Forest Green director of football Richard Hughes has revealed he faces a fight to keep hold of star player Kane Wilson.
When asked by Stroud Times about Wilson’s immediate New Lawn future, Hughes responded: “Kane Wilson is going to be really tough to keep,” Hughes said. “We expect he will have Championship interest, but nothing has manifested itself yet, but Kane had a brilliant season and did really well and he’s helped to bolster the story of how we can help make players progress here.”
Fleet-footed Wilson, who joined Rovers on a free from West Brom was named League Two Player of the Year after an eye-catching season, which saw the right wing-back rack up 13 assists and three goals from 45 league appearances.
Hughes also revealed he was ‘hopeful’ flying Scotsman Nicky Cadden would stay: “Nicky Cadden has a contract offer and I’m hopeful an agreement can be reached. He’s a really talented player and a great lad and obviously, we would love to have him here and one of our priorities is to get Ian (Burchnall) and Nicky (Cadden) to have a conversation about how we can be a good home for his continued future.”
Hughes has also held talks with out-of-contract duo Dan Sweeney and Sadio Diallo, with the pair currently mulling over their Forest Green futures.
He said: “We’ve had an open dialogue with Dan and Sadio. I have had several conversations with Dan and as you can imagine he is an in-demand man this summer and other clubs have spoken to him. He is a natural leader but has probably found himself a little bit frustrated in terms of game time, but we will have a chat and see if we can progress forward.
“Sadio is away with family in Africa at the minute and is taking a bit of time to weigh up his opportunities – he is a talented boy and has done really well, but ultimately it is about seeing how he sees his future going forward and whether he sees he needs to be playing more football.”
In terms of recruitment, Hughes is expecting a busy summer: “Probably eight or nine are coming into the group, it feels the right time to have a little evolution rather than a revolution and this is probably the fourth team we have built since I’ve been at the club, but 7 of 11 that started the game that we won the league are here next season.”
