Swindon Town are yet to start discussions with out-of-contract players - Jody Morris

Jody Morris said that Swindon Town ware yet to enter into discussions with out-of-contract players for next season. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam spoke to the head coach ahead of Swindon’s trip to AFC Wimbledon.

Several first team players including Jonny Williams, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, and Charlie Austin have their contracts expire at the end of the 2022/23 season.

However, Morris said that Town are still finalising their budget and have not yet made offers to players set to walk at the end of the current season.

He said: “I think there are conversations that need to be going on, both with the club and the players individually, but those haven’t started yet.

“For me, there are quite a few things that need to be discussed at the football club, to see what budgets are, what is possible, and where we are at, at the moment.

“I am not too sure on those things at the moment, so we will have to see where that goes.

“Yeah [it is up in the air about what the resources will be for next season].

“I have my view on how I think the group can be more balanced from a tactical aspect and also from an experience aspect, which I believe will give us the best opportunity to win football games.

“I suppose it is then figuring out how we can go about achieving that squad and there are a lot of variables that come into that.

“I have my views on what we need and where we need to improve, throughout the club to be fair.”

Despite not figuring out the future of their own players yet, Morris revealed that the club are hard at working creating a list of players to help realise his vision.

He said: “There is a recruitment team in place at the moment that are hard at work.

“There are quite a lot of players in this league that I don’t know of personally, so if they get suggested then I have to brush up and watch footage.

“The recruitment side should be working 24/7 and it should be constantly looking at where we can improve.

“We are going to make decisions on players and go for players and then there needs to be a due diligence done with people you know in the game who have worked with them.

“We have to try and get to the best possible solution with making decisions on players that we can.

“I am involved in it for sure, but getting across all players that are on our list is difficult, but that is why there is a recruitment department in place.”