New Yeovil Town executive chairman Stuart Robins has said the club will have “a sensible budget” for next season following the takeover by Dubai-based businessman Prabhu Srinivasan.
In his first media interview since news of the deal to buy out former owner Martin Hellier on Thursday, the director admitted the Glovers had fallen behind a number of their National League Premier Division rivals in preparing for next season.
But, he promised they would now be going “full throttle” to support manager Mark Cooper in his preparations.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah on Friday, he also confirmed that a number of banning orders handed out for making “negative comments and remarks” about the former owner have been rescinded.
Robins said: “We have been working hard behind the scenes to make sure we can have a sensible budget. Since I joined the club three years ago, I have always had a vision that we could build something sustainable and I remember in my first interview I used the word ‘sustainable’ and it is really important that we build properly and sensibly. We are not going to do things overnight, we are not going to do a Wrexham, but we are finalising our budgets to make sure we build sensibly.”
Yeovil are among only a handful of professional clubs not to confirm which members of last season’s playing staff will be retained and released and Robins said that the protracted negotiations around the takeover had led to them being behind the curve.
He said: “It has been a hiatus and it has been difficult for Mark and the coaching team to do any planning because of the situation we were in. We are a little behind the A ball and I feel for Mark, but now we will be going full throttle. It has been difficult for everybody, the uncertainty that surrounds a change of ownership is huge whether it is a football club or a business and lots of people have had to live through it and it was no fun. But people worked so hard to get this over the line and get rid of this uncertainty, I have not spoken to Mark this morning but I will be having a chat with him this afternoon and I would imagine he is incredibly relieved it is done and we can now give him the tools to make sure we are successful on the pitch.”
Asked whether he expected to receive a list of players Cooper would like to bring to the club, the executive chairman added: “I would imagine he has got it ready and I would not be surprised if it is in my email inbox now!”
Speaking about the banning orders, he was keen to focus on the future, but admitted that four supporters banned from Huish Park for their comments had been contacted by the club.
He added: “Those four banning orders have been rescinded already, they received letters from me (on Thursday) evening. That is probably all I want to say about the past because I want to look to the future because I am excited about the future. I have said before and Prabhu shares the vision, I believe we should be a League One or League Two club, that is where Yeovil Town deserves to be. I am not going to give a timescale but that is what we are building towards.”