End Of Season Squad

[Mar]

After all the players out of contract and those returning to their respective clubs, our end of season squad is looking a little thin on the ground in some areas more than others.

GK: Bogdan, Lainton, Lonergan
DF: Mears, Mills, Ream, Ricketts, Riley, Wheater
MF: Eagles, Andrews, Wylde, Mark Davies, Pratley, Vela, Lee, Medo
FW: NGog, Sordell, Craig Davies, Eaves

I'd like to think we could potentially bring in a few of those on the exit door:

Dawson
Alonso / Warnock
Holden (on lesser money of course, unsure how that knee will hold up)
Spearing (less than £3 mil, lets not be paying Liverpool too much again)

Aside from those I think there's quite a bit of work for Freedman to be doing in the transfer window. I'm not overly assured in any part of the pitch that we have a solid area that doesn't need work.

Defensively I think we need someone in there to marshal the defense. Someone to help the rest. We're not a million miles away here from having a decent defensive side but we just need all the players to know exactly whats expected. I'd like to see us work on bravery here, Knight doesn't look like attacking the ball when going up for corners and Ream looked a little standoff-ish in attacking the ball from defence. Some crazy no-nonsense CB would be good and a LB is required (i'm of the perception covering CB / holding midfielders work well for coverage).

Midfield I think the biggest problem is we've got players that don't quite fit the system. Mark Davies is great running at defenders but I can only see him fitting into a 'behind the striker role'. Lee clearly needs clever players to link up with, but we've got an abundance of athletes in the center of the park. I think a clever ball playing defensive midfielder would work well here. As an aside, Medo, Spearing, Pratley, Vela and Andrews are all way too similar. Unless we're planning on having 2 holding midfielders every match we might as well try and strengthen the center of the park. A covering left/right winger would be a nice addition.

Strikers I don't think we have a good match here. Eaves and Craig Davies are the two i'm genuinely happy to have around, Craig Davies' track record suggests he wont be around long though. N'Gog can be brilliant at times but is too shot shy for my liking, he offers something unique but its the same Kevin Davies problem, does his all round game give enough for the cause, i'd much prefer a lazy goalscorer Klasnic to a hard worker who doesnt score. Sordell has talent just doesn't seem like a team player and genuinely doesn't seem happy to be here. Hopefully we can make some headway in this department. Eaves seems to be the new Kevin Davies so we look reasonably covered in the route one approach.

All in all, work needs to be done and i'm confident we're heading in the right direction.

[Lord Kangana]

Dawson and Spearing required for next season.

How likely that is, I've no idea. I'd be more comfortable if it was possible, though.

And, with Mark Davies out for so long, we could look painfully thin if we don't retain Spearing, and one of or (heaven forbid) both of Lee and Eagles are offski. The one silver lining might be the further emergence of Josh Vela (in a Kevin Nolan Stylee).

Dougie's mettle is really going to be tested this next season, I've a feeling he may need to do an Allardyce of however-many-frightening-number-of-years-ago it was, and get us up on odds-and-sods-and-some-kids.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

We've some promising youngsters that have done well in the youth teams or whatever they are called now. Might be a bit soon for some of them, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some of them around the squad next season. I think it also time to see if Vela is up to it. We need to sort out that defence and we need some extra guile in the team. If Eagles and Mavies are not on it, then we barely look like scoring. I think we should give Sordell a good run of games to get some confidence. If he doesn't make it after that then we can show him the door having tried.

We go into next season with some confidence rather than in poor form like this time round. We should be able to hit the ground running and not be playing catch-up this time. Summer is also the time that Dougie can look at really changing things. I think so far he has taken us back to basics and working hard. Phase 2 I would hope is to change some bigger things without the pressure of must win games.

I have some hope for next season, but Dougie has a lot of work to do and it will be interesting to see what he can do.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Dawson and Spearing required for next season. How likely that is, I've no idea. I'd be more comfortable if it was possible, though.

And, with Mark Davies out for so long, we could look painfully thin if we don't retain Spearing, and one of or (heaven forbid) both of Lee and Eagles are offski. The one silver lining might be the further emergence of Josh Vela (in a Kevin Nolan Stylee).

Dougie's mettle is really going to be tested this next season, I've a feeling he may need to do an Allardyce of however-many-frightening-number-of-years-ago it was, and get us up on odds-and-sods-and-some-kids.

I think Liverpool may price Spearing above our reasonable range, and he'll go somewhere else – Newcastle, or Wigan, or summat.

Creative midfield is a problem, as is demonstrated by the fact we haven't played well with a single-striker system since Mark Davies got knacked. However, I don't see Vela as the future there: he strikes me much more as an energetic regainer and retainer of possession, although we're not weak in that area with Medo, possibly Jedinak if Palace stay down (or he'd prefer to be with Freedman again), and Andrews (hardly a crowd favourite when playing through injury but valued by Freedman for his diligent work and experience). Pratley has been a willing fill-in and his energy is a bonus but he's not exactly ideal in deep midfield. Holden is another option but we'll have to see how he comes back from Team USA's summer schedule. Certainly with the workrate Freedman demands it's not impossible to imagine all those players staying, although if so I'd expect Josh Vela to have an Eaves-style loan period.

