York9 FC Parts Ways With Six Players, More Likely To Come

Canadian Premier League club York9 FC has officially parted ways with six members of its inaugural roster today.

Head coach Jim Brennan had stated that many of his players were fighting for their jobs come the tail end of the season, with the harsh realities of the professional sporting world resulting in a large reshuffling of the club’s 23-man roster.

The Nine Stripes have confirmed that Austin Ricci, Cyrus Rollocks, Daniel Gogarty, Matthew Silva, Stefan Lamanna, and Steven Furlano have been released.

York9 Football Club would like to thank them for their commitment and professionalism they’ve shown to the program. We know these players have bright futures and we wish them nothing but the best and success in their future endeavors.

Jim Brennan

Of the six players released by York9 so far, Daniel Gogarty saw most of the first team: he made 24 appearances for the Nine Stripes in all, arriving by way of the inaugural CPL-U SPORTS Draft and balancing both his studies and the professional game before graduating from York University earlier this year.

Matthew Silva was expected to depart due to a lack of playing time: he was originally brought on with the expectation of being the starting goalkeeper, but Nathan Ingham‘s arrival shortly before the inaugural match meant the 28-year-old only made one appearance for the Nine Stripes.

Aside of Barrie-born midfielder Steven Furlano, the rest of the relased players all saw less than 400 minutes of total game time throughout the inaugural season. Stefan Lamanna, who arrived as a fall season replacement for Jose Pina, only saw 76 minutes of action.

While there may be some more turnover regarding fringe players, Jim Brennan has indicated multiple times that he’s happy with the core of group and how they’ve adapted to his playing philosophies. He believes that building around his key players will allow the club to rectify its mistakes from the inaugural campaign, where the squad showed plenty of promise but struggled with consistency.

So far, only full-back Morey Doner has been confirmed for the 2020 season. With the gaffer happy with his core group, fans can expect the likes of Ingham, Aparicio, Di Chiara, Abzi, and the always-present Gasparotto to likely be re-signed in the near future, too.

While Brennan previously stated that the club would see what it would do to get Toronto FC loanee Ryan Telfer back for next season, there hasn’t been any public development there as of yet.

With the future of Chilean striker Rodrigo Gattas uncertain, the club is hoping to find more international talent by conducting an international scouting combine in Mexico later this month. York9 FC will also host a local U-21 talent identification camp in December, with the Nine Stripes already set to take on two of the club’s three required domestic U-21 players via the 2019 CPL-U SPORTS Draft.

The recent departures mark York9 FC‘s first postseason roster communication, but fans should expect more to follow before before the holidays arrive.

Source: York9 FC