Linnets budget could be cut by ‘best part of 30%’ next season

Columnist Gavin Caney discusses potential cuts at King’s Lynn Town next season…There has never been a quiet day involving King’s Lynn Football Club or its reborn version.With more plot twists than your average soap opera, the latest saw King’s Lynn Town FC manager Adam Lakeland appear, as he often does, on Nick Bowler’s popular BBC Radio Norfolk Friday-evening show, Local Report.With the usual intros done and dusted, the esteemed host joked that Lynn’s boss “didn’t sound great” – and what followed was worthy of EastEnders’ famous duff duffs!Lakeland replied: “I have a habit of getting ill at the end of a season. It comes to an end, you’re worn out, you’re exhausted and you’re obviously disappointed with losing in the play-offs. But it is what it is.”Yet listeners were left open-mouthed by what unfolded as Bowler continued with his interview.“There’s been a lot of conversations to be honest with you Nick. But unfortunately they’ve gone the complete opposite way to what I thought, and hoped, that they would,” Lynn’s boss added. “I felt that when Sam (Walker), and I came down to King’s Lynn, the remit was to take a club from second-off-bottom and keep it in the league, which we did. “Build a competitive team and challenge for at least play-offs, which we did. With a view, if we couldn’t get up this year, to try and go up next year. I felt we were on course to have another good go next year.“That’s why I obviously came out publicly and asked for that support but unfortunately I’ve been told the complete opposite and in actual fact the budget is probably going to be cut by the best part of 30% for next season.“I’ve been having incredibly tough conversations with some players that have been unbelievable for me, for Sam, themselves and this football club. “I feel really disappointed, deflated and quite raw about it at the minute.”At the time of writing, it is still unclear who will be running Lynn upstairs next season with Joseph Phua’s Turn Sports Investments, which includes Bal Srai, seemingly keen to partner with the Blue & Gold Supporters’ Trust to take over from current owner and chairman Stephen Cleeve. If the club reverts back to a part-time playing model, northern-based Lakeland made it quite clear he “won’t be travelling to the other end of the country to manage a part-time team when I can stay on my doorstep and do that”.The drama may take a while to sort out and while Lynn’s management duo deserve better than what’s happening, the harsh reality is that if things at The Walks are in a mess, financial restrictions may have to be necessary.Big budgets don’t always result in glory and having seen Lynn go to the wall once, supporters need to be careful what they wish for – even if, sadly, it means we lose a cracking manager in the process.