Change needed to move forward, insists Feeney

NEWPORT County AFC manager Warren Feeney claims change was needed for the club to move forward after the club released eight players yesterday.

Yan Klukowski, Matt Partridge, Seth NanaTwumasi, Rhys Taylor, Joe Green, Nathan Ralph, Scott Barrow and Dean Morgan were not offered new terms by County.

“I’ve said to them it’s nothing personal but unfortunately that’s the job we’re in,” said Feeney.

“It’s not about me, it’s not about them. It’s about this football club progressing.”

But Mark Byrne, Andrew Hughes, Alex Rodman, Danny Holmes, Darren Jones, Scott Boden, John¬Christophe Ayina and Medy Elito have all been offered new terms

And Feeney hopes they stay with the League Two club for the 2016-17 season.

“I want to keep the core and I’ve told them that,” Feeney told BBC Wales Sport.

“I would like them to stay because I want to build around it.

“But I know that there will probably be a couple of those who will wait and might look at other things.

“Their heads will be turned by their agents. But the grass isn’t greener on the other side.”

Feeney will now turn his attention to recruiting replacements for the eight players who have left.

“There is a lot of players but they’ve got to be the right players,” said the Exiles boss, who guided the side to 22nd in League Two.

“I don’t want a season like last season – it was about staying up.

“I want to progress, I want to get up but it’s not going to happen overnight.”

Feeney has also taken up one-year options on 19-year-olds Tom Owen-Evans and Kieran Parselle.