Contract expiry

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

For one reason or another, I haven't been able to get to the match as often as I normally would do in recent weeks and so am yet to actually see Karacan play. I was quite enthusiastic about him signing for us but he hasn't featured as much as I thought he might have.

What's the consensus on him - shite or alright?

I think he could be a good signing for us. Championship pedigree, and also a mate of ALF's - otherwise, the suspicion is, he might not have been playing at this level.

At Vale he busied about and notably at one point "took over" from Spearing in the role of dropping deep for the ball and looking to distribute. He found himself underneath some fearful challenges - including the aerial bundle which got the gormless striker the first yellow, later doubled into expulsion by a handball - but the Catford-born terrier merely winced a bit, got up and cracked on.

More to come from him and personally I'd be slightly disappointed if Pratley is deemed fit to replace him this weekend. I think Jem could be a fixture in our midfield, with or without Spearing - who is a similar age and a not dissimilar player but might want a heftier wedge.

[BWFC_Insane]

For one reason or another, I haven't been able to get to the match as often as I normally would do in recent weeks and so am yet to actually see Karacan play. I was quite enthusiastic about him signing for us but he hasn't featured as much as I thought he might have.

What's the consensus on him - shite or alright?

I think he could be a good signing for us. Championship pedigree, and also a mate of ALF's - otherwise, the suspicion is, he might not have been playing at this level.

At Vale he busied about and notably at one point "took over" from Spearing in the role of dropping deep for the ball and looking to distribute. He found himself underneath some fearful challenges - including the aerial bundle which got the gormless striker the first yellow, later doubled into expulsion by a handball - but the Catford-born terrier merely winced a bit, got up and cracked on.

More to come from him and personally I'd be slightly disappointed if Pratley is deemed fit to replace him this weekend. I think Jem could be a fixture in our midfield, with or without Spearing - who is a similar age and a not dissimilar player but might want a heftier wedge.

See I thought, whilst his movement was bright, his work on the ball less so.

I'm not sure either way yet. I can see after a few games he could be better than we have though.

[Mar]

Interesting to see that we have all 3 goalkeepers tied under contract till 2018 (Howard, Alnwick) and 2019 (Amos). Doesn't give us much flexibility on what we can do with them seeing as all three will be looking to be first choice at the club they are at. Unless we can offload one of them it may end up giving us a bit of a issue regarding transfer dealings. I've been quite happy with the two this season both have looked fantastic at times whereas Amos had to take part in the problems of yesteryear.

The other thing of interest is Jem Karacan's contract. I know he had it extended till the end of the month but should the unthinkable happen (playoffs) would he be in contention?

[TANGODANCER]

More to come from him and personally I'd be slightly disappointed if Pratley is deemed fit to replace him this weekend. I think Jem could be a fixture in our midfield, with or without Spearing - who is a similar age and a not dissimilar player but might want a heftier wedge.

I'll be very surprised if Pratley is left out ( if fit being the criteria), seeing how much rests on this game. Just nothing but a view and granted an uninformed one, but I reckon Parky will blast em for fifteen minutes, try for a couple of early goals, see how things are going, then ease off and let the opposition use up some energy till maybe twenty minutes from time. If all is going well, make the changes to give the likes of Long, Henry and Karajan some game time till the whistle...

...then accept the adoration of the Whites faithful as they go bananas...

[BWFC_Insane]

More to come from him and personally I'd be slightly disappointed if Pratley is deemed fit to replace him this weekend. I think Jem could be a fixture in our midfield, with or without Spearing - who is a similar age and a not dissimilar player but might want a heftier wedge.

I'll be very surprised if Pratley is left out ( if fit being the criteria), seeing how much rests on this game. Just nothing but a view and granted an uninformed one, but I reckon Parky will blast em for fifteen minutes, try for a couple of early goals, see how things are going, then ease off and let the opposition use up some energy till maybe twenty minutes from time. If all is going well, make the changes to give the likes of Long, Henry and Karajan some game time till the whistle...

...then accept the adoration of the Whites faithful as they go bananas...

Not sure putting Pratley in would be a "blast them" move. Frankly not sure we are very set up to blast anyone.

Pratley is essentially one to stop the other team playing.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Interesting to see that we have all 3 goalkeepers tied under contract till 2018 (Howard, Alnwick) and 2019 (Amos). Doesn't give us much flexibility on what we can do with them seeing as all three will be looking to be first choice at the club they are at. Unless we can offload one of them it may end up giving us a bit of a issue regarding transfer dealings.

