Hayes & Yeading United will return to pre-season training tonight (Thursday) as manager Phil Babb begins his preparations for the new season.
Waiting for official confirmation of which league they would be playing in has put Hayes & Yeading behind schedule in player recruitment - but almost 20 trialists will turn out at Beaconsfield Road.
Hopefuls from across Europe will be vying for contracts in this evening's first session, but Babb is also keen to sign players with previous experience in English football.
He said: “We go into pre-season training on Thursday with about 18 trialists coming in from various parts of the world. We’ve got lads from Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and lads that have been released at the end of the season coming down.
“It is going to be a fair mixture and a wide range of age groups as well. The recruitment process is going to be different this year.
"Rather than relying on loans from Football League clubs, we’ll be trying to recruit some players who already have Conference South experience. It’s a game of poker with some players.
“I’m not worried about getting players in because sooner, rather than later, they will be chasing me.
“Year on year you are looking to improve. Clearly last year it wasn’t good enough, so we need to improve on that. It would be foolish of me to bring in the same core of 16 or 17 players that were here last year because it didn’t work out.
"We’ve got a few key players from last year coming back and the others have got to earn it.
“All players want to play at the highest level they can, so of course us being in the Conference South will help with the recruitment process.”
Dean Inman, Adam Everitt, Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz and striker Pat Cox will all be pulling on the red shirt again next season.
Babb has also spoken to several of United’s loan players from last season about possible returns, although nothing has been finalised. He is waiting on an answer from Jack Mills, who has been invited to join the club for pre-season.
Elsewhere, Uxbridge have asked youth-team manager Stuart Dickson to manage the club’s youngsters and reserves next season following the resignation of Gary Jenkins as reserve team boss.
And fellow Southern Division One central side Northwood, who are hoping to begin refurbishment work on their clubhouse soon, have released their pre-season fixture list which includes games at Chestnut Avenue against Harrow Borough, Hendon and Wealdstone.
