Agreed, recrutiment is completely hit and miss...it's seriously amateur.
Only thing is PNE is far from being alone in having difficulty bringing in players...evertone is hanging on for the best deal.
For a long time there's been a complete muddle of an approach to recruitment at PNE....the club continues to (half-heartedly) run a lower status Academy but does not run an U23 side. Net result is that even if there is a good young player offered a pro contract there's no team for them to play in...same with signings of promising young players. Ledson has been at the club 2 seasons now and he is only just emerging (and looking a much better player for it than when making the rare sub apearance). We have yet to see Bayliss. Storey appeared to have gone backwards until re-emerging in the last few games.
It was thought some years back that there was no need to put resources into development as good young players could be picked up from the likes of Man U. {Problem with that is that everybody else has the same idea).
Other clubs can see the future . Burnley have now brilliant training and Academy facilities...may say that they have got the money but even Fleetwood are just spending £1million on Academy facilities, expanding their already modern training ground.
Brexit will hit hit the number of EU and overseas players as quotas and work permits are introduced.......and is likely to send transfer fees back up again as clubs search for home grown players. FA is backing the government proposals to limit EU players on the basis that this will encourage clubs to develop their own English players.
PNE response? Apart from reneging on Ingol I can't see anything.
I don't and won't criticise TH for the money put into the club (frankly I think those criticising this are completely clueless) but I think the way the club has been run since the takeover has left a lot to be desired.:
- Academy status isn't good enough
- Springfields isn't good enough
- commercial income (£2m a year) is abysmal
-poor marketing and fan liaision...what would a fan zone cost?)
- failure to bring through own players
-unfinished ground (where's the manifest ambition )
- poor loan signing record
- amateur scouting and recruitment set up leading to hit and miss recruitment
The focus is entirely on the first team, leading to the club over-achieving in terms of size as measured by trunover and av attendance, but as you rightly recognise sedgwick (completely agree with you) it isn't sustainable.
All this approach does for a few seasons is paper over the infrastructure cracks.