League 1 team next season

I know we are all still celebrating but who in the present team and squad is good enough to make the step up and who would you let go?

GK - Gilks has been excellent this season but we need a keeper to either be back up or take his place if he goes back to be the coach

Defence - Santos obviously and i really hope we we can sign John permanently. Baps would be good to keep but i think we need a new CB partner for Santos. Jones at RB is ok but we could do with an upgrade and Brockbank is worth keeping as well. The likes of Delaney and Greenidge can go for me.

Midfield - Lee, Sarcevic, Thomason and Williams can all play in league 1 in my opinion, Tutte has been unlucky but i can see him moving on and the less said about Comley the better.

Forwards - Doyle will have a point to prove in league 1 but he will do ok, I would keep Dapo if we can and also Isgrove. Not sure Miller and Gnahoua will stay so we definitely need a back up striker and more options out wide.

I reckon there’ll be a huge overhaul this summer as our squad is nowhere near good enough to challenge for promotion to the championship. I can’t see Doyle being the main man anymore, hopefully our scouting system can find an up and coming goal getter.

Think the likes of Williams, Jones and baptiste will be bench warmers at best

Agree with most of that Norpig but I suppose it depends as always on money and the club have already stated that they will not run the club unsustainably, so I don’t expect big wage players. That’s one reason why I doubt Dapo and John will stay. I’d obviously love them to but I just don’t think we can afford them permanently. I expect IE to look for tried and trusted players at L1 level, just as he did with Doyle, Sarce and Isgrove and probably look to bring in a few good quality loans as he did with Dapo and John this year. For me the likes of Gnahoua, Miller, Comley, Greenidge Delfouneso and Delaney can go and unfortunately, probably even Baps despite his excellent season. 

We can’t have any sympathy shown here, just a business like approach. Of course we’ll have Denis Politic back to start with so for me that also puts a question mark over Isgrove. He’s done ok but hardly starred and I’m not sure he can go up a level. On gaps to fill, I’d actually look at bringing back Madine because he could be a good partner for Doyle, who isn’t an out and out striker, is ineffective aerially and can’t hold the ball up. Another possibility and a player I rate, is Michael Smith at Rotherham. I don’t know his contract situation but he’s certainly a good target man. If Wednesday are having a clear out, I’d also look at bringing back Barry Bannon, a really good midfield general which we’ve missed and I’m not sure Sarce is fit enough or fast enough to perform in L1. He was excellent yesterday but in honesty, how many times did he really perform? It will be an interesting Summer with lots of comings and going’s but I trust IE to get it right and have us challenging for promotion again next season.

I wonder if Doyle will be here next season.

I get the impression - although I may wrong - that he's a goal machine in the fourth tier but not in the third tier.  He is 33 years old and is contracted to us for next season and the one after - so will he be as effective by then?

Also he must be on one of the biggest earners on our books, if not the biggest - so it would make some sort of finacial sense to sell him now whilst he still at his peak.

I would suggest there is even an ideal club who would likely not only to want him - and have the money to do a deal - but also need him - and which Doyle would be happy to go to - namely Salford City, who have failed to get into the play offs and whose own goal machine, Ian Henderson will turn 37 next season.

It does make a great deal of sense financially to me - and in theory the club talks about 'sustainability' - so I guess someone must be mulling over the costs and benefits as to stick with him for another two years or cash in whilst we can.

I also get the impression from what Evatt has said about Dapo and John, that their contracts will expire at their clubs in the summer and both had come to Bolton because nobody wanted to take them on loan other than us.

I would think most if not all of the third tier clubs will be tight for cash following a season with no crowds and that those clubs would not be seeing Dapo or John as 'priority' signings - so I wouldn't be surprised if we did actually sign them after all.

Maybe even Jensen the keeper from Burnley too?

I guess we will find out in the months to come but no doubt there will be a number of players leaving and others coming in before the summer window shuts.

I think most teams will be put off by Doyle’s wages

Doyle has a 3 year contract i think so can't see him going anywhere yet. He'll want to prove he can cut it at a higher level so he'll be fired up to do well.

The main issue for me is that even though he's scored 19 goals the service he gets is not great so if we can improve that then i think he will score regularly next season.

Norpig wrote:Doyle has a 3 year contract i think so can't see him going anywhere yet. He'll want to prove he can cut it at a higher level so he'll be fired up to do well.

The main issue for me is that even though he's scored 19 goals the service he gets is not great so if we can improve that then i think he will score regularly next season.

HAD a 3 year contract - he's just done one season so has only two left.

The bottom line really is what Sharon intends for next season and what money she has budgeted to work with.

If the right offer came in for say Santos - who clearly has potential to play at a higher tier - then he would go, so I don't see much difference in looking at things the other way around such as if the club felt at his age that Doyle might not cut it at a higher level as he grows older then in might be good business to sell him on whilst his value is high to others - think of the players we had like Amos who was on big money and couldn't get in the team - we can't afford such scenarios anymore.

I'm not saying Doyle will be sold but also I'm pretty sure he won't be allowed to sit out his third season in the reserves or sent out on loan with us having to subsidise his wages.

If we are to become a selling club in order to survive within our budget then it will be interesting to see if we keep hold of our stars and go all out for the Championship, or we sell as and when we can and spend a few years building ourselves up by buying better and better prospects to sell on like Brentford have done.

