Six weeks to go...

Player news this week has been limited to Ben Purrington being told his contract won't be renewed. He had been made an offer to stay but that clearly didn't do it for him and the club has chosen to let him go. Purrington was very gracious in his leaving statement and we wish him well. 

BP was one of those players who, for me, sat in the 'ok box.' On his day he was perfectly competent in League One and wasn't out of his depth in the Championship, even if we did get relegated that year. He wasn't hugely comfortable across the halfway line so didn't really fit Jackson's preferred system although he got his fair share of goals for a defender, including that one he will never forget. I always felt that a better positional player with more attacking intent than Ben wasn't beyond us, but it didn't turn out to be Papa Soare in spite of his CV. That for me is the rub in deciding to let Purrington go - will we start the season with two better left-backs than him?

With Pape Soare already being released along with Matthews, we find ourselves without any experienced full-backs at the club - perhaps Garner will be playing with wing-backs? That will surely be remedied before the 30th July but we have work to do in all areas of the first team and there is an increasing concern that we may be making, at least some of the mistakes we made last pre-season. Sandgaard has already said we will take our time and that he expects to back-end the recruitment, although I think most of us took that to mean before the season starts rather than when the transfer window closes on 1st September.

We were also told when Jackson's contract wasn't renewed six weeks ago that it wouldn't hinder our recruitment plans because of the model we have in place i.e. an ongoing team effort, including the manager, but which could continue even in the absence of Jackson, although we have yet to announce anyone.

Perhaps they will unveil a flurry of players next week ahead of the pre-season tour of Spain. Given the importance of this to team-building, you certainly hope so. On the basis we need a minimum of eight first-team recruits, if they all join after the tour, it will be something of a missed opportunity. 

They say the early bird gets the worm and I think there' a lot of truth in that when it comes to player recruitment. Wigan did it last season and stormed up as a result. Our waiting game ended-up with a disappointing late two loan signings, of Arter and Lee. We really need to have a settled first-choice eleven for the kick-off and ideally you want them to have had a couple of weeks to settle into the area and have played some competitive football in their new side before the opening day - that is mid-July and only a month away.

We have to hope that our negotiation is a lot crisper with players than it was with Garner (and possibly other management targets pre-Garner and maybe his side-kicks Scott Marshall and Scott Lindsay). We could also do without building a reputation as a club looking to drive too hard a bargain or looking to get players on the cheap. It really is a false economy if you end up without the players you need. I have said it before and will continue to say it but we have to be serious promotion contenders for much of this season. A repeat of last season or anything like it and I believe the club will effectively become a run-of-the-mill League One club, with even smaller gates, poorer commercials and without the financial muscle or appetite for risk to get out of this division. It would also make a mockery of Sandgaard's initial ambitions when he took over the club.