Ross Wilson’s ones that got away XI

Ross Wilson has had a pretty hard time of it since last January, a disastrous transfer window left Giovanni van Bronckhorst playing with Joe Aribo up front, Glen Kamara at ten and Scott Wright on the wing in a European final, had he done his job right, all of these key positions would have been significantly stronger.

Then, in fairness, the summer saw him do better only to see key signings like Tom Lawrence break down just as he was looking like a shrewd bit of business, Ben Davies suffer personal problems that meant his introduction was delayed and Ridvan Yilmaz tear his hamstring after he had cemented himself as first choice left back.

Recruitment might not be his only remit, however, it is the one that he will be judged on, especially when it comes to winning trophies and, after losing the league cup final with a team made up mainly of players signed when Mark Allen was our sporting director, it’s clearly an area that is letting him down.

Looking back over the last few years, we have – if speculation is accurate – scouted good players who would have been shrewd signings but for one reason or another have missed out on them.

Here is a team of those that got away, and those that we really should have made more effort to get.

The Scottish players speak for themselves, Kevin Nisbet could have been signed for a six-figure fee, whereas Josh Doig, Aaron Hickey and Lewis Ferguson, if reports are accurate when they went to Serie A, would have cost a combined £8million. They are all worth considerably more already, sometimes it is beneficial to shop local.

Danilho Doekhi, Riechedly Bazoer, Ola Solbakken and Ivan Ljubicic were all available on free transfers but for various reasons – mainly quality of domestic league – they all went elsewhere. This does though, highlight that we can spot a good player, we maybe, sometimes, just can’t afford them.

As for Joey Veerman and Andreas Skov Olsen, we all know what fees they went for, without guaranteed Champions League money, they simply became out of our price range, Lovro Majer and Mirko Maric two other players who could easily have made this line up who are now on a different level.

As with anything, it is rarely just one thing that is the problem and it is no different with our recruitment. The board has dug deep and Wilson has identified players that would improve us but, for one reason or another, he hasn’t been able to get them over the line and subsequently gone in a different direction.

This leads to the odd gamble but, when all your gambles back fire, you get a situation like the one we had this time last year and a position where the man responsible is on very shaky ground.