Rochdale Football Club can confirm the departure of River Humphreys following the conclusion of his trial at Dale.
Humphreys, who was winner of the Fiat Tradesman Trials, spent the last month at the club in a bid to earn himself a professional contract.
Manager Keith Hill gave the defender a fantastic opportunity to do so, with Humphreys fully inclusive in the first team training schedule and the matchday squad. He featured for Rochdale in their pre-season friendlies against AFC Fylde, Curzon Ashton, Macclesfield Town and FC United.
Hill was impressed by many of the attributes shown by Humphreys and says the club will do their best to help him find another team.
“It was very difficult [to release him at the end of the trial] because he ticked a lot of the boxes. As a manager, you want a player to reflect the way that you want the game to be played with the right attitude, the application and the determination. He had all of them.
“But I think he knew and realised that the quality of where we need to be wasn’t quite there. He put everything into it but the reason why River just didn’t quite make it, for me, was because he needed to be better with the skill and speed.
“His attitude and his application were amazing and that’s why it’s difficult when you have to give a negative verdict on players like River.
“I think he should definitely be playing at a higher standard than he has previously been playing at - it’s just a question of where and when. I’ve had a chat with Colin [Garlick] and we’ll do everything we can to try and help him play the standard of football he should be playing at.
“I wish him well in the future.”
Rochdale Football Club would like to place on record its thanks to River for the hard-work, commitment and professionalism he showed during his time at Dale. We wish him the very best of luck for the future.