Four sign up, but Brennan leaves
MICHAEL Duff has revealed four Cheltenham Town players signed new contracts and one player has been released.
Midfielder Conor Thomas and defender Will Boyle have new two-year deals while Alex Addai and Dan Bowry will stay for another year.
“Two players who signed contracts in February, before any of this pandemic happened,” he revealed in a fans’ Q&A on Zoom last week.
“They weren’t announced then because we had won six in six and we didn’t want anyone taking their eye off the ball.
“Alex Addai triggered another year on appearances so he has another year and with Dan Bowry we have taken up the option on his contract and to be able to do that we had to let him know by a certain date, legally. The only other player is Archie Brennan, who we have released.”
Six players - Rhys Lovett, Josh Debayo, Luke Varney, Chris Clements, Jonte Smith and Rhan Ince are out of contract on June 30 and Duff said: “Unfortunately we are not in a position to do anything with them at the minute.
“We don’t know what league we are going to be in, we don’t know what budget we are going to have and I feel for the players.
I have empathy for the players as it is a difficult situation to be in. We are trying to let them know
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as soon as possible and what league we are going to be in will affect what happens to certain people no doubt.”
Duff and director of football Mickey Moore were also asked about a permanent move for loanee Jake Doyle-hayes.
Moore said: “Jake’s loan has been really successful. He is contracted with Aston Villa and they haven’t made a decision on his future as yet. We will have those conversations as and when we know what is happening with him and Aston Villa.”
Duff added: “It’s pretty obvious you would take him in a heartbeat but he is contracted to a Premier League club so we don’t know what is happening with him.
He will have aspirations to play as high as he can so it’s not just a given that as he has had a good loan spell that he will be desperate to come.
Would you like to keep him next year no matter what league you are in? Yes.
But there are so many questions and bits of the jigsaw that are a lot more complicated.”