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It's looking alright, we have not got a great deal more than we had last week. We think we will probably have Jason (Price) back available, we will see how he is and then we will go from there.
But I think we have got Danny Livesey, he is probably going to be back firing, we didn't really want to use him last week, it was a bit close. We don't want to take a chance with his hamstring because if it goes it means he misses all of the closed season and then pre-season, it is a nasty one so we will be careful with that.
Because the Southampton game has come so close to Wembley I think for me we didn't really perform or didn't ask too many questions of Southampton. It would be nice to go down there and play on a perfect pitch, the pitch will probably be better than Wembley, and it will certainly be better than ours.
We can try to play a bit of football but we have got some players back that we might have used at Wembley, so the situation will be a bit different. But we were upset with our performance there and we want to go and prove to people everywhere that we are not a bad team on our day. We have done that a lot of times this season and hopefully on Saturday we can get back into some sort of form.
PN
Three games to go now, ideally what do you as manager want to see from your players from those remaining games?
GA
I want to see the type of commitment and determination that we have had for most of the season. That is the key, we have got one eye on looking at things and looking at people and looking at how they are and seeing who really, really wants to be here for next year, and who wants to be part of the team that must improve again.
We think we have done nicely this year but we need to go again next year and do even better. Because that is what happens in football, you can't rest on your laurels. As I explained in the article last week, things are going to be difficult for us but we aren't going to make any excuses, we are going to go with a freshness and a determination to be successful again.
PN
Do some players still have a chance to earn a new deal with you? Are you still undecided about one or two players perhaps?
GA
Most of what we want to do I have discussed it at length with the backroom staff. It is like a jigsaw, you have got to fit it all into that. So there are some players that I might want to keep but I just can't keep. There are some players that we probably can take because of the way that the money thing adds up.
But it will all be done over the next few days, I have got a plan in my mind, it will never go to plan because it never does. I will want more money than will be available but I know the club won't let us go into a Southampton/Southend, that type of situation, a Portsmouth situation.
They won't, and I agree with them for that, that is managing your club properly, Notts County have won a league and people are saying that they haven't won it fairly. I would like to have won the league but when you get that labelled at you it sort of sours it a little bit.
But I think the club won't allow us to spend money that isn't there and I think that has got to be a key and a message to all the clubs that have had problems financially. And a message to the fans that they will run it in terms of what comes in will be spent, they won't spend more than what actually comes in through the revenue resource.
PN
In terms of managing your squad, at the end of last season you had to do a bit of squad trimming to an extent. I guess that is going to be the story again this summer is it?
GA
What I have got to do is I have got to get a squad that can compete and improve on what we have done next season for the amount of money I am given available, and that is what I am going to do. We might be a club that has to carry a smaller number but a higher quality of player rather than spend time waiting for players that might have a chance in a year or two years time.
We are probably going to have to go with players that are ready and fit to play a part right now and then tap into the loan system over and above that. Rather than carry players on wages that take up money that might be better used put in towards paying that little bit extra for that bit of quality that might make us a better team.
So again, it is an equation that I have got to do and the board will let me go whichever way I want to go with that. If I want sixteen players on more money than 20 players on less money spread about then they will let me do that.
But the figure they give me will be the same whether there be 20 players or 16 players. Obviously that limits you to the size of your squad or the quality of your squad and we have to make a decision on which way we go with that.
PN
And because of that, might there be a heavier reliance perhaps on loan players next season?
GA
It is not an ideal situation, we have been successful with the loan boys. They have done very, very well for us and it is certainly a system we and the club have used well. We have been out there looking at these players, we have identified them already.
We have already got four or five calls in to Premier League clubs for players that we think might be available come August time when they have done their pre-season and found themselves not part of the squad.
So we have got to be careful that we don't fill up the squad with average and deny this quality of player to come in if we need it. Because the players we have taken have done really, really well for us. So it will just give us that extra bit of impetus once we have got over the initial start of the season.
PN
Any further movement on the contract front this week?
GA
Not as such, we are still playing and we are still finishing the games side of things. We are hoping for one or two answers quickly and the players are asking for one or two answers quickly. It is an important meeting that I have got this afternoon to find out what and how and where I have got things available. Then we should be looking to wrap things up within the next couple of weeks.
Like I said before, it is an agent's power at the minute, they have got the power to take the deals on offer to other teams and other clubs. At the minute not many clubs are giving definite yes's because they are still playing. But I would think things will start hotting up between now and certainly the middle of May.
PN
Earlier this week you spoke at some length to explain decisions and choices you have made throughout this season. What kind of response have you had as a result of that?
GA
Well I have certainly opened up a debate and I certainly out of respect to the fans and to everybody connected with the club that watches and supports and spends good money on this football club. I think they deserved an explanation of why we do stuff.
Ultimately I stand by everything I said, everything, it was 100% honest, it was 100% factual. It has opened the debate to certain personnel playing in that position, that position or the other position.
I ultimately have to take responsibility and have the final say on which player plays in that particular team or in that particular shape because I am the manager and I stand and fall by those decisions.
But I think it has certainly opened up a healthy debate amongst the fans of why, and has given them an understanding at certain times during the season why we have had to do things. They won't agree with everything I say because fans never do, and to be fair my players never do.
Because you will never agree with everything because everybody is thinking about their own personal favourite and their own personal flavour to what they would do without looking at the bigger picture. I have got to look at 5,000 fans and 20 squad players and trying to keep everybody happy, and I can assure you that it is not that easy at times.
PN
Is that something you might look to do more of next season perhaps?
GA
Yeah probably if I think the situation gets to a stage where the fans are unsure and uncertain and are being a little bit critical without the knowledge of why we are doing things. I think there is a timing to do it, I don't have to explain every decision because managers don't, managers don't come out and do that through the season. Not me, I am on about the other 91.
But out of respect to our fans and out of a respect to the players sometimes you have to explain. To be fair I explain those decisions to the players and they have to take that, whether they will agree with some of it or they won't agree with some of it. Like I said, they are selfish to their own individual situation.
Fans I think at times need to know what is going on. If you are in a situation where they don't understand why and they are asking for something that can't always happen, I think they deserve to know the reasoning behind my decision. Then they can debate that and they can enjoy the crack with their other fans and between them they will come up with some of their own observations, which is fine.