Edwards has full squad lined up ready for restart
BARNSTAPLE Town manager Dean Edwards says he has a squad of 22 players ready to sign up for the 2020-21 Southern League Division One South season.
However, Edwards sees no point in getting them to put pen to paper until there is clarity on when nonleague football will return.
He believes it could be the end of September or early October before Barnstaple are back in action.
Edwards, the former Torquay United director of football, has a wide cross section of players lined up, including some from overseas.
He said: “I have got a full squad. I have got two or three players coming in from abroad.
“They will be decent players. The reason why they are coming over to me is because they want to be spotted in England.
“Basically, they will be paying their own expenses to come here.
“They might only play for two or three months but they will benefit the club then and benefit themselves.
“I have also got a couple of lads coming down from London, and I have got a couple of local boys, and some from Exeter, Plymouth and Torquay.
“I have got a full squad of 22 but I don’t see the point in signing them at the moment because I can’t tell them anything.
“It’s no good me saying ‘I have signed him, and him and him’ because your best laid plans can go wrong, as everybody knows.”
Edwards went on: “I’m just waiting to go, but I don’t see the point in doing anything until they actually produce the fixtures.
“I have got my signing-on forms ready to go out and get the players signed on.
“They are asking me ‘When is the first pre-season game?’ and I have said ‘I don’t know, I don’t think anybody in the FA knows either.’
“As soon as the green light goes on,
I will have all of my players signed.
“I have got all my pre-season fixtures, but I just can’t give any dates out. I have had a team from the Midlands ring me this morning.
“They said ‘What date do you want to pencil in?’ I said ‘Pencil in August 29 but it might not happen.’”
Edwards took over at Barnstaple last October and oversaw a number of changes before the season was cancelled in March.
At the time, Barnstaple were bottom of Southern League Division One South.
Edwards said: “It’s up to the powers-that-be but I really don’t think we will start before the end of September, beginning of October. Then you have got to ask yourself how are they going to fit the season in.
“It’s not so bad for League One and League Two, and the National League, because they have got fulltime groundsman.”
However Edwards added: “But for the non-league teams, how they are going to get pitches ready for playing on them nearly twice a week I do not know.”