New season starts now, say Spartans

Nobody will be resting on their laurels at Blyth Spartans after manager Tom Wade revealed that planning is well underway for next season just two weeks after the last one ended, writes Mark Carruthers.

An eighth-placed finish in the Premier Division saw the Croft Park club exceed many people’s expectations and Wade said on Saturday that he was already working with assistant manager Colin Myers on what will be a big preseason to build on that.

Wade said: "Colin and myself have held meetings to put together a pre-season programme that will give us the best chance of really attacking the season, hitting the ground running and building on the foundations we have in place.

"We want everyone involved and we will be inviting the supporters into open training sessions. We will be also be announcing a competitive list of pre-season friendlies as soon as they are confirmed with the opposition, it’s an exciting time for everyone at the club."

Wade also reassured the Green Army that an emphasis on retaining the vast majority of the squad had been put to the top of his 'to do' list.

Wade, who hailed talks already held with the existing members of the Spartans playing staff as positive, said: "As a club we have to be looking to keep the squad who achieved so much last season and I can assure our supporters that talks have already taken place with the players.

"They were very positive talks and we got a lot of answers that we wanted to hear from them and I think we answered a lot of questions that needed to be answered for the players too."

The former Gateshead and Newcastle Benfield manager also expects to take full advantage of early planning for a summer recruitment drive.

He added: "We identified the players we wanted and the areas we felt we had to strengthen as early as February. We know what we need and we know that we have to add to our squad.

"We have a list of key targets and we are already talking to them, hopefully there will be progress over the coming weeks."