FC Halifax Town: Wild set to meet with chairman and his squad as Town boss plans for next season

Attention has now turned to next season after The Shaymen lost 2-1 in Friday’s National League play-off eliminator at Boreham Wood.

And Wild was hoping the picture would become clearer after meetings with chairman David Bosomworth and his players this week.

“I’ve got a few players I’ve been working on, trying to get in, through lockdown. I need to now pick those conversations back up and see where they take me,” he said.

“It’ll be a quick turnaround for the players we want to retain, they’ll have to let us know quite quickly whether they want to stay, and if they don’t we’ll pursue other targets.

“We do want to work a different way next year, which will mean there’ll probably be casualties from this group because they might not want to work our way.

“But I think you saw on Friday the need to do more, the need to go that extra mile. It confirmed on Friday how I want to set our programme up next year is the right thing.”

Wild hopes the club’s retained list will be announced at the start of next week, but said: “Until we have firm answers on the table from the players it’s hard to give a percentage (of the squad that will stay).

“I’ve got about 100 voicemails from agents on my phone that I need to reply to, but I’ll take my time and make sure I get things right. That’s what I’ve always done.

“We need a couple more athletes, we need a little bit more experience in the squad.

“I’ll be looking for another young gem I can work with and make better.

“All those thoughts are in my mind, but I know exactly what I want to do.

“But sometimes what you want and what happens in football can be a bit different.

“We’ve got loads of potentials and loads of people we’d like to have conversations with, and then it’s about selling what I think is an exciting prospect to them, which is coming to join the football club.”

Wild said the size of his squad next season will depend on what budget has to work with, but that he would like a squad of 20 players.

“That way everybody’s always on the verge of playing,” he said.

“Anymore than that and it’s like having a soccer school, you have more disgruntled people round the training ground every week if the squad’s too big.

“In and around 20 and then if we need to bring anyone else in, we can do.”

On his playing budget for next season, the Town boss said: “I’m hoping (it’ll be the same) but that’s to be confirmed when I’ve spoken to the chairman this week.

“I need that confirming so I can work out where I’m up to.”

Wild also said he will probably look to utilise the loan market more next season.

“Because I’ll be able to shape the budget and shape the squad, I’ll hopefully have a bit more wriggle room to be able to do that,” he said.

As for when Town will be back for pre-season training, the Town boss said: “When we have a firm start date then we’ll work back from that. It’d normally be a July 1 start so generally about five or six weeks.

“We know what we’re going to do for pre-season, we just need a date so we can sort out a time-frame.”