The Squad for 2019-20

[Ian]

There's still weeks to go until friendlies start. Plenty of time for negotiations. We tend to recruit well. My only real concern is the need for a goalscorer.

 

[bigmart]

We have 11 players under contract including Ellis & Gumbs who will both miss a large chunk of next season.

Tuesday will be interesting as pre-season training starts & hopefully the contract situations should be clearer in the next few days for the players who are about to be out of contract, then we need to get new singings in

 

[ADD]

That is an incredible deal for him given his recent record. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Agreed a great deal for him and it is 2 years with a 1 year option so possibly even better. McPhillipps apparently knows him and coached him when he was on the books at Everton though that is obviously a long while ago now. He needed a reset for sure as he had lost all confidence it seemed to me with us. I wish him all the best obviously given we released him but I am slightly nervous his departure may come back to haunt us as at his best he would start before Morris or Smith in my book

 

[ADD]

It is slightly worrying yes that we have announced so little so far but it is not unexpected though is it? We finished our season later and we could obviously not do much until we knew which division we would be in next season. We also, I suspect could not do too much until we knew 100% that Nors was going.
That said, I am not sure that I buy into "we are waiting until the 30th June" either since after all Tollitt, Wharton etc. are under contract with us until 30th June but have already signed. The fact we have not announced Nelson or Harris yet is a major concern however as especially with Nelson I suspect he would have signed by now if he was going to sign for us and that leaves a massive hole at the back at least until Ellis is back.
There may also be an element of not wanting to panic buy and whilst we clearly need some more players like last season when we had the same issue maybe we will adopt a waiting game and see how we are placed come January - after all Ellis may be back by then? and Gumbs may not be far off if he goes well in his recovery. Also despite all the talk of 3 in a row I suspect neither MP or MM are genuinely thinking that way as I just don't see with teams like Ipswich, Sunderland, Lincoln etc. that we can have a top 1/3 budget this coming season.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

at his best he would start before Morris or Smith in my book

I am not sure how you can say this. Tollitt has only ever put in decent performances at National League level, and by all accounts he was hardly outstanding at Wrexham last season. Morris has had a number of years at League One level and was a solid performer last season, and Smith was also decent in League Two.

Tollitt is completely unproven in the Football League and I don't think he has more natural talent than the other players mentioned. His reputation is based on a good couple of months two years ago, against poor opposition.

 

[Boz]

When we loaned then signed Tollitt from Portsmouth, some of their fans were disappointed he’d not been given more opportunity there on what they’d seen of him. Tollitt until his injury certainly looked capable of performing at a higher level than NL. While sharing RLC’s doubts, I wouldn’t write him off yet

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

There is a difference between having potential and actually achieving something at a higher level. While Tollitt has reasonable natural ability, the other attributes required to become a league player are lacking (so far).

Pringle, Morris and Smith have all played successfully at a higher level than Ben.

 

[drwhoman]

As the fourth promoted team we will not be first choice for the better players, particularly as we will not be paying top wages. I just hope we can sign players who are good enough to enable us to at least consolidate our position in L1. The longer we are there the better our chances of improving the player roster.

 

[Boz]

The primary target is survival. Our reported budget for last year, £1.8 million is bigger than Accrington's £1.6 for the coming season and they managed to survive fairly comfortably in their first year in L1. Wycombe and maybe Rochdale will also have smaller budgets, possibly some others. While Rovers are likely to be in the bottom third budget wise, should still have the funds to be competitive. However, we do need about another half dozen players, of sufficient quality and capable of meeting Micky's requirements in terms of fitting in and workrate.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

We are still being strongly linked with James Vaughan. I personally hope this deal comes off, as we are not going to attract many players with a similar CV.

 

[bigmart]

We are still being strongly linked with James Vaughan. I personally hope this deal comes off, as we are not going to attract many players with a similar CV.

Would be a very good signing but fear Bradford may offer him more money

 

[ONIGP]

As the fourth promoted team we will not be first choice for the better players, particularly as we will not be paying top wages. I just hope we can sign players who are good enough to enable us to at least consolidate our position in L1. The longer we are there the better our chances of improving the player roster.

While it is true that we are the 4th promoted team, I would not be surprised if we are rated higher than that by prospective signees. For a start one of those is Bury, secondly we have some pedigree at L1/Champ level, and also having business professionals running the club (one whom is an ex-player who has held one of the highest jobs in English football) must make a difference. We shouldn't underestimate the "story" we have to sell.

 

[bigmart]

The primary target is survival. Our reported budget for last year, £1.8 million is bigger than Accrington's £1.6 for the coming season and they managed to survive fairly comfortably in their first year in L1. Wycombe and maybe Rochdale will also have smaller budgets, possibly some others. While Rovers are likely to be in the bottom third budget wise, should still have the funds to be competitive. However, we do need about another half dozen players, of sufficient quality and capable of meeting Micky's requirements in terms of fitting in and workrate.

Our budget last year was around £1.4 million which was increased because of the 3 cup games being on tv & spurs crowd, I am led to believe it is about £2 Million this season

 

[aldoes mustache]

7 goals in 70 games no thank you . we need some one to get them we have connor who got 13 last season and mullin who got 8 . we need younger players not a washed up has been who might warm the bench .

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

It would be a big gamble in my opinion. He was certainly a prodigy whose later career has had ups and downs. Recently, he has had two lean seasons. However, given a decent run of luck and fitness, he might recover his Bury form of 2016/17. If we can afford him and Micky thinks he still has the desire, I'd go for him.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

7 goals in 70 games no thank you .

That was in the Championship. He is a good player who would score a decent number of goals in League One, and give us something different up front.

 

[aldoes mustache]

if he scores 20 next season i will get 3 kids season tickets .

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

if he scores 20 next season i will get 3 kids season tickets .

We won't be signing anybody that scores twenty goals. We need two or three strikers who can weigh in with five to ten goals each.

 

[aldoes mustache]

not being arsy but we go from a 30 a goal a season player to a couple who score 5 or 10 . thats a team going down not a team surviving or heading up .sorry just the way i see it . . we need some one to get 15 plus get connor up top he used to play there now is his time

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

not being arsy but we go from a 30 a goal a season player to a couple who score 5 or 10 . thats a team going down not a team surviving or heading up .sorry just the way i see it . . we need some one to get 15 plus get connor up top he used to play there now is his time

We are in a higher division and have just lost our most prolific striker for twenty years. If the budget figures quoted above are correct, we can not afford an established, prolific League One striker.

The target for this season is survival and people have to be realistic about the kind of players we can attract. Vaughan or A.N. Other would be capable of getting fifteen goals in a good year, and the figures I quoted above were hypothetical.