In a busy final pre-match press conference Darren Sarll was asked about just how much preparation had gone into building for next season.
Sarll confirmed that the budget was tight and only likely to get tighter, but that the Glovers had scheduled in some pre-season friendlies.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz,.
“I am speaking to some very good people in terms of recruitment and those spinning plates. There are hundreds spinning right now and you just hope you can catch them before they drop. Two years ago when I was building this squad, I was able to grab so many great plates and we developed a great squad.”
“It is obvious to say this year that our recruitment has not been as good, it is obvious our squad is going to get smaller because finances are not getting better. We have to spend every pennny wisely. We can’t forecast for injuries. Josh Staunton played 35 games in a row for Halifax, he played six for us, how can you account for that?”
“We had (Luke)Wilkinson, (Josh) Staunton and (Lee) Collins for 28 games out of a possible 120, how are you supposed to account for that? Staunton was supposed to be the one that filled in for Wilkinson, Collins and Charlie Lee when they weren’t fit and he was the first to go!
Whilst Sarll spins the plates and counts the pennies there are a few warm up games already in the diary – the gaffer stopped short of confirming exact dates, but Yeovil fans are going to have visits from at least one Football League club and some decent top-flight youngsters.
“We are going to play Forest Green here in late July and Southampton’s under-23s here a couple of weeks before the season…
I think we are going back to Weston-super-Mare and Taunton, so they have been really good in the past couple of years. Our pitch is having quite a bit of work done to it this year, so we have had to have a decent period we can refurb the pitch which starts Tuesday. There’s more in there, I think we have six or seven in the diary.”