Andy Sandell - Oxford United bound?
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Players take a break - but no rest for Waddock
By Charlie OliverMay 07, 2009
Aldershot Town manager Gary Waddock met with his squad on Tuesday, before sending them on their way for a summer’s break.
The four out-of-contract players still awaiting their fate — Scott Donnelly, Justin Cochrane, Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz and Ricky Newman — have all either been offered new deals or told that there is no future for them at the club.
Aldershot were expected to announce Waddock’s decision on the players’ futures as The News & Mail went to press.
Those players who are in the squad for next season were all given a training programme to complete over the summer, with the manager warning that he expected his players to return fitter than ever.
“I think they will find that pre-season training will possibly be harder than anything they have ever experienced before,” said Waddock.
“Not that I have not been pleased with the fitness this season,” he added. “But while in the Conference we found that our pace late in games could win matches, the other teams in League Two are up there with us.
“While I want the players to go away and enjoy a rest and not have to listen to my voice, nor Martin Kuhl’s or Jim Joyce’s, they are professional footballers. We have taken their body fat content and their weight readings and we expect them to return in the same shape or better.”
With the current players sent on their way, Waddock now embarks on trying to craft a squad with improved quality, despite having no money available.
To do that, he may well have to sell some players but he insisted that there had been little interest in his players to date.
“I’ve been hearing rumours linking some of my players to Oxford United, yes, but I have spoken to those players and they say that they are fully committed to Aldershot Town,” said Waddock.
Lewis Chalmers, John Grant and, in particular, Andy Sandell, have all been linked to the ambitious Conference side. “It is unsettling, to be honest,” said Waddock.
Sandell attended Oxford's last home game of the season last month, a defeat to Northwich Victoria, which further fuelled the speculation.
"But I don't try to sign a player every time I go to watch a reserve team, do I?" said Waddock.
“If the phone doesn’t ring — and it hasn’t — that suggests to me that there is not the interest that the rumour says there is.”
It would be a surprise to see Sandell leave, given that he has only just got back in the Football League, after joining Aldershot from Salisbury City in the autumn, having been released by Bristol Rovers two seasons before that.
That said, if there is truth to the rumour, who knows what difference there may be between any offer Oxford can afford to make Sandell and his current deal with The Shots.
Whatever’s Waddock decisions on offering new contracts to players or letting ones go, he suggested that all decisions were, out of necessity, financial rather than footballing ones.
“Due to the budget cuts, decisons being made are financial ones,” said Waddock, who will be loathed to let players go, given that he has already said that this season’s squad was too small.
“The good thing is that everything is out in the open,” said Waddock. “The fans know the situation and they know that some decisions being made are due to finances, not football.
“All we can do is get on with things the best we can and Martin Kuhl and I will always remain positive.
“But to wheel and deal is not going to be easy, as many other clubs are in the same situation as we are and they are not going to want to spend money either.”
Of course Waddock may yet discover that many of his current, under-contract players improve next season, on the back of a season’s experience in the Football League. Dagenham & Redbridge, for instance, only just missed out on the play-offs this season, after struggling the one before, the year after they were promoted to the Conference.
But Waddock urged caution. “Dagenham were able to improve their group a little and had players returning from injury.”
And Aldershot will be without one of their key players next season, free-scoring midfielder Scott Davies.
“It will be almost impossible to replace Scott but we have Ben Harding to come back in and he’s a good footballer," said Waddock. "Different, but good. And Scott Donnelly is an attack-minded player.”
Which suggests that Donnelly has been offered a deal by the club for next season.
And Aldershot’s players have gone into their break on the back of a morale-boosting 2-0 win at Lincoln, which ended their season in style, taking them to 54 points and 15th place.
“It was a very nice way to finish the season and it also showed that we can perform away from home,” said Waddock, who changed the team’s system, using one up front, with wide players joining in when Aldershot had the ball, and then flooding the midfield when Lincoln had possession.
“Kuhly and I had that system in mind for a while,” said Waddock. “It shows that we can be flexible and we looked solid, while also being able to attack with pace and numbers.”
It is something to build on for next season, certainly, but it must also be remembered that Lincoln were hardly the most committed of opponents on the day.
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