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| Fleetwood made 92 appearances across two spells at Edgar Street |
Stuart Fleetwood has spoken about the situation at Merthyr and is 'gutted' that his time at the club has come to end.
Last Thursday financial problems at the South Wales club came to light when 80% of the players were told to find pastures new.
There have been seven resignations in seven days from the board, and since Monday's emergency meeting there's a new interim board in place (link).
Fleetwood told the In Off The Post Podcast: "At the start of last week there was a couple of high profile resignations within the board, and obviously a few rumours started flying round.
"On Thursday the club rang the players and told them there wouldn't be a training sessions that night. It's not that some of us were surplus to requirements, it's just they didn't have the money to pay us until further notice.
"It was very out the blue."
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| Fleetwood (right) played for the Martyrs against Hereford earlier this season |
The 31-year old striker spoke with manager Gavin Williams on Thursday morning.
"I spoke to Gavin Williams who rang me and was very apologetic, but I couldn't accept his apology as it wasn't his fault. I was told to sort myself out and go and find another club.
"I said to Gavin that I'd happily go and play Saturday for free if it would give the club a chance of getting the fixture on and keeping it afloat for another week.
"But it was already agreed that a youth team would go to the game because they didn't want to be unfair to the players because there'd be no travel and we'd have to drive ourselves. They also didn't want to give the players any false hope that they might be staying."
How does Fleetwood feel about leaving the club so abruptly?
"I'm gutted, I went there with a lot of hope at the start of the season and the club seemed very well run from the outside looking in.
"Even when I was there, there's never been any issues with wages, and even if I drove to games I'd been given expenses without having to ask."
On Monday it was announced that the former Luton Town striker had signed for Southern Premier side Redditch United. How did that come about?
"Luckily I managed to get something sorted pretty quickly for myself, but other players aren't sure where their next pay check is coming from.
"I was looking for clubs close to me and I want to still be competitive. I just put in a call [to Darren Byfield, Redditch manager] and explained the situation.
"He said '100% I'd get you in - let's get it done.' It was a matter of 24 hours and it was done, we're just waiting for the clearance now.
"I'd urge any of the other players if they're unsure about what they're going to do to just make some calls. I think there's a lot of uncertainty about what's going on at the moment."
The full interview, which includes the striker talking about his coaching role at Cheltenham Town, can be listened to on SoundClound here (link).
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