Town’s window so far

With Town making our 8th signing of the summer window in the shape of the exceedingly promising looking Kamil Conteh, and still not a loan yet in sight, it occurred to me that after a slow and frustrating January, we seem to have gone about our business in uncharacteristically bullish fashion.

Of course, signings are far more about quality than quantity, and there’s a long way to go get, but given that we seem collectively very happy with the calibre of player we’re attracting, I thought it would be mildly interesting to look at the volume of activity elsewhere in League Two. If nothing else, it serves as a rough barometer of how well things are going for us and offers a tiny insight into general market conditions.

The figures below refer to the total number of signings made (permanent of loan) by Town and the league’s top 7 favourites. The first number is the total number of signings made; the figure in brackets represents the number of signings involving a fee.

Wrexham - 0 (0)
Stockport - 2 (0)
Notts County - 4 (0)
Gillingham - 3 (0)
Bradford - 5 (0)
Mansfield - 3 (1)
Salford - 3 (1)
—
Town - 8 (4)

What’s abundantly clear is that not only is our fast-paced recruitment unusual for us, it’s also atypical for the division as a whole. Of the front-runners, Bradford have made the most signings after us with 5 in total, and only Mansfield and Salford have paid a fee for a player. Our 8 and 4 respectively is a massive outlier.

You can certainly make the argument that most if not all of the sides above had a stronger retained list than Town, and that’s fair enough, but most sides at this level still have a fair amount of recruitment to do in the summer.

The fact that we have gone out there and made several signings early, players who for the most part have excellent credentials, have offered long contracts and paid fees just seems to indicate a real confidence and swagger about our approach. It marks a palpable shift in demeanour from the club, and it would certainly seem to indicate that we are getting the players we want; not the players we wind up having to take just to make up the numbers.

We have seen so much progress made at the club in the last two years, but this feels like a sea change. A genuine, transitional moment. That we are not just catching-up, we are beginning to lead the way.

Would you fancy a striker who can offer us a plan b and was the leading scorer in a team the league below? Wouldn’t be 1st choice here but would enable us the make changes as required.

Quoted from Poojah

With Town making our 8th signing of the summer window in the shape of the exceedingly promising looking Kamil Conteh, and still not a loan yet in sight, it occurred to me that after a slow and frustrating January, we seem to have gone about our business in uncharacteristically bullish fashion.

Of course, signings are far more about quality than quantity, and there’s a long way to go get, but given that we seem collectively very happy with the calibre of player we’re attracting, I thought it would be mildly interesting to look at the volume of activity elsewhere in League Two. If nothing else, it serves as a rough barometer of how well things are going for us and offers a tiny insight into general market conditions.

The figures below refer to the total number of signings made (permanent of loan) by Town and the league’s top 7 favourites. The first number is the total number of signings made; the figure in brackets represents the number of signings involving a fee.

Wrexham - 0 (0)
Stockport - 2 (0)
Notts County - 4 (0)
Gillingham - 3 (0)
Bradford - 5 (0)
Mansfield - 3 (1)
Salford - 3 (1)
—
Town - 8 (4)

What’s abundantly clear is that not only is our fast-paced recruitment unusual for us, it’s also atypical for the division as a whole. Of the front-runners, Bradford have made the most signings after us with 5 in total, and only Mansfield and Salford have paid a fee for a player. Our 8 and 4 respectively is a massive outlier.

You can certainly make the argument that most if not all of the sides above had a stronger retained list than Town, and that’s fair enough, but most sides at this level still have a fair amount of recruitment to do in the summer.

The fact that we have gone out there and made several signings early, players who for the most part have excellent credentials, have offered long contracts and paid fees just seems to indicate a real confidence and swagger about our approach. It marks a palpable shift in demeanour from the club, and it would certainly seem to indicate that we are getting the players we want; not the players we wind up having to take just to make up the numbers.

We have seen so much progress made at the club in the last two years, but this feels like a sea change. A genuine, transitional moment. That we are not just catching-up, we are beginning to lead the way.

Superb post, thanks for the research, I'm drunk on hols and cba to do all that!
I'm very reliably informed the spending isn't complete, but have no idea who we've paid for, but also am informed its not Eastwood, he's coming on a free.

Quoted from Poojah

With Town making our 8th signing of the summer window in the shape of the exceedingly promising looking Kamil Conteh, and still not a loan yet in sight, it occurred to me that after a slow and frustrating January, we seem to have gone about our business in uncharacteristically bullish fashion.

