Nick Cain column: All that cash is going down Bath plughole

Is money the root of all evil at Bath? It was something for their fans to ponder as last season's Premiership runners-up slipped to defeat at the Rec against West Country arch-enemies, Gloucester, on Friday night, leaving them anchored at ninth in the table.
That there was nothing Bruce Craig's multi-millions could do to stop Bath slumping to their sixth consecutive defeat in all competitions will be no comfort. Nor will the realisation that the hands-on owner's forays into the transfer market could be the source of the corrosion of Bath's team spirit and confidence since last summer.
If it started with the splash-the-cash signing of Sam Burgess last season – with the team dynamic pulled out of shape by the ill-considered plan to deploy him first at inside and outside centre, and then switch him to blindside flanker – Craig's decision to sign three international No.8s this season has continued the disruption.
When Mike Ford eventually decided Burgess did not fit into a backline plan, mainly because he did not want a crash-ball merchant gumming up his ‘diamond formation', the decision to move the big Rugby League star to blindside backfired in terms of squad morale.
Matt Garvey found himself out of the starting line-up despite consistently being one of Bath's best forwards, while another Saxons regular, the formidable blindside/No.8 Carl Fearns, was so
disenchanted that he packed his bags after brokering a transfer to Lyon.
The degree to which the £500,000-a-season deal with Burgess upset other players within the Bath squad really became evident only when he was warned off going to Farleigh House to say his goodbyes by club captain Stuart Hooper.
This was because many of them considered Burgess' decision to end his short stint in Rugby Union because he was ‘homesick' for his mum, Sydney, and the Rabbitohs, to be short-change given the hoops they had been forced to jump through by their coaches to accommodate him.
You would have thought this would have led Craig to be more judicious about venturing into the transfer market, but the signings of David Denton, Taulupe Faletau and Amanaki Mafi within a short time-frame this season suggests otherwise.
No sooner had Scotland No.8 Denton arrived from Edinburgh than Bath announced that Wales and Lions No.8 Faletau would be joining the club this summer. The owner then trumped himself by securing the services of Mafi, who was one of the World Cup's shooting stars, with the Japan No.8 signed until the summer.
Quite how and where they will fit into the Bath selection pattern is unclear, although the club have said that with Denton and Faletau away on international duty during the Six Nations they require cover.
If buying three Test No.8s seems over the top for a period in which two of them will be unavailable for five or six club fixtures, then spare a thought for Leroy Houston, the incumbent No.8 who has given Bath sterling service over the last three seasons.
The message to Houston, and other back-rowers like electric carrier Alafoti Faosiliva, who were at the heart of last season's push for the top, is that they could soon be part of the supporting cast. The same is true of former England U20 flanker David Sisi, who has been sent on loan to London Irish for the season.
Throwing filthy lucre at a revolving door of star signings is not a policy that guarantees success, and often it is destructive rather than constructive.
As Leicester City are currently proving in football's Premier League, being successful is less about signing superstars and more about team-building and having the right players in the right places as part of a coherent plan.
Should Craig wish to look for a Premiership rugby equivalent to Leicester City then he needs only to cast an eye over the way Rob Baxter operates at Exeter Chiefs.
Baxter signings are usually part of a well-coordinated strategy in which he does his homework on players diligently, and very few of them are high profile stars. The beauty of what he does is that the environment at Exeter is so positive in terms of man-management, and improving skills, that it invariably makes them better players, with wing James Short the latest revelation.
Ollie Devoto, who is leaving Bath to join Exeter, will be hoping for a similar uplift from his summer move to Sandy Park – and if Craig is not careful about his import policy and the impact it has on Bath's team culture, he might not be the last.