Behind-the-scenes with Town boss Wild as he rebuilds his Halifax squad
PETE WILD and Chris Millington have been up and down the country this summer, talking to players and agents in their attempt to rebuild FC Halifax Town’s squad for the 2020-21 National League season.
What happens when they identify a player they want? How do they convince them to join The Shaymen? What is the process of signing a player?
The Town boss took the Courier behind-the-scenes through the recent signing of Woking striker Jake Hyde to explain all.
“When you watch, as I do, comprehensively, the next team you’re playing, you fall upon the same team a few times because you watch your opponent’s last three games,” Wild says.
“When I’d be watching Woking and looking at what their strengths were, this lad kept popping up every time.
“He scored 17 goals and probably would’ve scored 20-plus if it hadn’t been for lockdown.
“So it gets to lockdown and I was starting to narrow down my targets. He was on my list of centre-forwards, and an agent contacted me with his name, an agent that we do some business with. He said ‘would you be interested in Jake Hyde?’
“100 per cent I’d be interested in Jake Hyde.
“So what I start to do then is watch him in-depth, I come up with his strengths, his areas to develop.
“On our scouting platform you can just watch clips of players within games and it’s all cut down for you, so I’d watch probably 10 or 11 of his games and his goals, everything he brings to the table.
“Then I start to put together some notes on him, which I sent to our analysis lads, who put clips together for me of him, so when I’m selling it to the chairman of who I want, the chairman can see the clips of him and we can get the chairman on board.
“Then as the season finishes, Jake’s contract is up with Woking, and we can start to talk to him. When we came back for the play-offs, I gave Jake a ring and we had a really good chat over the phone. “I said ‘when we get to the other side of the play-offs, I’ll come and meet you’. One thing I’m always confident of with me and Chris is when we get in-front of somebody, we generally have a chance because me and him like to talk.
“I knew he’d spoken to at least three League Two clubs and at least three National
League clubs, who were all offering more than me. But I knew Jake was looking for the right move that would further his career with a team that had ambition.
“We went on the train to London and spoke to him, as well as some other players while we were down there.
“What any player wants to know is how their all-round game is going to get better, how you think he’s going to fit into the team. I told Jake exactly how we saw him fitting into our team, where he would play his strengths, why his strengths were good for the team that we were creating, and we told him where we thought we could make him better. He liked that because we’d taken the time and effort to understand how we could make him better, even as a 30-year-old striker.
“We discussed our vision to take us from the plucky little underdogs to the serious contenders, and what it’d take to do that, what sort of characters we want.
“We go through the whole realm of things, and what we’re trying to do in that conversation is work out can I work with him. He’s trying to work out can he work with me, do we trust each other, have we got a shared understanding, all that’s going off while you’re sat there talking to them.
“Then it’s down to money, bouncing to and fro with the agent and the chairman to make sure the deal’s right for everybody.
“That bit, when the player’s agreed and you’re to-ing and fro-ing for money is absolutely the most stressful part for me, because in some respects, I’ve done my job, I’ve sold the club to him, and now it’s all about the finances and can we make the finances work for him, especially with him having to move up here and leave his family. But the chairman deserves a lot of credit for that deal, because he’s gone to town in backing me on that.”
Wild says every possible transfer target is analysed and scrutinised in detail.
“I do that with every player, and Chris does the same. I’ll ring Chris and go ‘right, I’ve seen this, what have you seen?’
“We have a spreadsheet across the season of players who play well against us, when we go to games of players who do well.
“This summer, for the people we thought we could target, there’s 150 names on that. We scaled that down to about 30 lads who we’ve sat in-front of and met, and then that’s scaled down again to our targets in terms of top targets, second targets etc.”
Once a player is met face-toface, Wild and Millington really get to work.
“We try and share it because while one of us is talking, the other one’s weighing them up, watching the body language, are they switching on, do they understand what we’re saying to them, what sort of responses are they giving?” says Wild.
“The other one’s interrogating them in the personality stakes.
“I wouldn’t like to be interviewed by us two, you’d have to be sharp with the answers.
“But it’s a two way process. I’m then keen for them to interrogate us, why this club’s right for them and what strengths can we offer them, what can we deliver.
“Our sell has got to be good. You’ve got to be walking out of there thinking ‘bloody hell, they know what they’re doing, they’ve got a plan, they understand what their recruitment is, I understand where I fit in that recruitment and I understand what that means for me moving forward’.”
Wild admits this is a critical time in his burgeoning managerial career, and knows the importance of getting his recruitment right.
“I know the fans have been a bit frustrated around the lack of activity, but because we were so clinical on who we wanted, it’s allowed us some real structure to the budget now and some levels of players within the building.
“It’s exciting times, for the players coming into what is an unbelievable project going on, and it’s exciting times for the football club because we have a real opportunity now to continue this journey and take another step towards where the football club wants to be.”