The following is a statement from manager Bren Kelly.
“Hi all. I just wanted to touch base with our brilliant fans and provide a brief update. I made a statement prior to the Alvechurch game, where we came out on top in the Red Recruitment Trophy and finished the tournament unbeaten, about players coming and going and the reasons for it.
Since then, we have lost a few more. We have had a lot of good players move on – some we will miss, some we will not, and as stated before, we have lost them for various reasons, like work commitments, better offers, new challenges and some whereby we mutually agreed that their time was up at the club.
These reasons have not changed. With the more recent departures of players like Gift (Mussa) and Jason (Cowley), it goes without saying that we do our best to secure players we want to keep. But sometimes, we cannot compete with other offers out there, and players have demands of what they feel they are worth.
The resources we have are sound but not enormous or vast and what’s most important is that the club remains in good health and not stretch itself, when we have had little or no income now for some time.
In the off season, it’s become apparent that we have not got the resources of others clubs in our area, so as we have all seen, we have lost some players for that very reason, which is fine; players move on and, going forward, it’s important that we identify and recruit players that fit the club and fit the team.
We will be working hard to make sure we are as competitive as possible, but with an almost total rebuild in progress, it would be silly of us to forecast or say where we think we will finish at the end of the season.
It’s a new squad and it will take time to learn about each other and come together. We have some brilliant players that have committed to us and that is a real positive for me. We have excellent players on board and I’m sure some of them will become new heroes for the Sporting faithful.
We will be trying hard to sign more players and yes, there will be strikers, and maybe in some other positions too. But we must realise we are still newbies at this level, so our expectations cannot be over the top.
Some clubs have been at this level for decades, so please don’t think we will stroll through the league annd automatically gain promotion.
In our first year before the first lockdown, we had an amazing season and over achieved; yes, it would be great to repeat that and whilst we would all love that, it may not be possible.
Going forward, we will work hard with the squad and try to sign the right players to improve it and, as always, I will approach each game with a winning mentality and try to provide a standard of football that you fans can enjoy and be proud of.
I’ll leave you with some confirmation of players that have moved on, new players and retained players so far.
I look forward to seeing you all soon.”
No longer at the club
Dan Platt
Josh Ezewele
Tom Taylor
Charlie Dowd
Brad Birch
Lee Chilton
Andre Landell
Gift Mussa
Tom Massey
Nathan Binner
Chris Lait
Mikey Taylor
Jason Cowley
New & Retained
Max Beardmore
Leon Broadhurst
Jack Wilson
Liam Spink
Luke Ward
Nathan Hayward
Josh Quaynor
Miro Pais
Will Shorrock
Jono Brown
Jack Hallahan
Jimmy Mutton
Kieran Dunbar
Jack Newell
