Retained List

[RedandWhiteSpartan]

A few surprises I must say, and like people who have commented on social media, very suprised at Jack Powell going, in the last few games he had started to look like the player we had before his injury. Shilow Tracy gone as well! The other that has raised a few eyebrows is Jordan Hodkin being released, I haven't seen him enough to comment, but people seem to think he's a better prospect than Fin Roberts.
I suppose it may be that some of them don't want to stay themselves for whatever reason.
Of those where discussions are on going, then we certainly would miss Lewis Billington and Max Sanders. Pleased to see that Adrian Thibaut is staying.

Thoughts folks?

P.S.
I have to say, that the forum has just about died in the short time that Gazan made the decision to leave and I would like to encourage him to please come back.
Lets try & be pleasant to each other, after all...we all purport to support the Alex.

[Furberstreet]

My immediate thought was that Powell and Tracy (and maybe others) were let go because they are in the high earner bracket and their contracts running out seemed an opportune moment to move them on. Having returned to the first team, I had thought Bogle played decently but perhaps he thought that a fresh start was needed. I was surprised to see Williams departing but my surprise may be due to the reality that I have not been able to see Crewe play anything like as often as I would have wished this season. I vaguely recall seeing/hearing a comment or two about his attitude. I may well be wrong in my recollection, but perhaps he wants to move on to a "bigger" team. I am pleased that Thibaut is staying and I would strongly support Billington and Sanders staying. The paramount issue now is the recruitment for next season. The three loanees were good and I would welcome them back. However, when thinking about recruitment, I am always concerned that we lack the financial resources to make us really competitive in terms of bringing in players of sufficient quality to place us firmly in the promotion places. That said, LB has done well to keep us hovering around the playoff places rather than lower down. The fall away from the playoff spots was, to me at least, inevitable and how do we recruit to counter this? I noted that only one of the scholars has been offered a contract. Is this symptomatic of the Academy not producing enough players of sufficient calibre?

I echo RedandWhiteSpartan's call for Gazan to return. I value his contributions and it is a reality that we may disagree with opinions expressed on here, but we certainly do not all think the same and respect for differing opinions should be the norm.

[ShropshireAlex]

I too would be delighted if Gazan returns.

On the list, I felt Powell never regained his touch - you could see the football brain was still there but the execution was missing. Whereas Thomas (when fit) was unchanged. I'd be happy with a player coach contract for him, playing when available and wanted.

Sanders will be a big miss but I believe was offered new terms a while ago and wanted to test the market.

Billington I think we have an option on but hope they've offered improved terms on a longer contract.

Shilow is a shame, but maybe either he's ready to move or they don't think he'll really get back where he was.

Hodkin very surprised though someone said he didn't work hard enough, no idea of the truth of this.

Bogle had virtually disappeared again after his exciting return, and not even on the bench last few games so clearly leaving.

I hope the big clearout of U-18s may be related to the strength of the U-17 group, the cup winners, and expecting to sign several next year. In effect we have 2 from the leaving group in Taylor already being on a pro contract.

Roberts? Maybe they've seen something we haven't .....

[MikeSB]

It makes no difference who is retained and who isn't!

The problem is the management team who have absolutely no idea about how to play football!

Bromley have around the same number of fans that we have and finished a L2 Champions with almost 20 points more than we had...Look at the last 8 games for proof!

The management team should have been first to have had their cards!

[RedandWhiteSpartan]

While I would be the first to admit that the management team are not perfect (Did we get rid of Dave Artell a bit too quickly?) I think a lot of us would have been happy to take 11th and 28 points
above the relegation places at the start of the season.
Who would you replace the current management team with?
We have one of the smallest budgets in League Two, so where we have ended up, is to a certain extent punching above our weight. The comparison with Bromley is not valid, their owner and Chairman is a billionaire.

[ShropshireAlex]

While I would be the first to admit that the management team are not perfect (Did we get rid of Dave Artell a bit too quickly?) I think a lot of us would have been happy to take 11th and 28 points
above the relegation places at the start of the season.
Who would you replace the current management team with?
We have one of the smallest budgets in League Two, so where we have ended up, is to a certain extent punching above our weight. The comparison with Bromley is not valid, their owner and Chairman is a billionaire.

Particularly those who said last Summer our recruitment was awful, and setting us up for relegation - March and Hutchinson anyone?

[Harlzed]

I agree with other posters, we need to be retaining Gazan in this forum, always enjoyed his contributions.

Thomas has age over Powell but on performance the other way around of late so I?m torn there.

Connolly for me was a very hard decision, maybe playing through injury played a part but I struggle with the same conclusion on that one.

As others have said, it?s very very rare to have such success in the loan market. You can?t see lightning striking twice and it will make us a lot weaker. However, if I was Villa or Stoke and I had other top scholars I would be sending them here. So you never know?