Morecambe boss hopes new arrival can emulate Motherwell success story

A former player at clubs including Southampton, Port Vale and Oxford United, as well as a manager of Vale and York City, Foyle became the Shrimps’ head of recruitment at the start of the month.

It’s a role he knows well, having had two spells in the position at Northampton Town, either side of doing the same job at Motherwell.

That’s where he encountered Robinson, who spoke earlier this season about the need for Morecambe to employ someone in that role.

Robinson said of his new colleague: “You only have to look at the people he recruited for Motherwell.

“Cedric Kipre came in for free and left for £1m, Ben Heneghan was sold for £300,000 and Louis Moult was £500,000; the list goes on.

“He has an eye for a player but he’s more than a head of recruitment; he’s worked at this level and knows people inside out.”

A head of recruitment might be thought of as a position traditionally associated with clubs at the top end of the pyramid.

They have become increasingly common lower down with around two-thirds of clubs in League One having someone in that role – with titles ranging from head of recruitment to sporting director and recruitment analyst to talent identification manager.

Irrespective of the job title, Robinson believes the position is increasingly important – especially after the summer he endured.

With Derek Adams having left Morecambe in the immediate aftermath of last season’s promotion, Robinson was appointed a week after their Wembley win.

On arriving at the Mazuma Stadium, he inherited a squad with only three contracted players.

As a result, it meant Robinson brought in 19 players in a short space of time to try and build a squad capable of competing in the third tier.

“Recruiting the amount of players we did can’t happen again,” he said.

“There needs to be forward planning, especially at this level, working at least one transfer window ahead, and I think it’s too much work for a manager to do on their own.”

An out-and-out head of recruitment is something new for Morecambe, so it begs the question of how such an arrangement works.

Robinson explained: “We know what areas we want to identify and we have got specifics that we want.

“There’s only a certain amount of personnel we can recruit on the budget we have so he (Foyle) will come in and put suggestions to me.

“The final decision on bringing in a player will be mine but it’s the whole staff who get involved.

“We watched a lot of games over the 10 days we had between matches last week and you make a list of players.

“There might be 40 players on that list but there’s probably only three you can afford and then it’s a case of can we get them?”

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