Silly season warming up

Pre-season training has been going on for over a week now and the big news is that there really isn't that much big news around. We have made another signing since I last blogged, 20-year midfielder Ed Upson, who was released by Ipswich at the end of last season. I'm not going to pretend I know anything about him or that I've even heard of him before, but Skivo was obviously impressed enough to offer him a 2-year deal, so good luck Ed and welcome to Huish Park.

Andy Williams and Luke Ayling have signed their agreed 2-year deals so they're ours now and we can do what we like with them (evil laugh). Skivo has already said that he sees Ayling as a central midfielder rather than the central defender he's been up 'til now. Young Gunner Luke Freeman has also now signed a 6-month loan deal, and I'm looking forward to seeing all the above at the first friendly of the season, at least the first one that's not behind closed doors, against Swansea City a week on Saturday. According to the invaluable @SW6Haribo on Twitter the Glovers are in the Home Counties this weekend for training matches against Wycombe and Stevenage.

Hopefully we'll have a goalkeeper for those games! It's been confirmed that 31-year-old former Bradford City, Huddersfield and Carlisle keeper Matt Glennon is training with the club, as, perhaps surprisingly, is Richard Martin, who of course was released by Skivo at the end of last season. The rumour is that Skivo is hoping to entice Alex McCarthy back to Huish Park for another season which if true might explain the apparent relaxed attitude to getting a keeper signed up, doubtless more will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Another player worth mentioning who's been training with the Glovers this week is former Brighton defender Adam Virgo, but judging by Skivo's comments it's more a question of whether he fancies joining us rather than the other way around. Former Glover Scott Guyet has also been present this week following his release by Bournemouth as well as an unnamed German central defender. It's not known whether anyone mentioned the World Cup to our teutonic guest, but if they did let's hope they got away with it.

Funny story of the week was the one about Super Gavin Williams signing for League Two no-hopers Hereford United. Bullshitter fans were getting very excited about the possibility on their forum, right up until the time Gav got to hear about it himself and said, er no. What would make the story even funnier would be if the multi-talented Welshman then signed up for one of the Hereford's bitterest rivals instead, and no, I don't mean Cheltenham. Sound far-fetched? Maybe, but maybe not. Fingers crossed, eh?

And finally: Lee Trundle. We have made him an offer, according to Skivo, as have several other clubs including Tranmere (where he's training), Swindon, Charlton and Welsh Premiership side Neath Athletic. I think my feelings about the possibility of Trundle signing are best summed up by the erudite Cruncher on the Achieve By Unity forum: "If we are going to give it a go for an expensive flair player, it has to be only one and the one that stands out is SuperGav. No idea if he will become available for loan, but I would want to keep a hopeful slot open for him rather than commit to Trundle and miss out on Williams." Couldn't put it better myself.

Just read: Loadsa stuff so far this summer but what stands out in particular is a series I've re-read: Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. Easily the best lets-go-to-Mars-and-colonise-and-terraform-the-place series I've read, and believe me, I've read a few. It's long, overlong for a lot of people perhaps but I loved every word of it. If ever human beings get to Mars then this is the template on how to do it. Inspirational.