Done and Tremarco offered new deals

By Mark Currie, Daily Post

07 May 2008

BRIAN LITTLE will try to tempt Matty Done and Carl Tremarco into staying with Wrexham after telling Neil Roberts and Chris Llewellyn they can leave.

Winger Done and defender Tremarco are the only two players who have been offered new contracts by the Wrexham manager.

Meanwhile, Little will sit down with Steve Evans tomorrow to discuss the Wales defender’s future.

And former Wales strikers Roberts and Llewellyn could yet be offered deals after the Racecourse boss left the door ajar for them possibly to stay with the club.

In line with the massive clear-out he promised last month, the Dragons boss yesterday released Roberts and Llewellyn, plus Danny Williams, Michael Jones, Jamie Reed, Michael Carvill, Alex Darlington and Robbie Garrett.

Little had previously confirmed that five contracted players – Anthony Williams, Richard Hope, Michael Proctor, Silvio Spann and Josh Johnson – were surplus to requirements.

A further 11 players, predominantly youngsters, will form the basis of Little’s new squad in the Blue Square Premier next season and he is hoping to have 24 players for the start of pre-season training in July.

“The situation will be dictated by the five contracted players who are free to leave,” said Little. “If they do move on there’s a chance we could change track in respect of Neil and Chris if by that time they are still not fixed up anywhere else.

“Both Matty Done and Carl Tremarco have until the end of June to make up their minds and, although Matty’s representatives are keen for him to stay in the Football League, our offer at least means we would get some compensation if he moves on.

“Although they can keep us waiting we need to try and free up as much space as possible. In an ideal world I’d like to bring in at least six new faces as quickly as possible and, depending on circumstances and finance, maybe increase that number into double figures.”

Current Blue Square financial regulations dictate that clubs like Wrexham can allocate a basic £350,000 to the player budget, supplemented by 25% of the club’s audited turnover in each of the two previous seasons.

That means the Dragons will have around £850,000 to spend in the current year.

“At the moment the only spending restrictions on me are those imposed by the rules and are not the result of a ceiling set by the club,” Little added.

Wrexham will also withdraw their reserve team from the Pontins Holiday League next season.

Following the example of clubs such as Crewe Alexandra, Wrexham will instead play a series of friendly matches throughout the season and the Dragons boss claimed the club would benefit from the change.

“It’s not been an ideal situation having to play reserve-team fixtures either 24 hours before or after a first team match and we also have the problem of needing international clearance every time we want to look at triallists or young players from Football League clubs,” he said.

“What we are planning next year is to play a series of friendly games – as many as in the league – against sides from Premiership and league clubs.

“We can play in the afternoons, we can use our own training facilities and we believe the advantages far outweigh anything we could get by staying in the league.

“It will help immensely in the recruitment of players as opposed to the lengthy process of developing players.”