The Poppies chairman has revealed he is still waiting to hear from the
Conference about the confirmed budget for the new season – with wage-capping coming into play following their promotion from Blue Square North.

Ladak's comments come after a busy couple of weeks at the A-Line Arena which continued yesterday when it was confirmed Craig Westcarr will be
joining Stevenage Borough amid accusations of an illegal approach being made for the player.

However, Ladak revealed the Poppies have agreed deals in principle with a midfielder and striker and have also submitted a bid for a defender.

Ladak said: "Unfortunately, we are at a huge disadvantage to other Conference Premier clubs.

"The Conference are yet to confirm our budget for next season which, as you can imagine, is very frustrating. We cannot risk signing the big players we want and then find we do not have enough left in the budget to have a full squad.

"We have already lost David Bridges because we could not match his salary expectations until our budget was confirmed while we can't make an offer to either of the two proven Conference strikers that are currently available.

"Fortunately, most of the players we are looking to bring in are happy to wait. We have agreed deals in principle with a midfielder and striker, subject to the Conference getting back to us this week.

"What I can tell our supporters is that we will be improving our squad from last season and are not going into the Conference with a lack of ambition.

"If we can pull off the signings we are working on Mark and I are confident we can surpass many expectations."

On the Westcarr situation he added: "Craig phoned me a couple of days ago to let us know he had accepted an offer from Stevenage.

"Of course, we already knew this following Stevenage's illegal approach last week. But we wish Craig well for the rest of his career. We are, though, entitled to compensation for him."


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