I was slightly surprised that Alnwick got the two-year deal; considering not just our situation but his - wanting to move north - a 12-month deal might have made sense. Amos was given whatever contract he wanted - basically the one Bogdan turned down - which makes him probably the player Ken/Phil would most like to get off the bill in summer.

Trouble is, where are we gonna find some other suckers after his underwhelming year at Cardiff? He was signed in August by Paul Trollope, who was replaced in October by Neil Warnock; he kept one clean sheet in 15 games and after a 4-3 home loss to Barnsley just before Christmas he was replaced by Brian Murphy. Then in January Hull borrowed Allan McGregor from Hull, but Amos was stuck at Cardiff due to the new loan rules - pleasingly, much to the annoyance of Warnock. Before Saturday's surprise appearance against Wigan (for which Cardiff didn't have a keeper on the bench) he hadn't played a minute since before Christmas and in that time was only on the bench once.

The other thing of interest is Jem Karacan's contract. I know he had it extended till the end of the month but should the unthinkable happen (playoffs) would he be in contention?

He signed on March 11th under the FL rule that clubs can sign players on an emergency one-month contract if they don't have 18 (I think) players fit. I was surprised when we got a one-month extension, reported by the BN on Apr 15 ("it is understood free-agent midfielder Jem Karacan has extended his stay at the Macron Stadium for an additional month ahead of today's trip to Oldham"). The League One play-off semi-finals for the third- and sixth-placed teams are Thu 4 May (7.45pm) and Sun 7 May (6.30pm) but the final is Sat 20 May (3pm) so I assume we would have to request another extension for him to play in that, unless the second month allows us to play him for "the rest of the season".

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

More to come from him and personally I'd be slightly disappointed if Pratley is deemed fit to replace him this weekend. I think Jem could be a fixture in our midfield, with or without Spearing - who is a similar age and a not dissimilar player but might want a heftier wedge.

I'll be very surprised if Pratley is left out ( if fit being the criteria), seeing how much rests on this game. Just nothing but a view and granted an uninformed one, but I reckon Parky will blast em for fifteen minutes, try for a couple of early goals, see how things are going, then ease off and let the opposition use up some energy till maybe twenty minutes from time. If all is going well, make the changes to give the likes of Long, Henry and Karajan some game time till the whistle...

...then accept the adoration of the Whites faithful as they go bananas...

Not sure putting Pratley in would be a "blast them" move. Frankly not sure we are very set up to blast anyone.

Pratley is essentially one to stop the other team playing.

I dunno, BWFCi. He busies himself about up the top end when asked, and he's often asked: Parky seems to be the fourth successive Bolton boss to believe that Darren cauzez goalz, even if he has only actually scored 15 in 166 appearances for us – with 11,906 minutes on the pitch, a strike rate of one every 793 minutes or approximately 8 games. (FYI he's yet to score in his 871 minutes for us this term, so even by his standards he owes us a goal, and if it's the winner this Sunday I will praise him to the rafters.)

FWIW, I don't think he's the worst player in the world either as one of the 2 in a 4231 ("Run around back there, Darren, there's a good lad") or in the latter-day 352 alternating forward runs with Vela. It's just when he's The Number 10 that things get, well, frankly unimpressive. Karacan is hardly Mr Goals - 14 in 219 - but I believe he would be better than Prats at carrying the ball towards Posh, scurrying about connecting people up, feeding the wide men and front runners - including his mate ALF.

[Peter Thompson]

I'd rather have Karacan than Pratley starting on Sunday....much more mobile & busy.

Pratley was back to his abysmal best against Bury and looked unfit from the start, although prior to this he was playing reasonably well, but mainly at closing down the opposition than creating anything going forward.

[BWFC_Insane]

More to come from him and personally I'd be slightly disappointed if Pratley is deemed fit to replace him this weekend. I think Jem could be a fixture in our midfield, with or without Spearing - who is a similar age and a not dissimilar player but might want a heftier wedge.

I'll be very surprised if Pratley is left out ( if fit being the criteria), seeing how much rests on this game. Just nothing but a view and granted an uninformed one, but I reckon Parky will blast em for fifteen minutes, try for a couple of early goals, see how things are going, then ease off and let the opposition use up some energy till maybe twenty minutes from time. If all is going well, make the changes to give the likes of Long, Henry and Karajan some game time till the whistle...

