Kevin Rutkiewicz insists there won't be a "rip-up job" at East Kilbride this summer, but he won't try to keep those who don't want to be at the Lowland League club, and is going to bring in his own players.
Rutkiewicz is pleased with the squad at K-Park and says nobody is "miles off it" or will be frozen out, but improvements are needed and that he knows what is expected by the club owners.
The new Kilby boss says finishing second in the Lowland League isn't good enough, and intends to do what he can to take the title next season.
He said: "I've said to the boys this isn't a clean slate; it's not like anybody in here is not playing well, or anybody's out in 'Siberia', bombed out the squad. You're judging how they're reacting to us, as individuals, so it's up to us to keep them going. There's definitely stuff to work with.
"This isn't a rip-up job, but if it comes to the point where if I say to 'Joe Bloggs' do you want to stay, and he says no, that's really it out of my hands and the end of the conversation.
"We'll cast our eye over everything. I've said to people there will be one-way conversations and two-way conversations at some stage, over the next two to five weeks, I suppose.
"I need to find out if players want to stay - that's the first thing. If people don't want to be here, they won't be here. I'm not going to be a manager who is going to try and persuade somebody to stay against their wishes - I never have been.
"That's got to be the same throughout the recruitment, as long as I'm here. Sometimes you have to dangle wee carrots, or persuade people about the plan, and ambition, but at some stage the player has to say ' I want to come, I want to be part of it' and that's really big for me."
Former Stirling Albion boss Rutkiewicz, who enjoyed an extensive playing career with several clubs including Aberdeen, St Johnstone and Morton, added: "We'll sit down with everybody. Everybody has impressed. I don't think there's one player that we've felt is miles off it.
"We are going to want to bring in our own flavour, our own type of player. That doesn't mean it's a detriment or disrespect to anybody who is currently here, but inevitably there will be changes, as there are at the end of every season - particularly for a club that has one sole ambition."
Rutkiewicz says East Kilbride have played something of a team game this season, with 92 goals scored in the Lowland League this season, but without a major top-scorer.
He says the same has to be true of the defence, which has conceded 39 in 33 games, and wants everybody to work hard at improving that statistic next season.
The 41-year-old said: "We've been very clinical in front of goal. I think we've scored something like 47 goals in the last nine or 10 games, so that's good.
"but I look at it, and it's 39 goals conceded in the league, and that's not good enough. That's not aimed at my defenders, because for me that's a team effort.
"We've scored 92 goals but we've not got somebody on 50 goals this season, the goals have been quite well-spread, and that's the same as the defending.
"You want to try and correct that without taking too much of the clinical side of what the team has, so there are things we can look at and try to improve on.
"Finishing second, would the board consider this a good season? I don't think so. I'm under no illusion what is expected of me, so pressure is on.
"Every decision we make now is not going to be based on 'pals' on who we like and don't like, it's going to be based purely on who can do the business. Hopefully we can get more right than wrong."
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