York City’s management team have held talks with players from troubled former club Gateshead, but expect to lose out to higher-league suitors, York Press report.
Aside from full-back Scott Barrow, the Heed’s squad are all out of contract this summer, making the north-east outfit an ideal poaching ground for teams up to four tiers above the Minstermen in National League North.
Gateshead’s ninth-placed finish in the National League last season, despite considerable financial problems, has not gone unnoticed at all levels of the game, with City boss Steve Watson and assistant-manager Micky Cummins assembling the squad last summer before switching to Bootham Crescent in January.
But, on the likelihood of being reunited with any of those players, Cummins confessed: “Gateshead have come a long way from where we were last year. We improved them.
“They have options higher up. We’ve had conversations but we feel that we’ll most likely miss out.”