Managerless EFL club warned they face extinction as entire squad leave except FIVE players after disastrous season
MORECAMBE’S owner has been warned that the club faces a “catastrophic outcome” after a disastrous campaign that saw the club losing their ENTIRE squad except just five players.
The Shrimps finished 15th in the League Two table but were deducted three points for failing to pay players on time in August.
And not even Tyson Fury‘s sponsorship has saved his struggling hometown club from a string of problems this year.
Since the club’s disastrous season came to a close, manager Ged Brannan has left and became Accrington Stanley boss John Doolan’s assistant.
Chief executive Ben Sadler also left the Mazuma Stadium to take up the same post at Walsall.
Morecambe have been left depleted with only five players remaining in the first team.
Those are Charlie Brown, Gwion Edwards, Stuart Moore, Kayden Harrack and Saul Fox-Akande.
Brown was the only player left with a contract after the season with his deal running until 2025.
Edwards and Moore have agreed new deals until 2026 and 2025 respectively.
An extension has been triggered for Harrack until 2025 and a first professional contract was handed to Fox-Akande.
The EFL club’s chiefs are also waiting on JJ McKiernan’s response to their latest contract offer.
However, Morecambe saw a total of 16 players leaving the club at the end of the season.
Four of those players rejected new deals while the other 12 were not offered new terms.
Farrend Rawson, David Tutonda, Donald Love and Joel Senior turned down a new contract.
Adam Smith, Jacob Bedeau, Chris Stokes, Max Melbourne, Oscar Threlkeld, Jacob Davenport, Yann Songo’o, Jake Taylor, Brandon Barker, Cammy Smith, Jordy Hiwula and Jordan Slew were released.
This devastating turn of events led to showdown talks between Morecambe owner Jason Whittingham and the board of directors, who urged him to sell.
The board of directors also penned an open letter to Whittingham advising him to do business with a “US-based potential buyer” to save the club from potential extinction.
It read: “We are writing this open letter to reiterate what was said to you during the meeting we held with you today, during which you updated us on the critical matters of funding and the sale of the Football Club.
“Sadly, your future funding assurances have now failed to come to fruition so often that, in the absence of substantial funds from Bond Group landing in the Morecambe Football Club account, they come across as meaningless, and we must take them as such in order to be responsible.
“As for the Middle East-based potential buyer you first told us was interested in buying the Club approximately a year ago, you have provided no tangible evidence or introduction during this time to enable us to consider them serious or credible.
“You have one apparently serious offer on the table from a US-based potential buyer which, based on what we know, is the most credible which has been made since you placed the Club up for sale over 20 months ago.
“Please accept this second offer now, so that there is a chance that a sale might be completed, and a catastrophic outcome be avoided.”
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