Jon Brady says he wasn’t prepared to break Brackley’s wage structure to keep club stalwart Tom Winters.
Winters has been offered what Brady describes as an ‘incredible’ deal by the Saints’ Blue Square Bet North rivals Oxford City.
The winger has decided to move on, ending an eight-year association with Brackley that saw him help the club to two promotions.
And Brady has been forced to accept that the Saints simply couldn’t compete with the money Mike Ford’s outfit were offering.
“He’d been offered an incredible deal by Oxford City,” said the Brackley boss.
“I wanted to keep Tom. He’s been an incredible servant to the football club, he had seven to eight years here. But I couldn’t get anywhere near what they’re offering him. I wasn’t going to ruin our wage structure.
“Tommy told me what he was being offered and if Mike Ford can spend that on players then we’ll see how he deals with that sort of pressure. They’ll have to perform instead of finishing about 30 points behind us like they did last year.”
Brackley finished third in the Blue Square Bet North last season, losing to FC Halifax Town in the play-off final.
And, with Winters gone, Brady is now in the process of adding to his squad ahead of the new campaign.
He said: “I’ve been talking to the players. The ones I want to sign will be all signed in the next week or two.
“Tommy, at the moment, is the only player I’d liked to have signed that I’ve lost.
“There are one or two others, Ryan Austin and Izak Reid, who can play higher and we’ll see with them.
“If nothing comes to fruition over the next couple of weeks we’ll be there to try to make an offer to them, but at the moment they’ve got to see if they can go higher.
“Apart from that I would say the majority of players we’re speaking to will be on board next year.
“There are one or two over the next week or two we can announce.”