Dawson, I've heard from a close friend of his, loved his time at Bolton but wants to prove himself in the Premier League - and you can't blame him. It's not impossible that Freedman could convince him to come on another long loan but I would doubt it would be until the last knockings of the transfer window, which doesn't help yer rebuild, and even then it might not be his best move: to all intents and purposes he's proved himself here. If I were him I'd want top-flight football; wouldn't anyone not wearing BWFC glasses?

As for the Allardyce analogy, you (and others) may be right. There's an indefinable feeling of confidence in something bigger. Let's hope it's justified.

For the record, our (notable) transfers from summer 2000, after Allardyce's side lost in the play-offs and the financial realities hit:

IN Franck Passi, Anthony Barness, Michael Ricketts, Simon Charlton, Per Frandsen, Ian Marshall
OUT Michael Johansen, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Hasney Aljofree, Greg Strong, Claus Jensen

(NB We'd already signed Gareth Farrelly and John O'Kane, and sold/released Neil Cox, Andy Todd, Keith Branagan and Bob Taylor. Mark Fish left in Nov 2000, Colin Hendry arrived Feb 2001)

[m_taylor]

Spearing is out of contract at the end of next season so if Liverpool don't want him and don't offer a new contract a Loan is out of the question so we could get him at a decent rate and he is young enough to go on and recoup some money.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Spearing is out of contract at the end of next season

Is he? I haven't seen this anywhere.

I still think Liverpool, who have now gone all cash-sensitive, will ask more than we'd have to pay for others whom Freedman might be quite happy with. No indication of cash-splashing.

And again, he should prefer to stay in the top flight.

[thebish]

spearing extended his contract at Liverpool in may 2011...

according to this site, http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/jay-s ... 52111.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; he is there until June 2015

[gizmothevoomer]

This transfer window will be interesting for many clubs, given Watfords abuse of the loan system this year I can not imagine that no changes will be made to prevent that happening again. For their sakes I hope they don't get promoted as they have a transfer ban in place until the end of August which will cripple their preparation in whichever division they are in.

Dougie seems to of worked well at Palace with no money available to him, interestingly he also brought Edgar Davids to the club for a little over six months albeit out of retirement.

Of the three permanent deals he did in Jan, Medo looks to be a great buy, Davies looks to be a solid squad player at this level. This together with his interview gives me confidence that he knows what positions he wants to strengthen and he has an idea who will fill them.

Personally I am more excited about next year in the championship under Dougie than I would of been about a season in the Premiership.

[officer_dibble]

Lonergan / Bogdan - keep
Ricketts - Get rid if poss. Will probably be here.
Mears - Keep as first choice right back.
Riley - Get rid..Always injured.
Alonso - He's off.
Ream - No chance of being lucky enough to sell. Feed him pies.
Knight - He'll stay.
Wheater - Get fit and first choice.
Medo - top man
Vela - keep. Loan out if he isnt getting game time though i think he will.
Andrews - Im undecided. I suspect he's on a good wage but he is a fighter and a reasonable player. At 32 past it?
Pratley - proved his worth. Keep. Lost his bottle when it mattered saturday.
StuSA - Worth a one year deal. Hope he comes back.
Mark Davies - Hope he gets fit, quick.
Eagles - Our best player. Do anytging we can to keep.
Chungy - Keep and hope he settles next season. Sell if we get a big offer.
Wylde - feck off.
Mills - Probably stuck with him.
Ngog - Keep. Blow smoke up his arse. Better player than he thinks he is.
Sordell - Id be tempted to give up on him if we could recoup the cash.
Craig Davies - Will be the leading man up top next season.
Eaves - Looked a bit better ssturday, stronger and more mobile. May end up out on loan if we strengthen up top. Keep.

[plymouth wanderer]

Lonergan / Bogdan - keep
Ricketts - Get rid if poss. Will probably be here.
Mears - Keep as first choice right back.
Riley - Get rid..Always injured.
Alonso - He's off.
Ream - No chance of being lucky enough to sell. Feed him pies.
Knight - He'll stay.
Wheater - Get fit and first choice.
Medo - top man
Vela - keep. Loan out if he isnt getting game time though i think he will.
Andrews - Im undecided. I suspect he's on a good wage but he is a fighter and a reasonable player. At 32 past it?
Pratley - proved his worth. Keep. Lost his bottle when it mattered saturday.
StuSA - Worth a one year deal. Hope he comes back.
Mark Davies - Hope he gets fit, quick.
Eagles - Our best player. Do anytging we can to keep.
Chungy - Keep and hope he settles next season. Sell if we get a big offer.
Wylde - feck off.
Mills - Probably stuck with him.
Ngog - Keep. Blow smoke up his arse. Better player than he thinks he is.
Sordell - Id be tempted to give up on him if we could recoup the cash.
Craig Davies - Will be the leading man up top next season.
Eaves - Looked a bit better ssturday, stronger and more mobile. May end up out on loan if we strengthen up top. Keep.

Spot on Dibs

Totally agree on the Ngog front, get him some shooting practice FFS