Updated Squad List - 9th August 2019

Scoham

All contracts including loans end in June unless stated otherwise. First Team Squad

Goalkeepers

Ben Amos 2020

Dillon Philips 2021

Right Backs

Chris Solly 2020

Centre Backs

Naby Sarr 2020 Tom Lockyer 2021 - free transfer from Bristol Rovers

Deji Oshilaja 2021 - free transfer from AFC Wimbledon Jason Pearce 2021

Left Backs

Lewis Page 2020

Ben Purrington 2022 - undisclosed fee from Rotherham United

Central Midfielders

Josh Cullen 2020 - season loan from West Ham United Sam Field 2020 - season loan from West Bromwich Albion Jake Forster-Caskey 2020 Conor Gallagher 2020 - season loan from Chelsea Beram Kayal 2020 - season loan from Brighton & Hove Albion

Darren Pratley 2020

George Lapslie 2021

Albie Morgan contract length not known

Attacking Midfielders/Wingers

Jonny Williams 2020 plus 1 year option Chuks Aneke 2021 - free transfer from MK Dons

Strikers

Jonathan Leko 2020 - season loan from West Bromwich Albion

Lyle Taylor 2020

Macauley Bonne 2022 - undisclosed fee from Leyton Orient

U23 Development Squad

Goalkeepers

Nathan Harness 2020 - signed from Stevenage

Ashley Maynard-Brewer 2021 - loaned to Dulwich Hamlet until end of August 2019 Joseph Osaghae contract length not known - promoted from u18s

Right Backs

Kenneth Yao 2020

Centre Backs

Toby Stevenson 2020 (estimated) Sam Keefe contract length not known - promoted from u18s

Luca Vega contract length not known - signed from Ipswich

Left Backs

Midfielders

Taylor Maloney 2020 - season loan to Newport County Brendan Wiredu 2021

Ben Dempsey contract length not known

Alfie Doughty contract length not known

Jay Mingi contract length not known - signed from West Ham Abraham Odoh - signed from Tooting & Mitcham following loan Johl Powell contract length not known - promoted from u18s Armando Quitirna Junior contract length not known

James Vennings contract length not known - promoted from u18s

Strikers

Wassim Aouacheria 2020 Charles Clayden contract length not known - signed from Leyton Orient

Kareem Isiaka contract length not known - promoted from u18s Wilberforce Ocran contract length not known

Henry Irving

Excellent

bolloxbolder

Great work @Scoham

Themightyath2

You left out Kayal...

Scoham

Bowyer and Gallen were working towards a squad of two players per position. Currently we have two gaps, a first choice right back and a physical striker as an alternative to Taylor.

Bowyer talked about bringing in a free agent right back and the club have just confirmed we should find out whether Hemed’s move has gone through early next week.

If Hemed doesn’t come in then we could use Aneke up front and keep one of Lapslie or Morgan. With another striker signing we could loan both out.

As it stands two per position looks something like this:

Goalkeepers: Phillips Amos

Right backs: Solly
Right footed centre backs: Lockyer Oshilaja
Left footed centre backs: Pearce Sarr
Left backs: Purrington Page

Defensive midfielders: Kayal Pratley
Right footed central midfielders: Cullen Gallagher
Left footed central midfielders: Field Forster-Caskey
Attacking midfielders: Williams Aneke

Pacey striker/poacher: Leko Bonne
Physical/hold up striker: Taylor

Scoham

Themightyath2 said:

You left out Kayal...

Now added

Scoham

Looking over that 22 man first team squad I hadn’t thought before how few academy players it includes. Just Phillips, Solly, Lapslie and Morgan. Got to be the fewest in any Roland squad. Two of them could even be going out on loan.

They’ll develop far better by coming in when they’re ready and getting regular game time out on loan if they’re not. A few years ago there’s no way we’d bring in so many midfielders when we have two academy players in the first team squad.

Perhaps it’s partly down to not having as many promising youngsters coming through. Not at the level we’ve had in recent years anyway. Bowyer and Gallen also appear to have done a great job with budget, there’s no obvious gaps in the squad. Bowyer’s talking about signing a right back and presumably if Hemed doesn’t sign we’ll look at alternatives on a free to give us another striker.

Sage

Scoham said:

Looking over that 22 man first team squad I hadn’t thought before how few academy players it includes. Just Phillips, Solly, Lapslie and Morgan. Got to be the fewest in any Roland squad. Two of them could even be going out on loan.

They’ll develop far better by coming in when they’re ready and getting regular game time out on loan if they’re not. A few years ago there’s no way we’d bring in so many midfielders when we have two academy players in the first team squad.

