close season happenings

I'm pleased to see that after years of neglect there is a proper scouting system in place. I've only met Mark Lawn on one occasion shortly after he became a joint chairman.

When I asked him if City had a scouting system his reply was that there were just a couple of people who used to watch matches for the club on an ad-hoc basis. As Stuart wanted a system ML(at some expense-quote) brought in an internet agency, used then by teams such as Bolton, which sent match reports to clubs. Well that and the flirtation with the Belgian agency didn't work did it?

After the debacle with Taylor's pre-season tour of his old mates in Essex and signing players such as Doherty ,whose home is 4 hours from Valley Parade I look forward to Jacko creating a team of northern players with a want to win not fear of losing attitude.

With pre-season training just a week away the next few days should see transfer developments.

Hopefully the new scout will have some irons in the fire already and we'll see them next week or in the coming weeks. As we lose the better youth players to the bigger clubs, Cleverly, Wisdom and Delph spring immediately to mind hopefully we'll be seen as the place to come for the next level of player.