Paul Warne has revealed the extent he will go to win a Derby County recruitment war, after speaking with a player this week in his effort to complete his roster.
Derby’s manager is still looking to strengthen his team before the transfer market closes at the end of the month, with a striker and a midfielder high on the priority list. They are both likely to be loan deals rather than permanent ones, as he attempts to add to the eight summer signings he has already made.
He is still waiting to hear if the player he spoke with earlier this week has been approved after presenting to him, his agent, and the club’s loans manager. And Warne spoke out about how he tries to capture their hearts and minds while admitting he won’t go beyond.
“You have to swim across the channel at times,” he told Derbyshire Live. “You need to do a lot. I was planning to drive visit one of the players I was interested in, but he lived a long distance away. But you have to do everything you can to convey the message that this is the culture and how we play. I had two Zoom calls with a player this week. The first meeting was between his agent and the head of recruitment.
“The next meeting was with the head of recruitment, the loan manager, and the player. You have to provide two sets of presentations. I believed I had the golden ticket to X-Factor. I went from 11 clubs to four, and I still don’t know whether I won the reward or not. You have to put a lot of effort into your presentations, how you train, how you play, how they fit, and how I believe I can assist them.
“Fundamentally, especially on a loan, they want to see how you’re going to improve their careers because they want to return to their parent clubs and be a part of the team. I always give them the names of all the guys I’ve coached in their position and tell them to ‘phone them up’. Did I help them? If I didn’t, don’t sign; that is perfectly OK.
“But just see whether I am who I say I am and if the coaching staff are who they claim to be. Do they train like this? Do they expect people to behave this way? Is the gaffer obsessed with this? Is it correct that you know the gaffer does this?
“Get as much information on us as you can. I tell them everything truthfully and attempt to win their hearts. That’s difficult since the line between scary and enthusiastic is razor-thin. I found out the other day that one manager was calling the player every day for about three weeks, and I was thinking I couldn’t do it. It’s strange because when people read this, they’ll think it sounds fantastic. Personally, I can’t play for that guy.”
Warne revealed that as a player, he disliked overbearing managers and once turned down a move as a result.
“I recall a manager calling me and saying, ‘Look Warney, I want to sign you’. That was in the good old days, when you could talk to a player without going through seven layers of security,” he added. “He said I’d give you a two-year deal on this, and he said, ‘What do you think?'” I told him I’d simply talk to my missus and give him a shout.
“He reacted by asking what you needed to talk to your missus about. I did well, funnily enough; she lives with me and is like a companion, and it just provides me some thinking time. He said, “What have you got to think about?” I told him it was about what he had just said, and weirdly enough, I became upset. He went smoothly. Do you want it or not? I told them to leave it.
“I said you’re not for me if you’re forcing it on me without giving me a day to think about it. The next day, he calls me and asks what I think. I was like, “Well, I told you yesterday.” I could not play for him. He was too much.
“When I try to sign guys, I try to do it the way I would like to as a player. I like certain people and hold certain values. But then you have to think about what he wants, and you wind up second-guessing yourself. Some players might enjoy receiving a phone call every day since it would make them feel extremely important. But I don’t want a player who is one of 25 and is overly needy because it’s tough to keep them engaged.
“You can get them into the building and everyone will be happy you signed them, but within two or three weeks, you’ll have difficulties straight immediately.
So you have to attempt to strike a balance, which isn’t always easy, and everyone is different, so some managers do presentations with a whiteboard behind them. I show them videos of how we play and then explain them briefly.
“Some other managers don’t even participate. The recruiters do it, and the manager only wants the transaction to be completed monetarily so he can simply show up and shake hands, which sounds like a dream. But we must do everything we can to encourage people to go.”
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