Cooper explains one-year contracts

Darlington manager Mark Cooper has backed the club’s decision to offer only one-year contracts at The Northern Echo Arena.

Chairman Raj Singh is looking no further than this coming season with all potential new signings being offered           12-months deals.

New recruits Kris Taylor and James Walshaw put pen to paper on one-year deals last week and the approach also applied last season with Marc Bridge-Wilkinson and Liam Hatch agreeing contracts that will expire in 2012 when they joined in January.

Cooper’s own deal also                expires at the end of the forthcoming season, although the manager admits it causes a problem in enticing players to head for the Arena.

But Cooper can see Singh’s logic. He said: “In the last five minutes I’ve had two agents ringing me and they’ve left messages. They’ve no doubt recommended players to me, but when you’re offering one-year contracts to players you want to move to the other end of the country it’s difficult,” said Cooper, whose own contract will expire next summer.

“I’ve got to agree with the chairman on this. I think he has been stung in the past where people have signed two-year contract but not done the business and he’s been stuck with them.

“He’s 100 per cent right in saying ‘we’ll give you a year’s contract and if you start 25 games you’ll automatically get another year’. Bearing in mind we played nearly 60 games last season year, you’ve only got to play just under half.

“Yes, we want to offer two-year deals, but it’s up to the players to earn the second year of it.

“Some players only want a one-year contract because they like to be free in the summer so that they’re holding all the cards if they’ve done well.”

Cooper has been linked to a number of lower league names and he is targeting players in a variety of positions.

He said: “We need a little sprinkling all over the pitch. We probably need a centre-back, we possibly need a right-back, two midfield players and two strikers.”

Meanwhile, Darlington are going back to Feethams as a host of past and present players will swap football boots for cricket pads in a fundraising game for Darlington Cricket Club.

Taking place on Saturday, July 2, players from the 2000 play-off squad will take on members of the current Quakers team for charity.

Lending their support for the 2000 Wembley team are Adam Reed, Glenn Naylor, Brian Atkinson, Lee Nogan and Martin Gray as well as Sean Gregan who played for Quakers at Wembley in 1996.

Liam Hatch, Ian Miller, Tommy Wright, Neil Maddison and Richard Dryden are among those of the present day squad who will play on a family fun day.

As well as the match, there will be a range of activities for children, the bar will be open throughout and there shall also be a barbecue.

The charity match, which starts at 2pm, is aimed at boosting the cricket club’s finances which have suffered since the football club moved from Feethams to the Arena in 2003.