Turner talks players
Graham Turner gave a long interview to Trevor Owens, Sports Editor of BBC Hereford and Worcester this morning. Some of the highlights are printed below.
Turner started by reviewing the current player situation. "At the end of the season we offered contracts to the majority of those players whose contracts had expired," he said. "The exceptions were John Grant, Ian Wright and also Ken Griffiths, the young goalkeeper. Of the ones we offered contracts to, Matt Clarke has since departed despite agreeing with us initially, but before we got pen to paper he decided he was going off elsewhere.
"We are still waiting for Richard Teesdale to actually sign his contract. All the formalities have got to take place but we have agreed everything and Danny Williams, who has just come back from holidays and I expect him to sign before the end of the week."
Talking about the loss of Matt Clarke, Turner continued: "That's how it goes. On the Monday after the season had finished I spoke to him, made him an offer which was a little bit less than he had been on and he was quite happy to accept it and the format was going to be that we had all the contracts typed out, not only his but including three or four others, and we took them to Gloucester University where we had some fitness tests and they were going to put pen to paper but Matt went missing. Eventually I found out, when he did speak to me that he was going to Burton. I had a few days off and when I came back I was quite surprised to see that he had signed for Telford. These things happen in football. Matt Clarke's gone. He was a decent player for a few years here. We have got to get a better one now.Q
Trevor Owens then turned the conversation to scout Ron Jukes, and suggested that with Jukes moving to Telford "would I be openly cynical if I put two and two together and made four?"
Turner replied "It's not like you to be cynical Trev; that's my job!"
The interview moved to Albano Correia. Turner said that he had spoke to his agent. "Albano is a difficult case. You look at him sometimes. He got a tremendous goal at Southport and put a couple more in. What we want to do now is wait for the lists to come in. I want to sign a couple of strikers. I have already seen one and talked to him and made him an offer. I want to sign an experienced mid-field player, young goalkeeper, and a right-back. And then if anything extra special comes up, we would like to extend the squad to accomodate them. We don't want to turn anybody down. Those are the priorities and that's what we are working on. I don't want to jump in too early just in case better players come on the scene. I think there are going to be massive clear-outs at some of the league clubs. I think a lot of them are in financial difficulties and the only way they are going to sort themselves out is to reduce the wage bill. So I expect a number of players to be available that could be quite attractive to us. Whether we can convince them to come here remains to be seen. I want to take stock on what might be available and that includes Albano.
"I have spoken to half a dozen players already and I have met one and made an offer and I am waiting for an answer which should be this weekend.