Chris Millington admits The Shaymen just cannot compete financially for proven National League goalscorers.
Rob Harker ended the season as Town’s top goalscorer with nine in another season where Halifax’s lack of goals was a recurring problem.
But the Town boss is adamant that the club cannot spend their way to a solution.
“We’ve got some real, serious players who are out-of-contract who we’ve got to replace, who’ve had a big impact on our success this season, but that’s not just up-front, that’s across the 11,” Millington said when asked whether signing a new striker was the top priority this summer.
“You look across the division and most strikers are earning three and four times what our top earners are earning, so we clearly can’t just go out and buy a 20-goal-a-season striker because we’re not in those types of conversations.
“So what we’e got to find is a player at a lower level who shows some potential or a player coming out of an under 21s set-up who might need time and support and coaching to prove they can do it at National League level.
“We’re just simply not in the conversations for the Nicke Kabamba’s of the world and the Paul McCallum’s and the James Norowood’s.
“And then you drop down the list and talk about players in mid-table, strikers at Rochdale, Dagenham and Redbridge or Eastleigh, they don’t enter our frame of reference because we simply can’t meet their wage demands.
“So we have to be more creative in how we recruit, and especially when we look at the attacking end of the pitch.”
On recruitment plans for next season, Millington said: “An awful lot of work has been done in preparation for that and obviously new targets are becoming available as other teams’ retained lists are being announced.
“So there’s a lot of potential targets that we can go after and conversations have happened around those, but nothing concrete has been put in place yet and probably won’t be for another week.”
The Town boss doesn’t expect next season’s playing budget to be much different.
“We haven’t discussed it in terms of pounds and pence but I expect it to be in the same kind of realm as this season,” he said.
“We’re not in a position where all of a sudden, we’re going looking for players who are earning what would represent an increase in wage.
“The fact we’re looking at players who are what you might call entry level National League wages would suggest the budget’s going to be in the same kind of bracket.
“But it’s not all about the money, it’s about the players’ experience of their development while they’re here. They have to see a reason to come here, if it’s not money then we have to be able to demonstrate how we’re going to help them get better as players.”
Whoever Halifax do bring in, Millington feels the squad that will already be in place offers them a strong starting point.
“The group we’re able to retain gives us a solid foundation,” he said.
“I think if we’d have been able to do what we planned to do in the early part of the season, which was try and nail down players out-of-contract, and I include Milli Alli in that, it certainly would have helped us out at the business end of this season but it would have made us a real significant National League threat going into next season.
“As it is, we didn’t do that and that’s something that is an area that the club need to improve if we’re going to go into seasons as favourites for play-offs rather than favourites for the bottom half of the table.”
