Out of Contract 2022

[YorkshireRoyal99]

A lot of quality to lose though really, obviously referring to Joao above the others. If we were to sell Joao, whether justifiable or not, I'd be concerned unless we were to bring in someone of quality in attack. Given our transfer activity over the last few years, I can't say I'm too confident.

[Zip]

JLow reckons we’re open to selling Joao

Can understand it tbh. Only a year left on his contract, not sure we could afford to turn down 5m or so

Yeah, could fund 3 / 4 / 5 players. But boy what a hole to leave.

If we did manage to offload Puscas and Joao and get back in 7-10m or so, it’d have a significant impact on our finances. Bin off Moore and even better

With only one year on his contract left I doubt we would get more than £3 million for Joao. With Swift gone we really are going to have to recruit incredibly well to compete next season.

[Stranded]

Yeah, could fund 3 / 4 / 5 players. But boy what a hole to leave.

If we did manage to offload Puscas and Joao and get back in 7-10m or so, it’d have a significant impact on our finances. Bin off Moore and even better

With only one year on his contract left I doubt we would get more than £3 million for Joao. With Swift gone we really are going to have to recruit incredibly well to compete next season.

It does make things tougher if he goes but as mentioned if we can get some money in it should allow us to actually pay some fees for players - losing our 2 most creative players would be tough but if we are open to selling it does show that the club are maybe starting to plan better and get cash in rather than lose the player for nothing. It wouldn't surprise me if the fact he was out for 4 or 5 months this year has played into that - as having Joao is a bonus but only if he is actually on the pitch.

May also be part of the plan to try and future proof the club against relegation as well by having some cash that could be used to rebuild if we do drop next year, given we would be out of the agreed decision measures.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

EFL will stick their nose in no doubt and come up with another business plan to suit. Which I have zero faith that would be a quick process.

In my eyes it would be absolute suicide going into a transfer window with only one striker under contract. No LB. No creative ability and no CM in our team. We would need to have several players lined up ready to sign once given a green light.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Even still though, I don't see why we couldn't look to agree a new deal with him over the course of the season if we are well below the agreed budget or even at the end of next season potentially. There'd be a lot of suitors though but I'd rather have Joao for a season, get us the goals to survive and then look to rebuild next season without restrictions.

I wouldn't blame the club for taking anything between £3-5m for him though this summer, I just can't trust our recruitment process to replace both Swift and Joao whilst improving our team elsewhere. We look to have a similar, leaky, defence to this season but lose our biggest goal threat and our best creator.

[Zip]

EFL will stick their nose in no doubt and come up with another business plan to suit. Which I have zero faith that would be a quick process.

In my eyes it would be absolute suicide going into a transfer window with only one striker under contract. No LB. No creative ability and no CM in our team. We would need to have several players lined up ready to sign once given a green light.

Yep I would be very concerned if Joao were to leave. We are losing Swift and Puscas in all likelihood. That’s two of the biggest wages off the books. We need to be creative in how we deal with Moore’s final year. I also think if Joao goes Laurent will go too as they seem very close.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

The concern is it's a lot of quality to replace somewhere. Moore wouldn't do any worse in our current defence (not that that's saying much), Puscas we've seen can score goals and has potential in the right system, Laurent is a good player, Swift is our best creator and Joao is our best goalscorer.

It frees up a lot on wages for sure, but we'd need 8-10 players to fill our squad out and to replace what we are missing there. Not to mention that we'd also need a LB and a GK, so we are probably looking at about a dozen or so signings/loans if we were to sell all 5.

[Hound]

Does depend on if we have anyone lined up for next year as well. Expect we’ll have to utilise our full quota of loans (possibly an area where Kia genuinely does come in handy) and maybe we’ve got a couple of lower league or ooc players in our sights

If we pull some money in it might just give us a bit of financial headroom to play about with

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Not sure what Bowen's role really is at the club but hopefully we can look to him to support us in bringing in a few players over this summer as well.

To be honest, I'd rather not lose Joao this summer at all and just cut our losses if he was to leave on a free next season. It's a pretty big hit to take but I'd want to be in this division rather than rebuilding in League One.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

I very much Doubt Bowen would allow the club to be so unprepared going into the summer. I can imagine he has already got a lot of calls lined up over the next 7 days. Good to have a football man at DoF. Which I think is more vital than ever before.

If losing a handful of top earners allows us to up some wages for players to renew then great - instead of needing to get 10 brand new players we may only need to bring in 4 / 5 of which they could be loans.
If its a weigh up between losing Joao but keeping the rest of the squad key squad members Rino, Laurent, Hoilett, Holmes then I would say its worth the risk.
Maybe try our luck with getting big Andy C up top..

[YorkshireRoyal99]

It's about getting them right though, which, for me, is where the issue lies. Some of our more recent loans haven't been spectacular. The loan market seems to be where Kia has shone the most at the club, so hopefully his contacts can give ourselves some quality there.

Even last season, TDB was ok but not great, Drinkwater was in for criticism a lot of the time, Rahman was pretty consistent and was decent, Hein was strange and unconvincing and T. Ince was pretty good.

[Once upon a time .]

