Stockport County must learn transfer lesson ahead of Dundee United deal | OneFootball

It hasn’t been smooth sailing for all of Stockport County’s summer signings

The 2024/25 season saw Stockport County implement a slightly modified transfer strategy to the one that had gone before.

Club owner Mark Stott revealed over the summer that the club planned to go younger with signings, targeting players who had not quite made it at the top level, giving them a platform to get their career back on track and potentially selling them on for a profit further down the line.

Lewis Fiorini, a young midfielder from Manchester City’s academy system, was one such player, who the club paid their close neighbours between £200k-£300k for just months ago.

Now, however, the midfielder heads out on loan to Dundee United, having appeared only a handful of times for the Hatters. It will prove to be an important lesson for the club that such a strategy, while exciting and workable, is not risk-free.

Fiorini loan is not what would have been envisaged in the summer

It was confirmed earlier this week that Fiorini is to spend the rest of the season on loan at Scottish side Dundee United, who currently sit third in the SPFL table.

The 22-year-old only signed a three-year deal at Edgeley Park in July and, at his age now, it was likely the intention for him to have an instant impact on the first team.

However, that hasn’t quite gone to plan, with making just 11 League One appearances, four from the start and yet to register a goal or assist. That being said, he has been hampered by injury, impacting the start he made on arrival in Stockport.

For the fee paid, and the promise he arrived with, the deal likely will have been viewed similarly to the Lewis Bate move by decision-makers at Edgeley Park, who has been installed as club captain and become an indispensable member of the starting XI.

But that, in a snapshot, shows the pros and cons of the new strategy implemented by those in charge of the Hatters: some will hit the ground running, and some won’t.

Not all deals will be equal under this Stockport County strategy

That is something that Stott and director of football Simon Wilson will need to accept, and likely already have.

But there is certainly a lesson to learn in terms of utilising transfer budget in upcoming windows: pushing all their money into young prospects would be risky and could end in tears.

Had Bate had a similar experience to Fiorini, which isn’t beyond the realms of possibility, County would have spent a significant chunk of money, seen no improvement to the weekly playing squad and need to spend even more money to bolster the squad this January.

Scouting can only go so far; sometimes you simply can’t predict which moves will work and which will be less effective, or take more time to develop.

Don’t write Fiorini off just yet

And that is a key point in Fiorini’s case.

It’s clear that his journey has not got off to the start all parties involved would have wished for — it certainly won’t have been in the plan to have him out on loan six months after he arrived at Edgeley Park — but he is still only 22 years old.

Sometimes players bloom later, sometimes it takes players a while to settle or find their place in the squad, and Fiorini’s season at League One Lincoln City a few years ago shows there’s talent there.

What is good is that the Hatters have been proactive in trying to keep Fiorini playing regular football rather than being restricted to sitting on the bench in SK3 — that will put him in the best possible position to kick on.

Fiorini’s story at County is by no means over, but it is an early cautionary tale that big names from academy systems won’t always immediately translate into taking the lower leagues by storm, and the Hatters should tread carefully in what can prove to be a risky, and costly, market.