IF you’re going to allow a manager to almost totally rip apart your squad and make bold decisions, you may as well let it be one who found Jamie Vardy playing for Stocksbridge Park Steels.
Gateshead have signed 13 new players so far this summer and their boss Neil Aspin says there is still room for more.
He’s decided to go early – but if June is the month where players are known to call the shots, July is when suddenly the managers take control back with time ticking for footballers to fix themselves up with teams.
Aspin – who took Vardy to FC Halifax in 2010 – has decided he won’t be waiting around for anyone this summer.
He wanted the squad to be together from week one of pre-season and isn’t in the mood to satisfy stragglers who couldn’t get the deal they wanted elsewhere.
George Smith, the young Barnsley left-back, took Heed past a dozen last week. And while there may be space for one more if anyone catches the manager’s eye Aspin hopes the early bird catches the worm.
Pressure
He told The NLP: “I realised towards the end of the season that I needed to make some big changes here and I’ve been able to do it.
“I’ve been on my phone more than ever, it’s been busy but I knew if I can do all my business before the players returned then we’d have a chance – with the number of new players arriving, we had to get the group together from the very start. We have a lot to work on.
“It’s fair to say that July is the month where clubs hold the cards more than the players but I got the players in I wanted to in May and June. Some people will become available now naturally, there’s probably room for one more perhaps, but it was important to me because of the size of the rebuild that we acted decisively.”
Two players staying in a much-changed Gateshead line-up will be deadly attacking duo Ryan Bowman and Danny Johnson.
The pair got 29 National League goals between them last term, with Macclesfield‘s Reece Styche drafted in to put some pressure on.
“Competition for places is what we want,” he adds. “We’ve kept the players we really wanted to and now it’s about making sure they all connect as quickly as possible.”
