Published on Tue Jun 28 08:39:26 BST 2011
RYAN GILLIGAN will return to pre-season training on Friday as a Cobblers player – but boss Gary Johnson says the midfielder still has no future at the club.
Town’s longest serving player was made available for transfer on the final day of last season, with Johnson saying that Gilligan was ‘not part of my plans, it’s as simple as that’.
The Town boss will have been hoping that Watford youth system product Gilligan would have found another club over the summer, but that hasn’t been the case.
It means Gilligan, who was unavailable at the back end of last season due to an ankle injury, will report back to Sixfields with the rest of the first team squad on Friday.
Gilligan may be coming back hoping to change his manager’s mind about him and his worth to the Cobblers, with Johnson having previously at one point jettisoned both Kevin Thornton and Ben Tozer before reversing his decision on the pair and offering them new deals.
But it’s clear Johnson’s stance on Gilligan, who has a year to run on his Cobblers contract, hasn’t altered over the past couple of months.
“While Ryan is contracted to the club, he is part of the squad,” said Johnson.
“But I won’t be using him, so hopefully he is a good enough player, and he has done well enough for people to take him on board.
“He will be at pre-season training. He is under contract and he is going to have to do that, and he might need to get a week or two’s fitness work under his belt so he can prove he has come back from his injury.
“And I’m sure he has done that, because I believe he has been working hard with our physio, but that’s where we are with him.”
With Gilligan seemingly out of the equation, and goalkeeper Chris Dunn on the verge of a switch to Coventry City, still a little on the threadbare side with the new season only five weeks away.
If Gilligan and Dunn are included, the squad stands 18 strong but Johnson, who is also expected to complete the signing of Paul Turnbull from Stockport County tomorrow, insists his rebuilding job is right on track.
“It has been really good,” said the Town boss.
“The chairman has backed me up, we have been really clever in our business.
“It’s not cost us a fortune, we have stayed within our budget, and I am really pleased with the quality of player we have brought in.
“It has gone as we planned it.
“Normally you get one or two that let you down for whatever reason, but it’s gone well and now we just have to make the fine tuning to it and make sure the whole squad is strong.”