by andrew1957 »
02 May 2019 19:55
The Howe statement earlier clearly indicates that Gourlay completely messed the club up with far too many costly signings and we have run into major issues with FFP. Howe now has a major problem on his hands as we need to offload a lot of cost whilst at the same time completely rebuilding the playing staff.
There is no doubt that the squad was bloated and probably all the out of contract players will now go (maybe Harriott will get a year) but it does not sound like we will be able to afford to bring many in - my guess is 4-5 tops and some of those are likely to be loans and so we will most likely only have 15-18 players with any significant FL experience by 1st August. The only way we might be able to add more players would be to cash in on the likes of Swift and Moore but that could be counter productive as it would cause even more gaps.
This means it will be a massive year for the Academy as we will need 6-10 players to step up from the Academy to fill all the gaps - especially if we have yet another dire season in terms of injuries. The good news is that we have a very promising Academy group but it is a big ask to expect such a large number to step up. However, I do have high hopes for Southwood, McIntyre, Osho, Holmes, Loader, Olise and Novakovich (if we don't cash in) and there are others like East, Barrett, Ward, Medford-Smith, Howe Junior and Pendlebury who might get a shot.
The question is whether this means yet another struggle against the drop or a much better season next time.
Only time will tell and IMO a lot hinges on Gomez miracle worker status.