The 2019 Summer Clearout

[Salvatore Matrecano]

It sounds so easy doesnt it, “get rid of x”.

The reality is we will probably be stuck with paying the wages of, Steele, Dawson, Hefele, Guediora, Watson, Bridcutt, Clough, Cummings, Soudani, Ansarifard, Vellios.

There you go, Ive managed to make a whole team of 11 players who are dead wood and shouldnt have been given long term contracts. Who is going to to take any of them? Some will go on loan to L1 clubs but they will only pay a proportion of those wages. If we move on a few than great.

The problem being of course will we have to sacrifice some of our better players to fund the dead wood above? My guess is yes we will yet again suffer for the mistakes of previous regimes.

Of course we should be building a spine of a team around Darikwa, Figs, Worrell, Yates, Cash, Lolley, Carvalho,Appiah, Grabban. Make Colback and maybe Bonatini permanent and it looks strong. Just dont bet on that lot all being here.

[Sausage Roll]

Bit harsh on some of those players you've listed there to just write them off as 'dead wood.'

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Agreed SR.

I certainly wouldn't write off Soudani and Gueddy and I really hope that Dawson proves us wrong over his age and fitness issues.

[stirred]

It sounds so easy doesnt it, “get rid of x”.

The reality is we will probably be stuck with paying the wages of, Steele, Dawson, Hefele, Guediora, Watson, Bridcutt, Clough, Cummings, Soudani, Ansarifard, Vellios.

There you go, Ive managed to make a whole team of 11 players who are dead wood and shouldnt have been given long term contracts. Who is going to to take any of them? Some will go on loan to L1 clubs but they will only pay a proportion of those wages. If we move on a few than great.

The problem being of course will we have to sacrifice some of our better players to fund the dead wood above? My guess is yes we will yet again suffer for the mistakes of previous regimes.

Of course we should be building a spine of a team around Darikwa, Figs, Worrell, Yates, Cash, Lolley, Carvalho,Appiah,  Grabban. Make Colback and maybe Bonatini permanent and it looks strong. Just dont bet on that lot all being here.

Broadly agree on the lists. Bridcutt we could probably move on for a fee, Dawson I don't begrudge and having him in reserve is fine - or if he retires then I guess there is some sort of insurance compensation. But generally yes, I shudder to think what the annual cost of that load of mostly 30-somethings is as compared to our revenues.

The key thing is if people like Cash, Yates, Darikwa don't work out, there will surely be interest from Championship level clubs and we wouldn't be stuck with them contributing nothing but on hefty wages. Signing 'experience' basically needs to be a sure thing, or on a short-term deal, else its a poor strategy. Going for relative youth is just a much cheaper option in both current wages and future costs if a player doesn't work out. Unless you didn't do your homework on their character and they're a cummings.

I guess partly to a change in tack by the ownership, but our transfer strategy seems to have been the worst of both worlds. On relative youth, we went for Clough at an insane price, but not the likes of Marriott or Watkins. Then brought in 'experience' in numbers, throwing it at the wall to see what sticks, with relatively low transfer fees but lumbered with ongoing wages.

Surely with the sophistication around they can be looking at the risk / reward of these approaches, cos I don't understand why they've done what they've done. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when they're going through the transfer strategy.

Having said that, the loan nature of the January business seems ok to me. Short-term deals to fix the centre half issue, with options to buy on Pele at least, seems a smarter approach. So there is hope.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

I was deliberately a bit antagonistic in my clear out list above. Gueddy I have always thought overrated and wasteful, Soudani is harsh I just have a feeling we will never see him, same with Dawson I cannot see making a meaningful contribution next year and I forgot to add Murphy who will be 36 this year but we still have him for another season. Cant see any of those getting much game time.

Brilliant news on Lolley though and with a January of not panic buying and dishing out 3 year contracts to all and sundry we are starting to be sensible at last.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Very interesting post NG3, the last paragraph really caught my eye and got me thinking a bit.

I think you have nailed it.

Lets hope that some lessons have been learned and we will become much stronger for it in the future.

[the jock]

i wouldnt buy Bonatini personally. early days but i think we should be able to find much better than him in the summer.

[Widdow]

We may have spent £35m, but have also in last two years received around £25m from sales of the likes of Britt, Brereton, Lichaj, McKay, Fox, Lam, Kapino etc


Not sure we spent money wisely, bloated squad in certain positions, and lacking in other areas. Most places its a case of Quantity over quality, especially at centre half and keepers.


Will take a lot of wheeling and dealing to get a quality squad.


As I think this season is now very difficult to get in top 6, I believe we should start to bed in players now for next season. We don't need to keep relying on the likes of Ben "Ave it" Watson or Murphy up front. Yates shows you can play the youngsters, so lets see who can make the next step up.

That would help us work out what we need and who we can get rid of come the summer.

[Strawberry Avenger]

We may have spent £35m, but have also in last two years received around £25m from sales of the likes of Britt, Brereton, Lichaj, McKay, Fox, Lam, Kapino etc


Not sure we spent money wisely, bloated squad in certain positions, and lacking in other areas. Most places its a case of Quantity over quality, especially at centre half and keepers.


Will take a lot of wheeling and dealing to get a quality squad.


As I think this season is now very difficult to get in top 6, I believe we should start to bed in players now for next season. We don't need to keep relying on the likes of Ben "Ave it" Watson or Murphy up front. Yates shows you can play the youngsters, so lets see who can make the next step up.

That would help us work out what we need and who we can get rid of come the summer.

Decent post, Widdow. 

SA.  :cool:

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Looking at NG3's list above I would be happy to keep eveyone with the exception of:

Hefele.
Ariyibi.
Tachtsidis.
Clough.
Ansarifard (Heard he will leave).
Vellios.
Cummings.

All the others who I haven't mentioned I believe can play some part next season.

Problem is if we want to bring 5 or 6 new players in and if we want a smaller tighter squad then some of the others will have to leave too.

So with that in mind perhaps we will look to move on Bridcutt, Watson, Grant and perhaps Murphy.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Looking at NG3's list above I would be happy to keep eveyone with the exception of:

Hefele.
Ariyibi.
Tachtsidis.
Clough.
Ansarifard (Heard he will leave).
Vellios.
Cummings.

All the others who I haven't mentioned I believe can play some part next season.

Problem is if we want to bring 5 or 6 new players in and if we want a smaller tighter squad then some of the others will have to leave too.

So with that in mind perhaps we will look to move on Bridcutt, Watson, Grant and perhaps Murphy.

That would then leave us with 20 players before any new arrivals, perhaps 5 or 6.

That would give us a nice tight quality squad of 25 or 26 players not including anyone coming up from the Academy which may happen.

[the jock]

will we sell carvalho? would we even get half back?