There’s going to be a huge churn in the summer regarding players and quite a big rebuild. The likes of Connolly, Traoré, Christie and Docherty will probably see their contracts run out. That’s a good thing as Connolly is overweight and quite frankly a waste of space at this point, Traoré is a high-earner and through little fault of his own due to injuries is incapable of playing more than 60-70 minutes a week, Christie has been ****e for ages now and Docherty just isn’t at the level we need despite being a grafter and good lad to have around. Delap, Morton and Carvalho will go back and I doubt we’ll see them for us next season. Delap’s the most likely to return but I just don’t see it. Giles is never a £4 million player so long as I’ve got a hole in my arse. He’s shaky defensively, can’t even head a ball properly and we’ve seen nowhere near enough of his offensive qualities to warrant a permanent deal. Greaves and/or Philogene will probably go for big money. Priority in the summer is definitely 2-3 strikers at a minimum, new starting full-backs on either side, an athletic defensive mid to partner Seri or Slater to add balance to the spine of the team and signing replacements for Greaves and Philogene. Rosenior needs to get it spot on in the summer. I still think he’ll be here for the start of next season but like Howden said, Acun isn’t happy with what he’s seen this year and I don’t think he’ll be afraid to make a decision before Christmas if there isn’t significant improvement by then.
It's not as bad as it has been in previous years. 8 of yesterday's XI are contracted next season, 9 if we take up the option on Giles and that's a pretty good top 6 core. So it does give us a little breathing room if the new signings come a little later in the window or need time to bed in. There's no chance they'll replace Coyle, nor is there a need to.
That season was the start of it. Prior to 19/20 under McCann, we were always fairly solid at home. That season we lost a huge amount of home games and I remember talking about it at the time. Even when we were doing well before Bowen and Grosicki left we lost a lot of home games. Since Acun took over and McCann left I think we'll have lost less at home, but maybe also won less, certainly not much more.
I didn’t say replace Coyle. I said another right-back in the summer is a priority to replace Christie and provide competition to Coyle as starting right-back.
