5. Given how well we’ve recruited on a budget below many of our peers, could a guaranteed £150 million in television money give us a better chance of sustained survival in the Premier League than in the Championship, without bankrupting Ron?
I wish we’d answered this on the night, because what a question it is! The problem is that while we’d have that guaranteed money, the teams around us could still go out and buy significantly better players than we could. The level always shifts, and you’d expect us still to be near the bottom of the budget table.
I see the point, though. We’ve done so much good recruitment that perhaps doesn’t get noticed as much because people don’t see budget tables. If every club’s budget position appeared in brackets next to them in the league table, people would look at us and say, “Fair play, Lincoln, they’re doing well.”
Instead, people see Lincoln and assume we’re one of the clubs near the bottom. In League One, they probably wouldn’t even have seen us like that because we’d spent all but one of our seasons around the top 10, 11 or 12. We were probably viewed as an established club around that level, even though our budget wasn’t.
Could we spend £150 million more wisely than some of the teams around us? It would be a huge step up for our recruitment, and you’d expect Jez to need more help. He might need an assistant, and our scouting operation would have to grow.
Our ability to spot diamonds would still be there, but would the Premier League be more unforgiving while those players developed? Ivan Varfolomeev took six months to settle into the side and become a key player. Andrei Coubis has come straight in, but Mikkel Ladefoged, Chiedozie Ogbene and Yunus Konak are taking a little longer to settle.
Would the fear of dropping out of the Premier League make us less willing to give those players time? I don’t know. I think we’ve given ourselves a great chance of staying in the Championship with the way we’re playing, and surviving the first season should make it easier to recruit the following summer.
We might not automatically be seen as relegation fodder. We could say to players, “Everybody thought we were going down last season, but we didn’t, and we’re not doing it this season.” That might make them more willing to come.
We’d have to increase wages each season as well, and parachute payments would potentially give us more room there. Wages are the stumbling block. We’ve paid transfer fees this summer that one or two clubs might not have been able to afford, but those clubs are willing to roll the dice on wages in a way we aren’t.
In the eyes of the layman, Lincoln City are likely to go down. If that happens while you’re carrying £10,000-a-week contracts, you can quickly find yourself back in League One trying to trim your squad rather than build it for promotion. Plymouth, Oxford, Wycombe and Blackpool know how difficult it can be to come down and get back up.
Potentially, we could become another Brighton or Brentford, and that’s what we want, isn’t it? Smart recruitment, with a better chance of picking the Championship players we think could make the step up. I’d also back us to recruit well from some of the less obvious leagues.
It’s just the level that makes it difficult. You have more pocket money, but the best sweets cost more, so you might end up in much the same position.
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