Rebels have precious time to put plans into place
Slough Town FC: Joint managers feeling more relaxed as they prepare to make squad announcements
With the season having been curtailed early and declared null and void, Slough Town managers Neil Baker and Jon Underwood have had a little more time to get their plans in place for what they hope will be a more normal campaign.
With the National League South season having been curtailed early and declared null and void, Slough Town managers Neil Baker and Jon Underwood have had a little more time to get their plans in place for what they hope will be a more normal campaign.
The pre-season friendlies are in the process of being organised, with a couple more to be put into the calendar and the players they wish to keep, and those they wish to let go, have been spoken to.
Announcements on the squad should be made in the coming weeks but Baker is happy with how the Rebels side is shaping up after a tumultuous and, for some, torturous, campaign which in many ways was doomed to failure before a ball was even kicked.
“We’re always busy when we’re starting to prepare for the new season,” said Baker.
“We’re out watching quite a lot of games, watching the u23s, and we’re just keeping our ears to the ground and we’ll start to make some announcements on players next week, some that are going, some that are coming in.
“It’s an interesting time because we’ve never really had this period before and you’re still able to watch some games as well. It’s quite helpful.
“Normally it is (rushed).
“You have a short window, and you also want to get away on holiday and things like that.
“But we’ve had more time to talk to our players, the ones we want to keep, and we’ll start to make announcements shortly.
“It’s a position we’re not used to, having so much time, but we have an idea of where we want to be and we’re looking forward to it.”
Baker hasn’t been involved with the club in a physical sense since the middle of December, after he opted to take a step back to care for his father while he underwent chemotherapy treatment.
He’s now itching to get back to work on the training ground.
“From December 15 I wasn’t involved in terms of being at football matches or training,” he said. “I didn’t miss too many matches, but you feel like you’re away from it. It’s been a nice break actually and hopefully, fingers crossed, we’ll be going into a normal season, but you can never say never with this pandemic.
“We’re in the middle of organising friendlies, we’re almost done on that front, and once everything is finalised and known we’ll start to make announcements.”