Allott facing decision time

Matty Wolfenden: Needs to prove his fitness.

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MARK ALLOTT has less than 24 hours to decide whether he is to remain an Athletic player.

New manager Dave Penney has told the 31-year-old midfield player he must inform him by tomorrow whether he is going to accept the offer of a new contract.

The 12-month deal is understood to provide Allott, who is in his second spell with Athletic, with improved terms.

The cull of players has continued with Kevin Maher and Jean-Paul Kalala both being released while Lee Hughes’ departure has also been confirmed.

Hughes, Athletic’s 18-goal top scorer, rejected the offer of a new two-year contract in January and spent the latter part of the season on loan at Championship club Blackpool.

Seven of the 10 out-of-contract players have been released as Josh Bell, Mark Crossley, Sean Gregan and Andy Liddell have already learned their fate.

Penney has yet to speak to Stefan Stam, who is also out of contract and who has returned to Holland.

Athletic chief-executive Alan Hardy has made contact with Stam, who is due to speak to Penney today.

Injury-plagued striker Matty Wolfenden, whose contract expires next month, has been offered a short-term deal which gives him the chance to prove his fitness in pre-season.

Penney admits it will be all-change on the playing front as he will soon begin the rebuilding process.

“I felt we needed to freshen things up and change things round as well as freeing up wages to bring in players,” explained Penney.

However the new boss says there is no hurry to bring in players as he wants time to study who is available before making a decision.

With clubs cutting back on playing staff there should be a wide choice.

The Athletic manager is close to finalising his backroom team after Martin Gray and Andy Collett were yesterday offered deals to join him at Boundary Park.

Gray is set to be Penney’s No 2 and Collett will take over as goalkeeping coaching having also worked with him at Darlington where they were last week made redundant by the administrator at the cash-strapped club.

That cleared the way for Gray and Collett to join Penney, who believes the pair will agree to the terms they have been offered.