AFC Fylde cannot offer new deals while no money is coming in

The likes of Danny Philliskirk, Mark Yeates, Luke Burke, James Craigen, Tom Miller and Dan Lavercombe are unlikely to sign new deals with the club, owner David Haythornthwaite confirmed.

It comes after news Lewis Montrose will also call time on his three-year stay with the club, the midfielder agreeing a move to Kidderminster Harriers.

Due to the financial uncertainty caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Haythornthwaite said it would be “suicidal” to hand out new contracts when the club wasn’t making any money.

“We submitted our retained list last week after finalising it,” Haythornthwaite said in his latest video for the club website.

“There were a couple of things that weren’t quite right but the final list has now gone in.

“In sending in your retained list, you’re deciding who is currently not on the list.

“That list has been difficult in these circumstances because nobody, with all the uncertainty of not knowing when football is going to restart, can commit to paying wages to a player in July, August, September and October at least when there’s no income.

“It would be totally suicidal to do that, it would just be stupid.

“We’re going to have a situation where a lot of players on July 1 are going to be without a club. That’s not just in the non-league scene, but also in League One and League Two and even higher.

“We’ve already had clubs contacting us, we recently had Hull City contact us about a couple of players they have that normally they would keep, but in the circumstances they’re thinking of letting go.”

Haythornthwaite added: “A lot of these players were quite well paid and we’ve got to protect ourselves.

“We won’t be offering contracts from July 1, it’s impossible to do that, so we want to have the best and most minimal squad we can on contracts.

“We’ve got contractual obligations, we’ve got some on two-year contracts so there are people that are entitled to the next year. It’s a balance between the two.

“All those players at the moment will depart, or at least be departing our payroll, which is important with my Fylde financial hat on.

“This will take a lot off the wage bill and that’s going to be important going forward. We don’t want to add to it.”