Like Brentford and now Barnsley, the other “money ball” club Sluffy. Like you, I also wonder if Doyle will go? To me he’s a L2 player but I’m not sure he’d do as well in L1, although if he had a strike partner, who was more physical and could do the hold up work for him, he could surprise us. I think of the lay off from Sarce on Saturday, he was on it in a flash, left foot and all. He looks fit enough, so I don’t think there’s a problem there and yes, I also think Salford would be a good fit. I can’t see his wages being a big obstacle for a team looking to go up as you don’t get good, proven goal scorers cheap, but it depends how IE sees it. Would we expect a fee, or would getting him off the books be preferable? Again it depends on IEs plans and who he thinks fit them. Maybe the 3 year contract was because IE didn’t really expect promotion first time, despite what he was saying? Maybe things have changed now we have?

To me its too soon for this discussion to begin.....but now that's it started

Goalkeeper is an on-going issue that apparently we cannot sort. I have Gilks as our player of the season but moving ahead even he knows coaching is the way.
For me we have too many defensive midfielders and could use someone who can play a ball forward thru the middle and furthermore someone who can chip in with a few goals. Same with center back - as we all know our lack of ability to win a header from corner kicks is shocking - not sure what the answer is to that one.

terenceanne wrote:To me its too soon for this discussion to begin.....but now that's it started

Goalkeeper is an on-going issue that apparently we cannot sort. I have Gilks as our player of the season but moving ahead even he knows coaching is the way.
For me we have too many defensive midfielders and could use someone who can play a ball forward thru the middle and furthermore someone who can chip in with a few goals. Same with center back - as we all know our lack of ability to win a header from corner kicks is shocking - not sure what the answer is to that one.

I agree Terenceanne, which is why I suggested bringing Madine back, if available. Not only was he effective in the opponents box but also defensively in his own. I also think Barry Bannon at Wednesday would be a good shout if released to perform our driving midfield position, though if Sarce can consistently repeat his Crawley performance, maybe he can do that. I’m sure Baps position will be under threat, despite his Stirling performance over the last 3 months, so perhaps a more dominant partner for Rico should be a priority. It may be a bit early because the staff will need a couple of weeks to acclimatise but it’s important that we start by pinning down those players we want to keep first and move on to incomings once all players have completed their seasons and are back from holidays. Should be an interesting summer.

None of the current squad exactly scream "League 1 player" but we can't get rid of them all.

But if we're going to prevent an instant return to League 2 like Swindon we absolutely have to find a couple of strikers and an attacking midfielder. We have struggled to score for much of the season so it's imperative the attacking part of the squad is overhauled.

We have a few contracted players who have been fringe or farmed out so the starting point is who do we not want or need?  Are Ali Crawford, Faal, Liam Gordon, Hickman and Greenidge still with us next year or are their contracts up? Those we can lose will be a contributing factor to what we can spend and that's the big unknown. All well and good talking about this player or that player but the budget will decide.

Personally I'd keep most of the regular starters of the second half of this season and try to add 4 or 5 players of better quality than we have - a goalie, a CB, and say 3 others that can keep possession whilst offering a real attacking threat. I like Doyler but he gets nowhere near enough of the right kind of service in this system (despite scoring 19!) so he needs help from somewhere, ideally a big aggressive strike partner if we can't play through teams and can fit one in without losing the midfield. There's some skilful striking talent in L2 that could do it: Matt Jay for example - or even a last hurrah for Vaughn if Tranmere don't make it? Either of them with Doyler could be deadly in L1 but I'm hoping for even better.
Since Evatt got a grip on recruitment I've been generally pleased with those he brought in (Maddison being the main disappointment albeit not necessarily his fault) so I'm hoping he'll surprise me with some attacking flair - and I suspect we'll be looking for loanees from higher leagues.

list of contracted players, there is a lot out of contract this year looking at that list.

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Never heard of most of those.

Just looking at that list and what happened to Darcy? Is he injured as he hasn't been in a squad for ages has he?

Norpig wrote:list of contracted players, there is a lot out of contract this year looking at that list.

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That list makes my point exactly - there is a helluva lot of work to be done.
What are we going to do with Crawford, Gordon, Comley, and Greenidge?
Edwards is signed up but what about the other kids? Young Le Fondre is a prospect but doesn't have a contract and most of the others have no time left on theirs.
We have a core of Gilks Williams Santos Delf Doyler Lee Sarce and Politic in the bag but shouldn't we be looking to tie up John, Jones, Baps and possibly Jackson who could all do a job in L1 especially if we're looking for cover in every position? Personally I think Isgrove deserves a contract too although many would disagree. And I wouldn't be surprised if Kioso wanted to come back.
Then there's the Dapo question.
All this before we look beyond the walls.

Going to be interesting.

I had the same thought about Kioso. I think he will return this summer on a perm deal. But this isn’t an ITK for a change

Kioso was decent for us and seems to have done well at Northampton on loan even though they've been relegated. He has another year on his Luton contract though so can't see it happening.

No thanks, good going forward but played in some of our worst defensive performances.

The saddest thing about that list is that we have to put up with Delfouneso for another year. D’ohh.