PORTLAND United have secured George Stuttle for the 2024/25 season after fending off interest in the defender from other clubs.

Stuttle, who also played for Weymouth Under-23s last season, is understood to have attracted attention from Step 4 level, plus fellow clubs at Step 5 and others at Step 6.

Stuttle is known to have pushed for a place at centre-back next term after spending much of the previous campaign at left-back, chalking up 30 appearances and one goal.

Negotiations with Portland centred around his position, with coach Shaun Bessant and Critchell instrumental in keeping Stuttle, who Echosport understands was offered one deal that the club could not compete with financially.

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Speaking to Echosport after locking down one of Portland’s best talents, Critchell gave insight into talks behind the scenes.

He said: “To be honest, we weren’t sure if it was going to materialise.

“George, like others, had some interest from teams that were probably willing to go above what we can afford.

“Ultimately, it came down to myself and Shaun Bessant having a good conversation with him about what we can do to continue to support his development.

“In transparency, that was that George wanted to play centre-back, he feels like that was his best position.

“We’re going to do all we can this season to support that. That being said, he has to earn the right and perform like everyone else.

“I think Shaun’s influence on this decision for George was massive.”

When put to Critchell that other clubs might have ended negotiations due to a player demanding to take a specific position, he replied: “I don’t think it’s pandering.

“We’re listening to a young man who when we walked in was playing centre-back and we’ve utilised him at left-back because we didn’t have a natural left-back.

“He’s always said throughout the whole season that he feels like he can perform best (at centre-back).

“With Jamie (Symes, assistant) and Shaun coming to an area in their lives where they want to focus more on coaching, it allows us to utilise George in that position.

“Where we’ve gone to three centre-backs, it means that so long as they’re all performing we’re going to start the season with a young back three.

“Our aim is to develop as many young people as we can to hopefully go on and flourish in the game.

“Shaun is testament to that, he’s happy to push them, mentor them and guide them so they can develop into a team that is winning hopefully more than it’s losing.”

Critchell also explained how managers at Step 5 can be somewhat in the dark as to player negotiations when members of their squad have non-contract deals.

He added: “That’s the nature of the beast. Tommy Killick said it in a recent interview, if you’re not getting interest in your players, then something isn’t necessarily going right.

“By all accounts, I’ve heard that quite a few of our players have had some offers from teams in and around the local area.

“That’s testament to the hard work they’ve done. But, we’ve kept a good core of the group from last year and added a couple.

“More importantly for us, it was the characters we wanted to retain and the characters we’ve got in Freddie (Beale) and Patrick (Jenkins).

“This is my first real off season and you never know because any manager can come and speak to you.

“With a contracted player, you know where you stand and what’s going on, but non-contract is all hearsay and they can use that as leverage.”