Further to today's earlier news, manager Russell Slade has welcomed the news that he is expected to sign a two year contract extension at the club sometime next week that will keep him at Huish Park until the summer of 2011. Russell has told BBC Somerset Sound that there is merely small print left to deal with and that it will allow him to do certain things that he perhaps would not do on a shorter deal:
"In theory everything is agreed. So there is some long term stability. Players are not then thinking is the manager staying or is the manager going. Also we are trying to build a youth policy here and it will give me a chance to have an input into that. It also gives you a chance with your squad to look ahead a little bit in terms of what you can bring in and what you might not bring in. I think it affects your thinking that way as well. It gives you time to build a squad a little bit more."
Russell said that if the club were to achieve their goal of getting Championship football, then they had to look to similarly sized clubs such as Scunthorpe United and how they were able to outwit some of the more illustrious teams in their divisions:
"Scunthorpe is a great example of a club that was there a long time and eventually got in the right blend of players to be a real force in this league. That wasn't just all young players - they had some very seriously senior players in the form of Crosby, but then they had some players in the form of Keogh and Billy Sharp who were just youngsters. They were mature in midfield with Baraclough and they had the right sort of blend. OK so they were fortunate in that they didn't pick up injuries and they were able to pick the same team mainly throughout the whole season to be successful. I think you need that little bit of good fortune."
The Yeovil boss also added that even this season he felt he had opportunities to influence how the current season pans out. The Glovers lie currently in 16th place, but are still only five points off the play-offs (albeit six points off the relegation spots!) and so there is plenty that could happen between now and May:
"The good thing really is that we can make changes in January, what with the way we've geared up the loans and the players that we've brought in on shorter term contracts. So we can manoeuvre a little bit. And then again in the summer we can also change things a little bit more. So the ones that we really want to retain then we can do that, whilst the ones that are not going to take us to where we want to be will be released."
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16 November 2007 : 
