Manager on the rumoured ins and outs at the club
Darrell Clarke this morning admitted that although defender Jamie Turley was someone he was interested in, the player would need medical assessment on a broken arm before any offer was made from the club.The manager said: “Jamie Turley is a very, very good centre half at Conference Prem level.
“He is a player that interests me, but as it stands at the moment, he is injured; he broke his arm in the summer, and we are waiting on a physio report.
“The lad might do a medical to see where he is with that, as obviously we don’t want to take any chances, so as a football club we are making sure the injury is recovered, or recovering. He is a little bit short of being able to do contact work at the minute.
“He is a player that interests me, but nothing in concrete, as there is a lot of interest elsewhere as well.
“I am not making a concrete offer to a player that is injured until I get our medical advice on the situation. We are not in the financial position to take a gamble on a player.”
The manager also confirmed that Michael Smith was back in training this morning, despite interest from Peterborough.
Darrell said: “The fee has not been agreed and Michael Smith is back in training today. He is a great lad and a great professional.
“The Board is staying strong on the fee, and there will be no one more delighted if we have Michael Smith in our starting line up at the start of the season.
“We are in a situation where we don’t have to sell unless the valuation is made.”
Four players left the field with injury concerns on Tuesday night, but Darrell is hopeful three of them could be in contention for Saturday’s trip to Gloucester.
He said: “We are hopeful that three of the four players who went off injured against Yeovil will be available for Saturday’s game.
“It is a little bit too early to assess Lee Mansell’s knee. The good thing is that there is no swelling in the knee, we are hoping it is just a jarred knee with no serious damage.
“But it is going to take a couple of days to settle down, but we are hopeful that he will be fit for the early part of next week, but these things can suddenly change.
“It will be a first team squad going to Gloucester on Saturday, I will be taking my strongest team available, depending on injuries.”
One of the players the manager hopes will be fit is striker Ryan Brunt, who came off as a precaution on Tuesday.
The manager said: “When you have been out a while you are going to pick up one or two things.
“For me as a manager I want Ryan Brunt for the start of the season, but he has got to get some minutes under his belt. It was a precautionary thing to bring him off the other day.
“He has looked very fit in training, and very sharp and he will be a very big player for us if we can get him on that pitch more often."
And the manager is looking forward to taking his players to the annual Open Day on Sunday.
He said: “It lets the players know what a massive club they are playing, and what they are playing for.
“It will show the new players just how well supported the club is and how passionate the fans are.
“They need to see that and they need to know that, because that is what is going to bring us success on the pitch.”
For the full interview check out Gas Player today and tomorrow.