WHITES ADHERE TO BUDGET CUTS
CASH-STRAPPED Dover Athletic insist they will start the new National League season – but chairman Jim Parmenter has warned there’s still work to be done.
The entire Whites squad was listed for free transfer earlier this month after refusing to take a 20 per cent cut in their salaries with the club struggling financially as a result of Covid-19.
Player-coach Lee Worgan and midfielders Bobby-Joe Taylor and Nassim L’Ghoul have since left Crabble while five of the 11 contracted players and the management team have agreed to temporary pay cuts.
Parmenter, who said two weeks ago that the Kent coast club needed £250,000 in order to avoid insolvenSouthend cy at the end of August, provided a more positive update on Dover’s situation.
Difficult
“We’re still facing some tremendous challenges and some very difficult times,” he told the club’s website. “We know that we can now start the season and we’re going to work hard to make sure we can get through the season, but it would be wrong to pretend that we’re not facing some more challenges.
“The big one is that we’re trying to cut the wage bill. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to agree with all of the players. Unfortunately, the six that haven’t done are the six highest-paid players and we won’t cut some without others. We won’t punish some members of staff to subsidise others so at the moment we’re still paying full salaries.
“The five that have agreed are off the transfer list, the six that haven’t agreed are very much on the transfer list. Part of balancing our books will be to try and move some of those players on or hopefully to get some sort of agreement with the players as a group so that we can balance our books.”
Build
Dover, still looking for a shirt sponsor, signed a new kit deal with Kappa this week and added former United goalkeeper Josh Bexon, Bromley left-back Sam Wood, midfielder TJ Bramble, striker Louis Collins and extended the contract of winger Marshall Wratten.
The club has moved from its training venue at K Sports in Cobdown to Crabble to further cut costs as manager Andy Hessenthaler continues to build his squad.
“We’ve got 30 players training at the moment,” added Parmenter. “We had 11 signed on when we started and by the end of this week we’re hoping to have 15, going towards a squad of 18 or 19.
“We won’t hurry with the others because we know exactly what we’re looking for. It has to fit in with our cost availability and there’s a lot of players out there looking for jobs.”