Squad Movements - Summer 2018

[The Jovial Forester]

How does you 1st and 2nd halves of the season compare? Seems like you had a handful of good results in a row in both but still been hit and miss.

IIRC we are comfortably mid-table since the new lads came in; did have an even better run to begin with but as you say been a bit patchy again towards the business end.

 

[Greenacres]

We got 20 points from our first 23 games, or half of the season, since then we have managed 27 in 22. If we could somehow manage to beat Grimsby on Saturday that would give us a nice round 30 for the second half of the season, a 50% improvement on the first half.

Luke Imp is spot on with his hit and miss assessment, there have been times when we threatened to go on a bit of a run to drag ourselves away from the mire or even head towards mid-table obscurity...but we never do things the easy way. I had hoped back in January that we might be safe with four games to go, in the end we pushed it a bit closer and did it with just two remaining...I don't wish to sound ungrateful, my hopes for nothing more than avoiding relegation have been met, though I do have a few more grey hairs!

 

[djs]

Noticed that too, wasnt sure if it was just your usual end of season good byes though or something a bit more.

Either way good player though he undoubtedly is, we need to bring in someone who is a bit more reliably available than him in that position for next season in my view.

In his post match interview on Sat he said that he would like to stay but "it was all out of his hands."

 

[Indian Dan]

TBH, I’d only want to keep st the most 5 or 6 of our shower of shite - and 3 of them have hardly played all season. Vigouroux will return from being cast out at Waterford, Conroy and Preston have been out injured for most of the season, the young lad Knoyle looks promising. Actually, thinking about it, that’s only 4.

The loanees can all fuck off. The real problem is offloading the shite that are still under contract.

Richards and Taylor are mighty fine but age must be catching up with them.

Robertson, Lancashire, Dunne, Linganzi, Hussey, Banks, Norris can all do one. We’re stuck with Anderson and Woolery and 2 fucking useless keepers.

I hope the future is orange.

 

[Chris FGR]

Woolery not worth the 300k you spunked on him to gazump us then? What a shame.

 

[Indian Dan]

There’s no way in this world Power would have paid that - for anyone!

Much the same as the ‘fact’ we paid £150,000 for Norris.

 

[Agombar stool]

ID - Do you think Woolery was a Power signing? He barely got any regular football under DF and has been injured so not got a lot of game time under Brown.

I'm hopeful that under a proper pre-season and organisation Woolery will come good. His goal against Bristol Rovers in the trophy shows what he is capable of.

Anderson is a funny one, scored a belter at Grimsby but is greedy and tends to run down alleys too much. If Brown is to be the permanent manager I would imagine we'll see a raft of Southend players coming in, hopefully Simon Cox may be one!

 

[Indian Dan]

Well, they’ve both got something - but don’t show it very often. Maybe Brown will sort out a playing method that will suit them. Flitcroft certainly was the master of playing players out of position. Hopefully he’ll come in for Norris!

 

[Agombar stool]

Well, they’ve both got something - but don’t show it very often. Maybe Brown will sort out a playing method that will suit them. Flitcroft certainly was the master of playing players out of position. Hopefully he’ll come in for Norris!

Yes now Richards can take penalties we really don't need Norris. His hilarious ability to snatch at good chances and his positioning as a striker is terrible, he's never in the right place at the right time - something that Richards almost always is.

 

[Douglas_Valley_Reds]

James Jones pens new 2 year deal. A massive step forward for us as this is a lad who Preston have been trying to sign for a while, albeit he has suffered from injuries this season, but he could have refused a new deal and gone to PNE for a minimal fee. If he delivers on his promise (hopefully assisted by Paul Green next season), then I think the we (or that prick Hassall) will receive a big fee when he does leave.

 

[TimeyWimey]

James Jones pens new 2 year deal. A massive step forward for us as this is a lad who Preston have been trying to sign for a while, albeit he has suffered from injuries this season, but he could have refused a new deal and gone to PNE for a minimal fee. If he delivers on his promise (hopefully assisted by Paul Green next season), then I think the we (or that prick Hassall) will receive a big fee when he does leave.

He must have been ‘gutted’ having to sign that. I guess Preston told him he’s too much of a crock to take a chance on this summer.

 

[Habbinalan]

Jabo has signed for us for another year. Expecting a full retained list next week and early progress on filling the gaps.

Almost more interested to see who will be coming through from our youngsters. We have Davies, Norville-Williams, Darling and Squire, knocking at the door. Hoping for a solid performance from Sam Squire for City at Hartley Wintney in their Play-Off Final on Monday.

I've been less impressed with what I've seen of our star striker, Matt Foy, that everyone is clamouring to have a debut.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

After a series of contracts have been signed at the club, our list has changed somewhat.

Under Contract for next season: Ben Garratt, Perry Ng, Brad Walker, George Ray, Michael Raynes, Chris Porter, James Jones, Jordan Bowery, Eddie Nolan, Dave Richards, Callum Ainley, Ryan Wintle, Tommy Lowery, Harry Pickering, Owen Dale, Charlie Kirk, Lewis Reilly, Will Jaaskelainen.

Academy Scholars likely to promoted to the first team: Billy Sass-Davies, Luke Offord will definitely be given pro contracts and perhaps one or two more on top of that but waiting for confirmation.

Out of Contract: Zoumana Bakayogo, Chris Dagnall, Daniel Udoh, Oliver Finney, Josh Lundstram, Ross Woodcock.

I wouldn't be surprised to see all six of these players released. The first four will definitely be released, Lundstram may get a final chance with a 12 month extension and could see Woodcock getting a 6 or 12 month contract due to being a Scotland youth international and being injured for most of the season so has hardly had chance to prove himself.

Loanees set to return to parent club: Paul Green, Shaun Miller, Jamie Sterry, Harry McKirdy, Daniel Barlaser (already returned to parent club).

Paul Green is widely expected to become our first permanent signing as soon as his release from Oldham is confirmed judging from various hints and comments coming from the management and the club themselves. Shaun Miller will more than likely become our second permanent signing as he's said that he wants to play closer to his home in Alsager and is also widely expected to be released by Carlisle next week. Harry McKirdy could well find himself here on loan from Aston Villa next season but I feel that they're more likely to loan him out to a League One club after having a decent spell for us in his time here. Jamie Sterry definitely won't be playing for us next season and will more than likely get a loan move to a League One club after a series of solid displays for us.

With the majority of players being signed up, if Green and Miller join, that'd leave us needing an RB, LB and potentially a loanee striker for added depth, which is a blessing as we had to rip up the entire squad last year and in the previous years before that, we lost half our team because either they wanted to get away from Davis or Davis didn't give them a run in the side and so he got rid. Such continuity is vital if we're to achieve our aims of a playoff push next season.

I can also see us transfer listing Brad Walker (but not Michael Raynes or Chris Porter as JJ posted earlier) as the move here really hasn't worked out for him. However, I doubt that any North East clubs will be able to match the generous wages we're paying him, so could see us loaning him out to a Gateshead/Hartlepool type side or selling him permanently to a non league moneybags club like Salford. Raynes might be on huge wages, but he still has a role to play at the club and will be jostling to regain his spot at the start of next season. Porter needs a pre-season under his belt to get himself match fit again too and will get the chance to do that because he started the season off very well last year.