Hawks set to release players as Doswell hails ‘wise’ summer recruitment

Hawks are set to release 'one or two' squad members this week.
New signing Joe Iaciofanco nets on his debut in Hawks' 3-1 friendly win at AFC Totton. Pic: Kieron Louloudis.New signing Joe Iaciofanco nets on his debut in Hawks' 3-1 friendly win at AFC Totton. Pic: Kieron Louloudis.
New signing Joe Iaciofanco nets on his debut in Hawks' 3-1 friendly win at AFC Totton. Pic: Kieron Louloudis.

Boss Paul Doswell has been active on the signing front this summer, bringing in seven new recruits as well as getting Josh Taylor to commit to a new deal.

But the Hawks manager is now looking to trim down his squad for the upcoming National League South campaign.

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Doswell admitted that the club's budget, which is believed to be in the region of 30 per cent less than last season, is virtually 'done'.

That’s after key summer targets Tommy Wright, Godfrey Poku, Joe Iaciofano, Billy Clifford and Moussa Diarra all arrived at the club.

And now Doswell is expecting potentially two of the squad that fell short to deliver promotion through the play-offs to leave Westleigh Park.

‘There are maybe one or two outgoings from the current squad that were here last year,' he admitted.

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‘Obviously, that’s part of why we’ve signed some of the players we’ve signed.

‘From my point of view, I think it’s a really good basis of a squad.

'I would say we’re pretty much there.

‘It was really important to get Iaciofano, Billy Clifford and Godfrey Poku - Josh Taylor re-signing was also something we were really hoping he would do.

'I’ve made it clear that the budget is not the same as last year, it’s probably down by 30 per cent from where we were.

‘We’ve used it wisely.

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‘We’ve got some really good young players that aren’t overly expensive.

'Then to get the likes of Diarra and Clifford, they’re more expensive.

‘We’ve made the budget work with 16 or 17 players and I think that’s our budget done.'

Doswell is content with the squad he has managed to assemble for his second season of challenging for promotion to the top tier of non-league football.

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He is open to scouring the loan market, though, should injuries begin to bite as the season progresses.

‘Realistically, we’ll be looking at loans to make it work now,' he added.

‘If we do pick up injuries we’ll be looking very much at our contacts in the pro game for loans.'