Rovers boss Darrell Clarke will continue to play his cards close to his chest over the futures of the 8 players who are coming to the end of their playing contracts. The 8 players are: Will Puddy, Stuart Sinclair, Daniel Leadbitter, Andy Monkhouse, Neal Trotman, Jake Gosling, Angelo Balanta and Abdulai Baggie. The Bristol Post believe several of these 8 players have been made offers to stay at the club, but Clarke said: "I don't really want to go down the route of saying which players have or which players haven't been offered contracts. All I will say at the moment is that we are in ongoing discussions with all of those players and as soon as there are any developments they will be made public through all of the recognised and official channels." Clarke has laughed off claims that Rovers' successful attempt to be the first side in a decade to make a return to the Football League at the first time of asking was aided by a playing budget of close to £2 million. Acting Torquay United chairman Bill Phillips made the claim when discussing the playing budget at Plainmoor during the club's annual meeting last week. It has been reported elsewhere that Rovers' budget had to be cut by close to 50 per cent to under £1 million in the aftermath of relegation to the Vanarama Conference, and Clarke said: "I don't know where Mr Phillips has got that figure from. It is certainly way off the mark and he should probably stop worrying about what we are doing and concentrate on getting his own house in order."
Usually out of contract players are still in contract until 30th June. So they can sign for another team but wont be official until 1st July. Maybe that is what will happen!
