Club thinks ahead over recruitment

The changeover from Neil Warnock to Alan Stubbs last year was not completed until the end of May and left the club playing catch-up in the transfer market.

With Paul Warne only holding the reins on a temporary basis, a similar situation could potentially play out this summer.

The difference this time, according to chief operating officer Paul Douglas, is the arrival of a new head of recruitment in Jamie Johnson.

His presence will take the workload off managers – the type Stubbs and others have had to shoulder – and targets will have been identified and groundwork done whoever is in charge.

Douglas told the Advertiser: “In an ideal world, we want to avoid the situation we had last season where the summer was disrupted by managerial changes and did contribute towards some of the problems we've had this year.

“It's a big advantage having a head of recruitment. Not having one has been a key deficiency because we didn't have anybody dedicating themselves to talent identification and the type we feel we need to make us a better team.

“There are very few managers who have the time, the networks and the contacts to have an effective recruitment strategy. There is research that goes into that but for us it was not thorough enough.

“We want a situation where, when we sign a player, proper due diligence has gone in and there is a profile for the type of player we're looking at in the first place.”

Johnson served as Brighton and Hove Albion's European scouting manager for two years and has worked with Derby, Spurs and Sunderland.

Added Douglas: “To be fair, Jamie came in at the back end of December and the full benefit of him will be seen in the summer when he's had the time to work with his team to pull some names together.”