Of course, signings are far more about quality than quantity, and there’s a long way to go get, but given that we seem collectively very happy with the calibre of player we’re attracting, I thought it would be mildly interesting to look at the volume of activity elsewhere in League Two. If nothing else, it serves as a rough barometer of how well things are going for us and offers a tiny insight into general market conditions.

The figures below refer to the total number of signings made (permanent of loan) by Town and the league’s top 7 favourites. The first number is the total number of signings made; the figure in brackets represents the number of signings involving a fee.

Wrexham - 0 (0)
Stockport - 2 (0)
Notts County - 4 (0)
Gillingham - 3 (0)
Bradford - 5 (0)
Mansfield - 3 (1)
Salford - 3 (1)
—
Town - 8 (4)

What’s abundantly clear is that not only is our fast-paced recruitment unusual for us, it’s also atypical for the division as a whole. Of the front-runners, Bradford have made the most signings after us with 5 in total, and only Mansfield and Salford have paid a fee for a player. Our 8 and 4 respectively is a massive outlier.

You can certainly make the argument that most if not all of the sides above had a stronger retained list than Town, and that’s fair enough, but most sides at this level still have a fair amount of recruitment to do in the summer.

The fact that we have gone out there and made several signings early, players who for the most part have excellent credentials, have offered long contracts and paid fees just seems to indicate a real confidence and swagger about our approach. It marks a palpable shift in demeanour from the club, and it would certainly seem to indicate that we are getting the players we want; not the players we wind up having to take just to make up the numbers.

We have seen so much progress made at the club in the last two years, but this feels like a sea change. A genuine, transitional moment. That we are not just catching-up, we are beginning to lead the way.

Excellent stuff. Can we also agree then, that the often-referenced criticism that players will not come to Grimsby based on some absurd and spurious reasons is a fallacy, so long as the intent, the ambition and the wages match the players' expectations?

There are always some reasons why players won't come, obviously, which applies to any club, but it is not unique to Grimsby.

Romance of the cup must have convinced some we are progressing nicely

Great post. It's been very un-Grimsby like but encouraging to know we're actually ahead of the game.

I think one of the main differences this year is not simply that we had an actual plan, but that we had the resources and infrastructure in place to implement that plan. Obviously if we're not ten points clear at the top by Xmas they'll all have to go but I'll give them a fair crack of the whip.

What we also have to factor in is the length of contracts means that Hurst doesnt have to go searching for replacement players year on year. With the additional monies earned from our remarkable FA Cup run it is sensible to spend wisely to invest in a standard of player who could stand us in good stead for the next few seasons.

While the FA Cup run was the real money spinner, the chances of repeating the same level of results again within the next few seasons is minimal. Lets face it, it was a once in a generation occurance. So the chance of us having another million to play with in the transfer market is unlikely any time soon.

Town, spend wise, spend well and lets kick the living excrement out of everyone in the league. UTM

Great post and a really interesting topic.

What has happened to Grimsby Town?

I do think whilst many were getting frustrated in January, PH and the club made a decision at some point within the window to not just go after 2nd 3rd and 4th choices and maybe keep their powder dry until the summer, eventually filling our weaknesses with temporary solutions in loan players until then.

They’ve certainly done that and come out the blocks early and quickly where one week into preseason training and before our first game we’re thinking we probably just need 2/3 final additions.

What also needs to be congratulated is the commitment shown by the owners here, not just be backing with funds - which they obviously have. But also creating the right environment around the PH to allow this to be done well.

Recruitment teams, Board members with not just football business knowledge but actual footballing knowledge, data, analytics etc all add into our ability to put the investment into the right players. Instead of shelling out for a 35 year old journeyman we’re shelling out for highly rated 20 year olds.

For many years we’ve thought as a club it’s just simply let the manager identify a player and see if we can sneak a deal, it’s a much much more rounded process than that - PH has been given some fantastic tools and boy is he using them.

We have paid fees for a lot of the players and have given out many 3 year deals, probably things that help secure players at this level as a player from Manchester is more likely to relocate for three years than 1. If you also notice a lot of our signings have ties to the area so we’ve taken the location thing on the chin and just adapted instead of moaning.

Some talk in the new player articles about videos being made and shared in meetings with new players. I would absolutely expect those crowds at Southampton and Brighton are in that and the point being made ‘do you want to play infront of that or a Salford crowd’ etc.

Lastly and Re Conteh, it seems we’ve beaten some pretty big teams in this league with our offer to Boro and the player himself and most of our new lads were gaining interest from teams 5 years ago we wouldn’t have a chance of competing with - well done to the club.

Conteh is 20, a good season or 2 with us and he will get a very good move. First and foremost we needed to agree a price with Middlesbrough but after that, there is plenty of recent proof that young players thrive here.