This is the town squad. The retained list is out on the 23rd of May. Goalkeepers: Leutwiler - out of contract - offered Halstead - out of contract- offered Burton - out of contract - offered Rowley - one year option available Defenders: Tootle - one year left Smith - signed until to end of 2017/18. NKP - out of contract- offered Grandison - released Sadler - one year left Demetriou - released Whitbread - released Brown - out of contract - offered Lancashire - two year contract with option of one more Midfielders: Ogogo - one year left Whalley - one year left Black one year left with an optional extension Wellens - one year left Wesolowski - offered contract Clark - released Caton - released Grandin - released Strikers: Mangan - one year left JLAA - released Vernon - released Collins - triggered a one year extension... Barnett - one year left Anderson - one year left Jones - one year left Who would you keep, sign on again or want to leave? If I've missed someone, please point it out.
In defence I would offer new contracts to Leutwiler, Burton, Knight-Percival and Brown . I agree some decent defenders are the main priority. In midfield I would offer new contracts to Weso and would be happy for Black to leave. In attack I would offer new contracts to JLAA (as an impact sub) and would like to keep Collins but notBarnett. To better the delivery to Collins I would go for Duffy or Novak (both released by Birmingham today). I would release Demitriou,Whitbread, Clark and Grandison and the mystery man Grandin. I do not believe the doommongers who say decent players will not join us - there are plenty of good pros getting released who would be happy to join up and have a decent League 1 pedigree. What usually happens is that the players who do join up are not even mentioned by the fans beforehand. If MM can also conjure up another gem of a loan such as Kaikai that would be an added bonus. I would also love us to put in a bid for Grimmer if that is financially possible so we could go back to 3-5-2. If we do that we need a centre half who can play the ball out a la Goldson - perhaps we could get Hendry on a season- long loan for that.
We have a chance on Grimmer as fulham have not had a great season. We need to be able to form two strong formations with a quality set of players. So by subbing one player we can switch from 352 to 442 and still be a threat, and that obviously means we can make either of those a strong defensive unit too. Looking at the gd for the league one table, scunthorpe are just outside the playoffs and had a Goals For of 60, just 2 more than us. The difference is the goals against where they had 47 compared to our 79. That needs sorting out. The defense and midfield definitely needs a good injection of quality. Hopefully that will include at least one player who can link up with the attackers and hopefully someone who can take a decent free kick! Many seem to have forgotten how many penalties and stupid goals we conceded early on, Sadler (and not as much Tootle and Brown) caused quite a few.
Matster, You are dead right about the priority being sorting out the penalties and stupid goals conceded. The extra pace in this league (especially on the break) left our defence badly exposed on numerous occasions and defenders will make a high proportion of mistakes when they are the last man. I hope we go for fewer targets of higher quality this time around and with MM staying we can get down to business straight away. As for those offered new contracts I say if they do not accept their offers at the time given by the rules let them go and don't let them train with us. We cannot afford to be messed around by the likes of Grandison and JLAA again much as I rate them both when they are fit.
I noticed Johnny Taylor is transfer listed, and someone mentioned it was standard policy at Peterborough. In the last year of a contract the players get transfer listed whilst negotiations occur. It would be good to get a player like him back or added to our squad - an attacking fast midfielder not afraid of a tackle.
I don't think JLAA messed us around. He always wanted to sign but we couldn't afford him and RW was forced to dip into his own pocket. The same was true with Grandison that time, although he had messed us around previously. BTW, I wouldn't want Collins back if at all possible. The team functioned better without him. A disruptive influence???
It seems like the pitch is being narrowed from 115*75 yards to 110*72 yards. http://www.shrewsburytown.com/news/article/town-to-move-the-goalposts-3116801.aspx The reasons given seem fairly fine as we've had one of the largest pitches in the leagues and this will bring us in line to those around us. It'll also mean that I get a clearer view of corners taken from the East/South stand so not a bad thing.
Barnsley, a team beneath us around Christmas time, has now whopped Walsall's butt and is in to the play offs for the championship Sorry kds, got a bit type happy yesterday!
The only surprise on the retained list for me is JLAA not being offered a contract - Would be happy with any of the targets mentioned such as Dodds, Novak or Aldred.
Blimey Olly Lancashire has signed for Shrewsbury. The blimey is the time it was announced at. Take a look at @shrewsweb's Tweet:
Retained list in full. http://www.shrewsburytown.com/news/article/town-announce-retain-list-3120828.aspx From Town's website: Players already contracted: Kaiman Anderson, Tyrone Barnett, Ian Black, James Collins, Andy Mangan, Abu Ogogo, Shaun Rowley, Dom Smith, Mat Sadler, Matt Tootle, Richie Wellens, Shaun Whalley. Existing Players who have been offered new deals Callum Burton, Junior Brown, Mark Halstead, Nat Knight-Percival, Jayson Leutwiler, James Wesolowski. The following players are out of contract and will not be offered new deals by the club. Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro, Mickey Demetriou, Elliot Grandin, Jermaine Grandison, Scott Vernon, Jordan Clark, James Caton, Zak Whitbread http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11761/10289470/seven-let-go-by-shrewsbury
Town one of the suitors for Wes Thomas http://www.shropshirelive.com/2016/05/24/shrewsbury-join-walsall-in-hunt-for-wes-thomas