...then accept the adoration of the Whites faithful as they go bananas...

Not sure putting Pratley in would be a "blast them" move. Frankly not sure we are very set up to blast anyone.

Pratley is essentially one to stop the other team playing.

I dunno, BWFCi. He busies himself about up the top end when asked, and he's often asked: Parky seems to be the fourth successive Bolton boss to believe that Darren cauzez goalz, even if he has only actually scored 15 in 166 appearances for us – with 11,906 minutes on the pitch, a strike rate of one every 793 minutes or approximately 8 games. (FYI he's yet to score in his 871 minutes for us this term, so even by his standards he owes us a goal, and if it's the winner this Sunday I will praise him to the rafters.)

FWIW, I don't think he's the worst player in the world either as one of the 2 in a 4231 ("Run around back there, Darren, there's a good lad") or in the latter-day 352 alternating forward runs with Vela. It's just when he's The Number 10 that things get, well, frankly unimpressive. Karacan is hardly Mr Goals - 14 in 219 - but I believe he would be better than Prats at carrying the ball towards Posh, scurrying about connecting people up, feeding the wide men and front runners - including his mate ALF.

I quite like DPratz but I still think even in his best role (free running attacking mid) he's a fairly solid rather than "blastem" choice.

[officer_dibble]

I'm struggling with what "blast em" actually means! But my view on Pratley is that he is probably due a bit of slack given he came back from what sounded like a season ending injury over christmas time and played a lot of football in a short space of time, so is due some slack.

Having said that I'd start the team that started on Saturday again.

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm struggling with what "blast em" actually means! But my view on Pratley is that he is probably due a bit of slack given he came back from what sounded like a season ending injury over christmas time and played a lot of football in a short space of time, so is due some slack.

Having said that I'd start the team that started on Saturday again.

I assume it is Tango speak for start fast. Create a lot of pressure. Score early goals.

[TANGODANCER]

I'm struggling with what "blast em" actually means! But my view on Pratley is that he is probably due a bit of slack given he came back from what sounded like a season ending injury over christmas time and played a lot of football in a short space of time, so is due some slack.

Having said that I'd start the team that started on Saturday again.

I assume it is Tango speak for start fast. Create a lot of pressure. Score early goals.

You assume correctly amigo.

[LeverEnd]

I'm struggling with what "blast em" actually means! But my view on Pratley is that he is probably due a bit of slack given he came back from what sounded like a season ending injury over christmas time and played a lot of football in a short space of time, so is due some slack.

Having said that I'd start the team that started on Saturday again.

I think he deserves some slack for that too. He started very well after his injury but tailed off. I reckon by being rushed back he might not have had the base training to maintain his level of performance, which is based heavily on running and physical attributes. You can get away with it for a short time but then if you've not done the background work you can't maintain it.
I'd have him on the bench.

[Nicko58]

For one reason or another, I haven't been able to get to the match as often as I normally would do in recent weeks and so am yet to actually see Karacan play. I was quite enthusiastic about him signing for us but he hasn't featured as much as I thought he might have.

What's the consensus on him - shite or alright?

I think he could be a good signing for us. Championship pedigree, and also a mate of ALF's - otherwise, the suspicion is, he might not have been playing at this level.

At Vale he busied about and notably at one point "took over" from Spearing in the role of dropping deep for the ball and looking to distribute. He found himself underneath some fearful challenges - including the aerial bundle which got the gormless striker the first yellow, later doubled into expulsion by a handball - but the Catford-born terrier merely winced a bit, got up and cracked on.

More to come from him and personally I'd be slightly disappointed if Pratley is deemed fit to replace him this weekend. I think Jem could be a fixture in our midfield, with or without Spearing - who is a similar age and a not dissimilar player but might want a heftier wedge.

Thanks, DSB. That certainly sounds very encouraging, and much like the player that I was hoping he'd turn out to be. His injury record and that he seems to have lost his way concerns me a bit but then again it sounds as though he wouldn't be with us if he hadn't have. Fingers crossed, he might feel that we are the perfect club for him to rebuild his career at. He wouldn't be the first to have thought so.

