EXECUTIVE BRIEF: Resolving players’ futures is always a tough job (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

EXECUTIVE BRIEF: Resolving players’ futures is always a tough job

3:00pm Friday 18th May 2012 in Football

I AM currently in the process of preparing our response to the Football Association regarding the claim brought against Paolo Di Canio but the club is fully behind him.

We were made aware of the claim some weeks ago and it was being dealt with by lawyers.

We were hoping that due process would resolve the situation but we believe that what was said was at worst inappropriate but not in any way racially motivated.

The players left for their annual leave last Thursday, apart from a few who were deemed by the manager not to be at the right level of fitness.

The manager flew home to Italy last weekend but came back on Monday to receive the award for the League Two manager of the year at the League Managers Association dinner.

It’s a fantastic achievement considering he was up against Martin Ling and Mark Yates.

We’ve offered contracts to Billy Bodin and Nathan Thompson but we’ve also got to speak to those players that don’t feature in Paolo’s plans and won’t be offered new deals.

With the manager now away, myself and Jeremy Wray will have to speak to players directly and it’s never nice but unfortunately it’s part of football.

But we’re hoping Billy, who has had the great acheivement of making the standby list for the senior Wales squad, and Nathan, who’s been unlucky to have Paul Caddis filling the slot he would hope to take, will try and force their way into the team next season.

Paul Mooney, who was the runner-up in the Samsung Win a Pro Contract competition, has also been invited along for pre-season.