Quote Originally Posted by jacobncfc View Post
Ellis is a funny one. I rate him as a player and his individual performances have been good, but I’m not sure you can say that his signing has improved us as I still think we look at our best defensively with the Rawlinson/Lacey pairing.

I don’t know his contract situation, but Lacey is probably our most important player to tie down IMO. Solid defender but also has a yard of pace and is comfortable on the ball, which is tough to find at this level and key to the way we all expect Burchnall to want to play.
Ellis is a proper, whole-hearted defender who has done reasonably well since joining us, but at the start of next season he would be turning 33, so I wouldn't risk offering him any more than a one year contract, and on balance I think we would be better signing a younger (maybe early to mid twenties) centre-half who we can build around for the longer term, in addition to what we have in Rawlinson and Lacey.

I don't think signing Ellis would fit in with the owners' overall business model because he's hardly likely to improve or gain sell-on value at his age. The general objective seems to be to identify young(er) undervalued talent and to help them realise their true potential and value with the help of good quality coaching.