Yeovil Town’s new ownership is backing manager Mark Cooper is his waiting game to bring transfer targets to Huish Park.
The club’s Chief Strategy Advisor Nicholas Brayne, who is an advisor to new owner Prabhu Srinivasan, told the latest episode of the Gloverscast podcast that he has no concerns about the manager’s strategy of waiting for players to come available.
He said: “If you look at Yeovil’s transfer policy over a few years, it has been quite consistent in doing business up front and I would argue that there has been a bit of a lack of thinking about why players were coming in and how they improve the squad.
“This strategy is led by Mark (Cooper), not (the ownership group) saying ‘this is how it should be done’, we made a collective decision to say we wanted to be sure the players would improve the team and that we wanted to take our time to get that right.
“We also identified the weaknesses of going early and leaving some finance in the tank to make some moves later if necessary. What you see in football is that teams higher in the pyramid may be chasing a striker and when they get their guy and then the guy we are chasing is able to move on. In previous seasons there has not been that (finance) in the tank to do that.
“Mark has done a brilliant job and I really back his strategy and you can see the logic behind why he has brought certain players in. I come from a privileged position of knowing what is going on behind-the-scenes and there is no worry on my face, I know what is coming around the corner and I am sure you will be pleased.”
The Glovers released seven players at the end of last season – goalkeeper Will Buse, defenders Michael Smith, Dom Bernard and Marcel Lavinier, midfielders Harry Kite, Caleb Hughes and Sonny Blu Lo-Everton – at the end of last season with winger Lewys Twamley departing earlier this month.
Arriving at Huish Park have been young full-back Byron Pendleton, signed on a season-long loan from Birmingham City, and permanent signings defende Kyle Ferguson, winger James Daly and striker Tahvon Campbell. The club has also had three trialists who seem to have stuck around during pre-season, ex-Bristol Rovers’ pair midfielder Luke McCormick and striker Jevani Brown and midfielder Teo Kurtaran, albeit the latter was absent from the squad which won 3-1 at Bath City in the most recent friendly on Saturday.
Speaking last Friday, Cooper made his own appeal for supporters to be patient. He said: “We might have to wait to get our first choice players, but we are only talking two or three. It is a waiting game now, there are probably about 25 players of real quality that still have not got a club and they all want to play in the EFL. Not all of them are going to be fixed up and I certainly want to explore one or two of those which would be above our level.
“We have got enough players at the minute to make sure we can get good minutes in to games. I would just appeal to the fan base to have a bit of reality and a bit of calmness.”
Listen to our interview with Nicholas Brayne in full wherever you pick up your podcasts or by clicking HERE.