Despite
plenty of frustration, Rugby Town
manager Billy Jeffrey is making some
progress towards confirming his line-up
for the forthcoming campaign, as the
Valley look to improve on last season's
17th position in the BGBL Premier
Jeffrey
has already secured the signings of
2006-07 top scorer Jason Taylor and
defender Delroy Gordon in addition
to striker David Stone, and hopes
to add more of last season's squad
over the coming week. He said : "It's
great news that Jason and Delroy have
decided to stay at Butlin Road, and
I think at least three or four more
of the lads will be signing up again
over the next few days."
Taylor
picked up both Supporters' and Manager's
Player of the Year awards in his first
season at Butlin Road after scoring
24 goals, and Gordon has been an equally
popular performer for the Valley,
missing just one league game in his
two seasons at the club after following
Jeffrey from Stamford at the end of
the 2004-05.
Billy
also added David Kolodynski and Faz
Afandiyev to his squad for the 07/08
season.
Jeffrey
reflected : "It's seems to be
even more competitive than ever for
players this time round. We've missed
out on a couple of good prospects,
but we will keep making the calls
and doing our best to persuade our
targets to come and join us."
He
continued : "We're back in training
earlier this year and I'm sure things
will be clearer after that, with the
inevitable fall-out from other clubs
easing the situation a little. Players
are often given unrealistic offers
or find that clubs have over-resourced
and look to thin down squads almost
immediately."
With
big spenders Brackley Town promoted
to the Premier division this season,
well-supported Leamington joining
the Southern League set-up and even
Corby splashing the cash after the
recent takeover of the club, options
have increased for players in the
area.
The
Valley have already missed out on
two targets to Corby - midfielder
Steve Towers and free-scoring Steve
Diggin, with Towers preferring to
remain with the Steelmen and Diggin
joining them too to boost new manager
Kevin Wilson's potential pool of strikers
to six.
Jeffrey
will also be without Chris Tullin
next season, with the versatile defender/midfielder
opting to drop into the Midland Alliance
and play for Atherstone Town. Another
of last season's young squad full-back
Aaron Stringfellow is having a trial
at Blue Square North side Hinckley
United, and if successful could of
course line up against his old club
at Butlin Road in the scheduled friendly
on July 24th.
Training
starts again on the July 5th, with
the first pre-season game less than
two weeks later at Bedworth on Tuesday
17th July.
By
Jon Venner. |
