Jim Gannon transfer magic was the turning point in Stockport County's modern history: View | OneFootball

Stockport County are now well-established back in the Football League after years of exile in non-league, but the starting point of their success can be traced back to one legendary manager.

An undoubtedly huge factor, which cannot be ignored, was the purchase of the club by successful local entrepreneur Mark Stott back in 2020, a move which gave the financial backing required for ascent through the divisions.

However, before the club had a comfortable budget to bring in new players, when the Hatters were operating in the sixth tier of English football, three-time County manager and former player, Jim Gannon, was steadily building the foundations of success armed with nothing but his own knowledge of the game around him.

Having built a now legendary County team made up of mainly free transfers, Gannon will live long in the memories of Hatters fans for the work he did in making the club an attractive prospect to a figure like Stott.

The 2018 transfer window was crucial moment at Edgeley Park

It is the end of the 2018/19 season that will dominate the retelling of the beginning of County's revival, having painfully missed out in the play-offs the previous season, but the summer of 2018 is just as crucial, and typifies the magic that Gannon could work under the circumstances.

Having already found free gems with the likes of Matty Warburton, Ben Hinchliffe and Sam Minihan in previous seasons, Gannon used this window to make some shrewd additions to his team's spine, which would later prove enough to lead his side to National League North glory.

The most notable addition, as ever arriving as a free agent, was Ash Palmer, who came from Guiseley, having previously won the title with North Ferriby in 2016. He arrived in the same window as versatile midfielder Jordan Keane, the final piece of the puzzle to complete the defensive unit.

Forward additions were just as important

The aforementioned names are the most likely to get a mention as soon as this period is brought up, but the 2018 window was also just as crucial for the attacking signings made by Gannon, namely Frank Mulhern and Nyal Bell.

Both strikers could go through frustrating spells at Edgeley Park, as would be expected from a pair of 21-year-old forwards, but the goals they added in the division-winning season proved crucial.

Mulhern came as something as a gamble, as one of very few players that the club spent a fee on to bring him to SK3, but with Mulhern and Bell putting up a combined 19 league goals to add to the 18 provided by talisman Warburton, it was a bet that paid off.

Without the transfer decisions taken by Gannon in the summer of 2018, and without the goals of both Bell and Mulhern, it is unlikely County would have edged the intensely tight top-of-the-table clash with Chorley that year.

Gannon's work that year made County an inviting prospect for Stott

The non-league transfer window can be an inconsistent and difficult to navigate place, with geographical factors often playing a large role due to lack of finances at that level and nothing approaching the vast swathes of data available at the top end of football.

Gannon's extensive knowledge, research and judgment of players at that level was undoubtedly the driving force behind the promotion-winning season in 2018/19. A quick glance at the incomings from that summer show that his transfers were hits more often than they were misses at that time, and his calls set County on the path to success.

Stott may well have bought the club whatever the outcome. However, in his first interview with club media back in 2020 he mentioned County having "a platform that no other club has", in terms of stature and the resilience of the fanbase, alongside the work done by the board prior to his takeover that put the club on a steadier footing than it had previously been on.

Gannon, in his third spell as manager, which began in 2016, played a huge part in maintaining and building crowds through the fans' well-founded belief that he could find a bargain signing, build a team and potentially go on to find success, as he did at the end of 2018/19.

It was a transfer window that symbolised everything Gannon is about as a manager. He kept the spark alive at Edgeley Park through some of the toughest years in the club's history, and instilled an aura around County that was enough to attract a figure like Stott to reignite the flame.

Gannon will go down in history as a pivotal figure in County lore, with the work in that window a perfect example of the magic he could produce.