PAUL Casson hopes Barrow AFC will be able to uncover more unlikely Holker Street stars this summer.

Casson has been liaising with manager Paul Cox over potential Bluebirds recruits as he looks to build a squad capable of promotion.

The Texas-based businessman stated his intent to put together a player list capable of being right at the top of the National League before the end of last season, when AFC finished seventh having been in play-off contention for much of the campaign.

To do so, Casson believes the right approach is to find more hidden gems such as Richie Bennett and Moussa Diarra, who have stepped up through the divisions to great success for Barrow over the past 12 months.

Asked if he was giving the financial backing necessary to build a promotion-winning squad, Casson said: “We have a strategy. We’ve had lots of meetings to determine the best strategy to get the team that we want. It is very much a team effort.

“It’s not about financial backing, it’s about making sure we absolutely get the right player, in the right place, for the right price.

“It’s not simply a question any more of throwing a boatload of money at it. I think historically it has been shown that that’s not the right thing to do.”

He added: “We’re doing a lot of work to make sure that the players we bring in are the right ones to fit into the system to have the opportunity for it to grow.

“The way I look at last season, the great successes were the ones we took a bit of a gamble on. Jordan Williams you could say was a bit of a gamble coming from Northwich, Richie Bennett was the same, even Byron Harrison. Byron wasn’t really playing for Chesterfield, but we saw something in him that we thought could make him a special player, and I think that’s what we got.

“Then there are Nick Anderton and Moussa Diarra, you could even say Alex-Ray Harvey had an opportunity last season that he hadn’t had previously.

“These are players we saw something different in and gave them the opportunity. It wasn’t the regular, trampled, old tried and tested players who went on to be successes for the season.

“That’s the way we’re trying to go again. We’re doing a lot of work to try to find the right people who will fit going forward. That’s exciting.

“We’re being very careful about what we are doing. There is not going to be an avalanche of signings and a lot of the players we bring in may be people no-one has heard of.

“If you look at our track record, Moussa and players like that, then I think we are going about it in the right way. It’s a lot more work, but I think this is the right way.”

Manager Paul Cox has already landed former Wrexham and Livingston striker Jordan White on a one-year deal, with the hopes of more players to come over the next week.

He is a more established name, with Casson believing future recruits may be more obscure.

Asked if the player recruitment method he favoured still fitted in with his stated desire to build a promotion-winning squad, he said: “Yes, I think so. Possibly even more so.”

And asked if he felt there would be a squad capable of winning promotion come the start of the season, the AFC owner added: “Why wouldn’t it be?

“You’ve got Joel Dixon, a great goalkeeper coming back from injury; Moussa Diarra, one of the best players of the season in the Conference and so often man-of-the-match; you’ve got that strike four, Paul Turnbull as one of the league’s premier midfielders. It’s still loaded with quality.

“We have potential coming up in Dan Cockerline as well, there is a ton of stuff to build on when you think of previous years, even last year when we only three or four and built a competitive squad.

“We’ve got up to 14 maybe this year with Dixon, (Andy) Parry and (Elliot) Newby, so we’ve already got a team. I think this is going to be one of the most exciting seasons for how we can develop.”