MARK Jerymn has had a busy summer, but this is something that is seemingly natural for the Dorchester Town player-manager.

Not only has he played in every pre-season game for the Magpies, he has spent almost every day of the summer chasing players to build a squad that was hit by some big exits.

Last year’s top scorer Charlie Davis left for rivals Weymouth, Toby and Luke Holmes both moved to Wimborne Town and Franklyn Clarke signed his first professional deal with York City.

Despite the outgoings, Jermyn has kept a core group of players together and signed another raft of hungry young players looking to prove their worth.

Not only has he had to deal with everything at the Avenue, the boss is also training to become a plumber and hopes to qualify in October – not a man to be caught taking it easy in life.

Speaking about his summer business, away from the kitchen sink, Jermyn told Echosport: “At the end of the season, I had a list of 40 people that I wanted to speak to.

“We spoke to the majority of them, but some of them were non-starters because financially we couldn’t afford them.

“But, we really wanted Ben Wood and we got him. We really wanted Mario (Mateus) and we got him.

“I’m really happy with the players that we’ve brought but in some ways I’m more pleased about the players that we kept.

“You always know clubs are talking to them and they’re talking to clubs because that is the nature of football.

“Keeping the likes of Jake Smeeton, Nathan Walker and Matt Oldring was really hard. They’re not the easiest conversations (to have) because they want to know who they are playing with.

“A lot of them wanted to know who was staying and who we were keeping in order to be competitive next season. It’s important that the players that we have brought in show the reason why we did that.”

The life of a non-League manager rarely runs smoothly and it has been a stressful time for Jermyn.

However, he is keen to put that behind him and work towards progression after a poor run of form curtailed their play-off hopes in the last campaign.

He added: “I wouldn’t say it (the summer) was easy, purely on the amount of people you’re speaking to, and making sure that you don’t call the same person twice.

“There has been a level of frustration because there are players (that we’ve spoke to) that would have added to our squad.

“At the same time there is no point on dwelling on it. We must remain positive because we have players that can play in a multitude of positions.

“I’m happy with the squad that we have got, and it is important that we support the players that we have so they play well.

Jermyn has been a staple of the side throughout the Magpies’ friendlies, playing in three positions over the course of the six games and he is keen to keep his squad on their toes.

The manager said: “Last season I hardly trained because I was trying to do the other side of it (management) and I was missing half of the sessions. This season, I am setting aside time for the players before training. I never ask the players to do anything that I couldn’t do. They can do it all, just faster than me.

“They know that they have me burning down on them.”

Speaking about his targets for the new season, he explained: “I’m looking forward to the test of the season but I think we have to pick our fights.

“If a player is struggling, is there any point in playing him in a game against one of the top sides?

“Or, do we wait and play him in a game that we can come out on top?

“That doesn’t mean that we don’t want to win every game that we play. Of course we do. But we may have to play more defensively.

“The players are really looking forward to it and a lot of them are enjoying being back in their shirts.

“There will be highs, there will be lows and we have to make sure there are more highs than lows.”