I’m pleased to see that so many are now seeing and commenting on the futility of trying to ‘play out from the back ‘ when you don’t have the technique or ability to do it . I have been saying this regularly since I have been on this site .
There will not be many of you that will have seen the Jack Mansell team . For one season they were a revelation ! He signed many of his players from non league football , including Tom Jenkins from Margate , a left winger who he sold at the end of the season for £65,000 , smashing the clubs record fee . The fans introduced the song ‘ its like watching Brazil ‘ , and it was . His method was simple , he often played out from the back but the players were told ‘ when a player near you has the ball find space In front of him ,then pass to him ‘ . This applied all over the pitch , it was done with pace , the players didn’t have to be quick , but the ball movement was . Rarely was there a backward pass .
We finished second in the league to Fulham , only one team was promoted then . They beat us 1-0 at home in an end of season game , their goal was scored a couple of minutes before the end of the game by the up and coming Malcolm McDonald , who went on to have an outstanding career , including scoring 5 goals in one game for England .
We ended the season as top goal scorers in the league and qualified for the Watney Cup the following season , losing to Man Utd , Bobby Charlton and all at Elm Park 4-3 .
Unfortunately we were relegated the next season as Jack Mansell’s relationship with the players severely broke down and the team didn’t perform .
I don’t see much wrong with his playing principles though , and it was great to watch . Coppell’s was not a lot different .

[Hound]

Tbh and it’s semantics but I think we play out from the back ok generally. Don’t remember many times when we got ourselves into trouble and we did manage to stretch the play and make space with it from time to time

It was the crappy aimless midfield passing about when we seemed to get stuck and give it away more than with the back 4/keeper imo

[windermereROYAL]

I’m pleased to see that so many are now seeing and commenting on the futility of trying to ‘play out from the back ‘ when you don’t have the technique or ability to do it . I have been saying this regularly since I have been on this site .
There will not be many of you that will have seen the Jack Mansell team . For one season they were a revelation ! He signed many of his players from non league football , including Tom Jenkins from Margate , a left winger who he sold at the end of the season for £65,000 , smashing the clubs record fee . The fans introduced the song ‘ its like watching Brazil ‘ , and it was . His method was simple , he often played out from the back but the players were told ‘ when a player near you has the ball find space In front of him ,then pass to him ‘ . This applied all over the pitch , it was done with pace , the players didn’t have to be quick , but the ball movement was . Rarely was there a backward pass .
We finished second in the league to Fulham , only one team was promoted then . They beat us 1-0 at home in an end of season game , their goal was scored a couple of minutes before the end of the game by the up and coming Malcolm McDonald , who went on to have an outstanding career , including scoring 5 goals in one game for England .
We ended the season as top goal scorers in the league and qualified for the Watney Cup the following season , losing to Man Utd , Bobby Charlton and all at Elm Park 4-3 .
Unfortunately we were relegated the next season as Jack Mansell’s relationship with the players severely broke down and the team didn’t perform .
I don’t see much wrong with his playing principles though , and it was great to watch . Coppell’s was not a lot different .

Malcolm McDonald didn`t play for Fulham to my knowledge, the goal you describe was for Luton and it wasn`t near the end of the season, he scored a hat trick in the return fixture at easter in a 5-0 win.

And the watney cup score was 3-2 not 4-3.

[Hound]

Also of interest- where is JLow suddenly getting this inside info from after doing the absolute bare minimum in recent times

[YorkshireRoyal99]

To be honest, whichever way we decide to play we need to find players that can play in that style effectively and we need to find an identity as a team as well.

A lot of that should really be in the works now as we work out which players are staying/going and who we can build the team around ultimately. There's a good spine that we can still develop in our team and we need to find an effective system for the players we wish to build around and recruit accordingly.

If it's playing out from the back, we need defenders who are comfortable with the ball. If it's wing play, we need wingers that are effective. If it's vertical football, we need technical players with energy who can receive the ball well and play quickly etc.

[skipper]

Given our current financial status.

Sell Meite, Joao and Ejaria and anyone else with a sizable fee.

Target Scott Twine etc, and build a squad around the best of the newest talent in League 1.

Get a few old heads in on loan from the Prem, to give the depth and mentoring.

We have a reasonable base of a defence, Yiadom (suggestions that he will re-sign) Holmes, McIntyre. Keep the goalie we picked up. Get the two fastest non-promoted, exciting strikers from League 1, like we did with Cureton, Forster etc. Just get some players with a point to prove, a desire to step up & apply themselves.

Don't think we can be any worse than this season.

Throw the dice, see what happens.

[Coppells Lost Coat]

Given our current financial status.

Sell Meite, Joao and Ejaria and anyone else with a sizable fee.

Target Scott Twine etc, and build a squad around the best of the newest talent in League 1.

Get a few old heads in on loan from the Prem, to give the depth and mentoring.

We have a reasonable base of a defence, Yiadom (suggestions that he will re-sign) Holmes, McIntyre. Keep the goalie we picked up. Get the two fastest non-promoted, exciting strikers from League 1, like we did with Cureton, Forster etc. Just get some players with a point to prove, a desire to step up & apply themselves.

Don't think we can be any worse than this season.

Throw the dice, see what happens.

Flog Kingsley to Marwell Zoo to while we are at it.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Players coming up through the football league is definitely the area we should be looking to poach from. Some decent clubs in our area with some good footballers in them, particularly the likes of Wycombe, Oxford, MK Dons etc who have all finished in the top half of League One amongst others as well who would probably fancy a move here as well.

[Snowflake Royal]

JLow reckons we’re open to selling Joao

Can understand it tbh. Only a year left on his contract, not sure we could afford to turn down 5m or so

Yeah, could fund 3 / 4 / 5 players. But boy what a hole to leave.

If we did manage to offload Puscas and Joao and get back in 7-10m or so, it’d have a significant impact on our finances. Bin off Moore and even better

I wonder if building a team for L1 might actually be a good strategy in that case. Bank cash, get us on an even keel and prepare for relegation and bounce back.