Tuesday, 6th January 2009

News

14th November 2008
Last night Barry North and I have had a meeting with the players and management staff to bring them up to date with what is happening at Gresley Rovers.

As you know for some weeks now we have been trying to secure some new finance for the club, which as I said yesterday has now not been forthcoming from the potential investor.

During this period we had a meeting with the players to tell them, that because we were waiting for funds to come into the club we were unable to pay the players wages.

I was honest and upfront with the players, and told them that we were fighting hard to secure the funds but I asked them to give me six weeks to try to sort this out. The players were very quick to support us on this matter and agreed to stay and play for Gresley for this period.

Unfortunately I have had to go back to the players and management tonight and tell them that because the money is not forthcoming in the near future we will have to cut our playing budget and those players who want to leave can do so with our best wishes.

The players have decided tonight that they will stay and play for Gresley Rovers on Saturday against Spalding with the exception of Jamie Hood who has left the club this evening. The players that are left have been given time to make a decision whether or not they want to remain at Gresley or move on to other clubs.

I say again, the players that leave the club do so with our best wishes these lads have given there all and no one should doubt that these lads have given everything.

We have given assurances to the UniBond League that Gresley Rovers FC will play out the rest of the season with whatever team we have. Gary Norton and the management team have agreed to stay and support the Board. This is a massive boost for us and we would like to thank Gary, Tony, Dave, Gary and Sam for their support.

This is a decision that we have had to make; it is not fair on the players to keep them hanging on any longer. It also allows Gary to know where he and his staff stand. As a struggling club, we just cannot go on spending money we do not have.

What happens now? Well we get on with the job in hand, off the field we continue to fight for the survival of this club, on the field Gary and his team start again. They go out and find players to replace the ones that leave, whether that is from our playing staff in the reserves or youth teams or going out to do some deals with clubs.

I hope you understand why we have done this; we have to 'cut our cloth'. It's time to stop messing about, it's time to get this club sorted, we have to make difficult decisions and we have to make them NOW!

Many thanks for reading this and again thank you for your continued support, I will see you on Saturday.

Regards

Mark Harrison
Chairman

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