Day 287

I’m not sure whether to be amused or annoyed that the youth candidates who’ve been on trial for the past month are all terrible. Assistant manager Martin O’Connor seemed downtrodden that he couldn’t recommend a single one of them for a permanent contract. The super-talented Samuel Hancock came to the club with that lot, though (even if I did sign him on the first day), so I guess we should be pleased.

I’ve done well with signing young players this season. All of the fantastic loan signings were under 25. The core of my team is composed of more experienced players, but they’ve been surrounded by talented youngsters—Koroma, Kanouté, Woods, Power, and Bore are all under 25, and they all played vital roles over the course of the season (even if Power and Bore fell out of favour towards the end).

I’m trying to get the club into a position where the younger players force the veterans out of the team, then a few years later a new batch pushes them out. Lincoln is not a rich club; if we’re to climb through the leagues, we have to be smart about building a squad. We don’t have much of a youth system, so I don’t want to be a glorified feeder for the big clubs—poaching our best couple of players every year. The trick is to sign them young, develop their talents, then either sell them just beyond their peak or keep them around to help the next generation reach its full potential.

At the same time, I want to sign outcast former stars—supposedly washed up and years beyond their best—to carry the team. This is the strategy I employed to such phenomenal success this season—young talents and old coots. Guys like Olembé and Marques are still brilliant players, but they need to be given responsibility and a chance to prove themselves.

I have full confidence that I can keep it going. It’s anyone’s guess how far we can get, but I’ll take the same philosophy as I did here—build up to something big, breaking it down into many smaller chunks. All I have to do is take it one day at a time. At least I hope so.