BRAINTREE Town boss George Borg is 'pragmatic' about the circumstances in which he is building his squad for next season.

That is the view of chairman Lee Harding, who has stressed that the club will not be spending money that they do not have, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Non-league clubs are currently feeling the pinch after the 2019-20 campaign was ended prematurely, due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The season was cancelled on April 22 and clubs are now having to turn their attention to the next campaign, whenever that may be.

Borg has spoken to his Braintree squad about the future and also some of their loanees from last season, about them staying at the club for the next campaign.

But Harding has stressed that they will not be offering players silly money to play their football at Cressing Road.

Harding said: "George is pragmatic.

"He won't be offering two or three-year contracts to players because there's no guarantee about the league we'll be in, next season.

"George has spoken to all of last season's squad, the majority of whom he's keen to bring back for next season along with one or two on loan.

"We won't offer the most money to players at Braintree but although it may not be the most money, they will be paid.

"It's feet on the ground time and we do not spend money that we haven't got.

"I think there will be casualties; there were clubs who were in dire straits before this and now they will be in real difficulty and faced with closure.

"But we have to take stock of where our priorities are."

Braintree are yet to hear from the National League on the outcome of the 2019-20 season, with much depending on the decisions made in the EFL.

The Iron finished 21st in the curtailed National League South season but Harding expects them to remain in the division.

"I hope we can have some indication soon about when we can start playing football again," said the Iron supremo.

"I would like to think we could return for pre-season training in July, with friendlies in August and perhaps in an ideal world, football in September.

"We have talked about social distancing in and around the stadium.

"Until distancing decreases, our capacity at the stadium in the early days will drop to around 1,000.

"There's no other means of doing it.

"We do have the ability to accommodate that and operate that in a sensible environment."