[Mar]

Interesting to see that we have all 3 goalkeepers tied under contract till 2018 (Howard, Alnwick) and 2019 (Amos). Doesn't give us much flexibility on what we can do with them seeing as all three will be looking to be first choice at the club they are at. Unless we can offload one of them it may end up giving us a bit of a issue regarding transfer dealings.

I was slightly surprised that Alnwick got the two-year deal; considering not just our situation but his - wanting to move north - a 12-month deal might have made sense. Amos was given whatever contract he wanted - basically the one Bogdan turned down - which makes him probably the player Ken/Phil would most like to get off the bill in summer.

Trouble is, where are we gonna find some other suckers after his underwhelming year at Cardiff? He was signed in August by Paul Trollope, who was replaced in October by Neil Warnock; he kept one clean sheet in 15 games and after a 4-3 home loss to Barnsley just before Christmas he was replaced by Brian Murphy. Then in January Hull borrowed Allan McGregor from Hull, but Amos was stuck at Cardiff due to the new loan rules - pleasingly, much to the annoyance of Warnock. Before Saturday's surprise appearance against Wigan (for which Cardiff didn't have a keeper on the bench) he hadn't played a minute since before Christmas and in that time was only on the bench once.

The other thing of interest is Jem Karacan's contract. I know he had it extended till the end of the month but should the unthinkable happen (playoffs) would he be in contention?

He signed on March 11th under the FL rule that clubs can sign players on an emergency one-month contract if they don't have 18 (I think) players fit. I was surprised when we got a one-month extension, reported by the BN on Apr 15 ("it is understood free-agent midfielder Jem Karacan has extended his stay at the Macron Stadium for an additional month ahead of today's trip to Oldham"). The League One play-off semi-finals for the third- and sixth-placed teams are Thu 4 May (7.45pm) and Sun 7 May (6.30pm) but the final is Sat 20 May (3pm) so I assume we would have to request another extension for him to play in that, unless the second month allows us to play him for "the rest of the season".

Cheers for that.

With these loan deals to the end of the season it always makes me think wether we will end up with another Craig Dawson scenario that derails our ultimate objective. Hopefully it won't come to that but always makes me think what if.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Interesting to see that we have all 3 goalkeepers tied under contract till 2018 (Howard, Alnwick) and 2019 (Amos). Doesn't give us much flexibility on what we can do with them seeing as all three will be looking to be first choice at the club they are at. Unless we can offload one of them it may end up giving us a bit of a issue regarding transfer dealings.

I was slightly surprised that Alnwick got the two-year deal; considering not just our situation but his - wanting to move north - a 12-month deal might have made sense. Amos was given whatever contract he wanted - basically the one Bogdan turned down - which makes him probably the player Ken/Phil would most like to get off the bill in summer.

Trouble is, where are we gonna find some other suckers after his underwhelming year at Cardiff? He was signed in August by Paul Trollope, who was replaced in October by Neil Warnock; he kept one clean sheet in 15 games and after a 4-3 home loss to Barnsley just before Christmas he was replaced by Brian Murphy. Then in January Hull borrowed Allan McGregor from Hull, but Amos was stuck at Cardiff due to the new loan rules - pleasingly, much to the annoyance of Warnock. Before Saturday's surprise appearance against Wigan (for which Cardiff didn't have a keeper on the bench) he hadn't played a minute since before Christmas and in that time was only on the bench once.

The other thing of interest is Jem Karacan's contract. I know he had it extended till the end of the month but should the unthinkable happen (playoffs) would he be in contention?

He signed on March 11th under the FL rule that clubs can sign players on an emergency one-month contract if they don't have 18 (I think) players fit. I was surprised when we got a one-month extension, reported by the BN on Apr 15 ("it is understood free-agent midfielder Jem Karacan has extended his stay at the Macron Stadium for an additional month ahead of today's trip to Oldham"). The League One play-off semi-finals for the third- and sixth-placed teams are Thu 4 May (7.45pm) and Sun 7 May (6.30pm) but the final is Sat 20 May (3pm) so I assume we would have to request another extension for him to play in that, unless the second month allows us to play him for "the rest of the season".

Cheers for that.

With these loan deals to the end of the season it always makes me think wether we will end up with another Craig Dawson scenario that derails our ultimate objective. Hopefully it won't come to that but always makes me think what if.

