Football Season Guide

Hayes & Yeading once again start the season hotly tipped for relegation and this time may well not confound the critics as there seem to be too many things stacked up against them. The most important one is arguably the departure of Gary Haylock - the manager that lead them to promotion and then kept them up two seasons in a row with the smallest budget in the whole league. The ambitious manager decided that he had enough of working with an embarrassingly small wage budget and decided to drop a division to take ove at the considerably more affluent Farnborough. The Hayes & Yeading chairman, at the same time, announced that the budget will be further cut for the upcoming season due to the redevelopment of the ground which also will force United to play at Woking's ground in the new campaign which means that even smaller crowds will be attending next season. Reading academy coach Nas Bashir was handed the manager's job and will be looking to keep them up against the odds but the early signs are not great. Basically the whole squad left after the last season with only skipper Tom Cadmore and midfielder Jamie Hand signing up for another campaign so far officially. Bashir has beefed up the squad with a few signings as the season approaches but it is still way too thin on the ground. The most impressive capture is former Aldershot winger Louie Soares while the rest of additions have been unproved youth players. The squad as it is now lacks badly in both quality, experience and depth and it looks like it will be a season of struggle. Still, Bashir comes with a good reputation for working with youngsters and following the same logic as Haylock of playing good football on the ground. He will need his charisma and knack of getting the most out of average players if he is to match his achievements and it looks like a major challenge going to the new season.