Stags in a good position to negotiate with current players - Evans

Mansfield Town boss Steve Evans has praised predecessor Adam Murray's decision to make sure the club has options on all their current players with no one able to simply walk away.
Stags boss Steve EvansStags boss Steve Evans
Stags boss Steve Evans

Next Wednesday looks set to see the retained list revealed and Evans said: “The loan players will go back to their respective clubs to sort their futures and then we have a blank canvas to keep everyone else.

“Everyone has an option on them. No one can walk out the club, that’s the good thing.

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“I have been critical of the previous recruitment, but the strategy of making sure the club has an option to extend the players’ contacts has been a good one as it gives us an element of power in being able to keep these players.

“But I don’t think there is a player in that dressing room that doesn’t want to be here when we walk back in at the end of June. They all want to be here - and so they should.

“Some of the players have been outstanding since we came in - a few we inherited, a few we signed - and I think there are some big performances still to come from the likes of Alex MacDonald, who’s getting better, and Alfie Potter, who’s getting fitter. I think Joel Byrom has been terrific for us.”

Many managers think telling players they are no longer wanted is the worst part of their job.

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But Evans said: “I don’t find it the worst part of the job. The worst part is at 5pm when you’ve just got beat. But it’s never a nice part – even if you’re telling seasoned professionals there is no contract.

“There will always be a club for them. I don’t think there is any player that we will move on that won’t get a club. It’s always a difficult conversation to have, but we have always done it very professionally.”