Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley is predicting a busy summer at Huish Park after seeing his playing budget increased by the club’s owners.
The Glovers’ owner Prabhu Srinivasan revealed this week that the club had also appointed a Sporting Director who is yet to be identified and, spoiler alert, his manager’s comments brought us no closer to finding it out.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah about his plans for the summer ahead of the final fixture of the National League Premier Division against Solihull Moors in a lunchtime kick off on Saturday, Rowley said: “In the last month or so, there has been the discussions with the owners. We weren’t fully sure we’d be safe (from relegation), so there was no point in planning for the long-term and medium-term, but now we’ve been given the all clear we can start really looking into the next sort of six to nine months and what that looks like. It’s busy time for us, I’ve got multiple Zoom calls this week with potential new signings and and players that I want to learn more about. I think the aim for us is to bring in some players have got a lot of ability, but just the right character and, and the right personalities to try and have a much better season than we did this season.
On the increase in his playing budget, he added: “When I stepped into this brilliant club, I was always aware of Prabhu’s ambitions and aspirations for this club. Sadly he’s not able to come over here too much because of where he lives in Dubai and issues with his visa and stuff, but whenever he is here, he fills me with a lot of confidence. I love sitting down with him and hearing about what he wants and what he wants from us as a management team and a staff. I’m very much looking forward to these next few months and if we get the right people in, the right players in, then we can stand here this time next year and have some, some really positive conversations.
“I had exactly the same experience two years ago (as manager at Walton & Hersham). I had three lads returning to my previous club and, and sat down with (assistant manager Darren Simpson) in multiple cafes in Surrey and planned a team. We built a team that finished in the play-offs the first season and have just won the league this season. So it’s something that I am passionate about, I would say it’s definitely one of my strengths and together with Darren we look forward to getting to work.”
Rowley will be without midfielder Delano McCoy-Splatt for the final fixture at the weekend after the AFC Wimbledon loanee dislocated is shoulder in last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at title-chasing York City, but he is expecting to have captain Jake Wannell and full-back Alex Whittle available to be named on the substitutes’ bench against Solihull.
The two sides are separated by just two points in the middle of the table with the visitors in 15th place having accrued 53 points from their 45 fixtures and the Glovers’ one place lower.
The Yeovil manager said: “I was thinking this the other day, it’s going to be our last game at Huish for the season on Saturday and every time I go there I genuinely love bumping into supporters. They’re there as early as three hours before the game, I love speaking to old supporters, new supporters about the present and the future and I always get a really good feeling from them. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, we’ve had some decent results, some poor ones, some okay performances, some bad ones. It’s been a learning experience for me, something that I’m very grateful for and I am pocketing every experience I’ve had and learning opportunity I’ve had. I know I am going to be better next season.
“I’m really glad that the game’s at Huish Park though because I feel like the energy from the crowd and it’s such a fantastic stadium. I was there two days ago just having some meetings and stuff and and every time you walk in there and you see the pitch in good condition, it gives you a buzz. So hopefully we can use some of that as motivation.”