Yeovil Town manager Terry Skiverton has said that he does not currently foresee a time when he will be able to build a League One playing squad without dipping into the loan market. The Glovers boss believes it is part and parcel of trying to compete at third tier level on a small budget, and points out that even smaller Premier League clubs have resorted to loan deals to fill positions this season.
In the season just gone, the Glovers used 11 loan signings, with Steve Caulker (Tottenham Hotspur), Alex McCarthy (Reading), Shaun MacDonald (Swansea City), Ryan Mason (Tottenham Hotspur), Jonathan Obika (Tottenham Hotspur), Arron Davies (Brighton and Hove Albion), Gavin Williams (Bristol City), Owain Tudur Jones (Norwich City), Craig Davies (Brighton and Hove Albion), Scott Davies (Reading) and Luke Ayling (Arsenal) all arriving at Huish Park, having been borrowed from other clubs.
In his Christmas 2009 interview, Skiverton indicated that he would like to reduce the club's reliance upon the loan system, but speaking to BBC Somerset he does not feel that is a realistic prospect at present:
"I don't think it's possible for any club, to be honest with you. You're even looking at Premier League teams loaning players. I think the way that football is going nowadays, you can't just have a team full of contracted players. You need to be relying upon the loan players to actually compete at that level. So everyone is doing it, and we're no different, and we've got to try and get every edge that we can."
Skiverton does suggest though that the 2010-11 season should see him being able to compete financially with other League One clubs a little better. Since downsizing their own playing budgets during the summer of 2008, it's been fairly well recognised that the Glovers are in the bottom four in League One when it comes to available finances for bringing in new players. But with the likes of Bristol Rovers and Oldham Athletic going public on wage cuts for their players, the Yeovil boss believes the gap between the Glovers and other clubs in the division will be narrowing somewhat:
"There will be one or two teams that will be in our league now where their budgets won't be quite as big as what they've had in the past, and I think they might be coming a little bit closer to ours. For us, we know what it's like to compete on the levels that we have been competing at, and hopefully we'll be dragging a few teams in and around us, so that we can move our club forward and be a lot closer to teams that are in mid-table and higher."
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26 May 2010 : 
