Stockport County, Notts County, and Barrow hold transfer interest in emerging star | OneFootball

League Two trio Stockport County, Notts County, and Barrow are all said to be keeping tabs on an impressive right-back from the seventh tier of English football.

It's that time of year in the EFL when clubs are at the business end of the season.

For some, namely Stockport and Barrow, it's one final push to see how high in the league they can finish.

The Hatters top the fourth tier table with 77 points after 40 games - a four point advantage over the teams below them.

Pete Wild's side are hoping for promotion too, but their current six-point gap to the top three means that this will likely only be achieved via the play-offs.

Notts will be looking at these two teams and think that they should be in their position. Having been promoted from the National League last season, the hope of back-to-back promotions was in the forefront of their minds.

As is the way with the EFL, you can never be too confident with any predictions, and County being in 16th with just a +1 goal difference was not what many expected of them this season.

Nevertheless, all three teams do have one thing in common - they will all be preparing their summer recruitment plans.

Stockport and Barrow's will be a bit longer than Notts, because there's a good chance in the former's case that they will be in League One next season, and the Bluebirds are going to have to prepare for either eventuality.

Even though all three sides will have constructed very different plans for their summer windows, they are all said to be interested in one player from a few leagues below their current one.

According to Football Insider, the three League Two sides like the look of Billericay Town right-back George Wind.

Scouts from the trio are said to have made regular checks on the 21-year-old due to his impressive performances in the Isthmian Premier Division.

Wind could be set for a summer move to one of these clubs, but, his recent contract renewal - which is scheduled to keep him at his current club until the summer of 2025 - will mean that any of this fourth tier trio would have to pay a fee to the seventh tier side.

George Wind: the non-league sensation attracting League Two attention

The full-back joined Billericay at the age of 18 and has been with the club ever since, making loan moves to other teams in the Essex area before his real first-team breakthrough.

This season, he has played over 40 games for Town, and his attacking and defensive adeptness has helped them push towards a place in the Premier Division play-offs.

He started his playing career at Colchester United before moving on to pastures new. He was once described by an old coach as being like a "prime Gary Neville".

Sentiments about his ability to play that right-hand defensive role were further echoed by Football Insider, who described him as good going forwards as he is in one v one situations. Wind himself said, when he initially signed for Billericay, that he studied a lot of the things that Trent Alexander-Arnold and Aaron Wan-Bissaka did to help improve in both areas.

More League Two clubs should be looking for non-league gems

The gap in quality that used to exist between the National League and League Two is now nowhere near as big, in large part thanks to clubs like Stockport and Notts County.

The model of the non-leagues, and the lack of restrictions on spending, mean teams can now build squads that are almost instantly ready to compete in the football leagues.

Not only that, but there have been a lot of top players who have come from from the National League and below. Peterborough have made a fortune from picking off the best players from clubs like Barnet and selling them on for big fees.

They bought Ephron Mason-Clark from the fifth tier side in August 2022, and he's heading off to Coventry City in the summer for a reported fee of £4.25 million, as per the Coventry Telegraph.

Kamil Conteh has gone from a non-league player on loan at Gateshead to a consistent, proven third-tier midfielder for Bristol Rovers in the space of a season, and there'll be more of his type to come too.

Stockport, Notts and Barrow are smart to be looking at players like Wind - he's not going to be a break-the-bank signing, but, for them, it's worth the risk of him maybe not quite being up to it, because, if he is, then it would be a brilliant deal for all involved.