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Breaking News Leon Davies Signs

The flip side is we hand a 2 year deal to another crock. He has time to earn his new contract, makes sense to me given our recent abysmal history of big long term contracts to injury prone players.
The proper flip side that is a win for the club is a 6 month deal with a years option. I'd be surprised if the player turned that down, but admittedly I have zero experience in contract negotiations.
 
Our problem for the last few seasons has not been too many short term decisions or not enough long term decisions but lots and lots and lots and lots of bad decisions.
 
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I like the idea of looking long-term and you shouldn't need to do that in the summer.

Luke Guttridge is a prime example of a signing we made because he became available at a time when we didn't really have any weaknesses in his position, yet we saw him as someone who would improve us long term.

The main issue is we will struggle to offload mid season and we already have a bloated squad, so we will be limited in what incomings we can get done especially as our finances are shaky at best. Summer is critical for us because it is when we will be able to free up space and players will be out of contract.

But yes, there are good players that become available mid-season and we should be looking at improving where we can, when we can.
 
I’m sure I recall a thread with this info but couldn’t find it. How many of the current squad are only signed up to this summer and who have longer term deals?

I think this is obviously fundamental to how many we can bring in now. If we can offload say 10 in the summer on larger wages then the burden of a few additional salaries for younger players (who I assume will be on lower salaries) can be offset next season with a lower wage structure.

I’m sure that is probably too simplistic given our well documented liquidity issues but still…let me dream!
 
As I understand it, there is an option for a further 12 months. I believe there are some “targets” to meet for it to be automatically extended.

One of those is injury related, due to his spell out.

However, if he doesn’t meet these “targets” he can still extend his deal.
 
As I understand it, there is an option for a further 12 months. I believe there are some “targets” to meet for it to be automatically extended.

One of those is injury related, due to his spell out.

However, if he doesn’t meet these “targets” he can still extend his deal.
This sort of arrangement would make some sense, worst case if we decide we don't want him next year we stop playing him before he hits the milestones.
 
This sort of arrangement would make some sense, worst case if we decide we don't want him next year we stop playing him before he hits the milestones.

It’s not appearance related. So before it even gets to that, if he plays week in week out and then is dropped before the end of the season, it’s not so it doesn’t trigger an automatic extension of his contract.
 
Trouble is most of the contracts up next summer are Seadon, Ndi, Clifford, Howard, possibly Davies, Gard, Phillips Egbri, Walsh

Plus loans ending for Dennis, Lopata, Neal

Notice anything ?
 
Trouble is most of the contracts up next summer are Seadon, Ndi, Clifford, Howard, possibly Davies, Gard, Phillips Egbri, Walsh

Plus loans ending for Dennis, Lopata, Neal

Notice anything ?
With the exception of Clifford and the loan players those players are fringe/squad players. So it’s hardly like we’d be up **** creek.

Clifford would be brave not to sign another deal here as Ralph will likely be off so he’d likely be first choice left back next season in a team hopefully challenging at the right end of this league. Is he guaranteed better than that elsewhere?
 
Different times but how different is it really? Essentially there are two times to sign players: in the off-season when players are out of contract and mid-season when players are in contract.

A lot of the best signings for a club like us are players already under contract to another club but wanting to move mid-season be it up in the world from part-time to full-time (Bentley, Austin, Tilson); players wanting to move closer to home (Benjamin, Barrett second time around); players wanting first team football (Maher, Ansah).

If you think those examples are dated look at more recent successful signings like Barnard and Humphrys. Look at some of those signed in January who we later made a mistake in releasing like Ladapo and Glen Kamara who should have been cornerstones. Then there’s players like Adam Thompson, Alan McCormack, Efe Sodje.

This is a good time to recruit long term. It’s a bad time to recruit short term as everyone is looking short term but now is the time to get a jump on everyone in the recruitment stakes by recruiting for next season and beyond. Otherwise we’ll find ourselves being outbid in the summer we’ll wait and find players choosing league football over us. If you buy for the future now you can be rewarded. If you panic buy you’ll probably get punished.

This idea that when everyone is out of contract it’s easier to sign quality players is misguided. If they are good we’ll be up against stiff competition in the summer anyway.


Now is the time for serious recruitment. If Kensdale and Davies end up as lynchpins of our 2022/23 and 2023/24 promotion winning sides then they will be serious recruits.

Many people are wrong if they say leave it until the summer. It starts here. It won’t finish here but this is where it begins.
All brilliant points. You misunderstand me though. I'm not at all saying we shouldn't be looking at the long-term and avoiding quick fixes in January. For from it! We need to build for the future and begin to build an identity at this club. What I'm saying is that we need wholesale changes - almost a cpmpletely clean slate - but I think it's unrealistic to expect that level of upheaval in January. The pinch of the transfer window and the fact that we are carrying some well-paid passengers on the wage bill who won't be out of contract until the summer means that, IMO, the bulk of the revolution will likely take place in the summer by necessity.
 
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Trouble is most of the contracts up next summer are Seadon, Ndi, Clifford, Howard, possibly Davies, Gard, Phillips Egbri, Walsh

Plus loans ending for Dennis, Lopata, Neal

Notice anything ?
Also Coulson, Ferguson, Ogogo, Akinola.

So some money there
 
According to this, the only players definitely under contract for 2023 are:

Steve Arnold
Shaun Hobson
James Dunne
Rhys Murphy
Sam Dalby

Out of those the only one we'd likely want to move on is James Dunne, potentially Hobson if he's on a large wage, but we certainly won't be in a place where we've got a lot of big earners who we want out of the club, Arnold, Murphy and Dalby are exactly the sort of players we want here.

Simply put, we should have a big scope for a proper overhaul in the summer, especially considering we'll still have parachute payments and so will have one of the bigger budgets, should we wish to spend it.
 
All brilliant points. You misunderstand me though. I'm not at all saying we shouldn't be looking at the long-term and avoiding quick fixes in January. For from it! We need to build for the future and begin to build an identity at this club. What I'm saying is that we need wholesale changes - almost a cpmpletely clean slate - but I think it's unrealistic to expect that level of upheaval in January. The pinch of the transfer window and the fact that we are carrying some well-paid passengers on the wage bill who won't be out of contract until the summer means that, IMO, the bulk of the revolution will likely take place in the summer by necessity.
Ah, if your point is that it will take longer than just this January then I agree entirely. But the rebuild is underway. It probably won’t even be complete by September. It’s a process.
 
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