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" It has been terrific here, the facilities have been first class, the pitch is fantastic, swimming pool, leisure centre, weights, gym, perfect football pitches. So it has been good, plenty to do in the spare time to occupy the players when they have not been training. They have worked wonderfully hard and they are in really good shape to be honest, I am really pleased with the attitude and the spirit that has been generated and we are looking forward to the game tonight to top off a good week's work.
" I just think that you are in each other's pockets day by day, we find out all about our players and what they are like as people, and how they live. Not just around the football club but when they are out together and they have got a whole day to kill. You just find out so much about character and what the players are all about. Players get to know each other and form bonds and friendships and stuff that we hope will augur well throughout the season.
" We have got two good characters in Tom Taiwo and Lenny Pidgeley, I will tell you know. Lenny has come in and he has been a breath of fresh air, he is a really buoyant character and he has trained well, he has got better all the time that he has been with us. So we are hopeful with that one that it will prove that it is an improvement.
" Young Tom is just a terrific guy to have around, he is a lovely, lovely lad, great to work with, loving the fact that he is around the first-team and he will just give everything that he has got in everything he does. He is a model professional, he is actually right along the lines of a young Paul Thirlwell the way that he is, the way he prepares and the way he plays. So he has bedded in lovely and the lads took to him very, very quickly.
" What we want is competition and strength in depth. We think that we are happy now in the midfield area that we have got two young ones in Michael Burns and Tom Taiwo and three experienced ones in (Graham) Kavanagh, (Marc) Bridge-Wilkinson and Thirlwell. So that gives us that competition and depth of different variety in that area of the field.
" We have a good relationship with Chelsea, it has been one that has been worked on since the Harry Worley transfer thing, or loan deal. They were very pleased with the way that we conducted ourselves, even though we left Harry out of the team for a bit of it. Neil (Bath) has kept in touch and Frank Arnesen is very keen on players that they think need to get round first-teams to consider us. So it is a really good link that we have got at the minute with them. "
" Everything I do is serious, this Margate game is another chance to score goals, another chance for players to stake claims, another chance to get a bit more fitness in real match terms, and chances for players to provide ammunition for selection for places. We are fine at the minute on injuries, touch wood we are spot on.
" At the minute we were waiting to see Danny Livesey train this morning and if there is no reaction to him tonight then he is going to play his first game. So it will be two teams again tonight and then we will start giving extended minutes from Tuesday onwards against Hull City, so tonight is the last of the 45-split two sides and then we start getting down to the nitty-gritty. So the players have got to now start putting their case forward for selection.
" We have had some warm enquiries on strikers this week. We watched a player that we hadn't really seen much of on Wednesday night, he was very impressive. Someone that we didn't really know much about because he is not from our side of the country and he is very, very young. He did very, very well, there is an enquiry gone in about that one and there have been plenty more enquiries gone on.
" I spoke to two Premier League managers today, we have made a lot of warm enquiries. We are pressing on with it, we know the importance of it and again, I stress that I won't get one in just for the hell of it at the moment. The key with the Premier League thing at the moment though is that they have only just gone back pre-season training and their managers haven't had the chance yet to assess their squads in terms of who will go with the first-team squad and who they want to get real football out on loan.
" So that is one area that we are looking at, also to buy, there are players now over the next few weeks, or certainly the next couple of weeks that we will be out near enough every night watching all the friendlies. We will be gathering information on targets that we have had on our radar and the priority once we have finished our training now is to hunt that player down.
" I would have thought that with a 25-goal a season striker that it is not very easy to get that sort of player. That is the one that we would like and we would like a player in that could do that. Trying to get him is a different kettle of fish but we are hunting him down. You keep quoting 25 but that was a line that I used, they are very difficult to find and what we have got to try to do is get somebody that will do that. There is absolutely, well I would very much doubt that we would start the season without another centre-forward. "
" We know that we are going to have an amount of money from Danny Graham to buy a player if that is the line that we go down. At the minute there is nobody smashing me down in terms of come and get me, in terms of players that we can find to buy. The loan market is looking reasonably attractive at the minute, there were a couple of enquiries went in with that. As the season gets nearer though clubs from the Championship and the Premier League decide that some players might be surplus.
" That is where certain players might come on the market, but at the minute we are getting sort of blanks. At the minute though that player in the region that we have got to spend isn't knocking me down, so I am not going to do it just for the sake of getting it in right away. I think that we need to be patient and get the right one, hopefully it will, well I am pretty certain that it will do, and I keep pressing, before the start of the season.
" At the minute we have no plans to look at further trialists, we have got a decent base of a squad. We put two teams out at Workington that were impressive in both halves, we put two teams out tonight that are impressive in their own right again. So we think that the strength of depth of the squad is quite good if we are just looking for the priority player now, which is that striker. We are reasonably happy with the strength of the squad apart from that.
" It is looking at the minute that Cleveland (Taylor) has come back with a terrific attitude. His problems aren't with myself or the football club or the fans. He has got his own reasons and I think that in due course he will come out and say them. I think that he has actually spoken to our official club site today and I think that something is going to come out there.
" I have said to Cleveland that he has got to come out and say things because that keeps him in alright with everybody concerned, otherwise people keep asking questions. Whilst he is here though and he trains like he is and he plays like he is then he will be part of my selection process, if somebody comes in and offers a decent deal that is right for us then we will think about it.
" I would hope that the fans will see more momentum in the home friendlies, tonight is another game where everybody is getting equal share of pitch time. We have to then start making decisions on people that we think are going to be in contention for the Brentford game and the real serious friendlies. The tougher ones start on Tuesday night so everybody has got their opportunity to put their cases forward. "