Barrow AFC manager Ian Evatt has seen the last of his players for the time being, after they visited the training ground for the final time before their summer break earlier in the week.

For the first time as Bluebirds boss, Evatt has a full summer to plan with, after he had to near enough build a new squad from scratch, following his appointment late in June last year.

He has already been able to tie down some of his key players, such as Joel Dixon and captain Josh Granite to new contracts and the club still in negotiations with several other members of the squad.

However, Evatt also had the duty of informing some individuals that they wouldn’t be retained by AFC, with details as to who has been released to be revealed at a later date.

Evatt said: “The players came in for some fitness tests and we took their body fats just to give us a guide as to what we expect when they come back.

“They’ve also been given off-season programmes to make sure they come back fit and ready to go.

“Obviously, it was a tough day as a manager because I had to speak to some people about releasing them.

“That wasn’t nice, but obviously that’s the end of the season now and we need to very much look forward to next season to make sure we get our planning and recruitment spot on for the summer.”