Money talks in the National League South

The news that Dagenham & Redbridge had signed Ashley Hemmings from Kidderminster Harriers for an undisclosed fee last week sent out a clear message to the rest of the National League South.

It said – if anyone thinks winning promotion last season was tough, it’s going to be a lot tougher this time (writes Dave Thomas).

Hemmings, the experienced ex-Torquay United loan striker, scored 33 goals as the Harriers, like the Gulls, fell short in the Play-Offs (and cost manager Steve Brown his job).

There are some strong rumours that the relegated Daggers, by no means the only club throwing big bucks around this summer, are also trying to partner Hemmings with an even better-known centre-forward for the campaign ahead.

Watch this space...

As United manager Paul Wotton and his squad look forward to Saturday’s first friendly at Buckland Athletic (12.30pm), the Gulls’ chances of going better than last season’s near-miss don’t just hang on what he’s been able to do in the transfer market.

Even by the sometimes boom-and-bust standards of non-League football, United’s rivals are spending like never before.

It’s as if they’ve said: “Hell, if Truro City can win this league, any of us can!”

Alan Devonshire, the veteran manager of also relegated Maidenhead United, reckons that he’s arrived back in the NLS to be confronted by TEN full-time clubs.

Even if he’s exaggerating slightly, this is unprecedented.

Chelmsford City, Dorking Wanderers, Dagenham, Ebbsfleet United, Maidstone United, Eastbourne Borough, Worthing, Maidenhead, Torquay – there’s nine full-timers straight off.

And there are several other would-be contenders with the sort of ‘hybrid’ operation which served Torquay well last season.

It’s always a bit of a merry-go-round, especially in the Home Counties.

But the way that so many clubs have gone in for major overhauls makes for sobering reading.

At the last count Hampton & Richmond and Hemel Hempstead Town, both so-called ‘mid-table’ teams, had each signed 18 new players.

Ebbsfleet, with one of the biggest budgets, have brought in twelve.

Chelmsford have just signed a seven-figure three-year sponsorship deal with a major European health data group, giving their manager Angelo Harrop the sort of ammo that he could only have dreamed of when he took Braintree Town up on peanuts two years ago.

Weston-super-Mare, who just missed out on the Play-Offs last season, have spent the past week at a training camp in southern Portugal.

I don’t think Torquay’s Bryn Consortium seriously considered sending United to Butlins Minehead, let alone the Algarve.

Keep an eye on Hornchurch.

Promoted from the Isthmian League in 2024, they finished strong last season (10th), have kept most of their muscular squad together and made some eye-catching signings.

You don’t get goalscoring midfielder Josh Rees, whom they’ve lured away from neighbours Dagenham, for five hundred quid a week.

Meanwhile, Torquay are still on a journey which began with Wotton signing 20-odd players last summer, because he had to.

To get United to within goal-difference of the title in the next nine months will, for many years to come, be celebrated as one of the most remarkable achievements in recent Plainmoor history.

Of course, the fans of the biggest club in the division, with a stadium and gates that would grace the NL Premier and probably EFL Two, are optimistic that United can win promotion.

But there is much more work to do.

Five new signings, each intriguing in their own way, have raised the roster to only 18 players, just enough to fill a subs bench now raised to seven seats.

It’s at least two short of the squad number that Wotton said he wanted to start the season.

The loan market awaits before the big kick-off on August 9, but perhaps the most obvious area for further strengthening is still in midfield (only Hayfield, Sundire and Dolan so far).

The accent has to be on quality and, as ever, it doesn’t come cheap.

That runners-up spot in April means little or nothing now. In the relentless wait-for-no-man world of pro football, it’s already history.