Terryhall
Active member
Rather than looking back and thinking of what might have been, I thought it might be a more positive move to try and look forward. Obviously none of us know what will happen with the manager but whoever the manager is next season, whether it is Tisdale or a new manager, they will need to think about the squad and whether any areas might need to be changed over the summer.
I seem to recall for recent seasons we had a thread to try to predict our retained list. Below is the current 1st team squad according to the OS along with my thoughts on whether the club should be trying to keep them for next season or not. (source - https://www.exetercityfc.co.uk/teams/first-team/)
Generally I would have said I prefer evolution to revolution, but right now it does feel like despite a fantastic season (regardless of the very disappointing conclusion, I'm sure that 4th place and 80 points will be remembered as a great season once the raw feeling of the loss has died down a bit!) we might need a dramatic shakeup of the squad this summer. Youth players I have to confess to not having seen much, if at all, and so cannot fairly comment, therefore I've not mentioned them here (and I include the likes of Byrne and Sparkes here as they have only sporadically featured for us this year.)
I don't have details of contracts or the like but I think in past years some helpful mods have managed to update this information for those of us unable to do so for ourselves...
GK - Pym (would like to keep but suspect he will move on), Jones (keep), Hamon (release)
DF - Sweeney (would like to keep but suspect he will move on), Woodman (release / coaching role?), TAH (made me eat my words this season and has done well so keep as backup), JMT (would like to keep but suspect he will move on), Seaborne (release), Moxey (probably keep, especially if Woodman moves on), Croll (keep), Storey (keep), Brown (keep)
MD - James (release), Tillson (keep), Harley (sadly release), Holmes (sadly release, too injury prone), Taylor (would like to keep but suspect he will move on), Boateng (would like to keep but suspect he will move on)
FW - Simpson (release), Stockley (would like to keep but suspect he will move on), Brunt (release), McAlinden (keep if we can persuade him to stay after not giving him much game time recently), Jay (keep), Loft (release)
If all the players left that I worry might be snapped up by bigger sides this summer, and we were to release all the players I mentioned, then our squad would be brutally reduced to an unrealistic point:
GK - Jones
DF - TAH, Moxey, Croll, Storey, Brown
MD - Tillson
FW - McAlinden, Jay
So then taking into consideration that it would be nice to be able to field an actual squad of players (!), here's what I think our retained list might actually look like (excluding youth players)
GK - Jones, Hamon
DF - TAH, Seaborne, Moxey, Croll, Storey, Brown
MD - James, Tillson, Harley, Holmes
FW - Simpson, McAlinden, Jay
That would give a squad of 15 plus the youth plus any new signings.
Ultimately the only conclusion I can really draw from this would be that in my opinion we really, really need to make efforts to hang on to the likes of Pym, Sweeney, JMT, Taylor, Boateng and Stockley this summer. If we did manage to hang on to all of those, then our squad might look like this:
GK - Pym, Jones
DF - JMT, TAH, Moxey, Croll, Storey, Sweeney
MD - Tillson, Taylor, Boateng, Harley
FW - Stockley, McAlinden, Jay
Which could be the core of a strong side with another chance of a run at promotion next year with the right leadership and support.
Anyway hopefully this manages to generate a more positive forward looking thread (and feel free to rip my thinking to shreds, thats always good fun if nothing else!)
I seem to recall for recent seasons we had a thread to try to predict our retained list. Below is the current 1st team squad according to the OS along with my thoughts on whether the club should be trying to keep them for next season or not. (source - https://www.exetercityfc.co.uk/teams/first-team/)
Generally I would have said I prefer evolution to revolution, but right now it does feel like despite a fantastic season (regardless of the very disappointing conclusion, I'm sure that 4th place and 80 points will be remembered as a great season once the raw feeling of the loss has died down a bit!) we might need a dramatic shakeup of the squad this summer. Youth players I have to confess to not having seen much, if at all, and so cannot fairly comment, therefore I've not mentioned them here (and I include the likes of Byrne and Sparkes here as they have only sporadically featured for us this year.)
I don't have details of contracts or the like but I think in past years some helpful mods have managed to update this information for those of us unable to do so for ourselves...
GK - Pym (would like to keep but suspect he will move on), Jones (keep), Hamon (release)
DF - Sweeney (would like to keep but suspect he will move on), Woodman (release / coaching role?), TAH (made me eat my words this season and has done well so keep as backup), JMT (would like to keep but suspect he will move on), Seaborne (release), Moxey (probably keep, especially if Woodman moves on), Croll (keep), Storey (keep), Brown (keep)
MD - James (release), Tillson (keep), Harley (sadly release), Holmes (sadly release, too injury prone), Taylor (would like to keep but suspect he will move on), Boateng (would like to keep but suspect he will move on)
FW - Simpson (release), Stockley (would like to keep but suspect he will move on), Brunt (release), McAlinden (keep if we can persuade him to stay after not giving him much game time recently), Jay (keep), Loft (release)
If all the players left that I worry might be snapped up by bigger sides this summer, and we were to release all the players I mentioned, then our squad would be brutally reduced to an unrealistic point:
GK - Jones
DF - TAH, Moxey, Croll, Storey, Brown
MD - Tillson
FW - McAlinden, Jay
So then taking into consideration that it would be nice to be able to field an actual squad of players (!), here's what I think our retained list might actually look like (excluding youth players)
GK - Jones, Hamon
DF - TAH, Seaborne, Moxey, Croll, Storey, Brown
MD - James, Tillson, Harley, Holmes
FW - Simpson, McAlinden, Jay
That would give a squad of 15 plus the youth plus any new signings.
Ultimately the only conclusion I can really draw from this would be that in my opinion we really, really need to make efforts to hang on to the likes of Pym, Sweeney, JMT, Taylor, Boateng and Stockley this summer. If we did manage to hang on to all of those, then our squad might look like this:
GK - Pym, Jones
DF - JMT, TAH, Moxey, Croll, Storey, Sweeney
MD - Tillson, Taylor, Boateng, Harley
FW - Stockley, McAlinden, Jay
Which could be the core of a strong side with another chance of a run at promotion next year with the right leadership and support.
Anyway hopefully this manages to generate a more positive forward looking thread (and feel free to rip my thinking to shreds, thats always good fun if nothing else!)