Mickey Demetriou: Captain leaves Newport County after rejecting new deal
- Published
Newport boss Graham Coughlan (R)says he "tried to play the emotional card" to get Mickey Demetriou to stay
Mickey Demetriou has left Newport County as a free agent after the captain failed to agree new terms.
The defender, 33, joined the League Two club from Shrewsbury Town in January 2017, playing a key part in their relegation 'great escape' that season.
"Mickey's left the club, his contract ran out at the end of June and we put a contract in front of Mickey the first week in May," manager Graham Coughlan told Radio Wales Sport.
"He's not taken us up on our offer."
Demetriou, who has not confirmed a new club, agreed a new Exiles contract in 2019 and again in 2021, but was not able to find common ground on a third extension.
"I've been in constant dialogue over the summer and I've tried to twist his arm, tried to turn his head," Coughlan said.
"On Friday night I had a conversation with him and told him I was about to drive over to his house and bundle him in the back of my car and bring him back!
"Yeah, it wasn't successful which again, you're losing a leader, you're losing his leadership, a right of call in the changing room, a right of call in the club for the last seven years.
"I tried to play the emotional card with Mickey regarding the next couple of seasons, going into coaching, maybe if he fancied going into recruitment, whatever he wanted long-term and also I tried to bribe him with a testimonial if he made the 10 years. So I tried everything.
"But look, we're not competitive enough and that comes from the financial side of the league, we just can't hold on to these type of guys and the annoying part on my side is we're losing players to clubs like Harrogate, Oldham, I'm losing players to the likes of Grimsby.
"I know Oldham are in a different league but imagine Harrogate and Grimsby - we're both fighting in the same neck of the woods in the league so its very, very challenging shall we say."
Along with Demetriou, fellow defenders Aaron Lewis, Priestley Farquharson and Cameron Norman have all departed Rodney Parade as free agents despite being offered new contracts.
"It's been very frustrating if I'm honest, I've been disappointed with the lads and I'm frustrated and annoyed and all of them emotions, any emotions you can name, because I think our recruitment this summer would've been about improving the squad," Coughlan added.
"But when the four lads departed I'd say we made them very, very competitive offers but obviously not competitive enough... losing those four players, it's very difficult to replace them, it's almost impossible to replace four lads like that.
"So it was very disappointing, very frustrated and annoyed, I wish the lads had stayed, I wanted them to stay, I was desperate for them to stay.
"It has been a setback, it has been a blow... but it is what it is, there's not a lot I can do about it. So I have to just get up and try my best to put together some sort of competitive squad going into next season."