Lincoln City: Imps will look to overseas market in summer, says director of football Jez George
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Head coach Michael Skubala, who was appointed in November, is working in tandem with Jez George (right)
Lincoln City director of football Jez George says the club plans to exploit the overseas market in future to close the gap on teams with bigger budgets.
The Imps, who are 12th in League One, want to move away from being reliant on loan signings in transfer windows.
They want to bring in more players on permanent deals - but with the potential to be sold on in due course.
"We've done a lot of work, data-led, on every league across the world," George told BBC Radio Lincolnshire.
"We actually got quite close to doing something in January.
"We identified a player who was potentially available and then it looked like it would be better for us to revisit it in the summer - a new financial year and we have a bit more flexibility over how we can spend budget.
"We've definitely got targets - there's some random ones in terms of countries and nationalities but it's an area where we've got to find an edge."
George added, however, that in any deal, the Imps had to aim to hit the "sweet spot" in terms of immediate impact and future development.
"We cannot bring a player in from somewhere across the world and they're not ready to play in our first team," he said.
"Equally, if we're going to take that risk of relocating someone, we want to minimise the risk by there being a high reward - so we want it to be a player that we think can play (at a) higher (level) as well.
"We've got to spot them before everybody else or spot them in a pond in which not so many other people are fishing.
"Global recruitment gives us the opportunity to maybe find an edge against our competitors. We're just trying to close that gap on those with more budget above us."
George cited midfielder Ethan Erhahon, who was signed from Scottish club St Mirren for an undisclosed fee in January 2023, as the type of player who perfectly fitted their model.
Ethan Erhahon (centre) has made 54 appearances for Lincoln since joining them just over a year ago
"Ethan's the sweet spot because he comes into your team immediately, he makes your XI better straight away and he has the potential to play higher," George said.
Lincoln did sign Millwall defender Alex Mitchell on loan in the summer and agreed similar deals for Joe Taylor, Conor McGrandles and Hakeeb Adelakun in the January transfer window.
"Those four were brought in because we couldn't find permanent solutions - let's hope one or two (of them) might become that in the future, that would be fantastic for us," George explained.
"The general trend is we want to own our own players - what was the right strategy five years ago is definitely not the right strategy today.
"We have more wherewithal now thanks to Clive (Nates), Harvey (Jabara) and the board - we can pay some transfer fees and that does change everything.
"If you're only operating in the free agent market it becomes very difficult to sign players who could potentially become assets. We will always look for a permanent solution first. That's the strategy."