Perhaps it’s partly down to not having as many promising youngsters coming through. Not at the level we’ve had in recent years anyway. Bowyer and Gallen also appear to have done a great job with budget, there’s no obvious gaps in the squad. Bowyer’s talking about signing a right back and presumably if Hemed doesn’t sign we’ll look at alternatives on a free to give us another striker.

Regarding the midfield, it’s an absolute fantastic position to find ourselves in, especially after last week where we had such a poor midfield with numbers and overall quality wasn’t where it needed to be.

Now we can afford to send out two midfielders to get experience and come back better players after playing regularly.

Very promising and bodes well for their future careers too.

thickandthin63

I think that probably we do have the talent coming through but maybe it is a little bit harder to adjust from u23 to championship as opposed to u23 to league 1 so going on loan for a period will help their development.Overall  delighted with the work done in transfer window.

CafcWest

Minor point.  Isn’t Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu now just Brendan Wiredu?

Scoham

cafc-west said:

Minor point.  Isn’t Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu now just Brendan Wiredu?

I like minor points, I’ve now updated that.

Sillybilly

Much better squad than we could have dared to dream a week or two back. The two glaring gaps are right back and second striker. I guess some of our veritable gang of multitalented midfielders will be able to fill those gaps if our transfer/loan shenanigans don’t work out. I also think our “two” at left back is effectively “one and a half” as you just know that Page won’t manage more than half a dozen games. Let’s hope Ben P stays fit and can make the step up to championship  level. 

Lazy_eye_metaphor

Which of our eight centre midfielders are versatile enough to play effectively in other positions?

Sillybilly

Lazy_eye_metaphor said:

Which of our eight centre midfielders are versatile enough to play effectively in other positions?

Hard to say as we haven’t seen some of them play yet but as a start I’d suggest that Aneke could comfortably play as a lone forward or one of two, Jonny could play as a second striker, Lapslie could have a crack at right back/wing back. I imagine without having seen them in the flesh that Gallagher and Field could be versatile too. None of this compensates for having non specialists of course but at least we have quality bodies that we didn’t have last week 

Scoham

Aneke could be used up front. Bowyer called Williams a winger the other day so sees him as an option there if needed. Pratley’s done a job at CB. Gallagher used to play out wide.

The way Bowyer’s built this squad shows he intends to stick with 4-4-2 diamond or 5-3-2/3-5-2. It allows us to play two up front but also stop teams play 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 from outnumbering us in central midfield.

Wingers tend to be inconsistent, especially on our budget. I wonder if that also comes into his thinking. Something else he said recently was around always taking a 7 out of 10 grafter over a talented player that is an 8 one week and a 5 the next week. Leko might be the exception to that, he called him our wildcard.

Cordoban Addick

Scoham said:

Looking over that 22 man first team squad I hadn’t thought before how few academy players it includes. Just Phillips, Solly, Lapslie and Morgan. Got to be the fewest in any Roland squad. Two of them could even be going out on loan.

They’ll develop far better by coming in when they’re ready and getting regular game time out on loan if they’re not. A few years ago there’s no way we’d bring in so many midfielders when we have two academy players in the first team squad.

Perhaps it’s partly down to not having as many promising youngsters coming through. Not at the level we’ve had in recent years anyway. Bowyer and Gallen also appear to have done a great job with budget, there’s no obvious gaps in the squad. Bowyer’s talking about signing a right back and presumably if Hemed doesn’t sign we’ll look at alternatives on a free to give us another striker.

Don't forget that in recent months we have sold Karlan*, Anfernee* and Joe as well as others before who you would expect to still be in the squad. 

*not strictly academy but almost!

Scoham

True, just good to see their replacements aren’t from the academy - I’m sure they would be if we had a player who was ready.

bolloxbolder

I have my eye on Doughty and Dempsey from the U23's. Hopefully they can come through.

Cafc43v3r

If you look at the current crop, Lapslie is 21.

Look at those that aren't here anymore:

Grant 21!!
Konsa 21
Lookman 21
Gomez 22
Palmer 22
Dijksteel 22
Aribo 23

That's remarkable, not only how good they are now, but how good they were when they were teenagers.  Not many players are "championship ready" at 21 let alone 17/18.  To think a lot of people had written Grant off 18 months ago....... 

Ross

Aside from the gaps at RB and up front (which will hopefully be addressed) it’s probably the most balanced squad with depth we’ve had in ages.

However, I am concerned about both the number of players we have out of contract next summer, plus the fact that 5 players are on loan, so another potential summer rebuild next year. Also, 3 of the 5 loan players have recall options in January which isn’t ideal...