'I can't wait to get started' - Chesterfield's new chief scout Paul Lemon has 'unfinished business' at Spireites

Chesterfield’s new chief scout, Paul Lemon, has said he can’t wait to get started and that he has ‘unfinished business’ with the club.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

The 54-year-old, who has had similar roles at Huddersfield Town, Wigan Athletic, Sheffield United and Scunthorpe United, was appointed over the weekend.

The former midfielder, who played for the Spireites in the early 90s, will be tasked with improving Town’s player recruitment which has been lacking in recent years.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"The message I want to get out to people is that I care,” Lemon told the DT. “I will be judged on the players that I bring to the club and I am fine with that because I know there are players I would recommend who would do a job.

Paul Lemon has been appointed Chesterfield's new chief scout.Paul Lemon has been appointed Chesterfield's new chief scout.
Paul Lemon has been appointed Chesterfield's new chief scout.

“It is heartbreaking to see where the club is now. If I bring a player into the club, or the gaffer brings a player into the club, and we move forward a yard, that is good enough for me.”

Lemon, who lives in Hasland, said that chief executive John Croot was the driving force behind his appointment and that talks had been ongoing for about three weeks.

The Middlesbrough-born man has spent the last four-and-a-half years at Scunthorpe United and in total he believes he has watched around 750 matches as a scout.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He was interviewed for the head of recruitment job at the Blues in 2017 but missed out to Guy Branston and now feels it is the ‘perfect time’ to join the club.

Jamie Vardy has risen from non-league to winning the Premier League with Leicester City.Jamie Vardy has risen from non-league to winning the Premier League with Leicester City.
Jamie Vardy has risen from non-league to winning the Premier League with Leicester City.

Lemon is set to meet with John Pemberton to discuss the type of players the Spireites boss wants to bring in and then it will be up to him to go out and find them.

The aim is to create a database of players to give Pemberton at least three or four options for each position.

Lemon will give his opinion on the players he has watched at games, but ultimately Pemberton will have the final decision as to who they sign.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

What he has been told is that they need players for the ‘here and now’, but also with the future in mind.

Chesterfield manager John Pemberton.Chesterfield manager John Pemberton.
Chesterfield manager John Pemberton.

“I’m not going to sit here and say we are going to pull gems out at every game because that won’t happen,” Lemon said.

“The days of pulling a Jamie Vardy are still there, but they are getting less and less because a lot of them don’t fall through the system now.

"John Croot has already told me we have got to keep an eye on the future. Scouting is about the here and now at this moment at this club, but also we have to keep an eye on next year because we will need to be ready for it.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Lemon said that 80 per cent of the matches he watched last season for Scunthorpe were under-23 games so he will bring a wealth of knowledge in that regard and he already has a long list of players that could be of interest.

“If we are going down the under-23 route they have got to be coachable in my opinion because they are playing where they are for a reason,” Lemon explained. “If they are playing non-league, they are playing there for a reason, they are not the finished article. So we need to bring in players that the coaches can work with and see the potential. They could be diamonds which are not quite polished up properly.

“My old manager at Sunderland Denis Smith told me if you see somebody after 90 minutes and he has had a stinker but can do something that the others on the pitch can’t, then you need to go and have another look at him.”

Another big consideration for Lemon will be which areas he looks for players as well as their character.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I think we’ve got to keep it pretty localised in that I will probably go as far as Leeds, Leicester, Birmingham, Manchester, because a lot of players are going to have to commute,” he said. “It is pointless me saying I have got a fantastic player at Tottenham and he wants to go play men’s football somewhere because he isn’t going to commute from London everyday so I have got to be realistic. There is Derby, Forest, the two Sheffield clubs, so there are teams we can go to and look at their 23s. The other one we will be looking at is free agents, but then you have to start asking yourself why they haven’t got a contract?”

Lemon, who has lived in Chesterfield for the last 30 years, is ‘excited’ and 'can't wait to get started’ and knows what it means to the fans as he is stopped by supporters every day while walking his dog.

So what about that unfinished business that goes back to when he was a Town player?

“I came from Sunderland and we were bottom of the league,” he added. “By the end of the season we had gotten mid-table. Unfortunately I got myself a cruciate ligament injury in April. It took me a year to come back which was the norm back then. I came back and played and was part of the team when we played Liverpool. I was enjoying it and I loved the area but then John Duncan came in and decided I had to go. I have never spoken about it but I was absolutely gutted. From that point of view, I’m back at the club now and I just hope I can make a little difference. So I have got a bit of unfinished business here.”