The clearout begins

The club has announced that it will not be renewing contracts for Stephen Henderson, Adam Matthews, Papa Soare, Chris Gunter, Ben Watson or Conor Washington. 

Henderson is surplus to requirement with MacGillivray, Maynard-Brewer and Nathan Harness. The club will be planning on getting better than Adam Matthews and Conor Washington. Matthews had an awkward season trying to play mostly as a wing-back, something he was unsuited to and I felt he could still do a job in a different formation. However, we conceded too many goals with him in the side and I think we can get better. Conor Washington is the most contentious one for most, but not for me. Couldn't fault his effort, unlike many others this season, but he is too injury prone and we have to have two scorers playing over 40 games a season and getting closer to one in two than one in three. It would have been a major disappointment if we had renewed contracts for Soare, Watson or Gunter and given they will be on higher money, they had to go. Pearce has been offered a coaching contract and I think that was the right decision too.

The club is in negotiations with Ben Purrington and my feeling is that he will sign. Not a bad player and has done better in a 3-5-2 than Matthews but I feel we could do better.

No surprise either that the six loanees are all gone - Famewo, Lee, Leko, Burstow, John and Castillo. I can't see any of them coming back either and they won't be missed.

One year contract extensions were given to Ryan Inniss, Josh Davison and Nathan Harness. Inniss is lucky to get an extension given his injury record and his temperament, but apparently he is a lesser earner (which I am surprised to hear) but he certainly has the capability and is a threat at set-pieces. We will be in trouble if Davison were to feature this season, so I assume he stays because he has promise or because we think someone may be prepared to buy him given his goals for Swindon (still in the Play-Offs). Harness, too, has promise and will effectively be third choice next season.

So, looking at who we are left with we have the following;

Goalkeepers; MacGillivray, Ashley-Brewer and Harness

I think we are fine here. MacGillivray showed his quality regularly enough but he also had a number of wobbles but who wouldn't given the way the outfield ten played at times?

Defenders; Lavelle, Inniss, Clare, (possibly Purrington), Elerewe and Barker.

We can't expect Inniss to play more than half the games and on that basis, he has to be a back-up player. Clare did well last season playing out-of-midfield and in an under-pressure defence but he was naive at times trying to play out and I wonder if we can't get better than him, especially if the new manager changes to a back four? Purrington may sign and Barker is still a squad player for me, so we need a new back four in my mind - two full-backs and two centre-halves. Elerewe could become a regular but not sure he's ready just yet.

Midfielders; Dobson, Forster-Caskey, Gilbey, Morgan, Fraser, Jaiyesimi, Blackett-Taylor. and still Kirk.

Depressing to realise we will still have seven midfielders after last season's shambles. Dobson is an automatic and I would like to think Fraser will be too, but I think we need another attacking midfielder who does a lot more work than Gilbey and one who is better than Morgan. Blackett-Taylor had a decent finish but he was pants before that and I really worry about his motivation. There is a good player in Jayesimi that a new manager might coax out but he has to be far more consistent if he plays and he needs to affect the game in the box, something he failed to do often enough last season. So for me, it's four new midfielders who can expect a lot of game time - two wide men and two central midfielders. I am expecting Kirk to move elsewhere.

Forwards; Anneke, Stockley and Davison.

We clearly need two more strikers who I would like to see as first and second choice with Aneke and Stockley providing back-up and something from the bench.

In summary then, I think we need ten outfield players, one in each position of a 4-4-2. We should expect most of them to be first choices and better than what we had last season. The squad cap of 20 presents challenges to that but hopefully we can move a few on. It should hopefully lead to a culture change, particularly under a new manager, and encourage the remaining players to fight for places. 

However, that is a big ask. It will cost more money that I believe Sandgaard will either want to spend or possibly be able to under FFP regulations? Almost inevitably they won't all work out either but we have to hope seven or so do and that might be enough to be truly competitive next season.