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| Hereford At Kings Lynn In August 2023 |
Budget cuts are on the way at Kings Lynn football club according to manager Adam Lakeland. And he's not very happy about them.
According to the Eastern Daily Press the cuts will reduce the football budget to between £7,000 and £8,000 per week.
The paper suggests the cuts have been suggested by Singaporean investor Joseph Phua’s Turn Sports Investments, which is bidding to take over next season, in league with the Blue & Gold Supporters’ Trust.
Lakeland spoke about the cuts in an interview with BBC Radio Norfolk.
“I obviously felt that when Sam and I came down to King’s Lynn the
remit was to take a club from second off bottom and keep it in the
league, which we did, build a competitive team and challenge for at
least the play-offs, which we did, with a view to then trying to if not
get up this year, then try and go up next year and felt we were on
course to have another good go next year, which is why I obviously came
out publicly and asked for that support," he said.
“But, unfortunately, I've been told the complete opposite and in actual fact, the budget is probably going to be cut by the best part of 30pc for next season, which means that I've spent the day having incredibly tough conversations with some players who've been unbelievable for me, for Sam, for themselves and for this football club.
“I feel really disappointed and deflated and quite raw about it at the minute.
“I've been backwards and forwards all week, probably not so much with the chairman (Stephen Cleeve). I think the whole ownership model is complex, as everybody probably knows, and it's difficult as a manager of the football club because you don't 10pc know who you're answerable to.
“But I'm being told that the budget's being cut by, as I say, around 30pc, and other things that we do as a professional football club are probably going to have to maybe change. And it's incredibly concerning.
“Sam and I have come here and we've given blood, sweat and tears for this football club to drag it from its knees, to put it in the position that we've got it to this season. And nobody's as disappointed as ourselves that we lost in the play-offs and we didn't manage to go up this season.
“But my message to the chairman, to Joe, to Bal, was that if you give me the same budget, even the same budget again next year, then I'm confident we can have a really good go at trying to get promoted. And within a matter of days of us losing in the play-offs, I find out that it's being reduced by 30pc and they're going in a different direction.
“That's incredibly demotivating and deflating. And I feel let down because the remit has completely changed. And that's something that I've got to give a lot of consideration to.”
Lakeland hasn't been told if the club will be full time next season.
“There have been conversations around that,” he said. “I don't agree with it, but I also think it's going to be incredibly difficult for us on a full-time model to operate on the budget that we're being set. I think that they could be competitive on a part-time budget, but, with all due respect to King’s Lynn and my players and the supporters, I won't be travelling to the other end of the country to manage a part-time team when I could stay on my doorstep and do that.
“I hope that they remain full-time and I hope that they find a way to get additional investment because I feel like we've really put this football club back on an upward trajectory. I feel like we've got that connection back a little bit between the team and the supporters this season.
“I feel like the supporters have got a team that they can see works
hard for the shirt and will give everything for the shirt, and I feel
like there's been a genuine excitement around the direction we've been
moving in. And to have that cut off at the knees really is incredibly
disappointing.”