After a lifetime in business, Mark Lawn must have thought he had pretty much experienced everything.

When he walked into Valley Parade and signed his power-sharing agreement with Julian Rhodes, the joint-chairman had his eyes wide open.

But a year on from his unveiling, Lawn admits that he is still getting to grips with certain football procedures. This game is not like any other business.

It’s not only boss Stuart McCall who has faced a sharp learning curve over the past 12 months.

The transfer market, for example, is a world totally alien to other business circles. For relative newcomers to the scene like Lawn, the drawn-out machinations involved have taken some getting used to.

He explained: “You soon get prepared for some elongated discussions. I’ve found out that you need to be after five targets to get one.

“Normally if I wanted to go out and buy a product, I’d source it, find the best one and then buy it; end of story.

“But you can’t do that with footballers. They are a different breed. Let’s just say, your product is more fluid in this business.

“From actually looking at someone and saying he’s the one you want, the whole process takes time. There are discussions with agents and the clubs and the player has to talk to his family – it’s a lot more difficult than you can imagine.”

Lawn has also found out that players have a tendency to change their mind, particularly when they can smell a bigger wage packet elsewhere.

A supposedly nailed-on deal can suddenly fall apart with one quick call, usually from the agent.

Lawn’s frustration was heightened during the January transfer window, when he had hinted at a couple of exciting loan captures who would be familiar to the Valley Parade faithful.

One was thought to be Nathan Doyle, before he earned his belated spot on Hull’s Premier League bandwagon. The other was Lee Holmes.

The left winger had limped away from City the previous Christmas after his six-month loan from Derby ended abruptly with a crunching challenge from Dean Windass on the training ground.

Holmes was fit again by the start of last season but there was still no inkling of a chance at Pride Park. Derby were open to offers from clubs looking to take him in the new year and City hopefully joined the queue.

Initial talks were encouraging; Lawn was optimistic. Instead Holmes, who has now signed permanently for Southampton, pitched up at Walsall in League One.

So Lawn took stick when his hoped-for signings failed to materialise. Another lesson learned.

It is therefore not too surprising that he is far more reticent about publicly discussing the current direction City’s player search is heading. Lawn may talk confidently about a strong promotion push and signings that will excite the fan-base but he is careful not to name names.

He said: “I certainly know not to let it into the public domain because they just get disappointed. We had it in January.

“People asked where were the players? But the targets had told us to get lost and went to other clubs, so what were we supposed to do?

“I got castigated from the supporters, who said that we’ve lied and led them down the garden path. In fact, we’ve been telling the truth but the players have just changed their minds.

“Players have said they wanted to come here when I believe they’ve really just wanted to use us to get a better offer somewhere else.

“One of them went to Walsall having told us that he wanted to come here. He changed his mind and I can’t do anything about that.”

McCall is waiting on three players coming back off holiday, including Darren Moore. He has talks planned with a couple of strikers as well as former Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Rob Burch.

“Hopefully we’ll get a couple in before we’re back for pre-season next week,” said the City boss.

But don’t expect anybody to be spilling the beans until deals are struck.

Lawn said: “In the past I’ve tried to be honest with people and got criticised for that, so maybe I should shut up and say nowt.

“But I’ve learned to keep things under wraps so the fans don’t get fed up. It’s best to wait because these players aren’t yours until they’ve signed on the dotted line.”