GARRY Haylock has insisted that Hayes & Yeading had little option but to accept Crawley Town's offer for Charlie Wassmer.

The 19-year-old defender (pictured) this afternoon signed for big-spending title favourites Crawley in a shock move to the Broadfield Stadium from relegation-threatened Hayes & Yeading.

Wassmer has initially joined Crawley on loan, but he has signed a pre-contract agreement with Steve Evans' men and will join permanently for an undisclosed fee when his loan expires.

Boss Haylock admitted that a club of Hayes & Yeading's size had little option but to accept Crawley's offer for a player that came through the club's youth system.

"They came in and made a good offer last week and the club decided to accept it," said Haylock. "We are playing in a full-time league and getting 200 or 300 at our home matches so when a club comes in with quite a lot of money, then we are not in a position to say no.

"Some people have complained that we should not sell him, but I would ask them to run a football club with 200 people coming through the gates.

"If it had not been the right money for the club, then we would not have accepted it."

Haylock says Wassmer is far from the "finished article", but he believes he will be a good player in the future. 

"In an ideal world you would keep your best players," Haylock added. "Charlie is not the finished article and if I got someone in then he would be the one I would leave out. He has been playing very well, but he has made a few mistakes and one of them meant that we lost 1-0 at Forest Green.

"I was trying to manage his situation for the good of the club and he is only going to get better and improve. But they have come in and taken a punt on him. I am not convinced he will play straight away, but he will be a good player if he develops. It is a good deal for the club and the player. His value was a shade above what I would value him at, but in three years time it may be different."

Wassmer could ironically line-up against Hayes & Yeading at the Broadfield Stadium next Tuesday night for Crawley.

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