BIG WAD NEEDED TO TAKE GARY TO THE EFL
ALDERSHOT Town chairman Shahid Azeem has warned EFL suitors that not even £1 million would lure away his much soughtafter management team of Gary Waddock and James Rowe.
The Shots boss has already shunned the advances of one Football League club this season and is now rumoured to be wanted by another with League Two Swindon Town said to be interested in the former Republic of Ireland man.
Nicknamed the Wadfather by the adoring locals, Waddock is 21 months into a successful second spell at the EBB Stadium as he looks to add to his 2007-08 success and steer the Shots to promotion to the Football League for a second time.
But, naturally, his work alongside his assistant Rowe, the former West Ham United youth-team coach, this season has not gone unnoticed elsewhere with a number of Football League clubs linked with a move for the 55-year-old.
An unknown League Two club, strongly believed to be Barnet, had official advances for Waddock rejected by the Aldershot board in January, while managerless League One outfit Oxford United are also said to be monitoring the situation.
Now with his club bearing down on at least a National League play-off spot for a second successive season, Azeem has warned rival clubs that any advance for Waddock wouldn’t be welcome.
“Even if someone gives me a million pounds today, I would not let Gary and James go, and I genuinely mean it,” the Shots chairman said.
“This is a special place to be at the moment and that is largely down to them and the style of football they have brought to this football club.
“We haven’t heard anything from anyone but if we did then we would fight tooth and nail to keep them both at Aldershot Town.”