Stags’ boss Adam Murray says that winger Reggie Lambe was offered a 'value for money' deal to remain at One Call Stadium following the news that the Bermudian has joined Carlisle United this morning.
Lambe’s move to Cumbria ends his two-year association with the Stags after the winger opted to join Keith Curle’s side instead of signing a new deal at One Call Stadium.
And manager Murray has given supporters an insight into what the club offered the 25-year-old.
“Obviously we offered Reggie something at the end of the season/start of the summer, and Reggie’s been offered a better, more financial-better off deal up at Carlisle so we respect his decision, we felt that what we offered Reggie was value for money,” Murray said.
“We spoke to Reggie a lot last season about his end product and that final pass or more of a goal input from that position was needed to take the value up on the player. I think Reggie scored some important goals for us, but probably not quite enough for that position, so we felt the deal we offered Reggie was good value for the player.
“He’s been brilliant for me, Reg, but he’s chosen to take a better offer at Carlisle and we don’t hold that against him, we wish him all the best.”
The gaffer explained that whilst deciding what to offer the winger to remain at One Call Stadium, there were a number of factors which had to be taken into consideration.
“A little bit of our conversation was obviously getting the value for the player and the output that we got from Reggie in terms of assists and goals, but also balancing that up [with] the fact that we lose Reggie for a few weeks every season [on international duty], which is a bit of a pain in the backside.
“He’s chosen to go away in two seasons now when we’ve come to the ‘nitty-gritty’ part of the season, so that was all weighed up in the contract we offered and Carlisle have chosen to put something on the table which Reggie finds interesting and we didn’t think that the value was to match that.
“Fair play to Reg, we wish him all the best in the future and as long as he has an off-day against us, we’ll be fine.”
Our manager stated at this morning’s news conference that despite Lambe moving on to pastures new, it doesn’t affect his recruitment policy as the wide areas are something which he is continually trying to strengthen.
“We played a couple of shapes last season which worked for us at different points of the season and we obviously played a 4-3-3, we went with a diamond at the back end of last season which worked well, so we’re bringing people in that can play a number of positions well, can be effective in a number of positions and in the wide areas, we had nothing up until Friday so we've needed to make a couple of signings in that area.
“We’re happy with what we’re bringing into the building and we’ll get on with our business now, we’re not really bothered about what the boys who haven’t signed are doing, we’re bothered about the boys who have signed.”
Supporters will be able to watch Adam Murray’s news conference, in full, on Stags Player HD later today.
