Who stays, who goes?

[Ian]

Got a fair bit of abuse on twitter too, rightly so IMO.

 

[frenchrover]

Great news to hear that Jason Koumas has signed a 1 year contract. Apparently, he has been advised as to the new manager and that an annoucement is imminent. Interesting also to note all betting on the next manager of TRFC has been suspended by the Bookies.

 

[bigmart]

Very good news Koumas signing for another year, haven't seen where it says hes been advised of the new manager.

 

[Ian]

Excellent. Invaluable experience to what could be quite a youthful squad and a superb player at this level.

 

[Sparky]

Very good news about Jason. I just hope from a fitness point of view the rough and tumble of L2 is something he can cope with.

Let's hope the likes of Jenno and Wallace follow suit.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Great news. Koumas will be the most skilful player in League Two next season; he has always shown the club consideration and is probably my favourite Rovers player of all time.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Top man.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Pleased to see Jake Kirby has been offered and has accepted a two-year extension. Even though he still had a year left on his contract, it's good the club are thinking ahead and not letting young players' contracts run down. I know Jake is not everyone's cup of tea, but he always gives 100% and is still only 20. He will only improve in the next year or so.

 

[bigmart]

Certainly has still got room for improvement and hopefully with a run in the team he will get better and better.

 

[frenchrover]

Quite right BBTC and Bigmart, a youngster who can only improve with better coaching and management. A lot of criticism aimed at his contract extention elsewhere from some fans but in my view this fits in precisely with the concept of developing our own players rather than importing loan players to develop for their parent club. Only strange aspect is..who is making these decisions.? Have we someone in the shadows pulling the strings prior to their confirmation as manager, if so why no annoucement?

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

I suspect it is Horton in collusion with Butler. I think whoever is appointed manager will have limited say in which players are recruited. He will be a head coach, responsible for tactics, motivation and man management. I think Mick Horton will be in charge of player policy and recruitment. If not, why is he called Director of Football Operations?

 

[Sparky]

I'm not as over the moon as others about Kirby. In fact I was quite amazed that he has been offered another 2 years as:
1. He was overall poor last season and
2. He had a year left anyway

I am all for giving young players a chance if they are good enough but it seems that without a manager, who is making these decisions? I was also baffled by the decision to keep ex forest green reject James Rowe who did nothing all season and IMO isn't good enough. What the hell does Mick Horton know about our players ability? He can't really rely on JMc as he made wrong decisions towards the end of last season when picking the team.

It may sound harsh but I would rather they saved the budget for a new manager with more experienced players who can get us out of L2, not on kids who have not impressed many.

They certainly would have been better giving the extra money to Lowe for another year so we had a player capable of scoring 20 plus goals next season.
I bet young jake is rubbing his hands and can't believe his luck!

 

[bigmart]

Sparky, Lowe had no intention of staying with us he was in talks with Bury before we went down. I think your being far too harsh on Kirby & Rowe who are two young lads with little experience who were in a team that struggled all season its not a surprise they wernt stand out players.

 

[Sparky]

Lowe may be a money grabber but the fact is we should have tried harder to keep him IMO when we found out bury wanted him. He would have guaranteed us goals - fact.

As for Rowe and kirby, it's down to opinion whether they have shown enough to warrant further deals. Personally I don't think either are good enough but I hope I am proved wrong and accept they are still young.

I just think a 3 year deal in effect for jake was a bit over the top, especially without a manager who might not be impressed and then where are we at?

Manager announced tomorrow apparently..,

 

[bigmart]

Im guessing the manager to be has had a say in the contracts, hopefully we will find out tomorrow who it is

 

[Boz]

Insofar as Kirby is concerned, I'm in agreement with Sparky. Initially he was lucky to get a pro contract. He was given plenty of opportunity to show what he could do last season and overall didn't impress, decent work-rate but towards the end he lacked the confidence to try anything but the easy ball. If the future is being built around young Jake, then I worry.

I didn't think Rowe, if you factor in an inability to tackle, was that bad and isn't going to be costing a lot. As an attacking midfielder he can do a job for us.

I actually think we should have played hardball with Lowe and told him to see out the second year of his contract, perhaps offering some extra cash for a coaching role as a sweetener. However Mick and Jeremy thought otherwise...

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I agree with Boz and Sparky about Kirby, but disagree with the latter about Rowe.

I am very surprised and rather concerned that 'we' have deemed Kirby worthy of a three year deal. That is a hell of a contract for a club like us to offer: if it was Max Power I would understand it, but I think Jake is the most limited of all the youngsters we currently have on professional terms and probably won't be better than average even in League Two. I would actually have been inclined to try and move him on this summer, or at best give him another year to prove he has a future at the club. It makes no more sense to waste money on young players that are not good enough than to sign older, journeyman players who are past it.

I will also be extremely concerned if a decision like that was made without the input of the new manager.

I also agree with Boz that we could have called Lowe's bluff. If we refused to let him go, I doubt he would have been able to sulk on the sidelines for twelve months.

 

[Ian]

Not too fussed about the Kirby deal. OK, he young and there's room for improvement but I wasn't impressed at all with his contributions last season. I still think he needs more development before he's thrown into the first XI.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Sheffield United sites are now claiming the Wallace deal is done, with a transfer fee of £250,000 to be split 50:50 between ourselves and Everton. If true, that is a reasonable fee for us on top of the Lowe money. Now we just need to sign a decent striker and a couple of centre halves in the 25-30 age bracket.....

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

That seems to be a win for everyone. I thought Wallace was out of contract, as he's just finished his two-year deal, so didn't think we'd get a bean. I can only think it's to do with the rule about clubs signing players under 24 having to pay a transfer fee or compensation. I assume Rovers must have agreed some deal with Everton in 2012. Can anyone enlighten me?

If all the money received for the Lowe and Wallace transfers - plus the wages saved for our top two earners last season - can be given to Rob Edwards, we might end up with a better squad than we thought. Now they know they've got the money, I hope Rovers can finalise a couple of good deals this week. If not, at least we've got the distraction of the World Cup to keep us occupied.