Keith Alexander arrived home from St Lucia yesterday and we caught up with him this afternoon to find out a little bit more about his trip and his thoughts less than a week before the players report back for pre-season training.

Good to be back then Keith?

Absolutely! The new season is now less than seven weeks away and its hard not to get excited in the build up to a new campaign.

What was the purpose of the trip to St. Lucia?

My family are from St. Lucia and my brother and sister have been active in the setting up of the Sacred Sports Inc foundation. It's all about encouraging the youngsters out there to get more involved in sport and with that all the benefits that come to the community.

Its something I am happy to support, especially having represented the national team back in the late 80s, and something I do get a great deal of satisfaction from albeit my main job of course is here back in the UK with the Silkmen?

Any potential stars out there?

The island has a population of around 150k and so far is an untapped source in my view. I saw some extremely talented young players whilst I was out there and it's something that hopefully may present opportunities for Macc in the future.

But I also strongly believe that the talent on offer in the UK is untapped and it's important that we do what we can to identify the potential stars of the future.

Whilst you were out there, Gareth Evans agreed to move to Bradford.

It was always on the cards and all you can do is wish the player well. Ideally I would have liked him to move to a higher league club but I can understand why he made the move. But having decided he wanted to leave it was our job to get the best deal we could, shake hands and look to the future.

So what's the latest on the transfer front?

If you look around the leagues it is very quite at the moment. You'll start to see a lot more activity next month as those players without contracts look to get themselves settled. At present it's a case of them, or more precisely their agents, looking at what offers are on the table.

We've made close to a dozen offers to various players and its now a case of wait and see. I know for a fact that a lot of them were on more money last season but deals like that just aren't on the table at League Two level.

I am hopefully we will get most of the targets to sign but you just never know.

Care to throw any names into the hat?

Not really. I see we were linked to Colin Daniel. He is one of those we've made an offer to, but talk that he is definitely going to sign is a bit premature. Either that or these sources know something we don't!

Are you planning to run with a smaller squad this season?

That's the plan. At this stage I am thinking around the 20/22 mark which is a figure we are still someway short of. As I've stated before I am aiming for a smaller squad but higher on quality.

Will the introduction of seven on the bench affect your plans?

No not really. But what it will do is ensure more players are involved on a match day including more of the youngsters. So it will be a chance to see how they respond and hopefully ensure their development is accelerated.

Thoughts on the keeper situation?

I will be bringing in another keeper and have made offers to four, who range in their levels of experience. Jon did well for me last season but like any keeper he needs competition and whoever we bring in will be just that.

And what do you have planned for the lads when they return next Wednesday for the start of pre-season training?

The first couple of days will be all about having a look at them. Assessing their levels of fitness, weight etc before we get into the real tough stuff.

Whilst it is still to be agreed there is every chance I will be taking them away on a boot camp. I've been involved in things like that before both as a player and manager and whilst it won't be anything nearly as harsh as 6am wake up calls, it will be about fitness. And just as importantly getting the lads to bond as a team! We'll have lots of new faces in the squad this season, more so than this time last year, so it's important they gel very quickly.

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