We might in this case end up with a similar scenario, but it would be unusual. Dawson was signed under the old "emergency loan" system, by which you could borrow blokes for a month or two or three, up to a maximum of 93 days; our 93 days ran out and so did our luck. Now it's all window-to-window and the emergency loan has been scrapped.

Important to note that Karacan isn't a loan because he's a free agent, so we could have signed him to the end of the season – as we did with Wabara – were it not for the embargo restricting our squad size. Turns out the EFL does in fact have an "emergency" proviso if you haven't got 18 fit players (ie can't fill your bench) and we took advantage of this, not once but twice, to sign then re-sign Karacan. To be honest with you, while I'm sure we've followed the rules, I can see why some folk (especially over the Pennines) aren't overjoyed about it.

We do have loanees, more than we're actually allowed in the matchday squad: Thorpe, ATaylor, Henry, Viv, Long, ALF. You're allowed five in the matchday 18, which probably means we could get by with claiming we don't have *19* fit players if six of them are loanees - "Sorry, League, your rules". (Rules which I do agree with, FWIW - if more than half your starting XI is loanees, it isn't really 'your' team. Similarly, there are rules restricting the number of loanees you can have from one club at any given time, to avoid "feeder" issues.)

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Catching up with a couple of announcements:

On Thu 11 May BWFC announced that Reece Wabara, Liam Trotter, Lewis Buxton, Tom Walker and Will Jaaskelainen will be released, and that Connor Wilkinson “has been granted permission to talk with other clubs regarding a potential move away from Macron Stadium.”

On Tue 16 May BWFC announced that Alex Samizadeh, Cole Lonsdale, Harry Brockbank, Jack Earing and Ryan White have been offered third-year scholarships (but not confirmed that they have signed).

On Fri 19 May BWFC announced that Lawrie Wilson, Dean Moxey and Mark Davies will be released.

Contracts until June unless otherwise stated. Corrections and clarifications (with citations) always welcome.

2017
RELEASED
Lawrie Wilson
Reece Wabara
Lewis Buxton
Dean Moxey
Liam Trotter
Mark Davies
Tom Walker (loaned out to Bury until June)

RETURNED TO PARENT CLUBS
Tom Thorpe (loaned in until June, when his Rotherham contract elapses)
Andrew Taylor (loaned in until June, when his Wigan contract elapses)
James Henry (loaned in until June, when his Wolves contract elapses)
Chris Long (loaned in until June from Burnley, where he is contracted until 2018)
Adam le Fondre (loaned in from Cardiff until June, when his contract runs out)
Viv Solomon-Otabor (loaned until June from Birmingham, where he is contracted until 2019)

NOT KNOWN AS YET
David Wheater
Dorian Dervite
Jay Spearing
Jem Karacan (one-month contract signed 11 March, later extended for another month)
Filipe Morais
Max Clayton
Gary Madine
Alex Honeyball
Callum Spooner
Alex Perry
George Newell (loaned out to AFC Fylde until June)

2018
Mark Howard
Ben Alnwick
Mark Beevers
Derik Osede
Darren Pratley
Chris Taylor (loaned out to Oldham until June)
Jamie Proctor (loaned out to Carlisle until June)
Conor Wilkinson (Granted permission to speak to other clubs)

2019
Ben Amos (loaned to Cardiff until June)
Josh Vela

Unknown but under contract
Jack Earing, Alex Samizadeh, Jake Turner (among others)

[Bruce Rioja]

Thanks for these updates, DSB. Surprised we've released Wilson, but other than that - no real surprises.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Thanks for these updates, DSB. Surprised we've released Wilson, but other than that - no real surprises.

No problem. I find this list useful meself so I'm glad if someone else does.

I liked Wilson but in a way I like that he's gone: it suggests we have better in mind. We were always going to have to draw a line somewhere between continuity and deadheading, and he (plus maybe Dervite) felt likely to be somewhere near said line.

[BWFC_Insane]

Thanks for these updates, DSB. Surprised we've released Wilson, but other than that - no real surprises.

Liked Wilson he was a trier. Honest player. But quality wise I think he was severely lacking for the championship.

Like DSB I'm encouraged he's gone, not in a malicious way, but just because it suggests we know we need some quality in the higher league.

Mind I'm fairly sure Parky has his eye on Stephen Darby at Bradford who again like Wilson would on the face of it lack some quality despite being a grafter. Couldn't get in the Bradford team, mind neither could Morais I guess....