Contracts will be an issue, and personally I think Martin Allen's should be extended with only one year left (I Think), being the first team in English football this season to be promoted, his name might be linked elsewhere (hopefully not). Not sure player side you lot can help with that. who is out of contract this season? Dare I say Champions yet?????????????
Off the top of my head I can only think of Frampton, Martin, Montrose and Burton that are out of contract.
Joe Martin should be a priority as I feel he is one of the most underrated players we have at the club and feel he can be key for the team for the next 5 or so years! Deon Burton might sign a Player/Coach style deal for another year as he already seems to have a big influence over the younger players in the dressing room and gives young lads like Dack a role model to look up to! Frampton and Montrose should so we've been over this before both are not of League 1 standard. Martin Allen deserves as long a contract as he wants however contracts don't count for much nowadays as if a big club want Allen to go the only thing his contract will do is get us slightly more compensation. Heard Paul Scally's interview the other day and said Martin has already given him a list of players he wants and described some of them as 'interesting' so we will see what happens! Hope we get our deals done early as we have a advantage over literally every club in the football league as we already know we are up so can (especially at boardroom level) focus on the summer and next season!
I can see Martin suddenly sorting his contract issues now we are up. Montrose will go from the out of contract lot, plus I am sure we will see several other players released from their contracts. Burton will sign one more year and I would like to see Frampton sign another year, his midfield strength is now an asset as opposed to his slower out of touch defending. Useful man on the bench. I would think the following - RELEASED - Birchall, Davies, some of the youth team, Forecast will probably go back to Saints and be released. Sold or deals done out - Weston, Lee, Kedwell and Payne. IN - Cody I think is a goer and we will sign him up. Other than that I have no idea, if we win the title we are suddenly the hot prospect and top of lots of players lists who want a move, it is a nice position to be in for once. I would bet everything I have on agents already calling Scally and Allen with details of their players who are looking for a move this summer. I will guess we will see at least one or two older heads from Allens past exploits coming into the team. Possibly German, the thought of a front line lead by German and Cody is in my mind something to relish.
Would I be unkind as to say that Birchall was planning for next season - if his performance on Saturday was anything to go on. I appreciate that he has not had many minutes of play this season - not always his fault - but - of those previous minutes on the pitch I have been very unimpressed. Suddenly v Torquay we saw just how well he can play. I liked all that I saw. I would like him to start the last 3 games that we have to play. I'd like to see him replicate that performance. If he can prove that he can sustain himself, I am willing to change my mind about throwing him out - just as I changed my mind about Fish. However to be fair to Birchall we will need to adopt a style of play that best suits him ( not hoofball ).
Apart from Montrose and Payne not sure who else will go as Martin has already released the other players like Jackman and Strevens. One player who must stay is Kedwell who has shown great recent form as he did at the beginning of the season. Cannot understand why some people do not rate him, a lot has been said about his scoring record but 14 or 15 goals is not bad. German only scored 1 in 7 matches. I do trust Martin to again bring in some bargains like last season.
I agree about Kedwell. Huge improvement. I see a deal with kedwell sadly returning to AFC and Midson coming our way in return.
With names being mentioned for next season, how about Jeff Hughes at Notts County? Midfielder, age 27, weighs in with a few goals, averages a goal every 4 games, played under John Schofield at Lincoln, signed by Martin Allen at Notts County!! Out of contract this summer!!
A player that could be interesting Martin is Jordan Mustoe. A left back who he had for a while at Barnet and is on loan at Carlisle from Wigan until the end of the season. I expect that will depend on whether Joe Martin signs a new deal. MA doesn't strike me as the sort that will shilly shally around with players,so I suspect that If Joe Martin doesn't make up his mind fairly quickly ,he'll be on his way. Last year ,if you remember, Curtis Weston was out of contract and didn't know whether to stay or not, so Martin said"thanks very much, and good luck elsewhere."
