YORK City Knights stalwart Mick Ramsden has asked fans to get fully behind the players as they kick off their 2015 season.

The long-running turmoil behind the scenes, with the Knights being excluded from the community stadium plan by project leaders City of York Council after a fall-out with chairman John Guildford, took another major twist this week when JM Packaging, the owners of York City, launched a take-over bid.

Pre-season had already been severely disrupted, with the club made homeless and the team left without a training base, all as a knock-on effect of the breakdown in stadium talks.

But while much of fans’ focus is on off-field affairs, Ramsden, a former player and now assistant-coach, has pleaded with them all to join forces in their backing for the team.

“A lot of emphasis is on the stadium situation and it’s taking the spotlight off the squad,” said the 43-year-old ahead of tomorrow’s opener away to London Skolars in the League One Cup.

“It’s a shame. We’ve got a good squad and they are all good lads who have been working really hard for the club and the fans.

“They have been affected by what’s going on in the background. They just have to detach themselves from it at the moment.

“I think the club has an exciting future - it’s a great time to come through as a youngster. Obviously, the sooner the powers-that-be can sort it, the better. I know people have different views, but, regardless of what happens, we’d like to think that all the supporters will still get together and support the team like we know they can.”

Ramsden, a long-serving second-row star, offered to play for free when the old York Wasps went bust in 2002 and was one of the first to sign when the Knights rose out of those ashes. He retired after helping the new club to the National League Two title in 2005 and has been on the backroom staff ever since.

“Of all the pre-seasons we’ve done, this one has been the most difficult,” he said, referring to the ad hoc training schedule which has seen equipment ferried from one venue to the next and stored in coaches’ cars and vans. Gym sessions together have also been missed while the team have trained on a full-sized grass pitch for only the past month after York RUFC offered up their Clifton Park facility.

“It’s been the most disjointed from one week to the next,” he added. “The players have done really well considering.

“Some have been really concerned - it’s playing on their minds a bit. We as coaches have to reassure them as best we can.

“We’re up against it but we can also all pull together. It’s a case of ‘everything is going against us but we will all work together and come through it together’.

“We’ve put a positive spin on it, and I think the way the lads played last Friday in the practice match was very encouraging.”

JM Packaging’s take-over bid came on Tuesday, a day before the club’s new directors met City of York Council’s stadium project team with a view to reopening negotiations.

A council spokesman said there was “nothing to add at the moment, apart from to confirm that the meeting took place and that discussions are ongoing”.