FC Halifax Town: “Jack’s been made an offer” - Wild ‘hopeful’ over midfielder Earing’s future

The 22-year-old is out-of-contract this summer and has been rumoured to be on the radar of some Football League clubs after some sparkling performances for The Shaymen during the previous campaign.

“Jack’s had a really good season, so he’s obviously going to demand interest, as a lot of our players have done this year, because they’ve done well,” Wild said.

“That’s one of the fall-backs of doing well, is that everybody wants your players.

“We had this last year and I’m sure we’re going to get this again this year.

“Jack’s been made an offer, he’s now taking time to consider that, he’s looking at his options and we’re hopeful, because we’ve been talking to him for quite a while, that he’ll pick us as a viable option. So we’ll see what happens.”

Midfielders Danny Williams and Reuben Noble-Lazarus have both left the club since the end of the season.

Wild praised Williams’ contribution over the last two seasons at The Shay.

“Danny was a fantastic lad, somebody I really trusted, whatever you asked him to do, he did it, and somebody that I have a lot of respect for in terms of a footballer,” said the Town boss.

“Moving forward, the way we see things next year, we just didn’t think that Dan would get the game time that he wanted, and if we feel like that then we have to do what’s right for both parties.

“Top lad, top player, I think he served the club really well, the fans can only speak highly of what Dan did for us, and he goes with our best wishes.”

Williams combined his playing duties with coaching for Town’s academy, and could still continue in that role.

“The offer’s still there, he’s looking at his options and he’ll then decide what’s best,” Wild said.

Noble-Lazarus failed to make a competitive appearance for the club due to persistent injury problems.

“I was gutted how that panned out because before he came in he trained for three months with us for no money every day, and there wasn’t an issue,” said Wild.

“Unfortunately, when he got that injury in the Boston game, he just never seemed to get back to his full fitness.

“He’d train hard, he’d work to get himself fit, but whether it was us not feeling like he was ready to play, or him getting setbacks with injury, he never got into a position.

“But every time he trained, the players, the staff, everybody would be like ‘wow, what a player he is’.

“He just never got into a position to play, which is unfortunate for him really because the fans didn’t get to see what a top player he was.”

Wild says there is plenty of work to do behind-the-scenes at the moment in preparation for next season.

“We’re speaking to agents, we want to see what agents have got, we’re trying to get our players to accept our offers, so it’s a balancing act,” he said.

“We’re spending all this week seeing what’s out there, we know what we want but we also want to know if there’s anything coming out that we don’t know about but that we should know about.

“We’re looking for those little young gems that we can make better and move on, like we’ve done in the two years that we’ve been here.

“We’re looking to get our players retained as quickly as possible this week.

“I’ve got players to meet this week, so that process starts again.

“Then over the next couple of weeks we’re reviewing the season, preparing for next season and what needs to be done, football-wise, physically and analysis-wise.

“So all that’s going off in the background as well, so there’s no real rest, but it’s exciting.

“I get really excited at this time of year about how we can make the team better, what we can do differently and what players are out there that we can make better, and can we sell the club to the players that are interested to try and get them to come and sign for us, because they see us as a great place to play their football.”

On discussions with possible new signings, Wild added: “There’ll be quite a lot over the next few weeks that we’ll sit down and talk to.

“Once we know for certain where our lads are, that then gives us more direction on what we need to recruit.”

Wild says there is a cut-off point after which he will move on to external targets if he has not received an answer from his out-of-contract players.

“We’ve obviously got what we’ve got, we’ve had no fans in, apart from the last game of the season, for 14 months.

“We’ve got constraints, which are as big as they’ve ever been, the richer and getting richer, the poorer are getting poorer, and we can offer what we can offer, and it’s down to the players then to decide.

“We’re certainly an excellent football option for them, it’s whether they decide that the finances are right for them, or they decide that they want to go elsewhere.

“Like I say, we have to appreciate where we are in the food chain.

“I’m preparing for if they don’t (re-sign), so I’m not caught on the hop, and I have to wait and see what they say.

“Don’t get me wrong, if there’s no answers within the next seven-to-ten days, then we move on because we’re not waiting all summer for them to tout themselves around and then come back to us at the end of the summer.

“It’s a balancing act, you have to be prepared with the next one, but hopeful that the one we’ve already got in the room will stick with us.”

With Williams’ departure, Wild says a left-sided player is one of the positions he will look to fill.

“We are looking at different ways of how we can play, how we can utilise the players differently, so we will be looking for a left-sider but what sort of left-sider remains to be seen, what’s out there, what fits what we want to do.

“We’ll see what people throw at us and then we’ll take a nibble accordingly.”

Town have already announced friendlies with Farsley Celtic and Guiseley, and Wild is hopeful further matches will be confirmed shortly.

“We’re hopeful a couple more can be announced soon,” he said.

“We did have one in but because of the rugby schedule, we couldn’t do that one.

“The away ones are pretty easy, it’s the home ones that are tough to sort out because of the rugby schedule, which is something we have to take into consideration.

“So that’s taking a little bit longer than we first hoped.

“We’d love to have a couple at home, but it’s getting people to agree to come on the dates that are available to us.

“With the league season starting on August 7 and us not coming back until July 19, and the Conference North season starting the week before us, your options become a bit tighter of who you can play.”