Crawley Town boss has his say on Scott Malone after former Millwall defender said he would '100%' return to Reds if asked
Colin Kazim-Richards has had his say on Scott Malone after the defender said he would happily come back to Crawley Town.
The 35-year-old left the club in the summer despite playing a vital part in their League Two survival at the end of last season and is now a free agent.
And in an interview with BBC Sussex’s Robin Grey this week revealed if the club asked him to come back he said: “If they phone me in an hour's time, if they phone me next week, 100% I'll go back.”
Malone has been on a PFA camp while not having a club but made three appearances for Three Bridges before leaving them to allow him to find a League Two club.
Robin Grey then spoke to Kazim-Richards ahead of the Cheltenham game and asked him whether he would welcome back Malone as a player.
“As a player, I'm not too sure,” said the Reds boss. “As a player or in a role at the club, I'm probably not the right person to talk to about that because at the end of the season, like I told you, and I'll make it evident again, it was something I was very interested in doing.
“And then things broke down for whatever reason. Both sides of the table couldn't agree and, you understand when people don't get what they want, both sides' relationships change.
“With me, Scott's always been great. He was a great professional towards the end. When I came in, he gave everything.
"I think we got seven starts, seven 90 minutes out of Scott, which he hadn't done in a long, long time. He's a pro that understands, but at the same time, behind the scenes, I'm not sure, because I think the internal relationships of what went on and what was said, maybe there's no comeback from that.”
But Kazim-Richards hasn’t ruled out dipping into the free agent market. “It's always there. Why wouldn't we?” he said. “I think that would be silly for any club to just turn their nose up at it. There's some good free agents on the market. It could be something that we're looking into. It might be something that we're looking into already. But in terms of right now, as of Thursday, my focus is solely on Cheltenham and getting a result at home.”
You can listen to BBC Sussex’s full interview with Scott Malone at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0p8g0dh.