Mark Cooper is hoping to bring in new signings having seen four players depart Yeovil Town since their New Year’s Day victory over Torquay United.
The Glovers’ manager admitted the talk about a takeover at Huish Park was making it difficult for him to plug gaps left by the departures of loan midfielders Jamie Andrews and Ewan Clark and strikers Louis Britton and Jake Scrimshaw.
Asked whether he hoped to have new recruits before the weekend’s trip to Bromley, he said: “I hope so. We are in the midst of a takeover, so it is difficult to get things done. It’s easier to send people back than it is to sign people at the moment, but we’d love to get a couple in before the weekend.
“I have been led to believe we are on the same budget and if I can make room in that budget, then I can manoeuvre and bring players in as long as we are within the budget that was set at the start of the season.”
On New Year’s Eve, club chairman Scott Priestnall issued a statement confirming he had entered an “exclusivity agreement” with an unnamed group about taking his majority shareholding in the club.
There has been no further comment since then and Cooper was keen not to count his chickens, saying: “It will only look good when it is finally announced that everything has gone through and we can start to get excited about it, but until then you are always cautious about what could happen.
“It‘s not made any difference to us, we are still working as we were before there was any talk of a takeover.”
Asked if he expected to get a boost to his playing budget in the event of a deal, he added: “If there is a takeover, naturally you would hope people come in and want to invest in to the team.”
The boss hinted that Lawson D’Ath may be set for a return to the starting line-up following the departure of Jamie Andrews, who had impressed on loan.
D’Ath has started just once since Cooper’s arrival at the end of October, but appeared for the second half of the 2-0 home win over Torquay a little under a fortnight ago.
Cooper said: “Jamie came in when I came in and Lawson (D’Ath) was injured, so we needed a midfield player.
“He is a young player, still learning his trade, and he started every game he was here but I have to look at the players who are on contract.
“Lawson has been really patient and he deserves a chance to play, so I didn’t want Jamie to be sat here and not playing and West Brom wanted him back to have a look at how he had progressed.”
He added the same was true with the exit of teenager Ewan Clark, who returned to Bristol City, and former Robins’ striker Louis Britton, who departed less than two months after signing on non-contract terms.
Cooper said: “We have two centre forwards in Malachi (Linton) and Alex Fisher who are both on two-year contracts and Louis was on a non-contract, so I wanted him to come in and add competition which he did but we can’t have lots of centre forwards sat around not playing.
“I’m convinced at some point he’ll go somewhere and score goals, I think he’s gone to Chorley in Conference North, so good luck to him.”
With the match at Bromley being played on an artificial surface, Cooper said the team had been training on the 3G pitch outside Huish Park in preparation.
He said the lengthy gap since the New Year’s Day win had enabled him to work on improving his side’s control of the ball, admitting they had been second best to Torquay for long periods of their last outing.
The boss is under no illusion his side are still comfortably the lowest scorers in the National League with 20 goals in their 24 matches, but still have the third best defensive record conceding just 22 goals.
He said: “We talk about being more of a threat going forwards, but if you do that you have the threat that you undo some of the good work you have done defensively.
“At some point we have to score more goals because if you keep relying on defending, eventually one day your luck will run out and there will be a deflected shot and something will happen and you’ll concede a goal.
“We need to certainly have more control of the game, but whoever have played so far has been defensively outstanding and we need that to continue.”
He added he had “a relatively clean bill of health” going in to the weekend’s match at Bromley, who has been rearranged after the previous fixture on December 4 was abandoned after just 11 minutes following a medical incident in the crowd.
Tragically, Bromley later confirmed season ticket holder Keith Hore died having been taken ill at the match.