Image: Jonty Castle, AFC Fylde CEO.

Jonty Castle, AFC Fylde’s CEO, is delighted to have secured Danny Philliskirk on a new contract with the club, a player who he describes as having a ‘big heart’ and one who showed ‘real desire’ to stay at Mill Farm.

 

“Danny has shown real desire to stay at the club with the deal he has signed,” Castle explained to afcfylde.co.uk.

“As the Chairman explained in his update on Tuesday, Danny has not only taken a pay cut to remain with the club, but also deferred his wages until football officially gets going again. Considering we don’t know a date of when that will be, that shows real commitment to the club. 

“It was clear that our manager Jim Bentley wanted to keep Danny at the club as did the Chairman and I, so when we found out Danny definitely wanted to remain a part of the club we managed to creatively get a deal that works for all parties. 

“David has been clear with players and staff alike that we were not going to be signing any contracts that may put the club at risk, so Danny and I had to find an arrangement that worked and thankfully we’ve done that. 

“Football can often get a bad reputation with regards to finances, but it is clear that in this current climate and when both parties want to work together, real progress can be made and I look forward to continuing to work with Danny over the next two years.”

It was Philliskirk who approached the club about a new deal on reduced terms, when he was in turn approached by a club higher up in the footballing pyramid.

David Haythornthwaite explained how the deal worked, saying: “Jim, Jonty and I had a meeting last Friday and I asked them to present their plans to me. It was the first time they’ve been able to draw breath, sit down and discuss as a management team. 

“They are aligned with how we want to play, whatever the division. We won’t be a team who tries to kick our way out the league or lump the ball up to a big centre forward for as long as I am the Chairman. 

“We asked Jim to identify some targets and we all know the number will be a lot less. We’ve put some feelers out on some targets and I have said on a number of occasions that we won’t be signing anybody on contracts that will burden us, as we don’t know when we will start. 

“One player I was particularly sad to be leaving was Danny Philliskirk. Danny had a good offer from a League club and he told us that. What was nice is that he came to us and said he wanted to stay at Fylde, he knows us as a club. He expressed an interest to stay and that to me is an important part of any negotiation if someone genuinely wants to stay. He’s a great lad, there’s nobody better at keeping hold of the ball. 

“When Jonty called me up and said Philly wanted to stay, I told him we’re not handing out contracts at this stage and I made that clear. But, I also said there’s a lot of creative ways that we could work with players potentially like Philly and if they were prepared to be flexible and accept a new way of working, there was a deal to be done. 

“Fair play to Philly because Jonty and I talked it through. I have to say thank you to Danny, you’ve been very accommodating. We offered a two-year deal to give him that security and I hope he doesn’t mind me saying but he’s accepted a deal on considerably less money albeit it is still a good package, but I think it’s where those ‘new deals’ will be. 

“Critically, what he’s agreed to do is that he won’t take the full wage until we start playing football. That was the creativity I’m talking about, he’s embraced that and said it works for him. He’s taking a pay-cut but it’s a two-year deal which gives security. All of this wrapped together meant we could keep him, and I hope the fans are like me, absolutely delighted.”

You can see a full interview with David Haythornthwaite, below!