In an open and honest interview, Jez George gave the Stacey West an exclusive insight into the potential Lincoln City summer transfer strategy.
The Imps are striding into unknown territory, with a strong squad needing to be complemented by some new signings. On the site, we’ve been looking at possible free agents, but a recent report suggested we may have bid around £1m for Barney Stewart.
It appears that paying a significant transfer fee could be something that happens this season, and not just once. Indeed, Jez mentioned that the transfer record may be broken ‘multiple times’ as we plot a way to stay in the second tier.
That starts with backing from the board, which Jez acknowledged, before explaining how we’re looking to recruit.
“What Ron (Fowler) has done is give us a real fighting chance by helping us not just with the level of the budget, but definitely the level of transfer fees that we’re going to be able to pay this summer,” he said.
“That will probably surprise some people, what the level of the transfer fees are that we’ll pay.”
Jez was eager to make the distinction between a transfer fee and wages. Paying a big fee is bringing in an asset that, if it works out, can be sold for much more, while paying big wages can saddle a club with a payment that needs servicing, even in the event of relegation. That makes a transfer fee something that can see returns realised.
“That’s an investment, not a cost,” added Jez. “And there’s a big, big difference to that. So for us, it’s like it’s twofold, this spend on players. There are costs that you embed and build into your football club that don’t go away because those contracts are three, four, five years potentially.
“We have to be cognizant of what happens if the worst thing happens, and what does that look like?
“So that is where we have to be super, super careful, responsible, and as much as we want to do everything we can to be competitive in the next league, we have to also guard the future. Transfer fees are where we have to back our judgment, and we have to see those as an investment.”
He went on to give smaller-scale examples of that by citing the case of Jack Moylan and Rob Street. It’s hard to put a cost on the Magic Man after his Ireland exploits, but £5m would seem to be ballpark, while Rob Street was the subject of a £1m bid last summer.
“You’ll have your idea what Jack Moylan’s worth now, right? But we signed him for €60,000. Now, we signed him at a point no one knew how good he was, and we took our chance.
“Rob Street, we signed probably at the lowest point of his curve in terms of playing in a team that got relegated, being injured, tough season, and we signed him for £60,000. You’ll probably know what he’s worth last summer because we turned down an offer for him.
“My point being is that even though those were small numbers, we started to back our judgment when no one was clamouring for those players.”
All this talk of spending has some supporters wondering if this summer will see our club record purchase bettered. There is some debate as to whether Ivan Varfolomeev, at around £400,000, is our record purchase, or Ireland international Josh Honohan, but either way, the figure is likely to be under the £500,000 mark.
Does Jez foresee the club’s record transfer fee being broken this summer?
“Yeah, foresee club record transfer fees by significant distance probably broken multiple times, if we get what we want,” he added.
“So at the moment, that is what we’re doing, we are pursuing players that we think are ready to play, match what we need and want in terms of their attributes, their character and have huge exponential future value.”
It certainly feels like the club is keen to invest in assets, as well as give themselves every chance of staying in the Championship, after the long and challenging road to get there.
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