Team for next season...

Flavell,

Lofthouse, Shepherd, Lopata, Earl

Yoganathan, Russell, Nwakali.

Jalo, DKD, Humphrys.

Bench:

GK
MDG
Roberts
Watters
Bland
Gent
O'Keefe.

 

That's based on no one being signed or sold. There will be a few to go.
As for incoming signings. who knows. Depends on budget and if DKD and Phillips are sold.

 

I’d have Bland in over Lofthouse personally

 

I'll be very surprised if DKD is here next season probably the most valuable players on the books along with Phillips and the Chairman has already stated that the best players WILL be sold this summer to balance the books. So we will lose our best players this summer and the Muppet in chief Sormaz will be deciding who replaces them what could possibly go wrong oh yes that's right everything.

 

No it's based on the hope that we hang onto DKD and assuming that Connell and Phillips will be sold.

 

Good chance those 2 will be gone plus DKD. Also we'll have 11 defenders on the books next season. Think Bradford will bid for Shepherd and one of Cotter/O'Keefe will be shipped out. And up front i reckon we will welcome offers for Dallas.

We need a regular number 1 NOT another loan and 2 wide players and 1 or 2 strikers.

That's a minimum.

 

Spot on. No more defenders. Midfield and up front needs addressing.

 

We need Sormaz The Great to step up to the plate and not hesitate to make Barnsley great. Fat chance! My probable team for next season -
Kak,
Kak, Mediocre, Kak, kak,
Poor, Kak, Mediocre,
Ok, Non-existent, Inconsistent,

Subs:Waste of brass, Kak, Lazy, pinching-a-living, Heart-of-a-pea, Kak

That's assuming Sormaz is the boss!

 

That team doesn’t fill me with optimism.

DKD will be gone. He’s 28 at the start of next season and the Head of Moneyball won’t want a 30-year old on our books. His next sale is the most he’ll ever be worth.

 

At no time has the Chairman said our best players WILL be sold to balance the books, I keep reading this but it is simply not true.
What he DID say was “we have to sell a few players in the summer, like a lot of clubs do. But we will reinvest into the squad”.
Granted it’s an obvious conclusion that our better players will attract more offers than others but it’s not a given everything not nailed down will be sold.
He also said in the same interview they will put money in.

 

What we need to do is to find the equivalent of our DOF in another club. Then we will have no trouble offloading our players.

 

New keeper flavell isn't ready.

 

Team needs to be built around Robbo, Shepherd, DKD, Russell and Jalo / new target man. I accept that Phillips will have to be sold and he owes us nothing - we've had 3 good seasons out of him.

I'd also take up the extra year on Humphrys, assuming he's willing to put in the hard graft on top of his obvious ability.

There's a lot of work to be done over the summer, but while this isn't the greatest squad we've ever had, it's nowhere near bad enough to be finishing below halfway in League 1.

 

You forgot "won a raffle"

 

Gauci
Lembikisa
Rodrigues
Lewis
Pines
Mccarthy
Benson
Cosgrove
Marsh

will be gone and that immediately cuts some big wages (Benson for one was one of our highest "earners" at the club) He can be replaced easily and cheaply by the return of Yoganathan.

We will have 2 young keepers to start the season in Smith and Flavell so will require an experienced number 1 (preferably not another loan)

We will still have 11 defenders on the books and have to move some on. Lofthouse Shepherd and Lopata will all be returning from their respective loans plus Cotter O'Keefe MDG Roberts Earl Barratt Gent and Farrugia.

Midfield of Connell Russell Nwakali Yoganathan Phillips Bland.

Strikers- Watters DKD Humphrys Jalo Dallas.


No doubt some of those players will be sold but if Hourihane is given the proper backing and allowed to sign HIS players and HIS coaching staff then he at least deserves a chance to show what he is capable of.

 

I would hope Conor has had a word or uses his contacts to bring in an experienced CB with leadership qualities that can also help to bring on players such as Jack Shepherd.

 

As hard as it might seem to believe at the moment, I don’t think we are a million miles off being a decent team.
As I see it we have 2 choices this Summer to have a chance of being successful ,
1) Wholesale changes and stick with the press high plan
2) Change tactics, and recruit 3/4 decent players.

 

I'm optimistic too. In League 1 you just need it to click and go on a decent run.

 

I think Shepherd will be signed permanently by Bradford City.

 

I'd be both astounded and disappointed, bearing in mind how awful our defence has been this year. Signing top notch League 2 players is where we are and what we need to be doing. We already own one. Selling him would be insanity, assuming Bradford aren't willing to pay £750k or more.