Andy Pilley: Fleetwood working hard to recruit quality players and transfer embargo is not a problem

An injury-hit Town side yesterday saw star defender James Hill move on to Bournemouth but the owner revealed new faces could arrive before Saturday’s crunch clash at bottom club Doncaster Rovers.

Chairman Pilley told The Gazette: “There will definitely be new faces coming in. There is going to be quality coming in.

“We are going to have a strong end to this season – that is my expectation anyway.

“We’re working really hard and hopefully by the weekend we could have some new faces. That is very much the plan.”

Town are operating under a transfer embargo this season. They can still make signings, though with restrictions on transfer fees and player wages, and the size of their senior squad is limited to 23 rather than 25.

The embargo followed a loan of over £2m from the EFL to ease cashflow issues during the pandemic.

Pilley told The Gazette: “The word embargo is a very bad description for the situation.

“What we’ve merely done is taken advantage of an advance that was on offer from the EFL and has assisted us with working capital in a time of pandemic.

“It felt like the right thing to do at the time. I’ve no regrets and no remorse about that.

“It does mean there is a restriction on the number of players we can have in the squad, and also how much we can pay for players and how much we can pay them.

“I’m not concerned about those boundaries. It keeps us well within, I think, the middle of League One to live within those means.

“We’re going to have gaps in the squad and we’re working really, really hard to get some real quality into the squad to help our cause and help us climb that table.”

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