Eric's Seagull
Full Member
As you say we have expanded the recruitment side, well why couldn't they find a better alternative than Longstaff in the summer.We have expanded and rebuilt the recruitment side completely over the last 5 years though. Including the youth setup.
It was severely neglected the last years under Gill and Sir Alex, something that both Moyes and LvG reacted on.
The club has tried to remedy it, and its probably one of the major reason that the club wants to keep faith in what its has been doing by promoting youth more than before even.
Still: one cant judge if that overhaul should be deemed a success or not for another couple of years.
The scouting and recruitment system focuses on players in their teens and maybe even lower. This takes time to settle and to be effective. A lot of the recruitment of younger players depends on our recruitment teams personal contact with those young players and their families. Which is where we were lagging behind Chelsea, City and others when Sir Alex left. Those relationships take time to build.
The recruitment for players immidiately destined for the first team will always pretty much be down to the manager, even if the heads of recruitment will have their inputs.
The idea that Woodward has any input here except for wage-budget concerns is still one of the most weird narratives ever. And somehow it seems to have been widely accepted.
As been said earlier in this thread, Wan-Bissaka and Maguire were always obvious targets for the first team.
As will Sancho and Maddison be next summer plus at least/hopefully two world class midfielders.
Here; the recruitment department will not have had a big final say, its probably been very clear for a long time which targets we have for nxt summer. And like Wan-Bissaka or Maguire it will be clear choices.
Then secondly it will be a financial question and if the player wants to come himself enough (see Dybala).
And thirdly; and maybe most essentially what we do if our first/second targets are not available for any of those reasons. Do we buy number 5 on the list like we did with Fred just to buy someone during that window or do we sit still in the boat and wait for our primary targets, like we seem to have done last summer?
The last question is extremely important and not an easy one to answer.
I tend to believe OGS and Woodward when they indicate that they rather will put faith in youth until the right player is available. They might have overdone it last summer, especially in midfield where it would have been a good idea IMO to bring in at least one "lower-ranked" player or why not a Matuidi to bridge the gap. I dont buy at all that this was due to financial constraints.
Would really love the first part in bold to happen but doubt we would even fork out that type of outlay even if these players became available.
I totally agree with you on the second part in bold. As I can't see us forking out significant money in the summer maybe it would be a good idea to look at some of the younger players who performing well in lower leagues and they to purchase them at a decent price before someone else buys them then we attempt to buy them later on and pay ludicrous wages.