JerryDungle wrote:

Yet again, there’s gonna be a huge churn of players at the club this summer, which is a big problem in and of itself, and probably a big part of why things feel so disconnected at the club just now.

Out of contract you’ve got:

Maynard-Brewer - Only keep as no. 2 if Richards is going.
Richards - Bin
Strain - Bin
Graham - Keep, but needs to improve massively.
Sevelj - Would keep, but he might want a new challenge.
Sibbald - Would also keep, but I believe he’s signed a pre-contract with Falkirk.
Trapanovski - Get rid, too injury prone, and not even very good.
Russell - See how it goes, but I’d imagine this is just a wee swansong for him before he goes back to his family in the states, can’t see him wanting to be away from them for a whole year.

Then loans ending you’ve got:

Stephenson - I’d keep, but he’s definitely been below the standard he set last season.
Keresztes - Bin, he’s far too soft for a centre half.
Pappoe - Wouldn’t even fathom taking the risk to bring back a player with an injury that bad.
Dolcek - Bin for obvious reasons. Could be decent elsewhere but not suited to Scottish football.
Fatah - Would obviously keep, just depends if his parent club are happy for him to stay.
Watters - Obviously get rid. Sad thing is, there’s a good striker in there somewhere, he’s big, strong as an ox and is rapid on the one occasion every 4 games that he decides to sprint. Just a shame he’s not arsed in the slightest.

Then you’ve got Ferry who’ll likely be away, which I’m not arsed about in the slightest, I think he’s always been a bit overrated. Esselink’s been bombed, so I’d imagine there will be an agreement there for him to go, and Eskesen will likely go, like Babunski, it’s kind of unfair to judge him in a Goodwin team.

That leaves us with:

Naamo
Iovu
Cleall-Harding
Agyei
Camara
Randall
Farrugia
Sapsford
Stirton

So will be another 15 or so players coming in, 6 of whom will no doubt be loan players. I seriously hope we look closer to home for at least 5 or 6 of these signings. Having so many different nationalities and very few homegrown players can’t be a good thing for a dressing room. I’d be checking out a few of those Falkirk players to see if they’re interested in coming here personally. We also need a good few of the players coming in to be experienced. For me lack of experience is one of the main reasons this season’s went the way it’s went.

We need a goalkeeper who wins us points in difficult games like Siegrist did, AMB’s better than what we had, but I don’t think he’s a keeper that wins you points on his own. 2 dominant centre halves. A midfielder who can dictate the tempo of a game and one with the ability to play progressive passes in between the lines quickly for our attackers, whether that’s one player who can do both, or two different midfielders, I don’t know, but we need both profiles. And obviously we need a reliable striker who can score goals regularly, but that’s every team. There’s not a lot of great strikers in football in general at the moment, even teams with money to burn like Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle are having to take a big money punts on centre forwards in the hope they’ll work out because the market’s so bad.

I’m about 80% sure Goodwin will be in charge next season unfortunately. If he is, he better buck up his ideas with regards to the style of play, I just ain’t prepared to watch another season of football like we’ve played this season. It’s simplistic to blame everything on the formation, but that 3 at the back better get fucking binned in the summer, no good teams play with 3 at the back. The intensity has to change though, this sitting off teams and letting them dictate play is horrendous, and our movement needs to be vastly different, you see the difference it makes to Motherwell and Falkirk having players that make runs when their teammates have the ball. I want a team that tries to be the protagonist in most games, not just this reactive shite where we try to adapt our game to counter the way the opposition plays all the time.

 
Ross graham would be binned as well. Hasn’t improved in his 3 years here. Shitebag captain too.

I think he was made captain as an appeasement factor, club were already getting heat for our signing policy, rather than a leadership issue.

When the defence played well together, there was no way Graham was getting back in, unfortunately either the keeper of the one of the three had a turn about a making a howler each week.

I would keep Graham, I just think it's a shame that he's our captain. We gave him the armband prematurely and he hasn't lived up to it. My issue is that I can't see us being that keen to strip him of it and give it to someone else if he does stick around (which he will, because he's our bloody captain). Whether we find the sort of leadership we need from the likes of Johnny Russell, who knows - but I can't see him being all that keen to stick around in this mess come the end of the season. 

Keep: AMB, Graham, Sevelj, Sibbs (if he's not already promised himself back to Falkirk).
Beg to keep: Another year of Fatah would be great. Long shot, but he's getting good game time and developing well, so there's a very slim possibility of one more season.
Bin: Strain, Trapa, Keresztes, Dolcek (there's obviously player in there but we're never seeing it again under Goodwin), Watters
Offload: Esselink, Ferry (he's been really frustrating this season)

I'm not sold on Neil Farrugia, but it's obviously early days and we're not going to get rid of him over the summer. Hopefully Sapsford will find some form again, but I do wonder if we're already gearing up to see him move in the summer. I'd like to see us try and make more of Eskesen, but I think he'll get his move in the summer to somewhere that actually wants to play him and his style of football. 

Also, not that it really matters, we've already quietly announced that Pappoe went to his parent club at the same time that we announced the signing of Agyei (while weirdly refusing to confirm how long we've signed him for).

JerryDungle wrote:

 
We never announced Pappoe’s departure when we signed Agyei

Did we not?

Agyei’s exploits on home soil attracted the attention of FC Ashdod, and he rubber-stamped his switch to the Yud-Alef Stadium ahead of 2024/25 to replace the departed Isaac Pappoe.

Link: https://www.dundeeunitedfc.co.uk/news/9269/UNITED-CONFIRM-SIGNING-OF-GHANAIAN-MIDFIELDER-EMMANUEL-AGYEI.html

Did he initially replace Pappoe at FC Ashdod? I've got wrong end of the stick.

Last edited by nicolalove (07/3/2026 2:30 pm)