He must have been on a multi-year contract at Hayes if he wasn't a free agent. Chelmsford have just signed Mo Bettamer on a season long loan from Hayes. I'm not sure what's happening there. They lost the Southern Premier South play-off final at home to Farnborough last year but failed to make the top 5 this time. It looks like they may have thrown a lot of money at winning that division and now it's run out. Of course Emmanuel was also at Billericay during the Tamplin era.
Mfula was actually with Sheppey this season, not Chatham. He threw a bizarre public strop over Sheppey selling him, saying he no longer even acknowledges having played for them!
I'm not sure whether there's generally more money sloshing around, or it's just the usual shakedown of senior players dropping to play for top clubs a level lower. A lot of these players mentioned are well into their thirties. Let's not forget, we also announced the signings of 4 higher league players on one day last weekend!
Whilst I'm interested to hear of other clubs' recruitment, the main focus for me is on who we bring in. Last time we were new to this division was 10 years ago, when we entered from the other direction and took the division by storm with an almost unchanged squad, spending most of the season in the top three before falling away to miss the play-offs by a single point in the end. That set the standard, as we expected to challenge strongly for promotion after that, and contested the play-offs in every subsequent season until we went up in 2018.
At this stage, I find it difficult to gauge our chances without knowing exactly what our squad will look like and how it comes together on the pitch. We need to concentrate on our own performance first, before worrying about what anyone else might do. Bishop's Stortford were champions this year with 88 points. The previous season they finished 2nd with 87 points but missed out in the play-offs. When we were Isthmian League South Division champions we had 89 points, one ahead of runners-up Maidstone. Therefore I'd say the benchmark for winning the league is around 88-90 points. If we don't get near that, it's inevitable someone else will, whether it's Billericay or one of the dark horses having an exceptional season.
