[Devongone]

In the old days to find a player you had to visit grounds all over the country on just a whisper. Burnley, Notts County and West Brom all came to watch me - okay they went away laughing, well Burnley didn't, the game was off! These days almost every level of football is reported upon, you can pick up warm words on club websites, follow them up on fan talk, read local papers, even see YouTube clips. When you finally get to see the player you should already know a lot about him.

My money's on Omar Bogle to get a shed-load of goals for Grimsby, he's got the perfect profile. He's been with Birmingham and Celtic and didn't quite make it, he's been down several levels, been a big success, he'll want to prove himself ...... and will.

Fans like Da Costa, which is usually a good sign and Frazer Shaw, when you've been at West Ham and gone down to Dulwich, you're going to want that chance to climb back up ...... As you know there are loads of good players at lower levels (and plenty of bad ones too!) - Mansfield just gambled on a 31-goal striker, good on them. We often hear about strikers plucked from obscurity, why not play-makers and defenders too, Raglan's not too dusty?

Paul Mitchell sounds like a good guy. Hope they find him someone good to work with, because that is where our future has to lie. Obviously it's not me, but they could actually recruit a few amateur nunks to pore over non-league websites and come up with potential leads. Fans could do that. More pairs of eyes might uncover a 19 year old wowing them at Bideford, or stopping everything for Paulton ..... and they might find that kid who was homesick at Arsenal and never progressed, got kicked out and is now stroking the ball about like Glenn Hoddle on parks pitches. They'd find lotsa crap, but you only need a nugget every now and again.