Sports Editor Tony Bugby brings us the latest from Oldham Athletic.
LEE JOHNSON believes it will be prudent to be patient as he has the challenge of having to rebuild Latics’ team for the 2014/15 Sky Bet League One campaign.
Latics’ manager, speaking to me from Portugal, is in no immediate rush to bring in players with 1,000 professionals out of contract in England and Scotland.
“We could strike now, but by waiting longer we will get better value for money though, inevitably, we will lose a couple of our targets,” explained Johnson who has already drawn up an extensive list of transfer targets.
It is a different strategy because by early June last year Johnson had already signed James Dayton, Jonson Clarke-Harris and Sidney Schmeltz and had Korey Smith lined up.
The rebuilding has been necessitated because of the loss of key men including player-of-the-year James Wesolowski and Jonathan Grounds who both rejected the offers of new deals.
Charlie MacDonald, Kirk Millar, Terry Dunfield and Danny Gosset were released while during the season just ended jewels Jose Baxter and James Tarkowski were sold for combined fees believed to be £800,000.
On top of that loan players Gary Harkins, David Worrall, Joel Byrom and John-Paul Kissock have returned to their parent clubs.
Johnson added: “We also lost Adam Rooney, Matteo Lanzoni and Cristian Montano during the season so have a rebuild to do.
“In an idealistic world the players would have got to know each other last year and then hit the ground running for the second season, but I knew that was not going to happen.”
Johnson added he is interested in bringing Harkins and Worrall to the club permanently as both played prominent roles in the successful battle against relegation.
He explained: “They both did well for us and I enjoyed working with them so I would not rule it out.
“However, we could not afford their wages until something happens at their clubs so it is a case of wait and see what happens.”
Latics have offered new one-year contracts to goalkeeper Paul Rachubka, defenders Connor Brown, Adam Lockwood and James Wilson while David Mellor and Anton Rodgers are expected to stay on short-term deals.
Lockwood is the only player to have signed, though the others are expected to remain at Boundary Park.
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