with that. If it isn't we can look forward to a season of certain posters hogging the match day threads.

  • @Wendoverman maybe I misunderstood @drcongo's original post - but if we're all on the same page that we need a combination of youth and experience, which I would hope we would be, then I'm not entirely certain what the point of this thread is!

  • @aloysius you want a point for a Gasroom thread? 🙄

    I think he was describing for some of our more hard of understanding viewers the reason why he feels we sign young players they seem to feel are not up to it and therefore we show a lack of ambition.

    Don't think he was suggesting GA and Co have stopped looking for any players older than 25.

  • What are you basing those costs on?

    It's basically having a bunch of about 12 youngsters under a coach training where the rest of the guys do, rather than the old centre for excellence specialist unit, many kids per age group, many coaches etc?

    1m would be 20 people at 50k salary.

    Not sure we are paying development players 1k a week, and we never have as many as 20 anyway?

  • Yes, I did wonder when one poster said he'd always prefer to have a youth with potential over someone with 5 or 6 clubs.

    Yes, if it's Mehmeti or Forino over a Parker.

    But no if it's most of the rest of them over the players you mention!

  • My only concern about a development squad is lack of game time. Is there reserve leagues anymore. I used to enjoy a reserve game in an empty stadium on a cold November evening. Especially when I had misread the sign outside Loakes Park and genuinely thought I was going to see Wycombe v Crystal Palace for example.

  • Do any other clubs in our league have development squads like we do? I know Fleetwood do...

  • such a lazy comparison.....how shout where it has worked ? Brentford, Bournemouth, Millwall, Luton ect

  • @Malone that might have been me...I may have not expressed myself as well I might...my point was if the choice was between someone young with potential and a signing 'because we have to' of a 'proven at this level' journeyman in the window to stop the moaners I would prefer the money went on a player to develop. Not meant as an attack on our transfer policy as I am pretty sure Gareth and Dobbo would not just sign a player of any vintage because they felt they had to...and we've seen that old gits rejected by other clubs come good at Adams Park.

  • were bayo, Hayes , Stocko , GA not journeymen ? they turned out well ?

  • I understand.

    You want a good young player over a non good older player. Can't disagree with that. 😋

  • Gareth has recently reiterated that he believes that Forino will play in the top flight in the not too distant future and that two or three of our players will ‘earn this club a lot of money one day’. If we can get one or two graduates from the development squad every season then it’s a fantastic model for us to operate under.

    I think it’s also a good thing to shout about that we have players who have left the club from our development squad and gone to other teams in the pyramid. These are players who may not have made it in the game had they not come to Wycombe, and whilst they may not have made the first team squad, they now have a chance to shine elsewhere.

    For me, that can only benefit us in the future in terms of attracting talent to the club.

  • As I said, it’s a guess.

    But it also isn’t just the cost of salaries that needs to be factored in. There’s medical costs, catering, the costs of recruiting them in the first place, travel, equipment, insurance, pensions and other benefits. Employing people costs a lot more than just the pay you give them.

  • MK Dons sign Will Grigg ....we sign players from Brockhurst....says it all haha

  • Still waiting for you to explain the business model behind your deluded moaning.

  • Once we get one or two players moving on for big money, the ball will start rolling.

    this is something the franchise have started to get going, much to my disgust.

    if Mehmeti and Forino play a blinder this year, they’ll be moving on for big money and then others may follow suit.

    Football is a little odd like that, once there is a feeling certain clubs produce amazing players then some of the big clubs will pay the money. Exeter have done well out of that over the last 15 years..

  • It really does need just one development player to work out every year and we are quids in. This is too simplistic, but just by way of example:

    2022/23: Mehmeti and Forino both continue to develop. Pattenden becomes the new development gem of the year.

    2023/24: Mehmeti sells for $1 mill to a Championship club with sell-on clause before the start of the season. Player A becomes the new gem.

    2024/25: Forino sells for $1 mill to a Championship club with sell-on clause before the start of the season. Player B becomes the new gem.

    2025/26: Pattenden sells for $1 mill to a Championship club with sell-on clause before the start of the season. Mehmeti is sold to a PL club and we get a hefty chunk of the fee owing to the sell-on clause. Player C becomes the new gem.

    2026/27: Player A sells for $1 mill to a Championship club with sell-on clause before the start of the season. Forino is sold to a PL club and we get a hefty chunk of the fee owing to the sell-on clause. Player D becomes the new gem.

    Again, massively simplistic, but in an ideal world we not only reap the transfer fees for the Mehmetis and Forinos of the world after they have helped us stay upwardly mobile during their tenure with us, but sell-on fees kick in further down the road and we are getting larger chunks from those too.

    It will not be that linear, but it looks like a strategy to me, especially if you have the management in place to identify and hone young talent. It does not preclude getting someone like a Vokes in the door either - in fact, potentially makes it easier if we stay relevant and get chunks of cash in the door.

  • The other model being to get promoted, stay up in the tricky first season and then establish yourself at the new level *other clubs at your new level may have been working on the Wanderers82 model of righteous ambition for a number of years and be gaming the system to your detriment in order to kick the can of Damocles just a bit further down the road.

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