Kelly refutes inexperience claim

Darren Kelly: the Athletic boss says the club are “trying to be cute and clever” in the transfer market.

ATHLETIC manager Darren Kelly has dismissed suggestions that inexperience is at the root of a lack of activity in the player marke.

The 35 year old, for whom Lee Croft is the club’s only new signing to date, has watched his rivals including Bury and Scunthorpe have thrown money at a recruitment drive.

But Kelly says he is content to take his time over moves. Working with assistants Dean Holden and Jim Harvey, Kelly says plenty of research work has been done and contact made with agents. The club is awaiting return calls concerning targets.

“This is a quiet period at the moment and a lot of players, agents and managers have been away,” Kelly told the Chronicle. “But it has been a good opportunity to delve a lot deeper into players we are looking at. We don’t have a massive budget. We want to get the best player at the best possible price.

“There is no need to panic: people may point to a lack of experience, but trust me, we have plenty of experience dealing with managers and players.”

Athletic missed one target last week: goalkeeper Michael Ingham opted to remain at York rather than make a move to Oldham, partly for family reasons.

Kelly explained: “Michael has just had a baby and coming here would have been a longer all-round day for him, in terms of his doing the sorts of things we chatted about. As a player you could train and go home, but I wanted more from him.”



ATHLETIC will find out where they are heading in 2015-16 when the new season’s fixtures are released on Wednesday morning. The full list will be printed in Wednesday’s Chronicle.

The draw for the Capital One Cup first round will be released at 10am tomorrow, with Athletic unseeded in the Northern section and potentially up against recently relegated Premier League outfits Hull or Burnley.

twitter: @Matt_Chambers_