So basically you’re happy with keeping 9 players of a squad and going from there?
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Change, improvement is necessary.
Budgets will be tighter.
Etheridge Retain / but sell if the price is right
Smithies Retain
Murphy Retain
Peltier Retain
Manga Do everything to hold onto
Bamba Retain
Morrison Retain / but sell if the price is right
Bennett Retain / but sell if the price is right
Cunningham Sell / release
Connolly Sell / release
Richards Sell / release
Bacuna Sell
Damour Sell / release
Ralls Retain
Camarasa Gone
O’Keefe Release
Gunnarsson Gone
Arter Try to hold onto
Murphy Sell if the price is right.
Reid Retain
Hoilett Retain
Patterson Retain
Mendez Laing Retain / but sell if the price is right
Zohore Retain / but sell if the price is right
Ward Retain
Harris Sell
Healey Sell
Niasse Gone
Madine Sell
So basically you’re happy with keeping 9 players of a squad and going from there?
Selling out of contract players is a brilliant idea. I. e Richards and Harris
Come on down the price is right
Id sell Smithies. Im sure he will go as well unless Etheridge goes.
Cunningham retain not had a run hes a decent player in Championship..
Madine I think could do a job at our new level ,however recouping 6 million would be worth it.
Zohore no one will bid.
Bacunna is a good flexible option ,again at this level he'd be fine .
We have a few players who were out of thier depth in Premiership
( well most of them actually)and I think it's unfair to judge thier overall ability on the Premiership period, a few didn't get a real chance to bed themselves in , most slung into the team in panic not as a first choice , Cunningham and Bacunna ,spring too mind .
How anyone can judge Smithies is beyond me .
The only players who may attract bids in my view are :
Etheridge.
Manga.
Patterson.
Morrison.
Will they first team football in Premiership though .🤔🤔
Just started a massive post on this and lost it, when I went looking for Tonlin’s contract end.
Anyway
I reckon the 3 loanees will be gone as will Harris,
Murphy who might stay on as coach
Richards always injured
And O’Keefe
At least 3 of those we could replace with kids from the youth team.
Maybe need a winger to replace Harris
There’s a few with 1 year left..
That includes Peltier, Manga, Ward, Zohore and Bamba who we will have to make decisions on extensions.
Healey, Connolly , Damour and Tomlin all have 1 year left and I wouldn’t be surprised if none were at the club next season- if only on loan for 1 or 2.
The rest of the squad will probably stay.
We may get bids for Etheridge, Reid, Murphy or Bennett, but I reckon they will all stay for at least 1 more season .
I’m going to look up Bogle’s contract now, he’s probably off too, as is Madine
Madine 2 years left
Bogle 1
Wouldn’t be surprised if there is some sort of promotion clause at least with Madine.
Bogle Id have back tbh, but I can’t see him playing for Warnock and think he wants to stay with Pompey who may still come up
So..
Squad if the all the ones I mention leave..
GK- Etheridge, Smithies, Ratcliffe ?
LB- Cunningham, Bennett
RB- Peltier, Coxe
CB- Morrison, Bamba, Manga
CM- Ralls, Bacuna,
AM - Reid, Spence
Wingers- Hoillet, Murphy , NML
CF- Zohore, Ward,
All positions- Patterson 😂
We look fine at the back, maybe a 4th Centre half needed. Possibly a right back if you think Coxe isn’t sufficient cover.
Centre mid, need at least 2, plus a winger, and if Bogle, Healey and Madine all go we need 2 strikers. Could Griffiths be back up ? How old is he ? Transfermarket says 24.. surely not.
I just cant see Smithies being here next season. He was regarded as one of the Championships top keepers. He may have been prepared to battle for the no.1 spot in the PL but its a battle he lost.
Im pretty certain he will be gone - unless Etheridge gets sold.
Tomlin apparantly Peterborough have got him match fit.
He owes us one good season
There were stories that Ryan Price, right back signed from TNS in the autumn, was interesting Portsmouth and Hull I think it was - if they are true, then that says to me that he should be seen as a first team possibility next season. Price and left back Dan Martin (a left back young enough to play for us in the Welsh Youth Cup match with the jacks in March that we picked up from Fulham) were probably the most impressive regulars in the Under 23 team during the first two thirds of the season.
I guess the fact that we're going down means that it will be easier to move some players on. The likes of Tomlin and Boggle could not have been sold last summer given the salary increases they would have seen on promotion. Assume everyone is back down to their previous levels now.
In terms of budget, I reckon we could be looking at £15-20m, to include one "marquee" signing up front?
We have two other players out on loan - Ciaron Brown is a centre back at Livingston and has made a number of appearances for them and James Waite is at Hereford. Waite looks a promising mf/no. 10 but is small so that may rule him out if Neil is still in charge!
On the basis of 2 players for each pisition we need:
1 right back
1 centre back
1 winger
2 central midfield
2 strikers
There has to be a lot of churn this time with loan players coming and going, plus a few moved on. I expect Zohore and Madine to go and i cannot believe Tomlin will ever return. Players like Smithies and Cunningham may also look elsewhere for regular first team starts. Not sure if Bamba will be a regular either.
I think Harris, Richards, Gunnarsson , O'Keefe and Murphy are out of contract. We know Gunnar is going and the rest will too, although they may keep Murphy if Smithies or Etheridge go.
Manga is out of contract too I believe, but apparently there is an option for another year, not sure if it is with th club or th player> Sadly i can see him wanting to go. Another club will want him, although no-one did two years ago when he was out of contract then.
Sadly we are left with players like Madine, Tomlin and Bogle who the club will want to offload> Connolly too. And it's about time Healey was sold to play regular football, he's 25 now.
I believe Smithies and Cunningham need regular football, they cost a lot and won't want to stay as back ups in the Championship.
The only ones I think who would attract bids are Morrison, Etheridge, Bennett and Manga.
We know the loanees will leave.
So we are left with a squad of:
Etheridge, Smithies
Peltier, Bennett, Cunningham
Morrison, Bamba, Connolly.
Ralls, Bacuna, Tomlin, Patterson,
Madine, Bogle, Zohore, Ward, Reid
Murphy, Menndez-Laing, Hoilett.
So that's 20 players of which 2 may want to move one and the club will be looking at offloading another 4. They will need a massive new influx of players to make a decent squad.