Hamilton head coach Stuart Taylor says nothing he does with the football club will be short-term as he plans for the long haul at New Douglas Park.
After a 4-0 and 1-0 Championship wins over Partick Thistle and Queen of the South in recent weeks, Accies sit seven points outside fourth, the final promotion play-off spot, with five games to go.
A win over Ayr United on Friday night would go a long way to boosting their chances but their boss is already thinking about what comes next.
The 47-year-old and his recruitment team are working on next season’s plans at Hamilton and have already made a start on new players.
On top of that, pre-season preparations have been arranged. Taylor hopes that his January signings - Dan O’Reilly, Ellis Brown, Steve Lawson and Kai Kennedy - prove that all of his work will be calculated.
He explained: “I am looking at players for the end of the season and I have started chats with people. I am looking to see who I can get in next January as well.
“I am always looking long-term. I can’t look past what we are doing today but we have a strategy for the long-term at this football club now. It can be altered, but never ripped up and thrown in the bin.
“I have started things for pre-season and I have already started the programme for that, in terms of what we will be doing and the training. We have sat down and had those meetings with staff.
“We know what we are doing in recruitment. When you keep on top of things, we don’t make last-dash signings. I think our January business showed we won’t make panic signings.
“There’s no LastMinute.com business or a scattergun approach to who we want to get. It’s all very calculated.”
Hamilton have been working on how to improve things off the park too, including renovations to their gym. The boss reckons they need to do that in order to keep moving forward.
Taylor explained: “There’s not one thing that I will do that will be a short-term fix. That will only ever possibly have a short-term impact, because not every signing is fantastic.
“You run into a dead-end. If you need to take time to do things, do it. We will make sure we get in the right people, the right equipment, putting down our foundations properly.
“Then what we are building will be built on good foundations. I will do what’s best for the club in the long-term. As long as you wait for the right person, whether it be a staff member or a player, these things are massive. Even things like the gym are massive.
“A lot has to be said to the owners of the football club, who have spent a lot of money. They have showed ambition to make sure we get things done properly.”
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