Shrewsbury Town may have to wait on new contract decisions
Boss Sam Ricketts has admitted Shrewsbury may have to wait for decisions from some of their out-of-contract players.
Town offered fresh terms to four players – Scott Golbourne, James Bolton, Reice Charles-Cook and Lenell John-Lewis.
Only the former has put pen to paper for Ricketts’ side. Golbourne, 31, signed a new two-year Montgomery Waters Meadow deal earlier this month.
It is understood there is interest in first-team regular Bolton while back-up keeper Charles-Cook and injured forward John-Lewis are also yet to commit.
Asked if the others were close to agreeing, Ricketts replied: “Yes and no.
“Obviously the offers are out for players and some are looking to see what else is out there. So that’s really the case at the minute. It’s trying to get as much done as early as you can.
“But it is still early, so a lot of players and clubs are the same. A lot of people have been on holiday for two weeks, so you can’t get anything done.
“With others it’s too early in the summer. Certain players have aspirations to be at a certain level and it may not be for another month or six weeks that aspirations come back down to a more level opinion.”
The off-season is still in its early stage with footballers generally away on holiday. Town are not back in for pre-season until this time next month.
Those players whose contracts are expiring do not run out until June 1, though clubs can make agreements for players to join on that date.
Ricketts, who says he does not foresee an entire overhaul and wants his business completed relatively early, says the first few weeks have been spent compiling target lists, assessing availability and even looking at long-term plans.
“I’ve just been busy planning and organising,” the boss added. “Because the season went the way it did, we had to wait until quite late to start planning going forward.
“Not just now and the immediate but there’s an awful lot of long-term plans for the club.”
“It’s trying to piece all that together and get things moving along those lines as well.”
Salop return for pre-season training on June 20, spend two weeks training at Sundorne before jetting off to Portugal for a week of warm-weather training on July 7.
Shrewsbury will contest an as-yet unconfirmed friendly abroad. They are yet to confirm any friendlies this summer.
