For me
1 keeper Mehmet released
2 centre halfs
1RB
1LB
Cant see another CM coming in
2 wingers
1 striker

PatReilly wrote:

Highly unlikely to be starters, but might Chris Mochrie, contracted until 2022, and other young guys like Nathan Cooney (2021), Lewis Fraser (2022), Archie Meekinson (2022), Lewis Neilson (2022) and Ross Graham (2022) make contributions next year?

Edit (I'm, unsure if Lewis Fraser is 2022 or 2021).

I certainly hope so! Mochrie still so young so I think he'd be kept in and around the first team and see how he gets on. Similar with Neilson.

Fraser, Cooney, Graham, Meekison I'd expect to all go on loan. We also have Jake Davidson who is 20 years old now so I'd be interested to see if he can make at impact. Got good reviews at QP last season.

blackandtangerine wrote:

Harkes contract runs out in January as OP says. Do we offer him a new deal or let him go and try other options?

 

I wouldn't be renewing any time soon. We could and should be aiming higher.

I rate Harkes very highly. That was his first season here which he's handled very well. He's learned quickly despite the culture shock it must have been.
I guess with his background he is/will continue to be a consummate pro & I can see him having as successful a career as his father had in England.
 

David_Blunkett wrote:

In January when we were needing another striker and we didn't sign one, I posted this.

I stand by most of it, think I underestimated Clark.




For now, let's just win the league asap and we can build for next season, but the squad strength is a concern for me, there's a few on long deals.

SIEGRIST

L.SMITH
WATSON
REYNOLDS
CONNOLLY
ROBSON
SPORLE
FREEMAN

BUTCHER
POWERS
HARKES
KING
GLASS
McMULLAN
PAWLETT
STANTON

SHANKLAND
C. SMITH
APPERE
SOW
CLARK
DENIZ

There's a few who haven't cut it in the top league, have never played there, or age/pace/ability could hinder them.

Tangerine  - Good enough
Blue - Untested/Risk
Red - Thanks, but cheerio

Expect that a few in red might cause a stir, but we're not playing Painters, Posties Butchers and Candlestick makers next season.

I think from that list most of the players in blue have shown they will be important squad players for us. Whether they play every week or not is another matter but I am certain that most of them will be here and involved in a number of games next season. Siegrist will be our number 1. Connolly I expect to be playing most weeks as well as Appere. I also think Powers and Harkes will be involved heavily. McMullan too.

Clark you have obviously said you underestimated, and I agree, he will be an important player for us next season.

David_Blunkett wrote:

That's no me intentionally having a downer on our guys, but if the club has ambitions of competing in the top half and we had a clean slate to build, I think we'd see a huge clearout.

Agree with that. But we definitely dont have that clean slate at the moment and we might actually benefit from having so many settled, contracted players once this is all over. Some clubs will be ravaged with out of contract players leaving and panic signing other out of contract players to fill their squads which will take a long time to settle.

We are in a great position where if the season started tomorrow we'd have a big enough squad (chucking all the youngsters in there too) so it means we might be in a position to take our time and cherry pick who we want. Players mentioned in other threads would certainly improve us.
 

blackandtangerine wrote:

Harkes contract runs out in January as OP says. Do we offer him a new deal or let him go and try other options?

 
I would let both him and Powers go if it was possible and try and get someone in that can play beside Butcher and run the game.

Very difficult: 
Happy dressing room great but more important  hit the ground running & run out to win from  game 1 is what counts.   Hate to get 3 or 4 games in wi 5 points on board.  Imagine flak on here if that happens - Neilsen would be beheaded. 

Siegrist, sorry mate, get rid, flapper, every cross under pressure gives me the heebies, punching clear I hate loathe & detest - how they cannae coach that out of a guy 6'5 buggered if I know.  (Does anybody out there remember Les Green o Derby when they won league 5'9 if he was lucky - amazing)      One of the the first things opposing managers are going to look at.  Good shot stopper but that's just the lad doing his job .  25pens zippo saved.  5 or 6 goals down over the course of the season.    Again - sorry mate.

2 x CB's required .
Powers - dunno.
Robson McMullan good on a good day.
Smith very steady.

At least another hard midfielder for alongside Butcher. 
Harkes technically good, needs to harden up

Still crying out for winger/wingers

Shankland if we can keep him, Nesbitt if we can get him, Nicky Clark + young guys, Appere Glass etc tasty.

All the background shit going on - thank Christ I'm no Robbie  !


Keep the blood Tangerine.

Hope so Smeds !

Lilley01 wrote:

Benji is still unfairly judged from the time when Neilson first came in. Huge improvement since then and whilst he has made one or two mistakes similar to those he made in that period, show me a keeper that hasn’t in that time frame.

Has kept us in games that we’ve started slow and went on to win numerous times this year. 2 partick games spring to mind.

Happy with him for next year to at least get a shot. This is very different to Szromnik or Zwick having a shot that faithful year.

RN is a big fan and always talks him up so the rest of us might as well view him fairly and give him a fair crack of the whip.

 
Rado made more frequent mistakes than Benji and he came to us a lot more experienced.