THEY will be on the sofa, instead of the pitch, on Saturday.

As their former team-mates start their season, those without clubs can only worry, watch and wait.

Many are among the 878 players who were released at the end of last season by clubs in the top four divisions while there are others cut adrift in non-league.

Some have been snapped up but others are in the unenviable position of being a free agent just hours before the start of the season this weekend.

Released by Bradford City after relegation last season, Billy Clarke is one of them.

The striker - who was unable to make a major impact on his return to Valley Parade from Charlton in the January transfer window - is training with crisis club Bolton, having worked with Wanderers manager Phil Parkinson at the Bantams.

He is one game short of 400 senior appearances and has scored 77 goals but feels clubs want to take a chance on youth instead of experience.

"People look at my age - and I'm still relatively young in my eyes - but they're taking risks on younger lads, 20 and 21-year-olds, rather than people who have been there and done it," the 31-year-old said.

"I've always got the impression in the last few years clubs in League One and League Two think the grass is greener.

"There's such a turnover of bodies every year, 'alright we'll get rid of him and we'll get someone in who might be a bit better, they might not, but we'll take a punt'.

"Instead of adding to what you have it's completely stripped which I find strange. They would prefer to take a punt on a 20-year-old who has a sell-on value rather than someone like myself who has been there and done it.

"I don't know the finances behind clubs but I don't see how changing 10-15 players every year is going to be successful. You're going to get lucky once every 10 years.

"I've still got the hunger for it, I'm as hungry as I was when I was 18 but I've just got more experience."

Clarke, a former Ireland Under-21 international, was released by Ipswich 10 years ago but was snapped up by Blackpool a month later and helped the Tangerines reach the Premier League in 2010.

He is now waiting for Bolton's takeover to be resolved - with the English Football League happy for Saturday's League One opener at Wycombe to go ahead after it received financial assurances - before his future can be settled.

"Before I had calls daily and because I felt I was still a Championship player I held out for Blackpool," he said.

"This is the first time I've come off the back of a not-so-great season, I'm 10 years older and I had a serious injury 18 months ago so it's a culmination of things.

"It is difficult, you feel a bit hard done by. I've worked my socks off for 16 years and it still comes down to one person's opinion.

"You've got to be patient. The hunger will always be there for me. I predicted I'd be in a similar situation so I hit the gym more than ever knowing when I did get a chance I'd be ready.

"When I do get a chance I'm going to take it."

Clarke is not alone. Former Shrewsbury and Port Vale forward Louis Dodds endured a worrying summer.

Messages to managers were ignored and time was spent in the gym rather than on a pre-season training camp.

But former Leicester trainee Dodds, who scored 65 goals in three seasons for the Foxes' academy and reserve teams, is expected to join National League new boys Chorley before the weekend.

It is a major relief for the 32-year-old after enduring nagging concerns about his future.

"I've had a few sleepless nights, waking up in the middle of the night in a panic because you've got kids, a wife and a mortgage," says Dodds, having made 485 career appearances, the majority of them at Vale.

"You've got to try to pay everything and when you haven't got that security of a wage coming in it's that fear that drives you to keep going.

"I thought I'd get a text message back off a couple of the managers I've spoken to, 'thanks for the interest blah blah, but it's not for us' but no one has got back to me.

"It's a bit of a kick in the teeth. I've been in League One, League Two and the National League and it is good money but it's not like when my career ends I can stop and live off the interest. Far from it.

"If you speak to anyone and say, 'I'm a footballer' they immediately assume you've got loads of money.

"It's definitely not the case. Our wages are condensed into - if you're lucky - having a 15-year career where some people will be on a steady wage until they retire. It's not like I can keep doing this job until the national retirement age.

"It will creep up on you and as much as you don't want it do, it does.

"I keep myself in check and it is a nice reminder - in a not so nice way - that this career will not carry on forever."