Quote Originally Posted by nw6pie View Post
Not sure about that. If he doesn’t want to sign a new contract this summer, I’d be tempted to cash in on him in January. Losing assets like Ruben and Wootton for nothing to teams from higher leagues was just bad business.
Im not sure I wholly agree, especially at the level we play at. And the context of the season plays a big factor.

With both Wootton and Ruben, you have to weigh up the argument of; is it more worthwhile to cash in and definitely take them out of the side for half a season or keep them and essentially roll the dice that having them will improve your chances of promotion and what that brings. Promotion brings the possibility you may be able to renew their contract or if you cannot do that, you are in a better position to replace them adequately.

With Wootton, we did not get promoted but demonstrably improved on him (something at the time I worried about). With Ruben, we did get promoted and managed to bring Crowley in. That is not to say Crowley directly replaced Ruben, but ability profile wise, they are pretty similar.

In both seasons, we were always heading for the play offs (Wootton) or automatic promotion (Ruben). Even though football fans are more switched on now and appreciative of the wider club picture, I still think it would be a very hard sell to a fan base to say; Player X will not sign a new contract, so he is leaving despite him being one of our best players and us being in the Top 6.

Clearly you have to factor in the character of the player too. I do not envisage a point where Wootton or Ruben would have ever kicked off to leave. But we never know.

I would also add Crowley into that category. Weirdly, the Crowley not wanting to sign a contract talk has manifested essentially via conspiracy. Along with the whole he isnt injured, he is just waiting to leave in Jan chat. Pure speculation. We are clearly not privy to the inner workings. For the life of me, I cannot fathom why he cannot just be injured. Why does there have to be an angle to it?

If Crowley is desperate to leave, he owes us nothing so if a bid comes in, and the holistic value is right for Notts, then take it. If it isnt, he stays and he plays. If he wants to stay and play, and a bid comes in and the holistic value is right, then again, let him go. If there bids arent right, or theyre not there, then let’s go until the end of the season.

Having DC gives us a better chance of going up than not having him. Fact. I’d be happy to let him run his contract down if it gives us a better chance of going up, which it does.

If we dont go up, and we turned down, say £200K for him, some would argue he should have gone, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I would also totally trust the recruitment process to replace DC (probably not due a drastic and quick January sale turn around) adequately. To be fair, I bet there is already a list of players to replace him should he leave and should we be in L2 or L1.

Hopefully there isnt a list to replace him should we be in the NL 😂