Our Head of Recruitment Jimmy Holmes has provided the following update for supporters:
We are now 2 months into the season. I just wanted to provide an update on the new squad with an insight into how we’ve gone about it.
From day one at Bury FC my job was to help build a squad that could compete at the top end of the table and ultimately gain promotion, but also go on and progress up to the next league once we get there.
Previously the club had a high turnover of players throughout the past 4 seasons. We wanted to change this and add in players for the long term.
The next stage was to take what the club had from last season. We only had a handful of players that had committed so we had to build an entirely new squad.
We had a number of key targets that had been watched on numerous occasions that we wanted to bring to the club so when we made our approach we were fully confident in the player.
They are a brand new squad that will take time to fulfill its potential with an average age of 23. It was part of our plan to also build a squad that is younger. Long term we don’t want to have a relatively high average age & we don’t want to be having to re-build like in previous years.
We have a clear plan on how we want to get there. Even if it isn’t always easy to bring the right players into Bury FC it’s important that the individual players we sign can identify with our path. Players who can handle the pressure of playing for Bury FC but who can also handle the expectations week in week out.
Players that can go on a journey with the club, identify with fans and be ready for the next challenge when the club gets there. We want to invest in these players now so the rewards will come later down the road after making 50/100/150 appearances for the club. That is something unique at these levels of football. If you want to build something, you have to think two or three years ahead.
Most of the players are of an age, so that in one, two or three years they will still be at a good footballer’s age and everyone’s goal is to move forward with the club.
The purpose of good recruitment is to find players who fit a team’s style of play before anyone else realises how good they are clubs can also look for undervalued players. We wanted to bring into the club players that the fans might not have heard about before. New players that we believe can go and take the club on to another level. Players who may not have played in a certain position before who we can develop and fit into our system & style of play.
If the players individually and squad collectively keep their levels high it’s going to be a pleasure to watch them moving forward.
We don’t want to copy other clubs we want to recruit the best talent for our club and be unique.
Jimmy Holmes.
