ANDY MORRELL has no plans to hang up his boots and will continue to combine playing with managing Wrexham next season.
The 37-year-old took over as caretaker boss on September 23 when Dean Saunders left to take charge of Doncaster Rovers and was appointed player-manager on a permanent basis until the end of the season following a successful start at the helm.
Despite making his management bow, Morrell has continued playing and has made a total off 33 appearances this season, scoring nine goals in the process, and he feels he can still do a job in the Wrexham attack.
When asked if he would stop playing next year, Morrell replied: “I don’t think so, not while it is going okay. “I still feel that I am offering something so while I am, then I don’t see any reason to stop.
“I would have thought I will keep playing next season, maybe not as much. The option is still there and it saves a wage.
“It has been needs must me playing for the past five games because of Danny Wright and Mathias Pogba being out, we have got no other people to play there.
“I didn’t really want to play as many games in a row because the body was struggling. But you do and you get on with it, and I have done alright as well.”
Morrell, who hopes to put pen to paper on a new contract soon, added: “Hopefully we can get something sorted this week, I have been saying that for a while!
“It is just trying to get it all down on paper, the transfer deadline came and went a little bit crazy.
“Now that is done and dusted, we can sit back down and just get it done, and then it is another thing off the list.”
Joslain Mayebi, Neil Ashton, Mark Creighton and Jay Harris have all signed new deals while other players are still considering offers.
And Morrell hopes to begin contract talks with more members of his squad whose current deals also come to an end in the summer.
“We will have to look soon at people who are coming out of contracts at the end of the season,” he said.
“The ones that I suppose you can sell for money you need to get tied up so we will be speaking to the others hopefully soon.
“A couple of players are still thinking over offers, we will be starting to look at the next set to make offers to.
“But again, you’ve got budgets, which league you are going to be in, and all sorts so it will come across in time.
“If you are in this league, it is going to be tough but if we are in the one above, you can be offering different amounts so we will see.”
The Wrexham squad, including transfer deadline day signings Steven Leslie, Rob Ogleby and Danny Alfei, returned to training yesterday after a three-day break.
“The lads have had a good time, just to get away and relax,” said Morrell. “Training was good, there was a good tempo to it and they looked back at it.
“The new lads are getting more settled and happier with what we are doing, and we will be going over stuff this week.”
Leslie and Ogleby, along with Chris Westwood, Johnny Hunt and Leon Clowes, are expected to feature in this afternoon’s reserve team clash against Macclesfield Town at Colliers Park.
“It is a game that they need, they haven’t played for a while,” said Morrell. “A few of the lads have played a lot of games recently so it will be good for others to have a run-out.”
Pogba was given the all-clear to resume training yesterday having missed the last six matches with an ankle problem but fellow frontman Wright is expected to be out for another month after dislocating his elbow in the FA Cup defeat against Brighton on January 18.
“Danny is going to be another four weeks I would have thought,” added Morrell. “Hopefully I am wrong but that is what we got told by the surgeon, he is the one in the know, not me.
“It is a tough one because if you do it again, you are back to square one. It is weaker than it was so Danny is working on strengthening it up.”
Meanwhile, Wrexham’s game at Ebbsfleet United, due to take place next Tuesday, has been called off because the Fleet’s postponed FA Trophy tie against York City has been rescheduled for that night.