ADAM Fricker has insisted that wanted striker Tom Blair will be at pre-season for Bridport after Dorchester Town showed interest in the hot prospect.

Blair was watched by Mark Jermyn in an inter-friendly at the Avenue Stadium earlier this month and the Magpies’ manager has told Echosport he has had contact with the teenager.

But the Bees’ boss has insisted that after contacting Blair he is confident that the player will be at Bridport when the squad meets up in June.

He said: “I’ve spoken to Tom (Blair) and had the conversation with him.

“I haven’t seen much of him as a player but I want him at pre-season.

“It’s flattering for him to receive that interest but from his point of view he’s only made his debut in the Western League this season.

“It’s quite a big jump from that league to the Southern League with Dorchester. He’d be better off plying his trade in the Western League.

“We want him to come to pre-season and that was something he was keen to do and as far as I’m concerned that hasn’t changed.”

Fricker has built up a reputation with his former club Chard Town for promoting youth into his team and allowing them to thrive.

This is something he hopes to do at Bridport as well.

He added: “As far as I am concerned if you’re good enough, you’re old enough, it doesn’t matter how old you are.

“It will be something that we are seriously looking at from the Bridport Reserves to the third team, we will be keeping in contact with those managers and going to as many of the games as we can.

“Youth is something you need and it’s something we believe in.

“Clubs need the youth to survive and we’ve had a lad at Chard, Braydon Symes, who’s 18 and he played 31 times for the first team last season.

“But it has to be right for the club and right for the management and within the squad.

“Sometimes you have to know when it is best to take them in and take them out.”

Fricker is realistic with his philosophy and knows that the squad needs to find the right balance if it is to succeed.

“You can’t blood a team full of youngsters,” he explained.

“I made my Western League debut when I was 16 and you need to have the right players around you when you are young.”

Bridport are set to start their pre-season at the end of June, when Fricker will get the opportunity to find out more about his players.