Yates recently agreed a new one-year deal at Aggborough

Kidderminster Harriers manager Mark Yates says he is prepared to play the waiting game over his summer signings.

Yates told BBC Hereford & Worcester that he is still in talks with chairman Barry Norgrove over his budget, which is greatly cut from last season.

"We want to make sure we get the best possible players that we can," he said.

"If there's a chance of a bit more money in the budget, we don't want to go and fill the squad and then find we could have gotten better players."

The level of that budget will ultimately depend on how the season ticket sales progress in the coming weeks.

"We're not in a position like the Oxfords and perhaps a couple of other clubs that have gone out and assembled their squads," he said.

I thought quite a lot of them would have been fixed up but it has surprised me how few of them have Mark Yates on high earners that Harriers have released

"In an ideal world that is what you would like to do as you would have the nucleus of your side and then you could just add your players to it.

"We've got a pot of money that the chairman and myself are trying to add to and that is the reason at the moment why there is no actual firm activity."

The Harriers boss had to release several key players in a cost-cutting exercise but has not ruled out some of them returning if they do not find new clubs.

"When we didn't offer contracts to players because we couldn't get near to what they were on, I thought quite a lot of them would have been fixed up but it has surprised me how few of them have," he said.

"I regularly speak to a lot of the players and they are saying 'this or that club is interested', but those clubs are doing the same as us.

"We are making enquiries about certain players' availability, their willingness to come to us and what wages that would incur, but we are not in position to make an offer as I don't quite know where we are."

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