Sky Sports' Johnny Phillips: Recruitment is everything for a football club
When Sunderland visit Molineux today, sitting at the foot of the table, it will bring into focus the topic of recruitment.
It may seem an obvious statement, but recruitment is everything in football. Managers and coaches can only do so much. Ultimately it comes down to players.
Sunderland, seemingly on an unstoppable downward spiral, could well be on the same journey that Wolves took several years ago.
It was not so long ago that some disastrous recruitment at Molineux sealed a sorry end to Mick McCarthy’s time at the helm and set the club on an embarrassing drop down two divisions to the third tier of English football.
Aside from sorting out the players he has right now, one of new manager Chris Coleman’s first jobs at the Stadium of Light should be sorting out the club’s recruitment policy, which over the past decade has borne all the precision of a pin the tail on the donkey game at a kids’ party.
It can all be traced back to the 2007/08 season with a £40million net splurge under manager Roy Keane for their first season back in the Premier League, which included a £9m outlay on Scottish goalkeeper Craig Gordon. He was released on a free transfer five years later.
Only once in the 10 years since then did Sunderland turn in a transfer profit, until last summer when Jordan Pickford left for Everton.
There have been countless signings that typified the waste on Wearside.
David Moyes’ relegation season will take some beating though, when the £35m spent got them Papy Djilobodji, Donald Love, Paddy McNair, Didier N’Dong, Darron Gibson and Bryan Oviedo.
It is not just the money. The type of player arriving sent out a terrible message to supporters, who felt a disconnect with the men wearing the shirt.
Journeymen on a pay packet, veterans over the hill and, in the case of Adam Johnson – a £10m recruit in 2012 – bad eggs.
Coleman places huge importance on the type of person as well as the type of player he is working with. It is a major part of the process.
Trouble-makers, no matter how talented, can destabilise everything.
Years of disjointed thinking and no continuity in recruitment have led to Sunderland’s current predicament. There are few who would envy the job Coleman has on his hands.
Looking back at McCarthy’s era, a time where the recruitment process had its ups and downs, the early success can be put down to the manager’s ability to get the most from his players and a team spirit that ran through the club.
McCarthy should always be admired for the job he did in reviving a club stagnating under Glenn Hoddle. Some lower-league diamonds were unearthed. Stephen Ward, Michael Kightly, Matt Jarvis, Andy Keogh, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Matt Jarvis went on to have decent careers without pulling up any trees.
It is testament to McCarthy’s management that – with the exception of Ward, who still thrives at Premier league level – their best days were at Molineux.
It was only when Wolves were forced to spend relatively large sums that the recruitment process was shown up. In the end, neither McCarthy nor his technical team could identify enough talent to keep Wolves in the Premier League.
Two disastrous gambles put paid to any hopes of staying up while simultaneously destabilising the spirit in the camp.
Roger Johnson now players for National League side Bromley. Jamie O’Hara is with Isthmian League side Billericay Town. Five years ago they were Premier League footballers and, at 34 and 31 years old respectively, the decline has been alarming.
Their arrivals in the summer of 2011 – Johnson for £7m and O’Hara for £5m – were supposed to underpin survival. On big money, which irked many of those responsible for getting Wolves to the Premier League, their time at Molineux was characterised by poor performances and off-field unrest.
Johnson turned up to training the worse for wear after a 5-0 defeat at Fulham and with the club fighting for its survival, only to be sent home by caretaker manager Terry Connor.
O’Hara got into regular disputes with supporters questioning his work ethic and celebrity lifestyle. The pair came to epitomise everything that went wrong towards the end of McCarthy’s time at the club.
The modern-day proliferation of sporting directors, football administrators, development officers and their ilk is all aimed at getting the best structure in place to make recruitment a success. It will be interesting to observe Wolves going forward after a hugely successful transfer policy last summer.
When speaking to Jeff Shi during filming of a Sky Sports documentary, he was clear about the commitment.
“The strategy for the club is that we are trying to find young players,” he explained.
“From the investment perspective, we can see the potential, help them grow up and then see the benefit. A young and hungry, talented squad is our philosophy.”
Signing players whose value will increase is key to this. With Jorge Mendes involved, it is clear that Wolves will be a stepping stone for many, unless the club grows at such a pace that it becomes a more attractive long-term destination. But it is more likely there will be a fluid approach to recruitment with movement in and out of the club.
It has the potential to be a more sustainable model so long as those charged with recruitment have a competitive edge.
As we have seen with recent history at Wolves and their visitors from Wearside, when the recruitment policy is muddled the whole club suffers.
