Simul Sports Group

Darren Sarll has said he know “less than anyone” about the ongoing talks of takeover surrounding the ownership of Yeovil Town.

However, the manager said that discussions around the possible sale by current owner Scott Priestnall to the Simul Sports Group, led by former Cardiff director Julian Jenkins.

This week, Jenkins confirmed his group were “fully engaged in the final stages of due diligence” to buy Yeovil Football & Athletic Club, the company which owns the club’s football operations and Huish Park stadium.

Yeovil Town manager Darren Sarll.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Speaking about the discussions ahead of the weekend’s match with Wrexham, Sarll said: “My job is not to worry about who’s coming in or may be coming in, all I know is there’s been a lot of rumours for a long time and we are where we are.

“The players are behind me, I’m behind the players, that is the only support we need in our dressing room, all the rest is just noise and we need to learn to block that out.

“Does it get difficult at times? Of course, it does because very few of these players have been through this.

“But we have to make sure we go down the tunnel because, by hook or by crook, whether we play well or not, if we lose games we get criticised, whoever the owner is.

“We have to concentrate on performances on the pitch and that is our focus, to keep punching above our weight – that’s all we can do.

However, Sarll insisted that he did not feel he needed to know every detail of discussions which have been ongoing for months – and confirmed he is a listener to the Gloverscast!

He told our man Ben Barrett: “I can put things in the back of my head, I’m an employee of an organisation like everyone else, I don’t feel I have the right to demand x and y to the people that have paid my mortgage for the last two-and-a-half years.

“All the other things you get as a football manager, if you don’t like them, don’t do the job! I get criticised all the time, I get criticised on your podcast – maybe I add?! But that’s okay.

“I don’t feel a righteousness that I deserve to be told every five minutes that who owns the football club, I’m sure if there’s someone coming in they will introduce themselves to me and which way they are going with Darren Sarll.

“They will know which way they want to go anyway, so I have a contract until the end of June and I’ll keep working inside that contract.

Experienced full-back Mark Little also told Ben that the club’s players had not been told anything more about the possible deal.

He was a player at Bolton Wanderers when they narrowly avoided relegation from the Championship on the final day of the 2017/18 amid huge financial problems which led to players not being paid.

But, the former Bristol City man said this is a very different situation: “At Bolton because we hadn’t been paid for three months, that was probably the most important news I needed to know.

“It’s very different here because anything below the owner, everything is running smoothly, everyone is here and training and games are coming thick and fast – that’s our department, that’s what we concentrate on.

“We are not getting information, I don’t think the manager is either, it’s way above our pay grade and I could not tell you if it’s a good thing or not if we get taken over or not.

“We have got games to win and that’s the thing we have to do, whether we have this owner or another owner.”