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" I have had a couple of days to digest what has happened, take in what happened on Saturday, the emotion of it for everybody. Then you get yourself settled and let the dust go away and start your planning for the following season, or next season as it is. It has been a tough week though because there are a lot of decisions that have been made. We have made them and now we look forward into what we think is going to be a big improvement, certainly result-wise, on what we achieved last year.
" There are always going to be bones of contention with situations like releasing Chris Lumsdon. We will have to wait and see won't we, is it a good decision, is it a bad decision. We find these decisions hard, I find them hard to make. Christopher Lumsdon is a wonderful character, he has been a tremendous servant to this football club. At the business people's dinner on Tuesday I raised a glass in admiration for what he has achieved.
" If you are looking for reasons then I will give you part of the reasons. I have been told to work within a certain budget for next season, I have got to do that. I look at my midfield and I have got three players 30-plus already that have signed and have done terrifically well for me. Possibly with the exception of little Bridgey (Marc Bridge-Wilkinson) who broke his toe, but I think that there is more to come with him.
" Then you are looking at the other position where we need some more energy, we need some pace and energy in that area of the field and we need youth. So with the three experienced players that we have got there we felt that Chris was the one that was unlucky, and he has been unlucky. Certainly his injury situation has gone against him in terms of games played and we couldn't carry another senior player in that area.
" Where we want to bring a young player with pace and with energy to compliment the more experienced players that we have got there, and that was the decision that we made and that was the reason that we made it. We have to wait and see if that is the right one or not and if Chris Lumsdon goes away from here and gets a club and plays every game and is one of their better players in a successful season then we are wrong. "
" If he doesn't do that then we might just find out that we are right, hindsight is a wonderful thing, hindsight didn't make the decision, here and now and me made the decision. As honestly as I could I made that decision with a lot of thought and knowing Chris's situation and knowing that he is a player that I admire immensely.
" Not just as a football player but as a person and I will stand with all that. I have had a lovely phone call from Chris yesterday and he accepts the decision and he needs now to go and find himself another club and continue a career that he has carved out for himself. I wish him, and everybody from the football club wishes him absolutely all the best.
" Gavin (Rothery's) situation has been a bit strange for me because there have been a lot of people wondering about and criticising that situation. Gavin is for me, again I have got a budget to work to and Gavin comes right at the low end, and unbelievably at the low end of that financial scale. The reason behind that is because what has happened at this football club in the past is that we have had several players not even in the sixteen sat in the stands on top money, and I mean top money.
" As I have just told you, I am working to a budget, I am working to a figure that wouldn't enable me to do that anymore. I have got to carry some squad players and hungry players and youthful players that can push these senior players and make sure that we haven't got an amount of money sat on the bench. Either on the bench or in the stands twiddling their thumbs, I don't think that the club can any longer can afford to do that.
" I have been under instruction to work to a figure, which I am going to do. That is why people like Rothery and Michael Burns, and Simon Lakeland and Jonny Blake, and Tom Aldred and Andy Cook and Gary Madine have got to start forcing their way into this team. To start enabling us to find some local talent, some youthful talent, that comes at the right end of the scale financially. "
" That is the main reason behind Gavin coming, he actually played alongside Joe Garner in England's under-20s team and was very successful. He had a year out with a reconstruction to his ankle, he is now coming back to show us what type of player he is. The amount of money that we have got and it has cost us to bring Gavin in, it is a very good one for the football club because it will enable us to have a little bit of cover at an affordable price.
" Lewis (Neal) is a different one, Lewis we think has done quite well, we think that Lewis has done quite well. The reason behind Lewis is that we think that there is more to come from Lewis, we want a little bit more in terms of determination and fight. I think that the club has lacked a bit of drive, I think that the team has lacked a bit of drive and a bit of fight.
" Lewis is a clever player, he is nice on the eye, he has got good delivery. We want maybe a little bit more in terms of strength and drive and energy. Again Lewis, the price and the financial side of the thing, it would have cost us to bring him into the football club. We think that we can find one that fits the bill possibly even better than Lewis has done for us.
" The list is already drawn up for left-sided players and we will be hunting them out and hoping that we find the quality. I think that the key this season is to get some quality players in, if we can add two or three players to the side that finished the game on Saturday, better than that eleven, then we have got a very, very good squad.
" Then what we have got to do is tell the supporters and tell the people, behind that we are not going to have seven or eight players on massive money. We have got to find some youth and we have got to find some that make the budget work. I don't want this to be budget driven, but I have got a job to do and I have been given an amount of money to fit in a squad that is going to challenge with teams that have got treble our budget, possibly even more. "
" Sometimes quadruple our budget, and that is not an easy job, and what the fans need to know from the start is that I am going to assemble that squad, and if I can find the three players, and I think that we can afford them. Which can be better than the ones that played on Saturday, then we have got a terrific chance of making a big improvement on what we did this year.
" Ian Harte is going to be financially a big signing for this football club, and I am going to go out try to sign Ian Harte. Because I think that he is a terrific player with 70-odd caps for the Republic of Ireland and you have seen what Ian Harte can do, and there is miles more to come from Ian Harte. Because he has come from a situation where he has only been training with Sunderland, he had a bit part spell with Blackpool and we have seen his quality.
" If we get him through pre-season and we get him fit in the games, the pre-season games, and we get him into our team, Ian Harte might be a player that goes onto better things from here. He might be one that is possibly going to make the club money, if he doesn't then he will certainly add quality and experience and guile. He is a tremendous talker and leader on the pitch as well, I think that he would be an invaluable signing to the football club, but he won't come cheap.
" At the moment the players have had their offers, they will digest them. What they might find is that there is not a bottomless pit out there at the minute in terms of other clubs offering more money. We have offered good offers, what we consider good offers, within the scale that we can. I have been talking to Ian non-stop since Saturday, the feeling that I am getting is that we are very, very close to doing that one.
" You know what can happen in football though, people can see what he has done and maybe come in and outmuscle us financially. He really enjoyed his time here, the three games that he played, I thought that he was outstanding. I think that the fans took to him straight away, the players took to him straight away. We have to wait and see now if we can make that one happen, I don't think that it will be easy and we are asking people to back us. At the minute though the indications are that Ian is going to come and the board is going to back that one. "
" There is a reserve list of players, there is already one, I have got a list of 200 players, I was going to read them all out to you so that you had something to report and to write about. 237 players we have got on the list, so there are enough players on it, whether we can afford them, whether they are available, whether they are first or second or third choice.
" They can't all be first choice can they, we can't carry a squad of 237 can we, so it is there but it is a matter now of piecing it all together. You have got to be careful that you don't sign too many here and now, and a better one comes up available in the middle of June that is out of contract, and the club decide that they are not going to take him.
" So you need to keep some spaces available, you don't need to run and dive in and do it all now. Ideally for me I would like it all done today so I have got my squad of 20-22 players ready here and now, because then I can go away and enjoy my summer. I am not going to be able to do that, we have got to work very, very hard during the summer to make a squad happen. It might be that there are still a couple of spaces to be filled when we report back, and we do that when we report back.
" Because some players might go on trial at clubs, some players might be expecting big money. Some players might not find that situation to their liking and we might then become in with a chance, a fighting chance, of getting a good player at a good price. So that is why you have to keep the squad open, part of it is a little bit of a game, it is a game, it is a game of chance sometimes and a game of hope.
" You have always got to cover your corners though in terms of having a second option if your first one doesn't come off. Clubs like Carlisle, Rochdale and Bury and people like that don't always get first choice, because we get muscled out of it financially by the big boys. "