Knill keeping mum on summer spending plans

7:30am Wednesday 28th May 2008

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ALAN Knill is well aware of the pitfalls of the summer transfer market but says he has no time for the rumour mill.

Fans have been left guessing about his summer transfer targets, aside for a well-known desire to bring back former loan stars Elliott Bennett, Efe Sodje and Darren Randolph to Gigg Lane.

His overall transfer plans remain a mystery and that is likely to stay the case until the ink dries on the contract of any potential Shakers signing, said the manager.

"Speculation is sometimes guesswork, but it can stay that way because I don't want to tell people what I am planning," Knill said.

"I ignore it. I hardly ever do any business here at the football club. Somebody always wants to tell someone.

"I always like to meet the player away from the club and never talk money the first time I meet them. I want to talk about the player and understand what he wants.

"If after that, we are reading from the same page, then I'll talk money - but then I keep it quiet."

It is a far cry from the notorious famous five' transfer targets, announced publicly by former boss Chris Casper during the summer of 2006.

None of the list eventually signed for the club, and the act was later described as "naive" by the former Manchester United defender.

Last summer's deals were mainly channelled through then director of football Keith Alexander, who stuck in the main to his tried-and-tested lieutenants, to varying degrees of success.

But neither approach suits Knill, who admits to having an ultra-cautious approach when it comes to bringing new players to the club.

"I'd never come out and say I want so-and-so' because you can get burned too quickly doing that," he said. "Someone will always bring it up somewhere down the line and say you should have signed them.

"Over the last three months we have had a list of players who we will be trying very hard to get. If we can't get them, we'll get someone similar.

"There are certain players who I have worked with before that I would have no hesitation in working with again. But sometimes it's good to start again.

"It might have worked well at one stage. Now I'm somewhere else, so to reunited again doesn't always work. Unless I'm 100 per cent sure, and I have recommended players who haven't worked out in the past, I won't do it again."