The one chink of light at the end of this sh*t season for me is that

we seem to have some very good young players in the U23s side and if blended with the best of our current squad I can see us having quite an exciting/youthful first team squad next season.

I hope/expect to see the likes of Thompson, Maddison, Godfrey and Morris involved next season plus of course the two Murphy's who in the last few weeks seem to me to be showing signs of finding their feet again at champ level after a mid season dip (or in Josh's case most of the season).

Assuming all out of contract players left we would still start next season with the following as the basis of our squad and I think if you can add a little bit of quality in key areas to the below then we should be in reasonable shape (even better if we have a new, decent manager but I don't expect that to happen).

Ruddy
McGovern

Martin
Godfrey
Klose
Pinto

Howson
Thompson
Maddison
Pritchard
Hoolahan
Naismith
Murphy
Murphy
Cantwell
Jarvis
Wildshutt

Jerome
Oliveira

Obvious gaps to plug are another striker (probably two). A centre back, A left back (hopefully Dijks) and defensive midfield where I may still try and keep Tettey but we probably also need at least one more as the midfield is massively attacking midfielder heavy.

Out go: Whitaker, Bassong, Mulumbu, Dorrans, Lafferty, Turner and maybe Tettey if he won't sign a new contract. Also flog Andreu. I think Morris may also be out of contract although not sure.

Some good natural trimming of the squad size due to contracts at a time when we are likely to need it.

Posted By: Jim, Feb 28, 12:58:11