No Rangers deal for Dominic Merella

Stafford Rangers will not be signing Dominic Merella for the new Blue Square North season with the young striker set to head back to Spain.

Merella is attached to the Glenn Hoddle academy and is headed back to their training base overseas to continue his footballing education.

The 20-year-old is hoping Hoddle will use his contacts to get him a club in Spain's Football League after the success story of Ikechi Anya in 2008, who went from a short-term deal at Northampton to joining Sevilla's reserve team and then on to Celta Vigo this year.

But it means that Merella will not be a part of the Rangers squad that goes to Boston United to open the campaign on Satuday, although Rangers assistant manager Steve Wynn has not ruled out a return later on in the season.

He said: "Dominic will probably not be starting the season with us, but it's a bit of an open-ended situation and we will keep in contact with him."

Rangers are making final decisions on their squad this week, with all trialists and players who have not signed forms needing to be registered for the start of the season.

Chairman Mike Hughes is back from a short break today and management are hoping to tie up the paperwork after tonight's training session at Marston Road.

He said: "There will be a lot of activity tonight when we are all at the ground, a lot of it has already been done and we have spoken to everybody.

"It will all be in place for Saturday, there's no about that."