The rich get richer
3:55pm Wednesday 10th September 2008
By Connor Murphy »
GRAHAM Heathcote is worried attempts to strengthen his squad will be scuppered by ‘non-sensical’ transfer rules.
The Alty boss is hoping to bring in reinforcements in a bid to end a seven-game winless streak but is becoming increasingly frustrated by restrictions on player movement.
Clubs at Blue Square Premier level were informed this week they are no longer allowed to bring in players on a non-contract basis outside of the two transfer windows.
Instead, if they want to bring in free agents or a non-contract player from a lower division, they must offer the player a contract.
Heathcote believes such rules only work to further disadvantage smaller clubs in the division.
He told SAM Sport: “We’re still searching for the right formula within the squad we’ve got. But how you improve the squad I don’t know because, the way the rules are, I just don’t know what you can and you can’t do.
“We’ve been told this week that you can’t even sign non-contract players now. To me, it’s a massive restraint of trade so we’ll just have to wait and see what we can do.
“At the moment, you can only take people on if you prepared to give them contracts, although you can just give out month-to-month contracts.
“Then, the only other way is the emergency loan situation but that’s supposed to be dictated by injuries so I’m not sure what you can and can’t do.
“Everyone will just pass the buck and say it’s been dictated by FIFA but not even FIFA should be able to say a player can’t move around. It needs somebody now to challenge it because it’s just becoming non-sensical.
“If you’re on contract, you can’t move around - I understand that. But I find it difficult to accept that a non-contract player can’t move around.
“If I can’t bring a non-contract player from another club, even from below us, it’s just nonsense and it’s massively playing into the hands of the rich, who can afford to carry a big squad.”
Alty travel to Stevenage on Saturday looking to turn around their recent run of poor form.
Heathcote has been pleased with his team’s defensive effort in recent games but said his players will need to become more clinical if they are to start winning games.
“Unfortunately, at this moment in time our problem is that we’re not sticking our chances away because we’ve tightened up defensively,” he said.
“We’re now a competitive side but we have to go a stage beyond that and be a side that’s going to win games of football.
“We just have to take our chances. We’ve had them, we’ve just not been clinical enough to put them away.
“We’ve not got a combination up front that’s clicking at the moment and that’s not because anyone’s playing badly, we just haven’t quite been able to find the right combination yet.”
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The rich get richer
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