Burman building promotion winning squad

Tuesday 05th May 2009

DARTFORD boss Tony Burman says he will be negotiating new deals with his current squad by the weekend, writes Stephen McCartney.

Burman has successfully agreed new terms with flair midfielder Jamie Day today and the former Grays Athletic star has penned a contract with the Princes Park club until the end of next season.

And signing Day, who made 39 appearances for the Darts, scoring 3 goals, following his switch from the Essex Blue Square Premier club, will be an important figure for the club’s promotion bid next term.

“He wanted to stay,” insisted Burman, when speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk this evening. “He feels that we’re a club going forward.

“I wanted him to stay, he’s signed a new deal until the end of next season.

“He’s had offers from other clubs in higher leagues, but he wanted to stay with us and play in front of big crowds and try and help us gain promotion.”

With Dover Athletic and Staines Town clinching promotion out of the Ryman Premier League, Burman wants his Dartford side to seize the opportunity next season.

“Well, we went for it this year but it didn’t quite happen,” he said.

“Hopefully we’ve learnt a lot and we’ve improved the squad of players and they’ve learnt. Some of them it’s their first season in there.

“When you think big clubs like (AFC) Wimbledon and Chelmsford have taken a long time to get out of that particular league, when (AFC) Wimbledon done it they’ve gone up into the other leagues.”

Looking forward to their’ second campaign at Ryman Premier level, Burman warned, “It doesn’t always happen over night. I know that Dover have done brilliantly to get consecutive promotions, but it doesn’t always happen like that and sometimes people have to learn about the league first.

“We went to go for the league at the start of the season (but) it didn’t pan out the way that I liked, but we’ll be having a go to get promotion next season.”

Burman will sit down with his current squad this week and also revealed that he needs to strengthen the entire squad and up to four new faces are expected at Princes Park next season.

“There’s not going to be full-scale changes,” he said. “I’m meeting with all the players individually this week, by the weekend I’ll know what’s what.

“We are talking to other players as well, obviously who are not at the club at the moment who we’re looking to bring in - things are progressing well.

“We will be going to lose some but that’s football, it’s how it works. It’s the horrible time of the year sometimes.

“I’ll be speaking to all the players this week and it will become a little bit more clearer by the weekend.”

But Burman insisted that the club will not pay over the odds to bring star names to Princes Park.

“It’s always been the same,” he said. “We offer good terms, if people want lots more money people will have to go elsewhere and try and get it.

“I feel we do offer good terms, it people want more than what we can afford, unfortunately they will have to go to other places.

“We need to strengthen the squad in various positions. We feel that we need to strengthen, maybe three or four players.

“Good additions with quality in the squad will help us out next year.

“If we can bring in three or four new players then I think that will strengthen the squad.”

Visit Dartford’s websites: www.dartfordfc.co.uk and the award winning www.dartfordfootballclub.co.uk