2025/26 END-OF-SEASON SQUAD UPDATE

se9addick said:

Think people are slightly misunderstanding the purpose of the “retained list” announcement. It’s basically telling you which of the out of contract players aren’t being retained. It doesn’t (nor is it intended to) have a bearing on which under contract players we’ll be looking to move on. And looking at the players we have under contract there’s an awful lot of deadwood there that needs moving on. 

Big summer ahead. 

I agree.

However, trying to "offload" players who have showed they are not up to it is going to be hard, esp as they are only likely to be good enough for League 1 (or below). Good luck trying to get rid of Ahadme ,Tanto & Apter for anything than peanuts AND then the players wanting to drop a division / wages/ location into the bargain. 

I've tried to keep my counsel on the Rumours thread as I always appear to be negative whenever I post about transfers. But I fear people are going to be disappointed again come August as we just won't have the money to get rid of enough players to be able to bring in the quality needed.

"Ruthless...."  ha !

se9addick said:

Gassan Ahadme, Karoy Anderson, Rob Apter, Nathan Asiimwe, Amari’i Bell, Tiernan Brooks, Reece Burke, Sonny Carey, Conor Coventry, Kaheim Dixon, Greg Docherty, Josh Edwards, Ibrahim Fullah, Macaulay Gillesphey, Keenan Gough, Lloyd Jones, Thomas Kaminski, Daniel Kanu, Charlie Kelman, Harvey Knibbs, Miles Leaburn, Will Mannion, Micah Mbick, Alex Mitchell, Zach Mitchell, Tanto Olaofe, Kayne Ramsay, Joe Rankin-Costello, Collins Sichenje.

Bold = I would keep
Italics = maybe 

Everyone else I would shift 

Why on earth would we get rid of Docherty who has been our most consistent midfielder this season and pretty much delivers 7/10 every week?

Also why would we keep Z Mitchell who hasnt proven himself at senior level over A Mitchell?

CafcSteve said:

Disappointed that we’re still in talks with Dykes, as don’t think that he’s someone we should be after if looking to change our style of play.

Don’t worry, Jones will loan him out by the end of August. 

Radostanradical said:

se9addick said:

Gassan Ahadme, Karoy Anderson, Rob Apter, Nathan Asiimwe, Amari’i Bell, Tiernan Brooks, Reece Burke, Sonny Carey, Conor Coventry, Kaheim Dixon, Greg Docherty, Josh Edwards, Ibrahim Fullah, Macaulay Gillesphey, Keenan Gough, Lloyd Jones, Thomas Kaminski, Daniel Kanu, Charlie Kelman, Harvey Knibbs, Miles Leaburn, Will Mannion, Micah Mbick, Alex Mitchell, Zach Mitchell, Tanto Olaofe, Kayne Ramsay, Joe Rankin-Costello, Collins Sichenje.

Bold = I would keep
Italics = maybe 

Everyone else I would shift 

Why on earth would we get rid of Docherty who has been our most consistent midfielder this season and pretty much delivers 7/10 every week?

Also why would we keep Z Mitchell who hasnt proven himself at senior level over A Mitchell?

I don’t really think Doc, Cov or Carey are up to the standard, certainly not to be starting. If we’re going to be “ruthless” then we need to understand that some of those that got us here aren’t going to get us there. And that midfield would be my absolute priority this summer. 

golfaddick said:

Also interesting that we are still in talks with Godden. Surely he wants to sign for another year so is it down to money  ? Are we offering him less due to his injuries ? 

As for Dykes. If we seriously want to stay up next season & then progress we need a better strikeforce than Dykes & TC up front again. 

At his age I would imagine he’ll want the security of a 2 year deal, we probably only want to offer 1 year. It may be that he gets offered slightly less money per week in L1 but the two year term he wants which makes the TCV stronger.  

blackpool72 said:

Garrymanilow said:

When was the last time we had a retained list where there were only two players who we let go? It's such an improvement from the past decade where we would just churn through an entire squad of players every season and have about 7 professionals on the books before we started making signings.

Personally I would have liked to see more than 2 players released from that list.

There only two out of contract there the only ones  you can officially release ..

Garrymanilow said:

blackpool72 said:

Garrymanilow said:

When was the last time we had a retained list where there were only two players who we let go? It's such an improvement from the past decade where we would just churn through an entire squad of players every season and have about 7 professionals on the books before we started making signings.

Personally I would have liked to see more than 2 players released from that list.

Why? The ones we have in contract we can hopefully get a fee for. A bit of money for Gillesphey, Mannion/Kaminski, Coventry, Mitchell and (in a magical world) Ahadme is all money that can be put back into signings. Better than just seeing players we paid fees for disappear off for nothing like previous seasons

We are not selling one of the top 3 keepers and in this division and one of best  midfielders  in this division who we turned down a bid for in January .. ridiculous 

se9addick said:

Gassan Ahadme, Karoy Anderson, Rob Apter, Nathan Asiimwe, Amari’i Bell, Tiernan Brooks, Reece Burke, Sonny Carey, Conor Coventry, Kaheim Dixon, Greg Docherty, Josh Edwards, Ibrahim Fullah, Macaulay Gillesphey, Keenan Gough, Lloyd Jones, Thomas Kaminski, Daniel Kanu, Charlie Kelman, Harvey Knibbs, Miles Leaburn, Will Mannion, Micah Mbick, Alex Mitchell, Zach Mitchell, Tanto Olaofe, Kayne Ramsay, Joe Rankin-Costello, Collins Sichenje.

Edit - TC (not sure why he wasn’t in there to start with)

Bold = I would keep
Italics = maybe 

Everyone else I would shift 

assuming you put Burke in italics by mistake!!

Elthamaddick said:

se9addick said:

Gassan Ahadme, Karoy Anderson, Rob Apter, Nathan Asiimwe, Amari’i Bell, Tiernan Brooks, Reece Burke, Sonny Carey, Conor Coventry, Kaheim Dixon, Greg Docherty, Josh Edwards, Ibrahim Fullah, Macaulay Gillesphey, Keenan Gough, Lloyd Jones, Thomas Kaminski, Daniel Kanu, Charlie Kelman, Harvey Knibbs, Miles Leaburn, Will Mannion, Micah Mbick, Alex Mitchell, Zach Mitchell, Tanto Olaofe, Kayne Ramsay, Joe Rankin-Costello, Collins Sichenje.

Edit - TC (not sure why he wasn’t in there to start with)

Bold = I would keep
Italics = maybe 

Everyone else I would shift 

assuming you put Burke in italics by mistake!!

I actually think Burke is ok, his injuries are an issue (hence I would sell if someone was mad enough to bid for him).

You imagine the majority of players out on loan this season (with possible exceptions of Mbick and Kanu) will be looking to be moved on. 

Add to that potentially a few of the players with only a year left that we know won't be with us long-term in the Championship. 

Need to be better with our sales otherwise we'll end up with 8 out on loan that we're still paying a percentage of again. 

valleynick66 said:

Garrymanilow said:

When was the last time we had a retained list where there were only two players who we let go? It's such an improvement from the past decade where we would just churn through an entire squad of players every season and have about 7 professionals on the books before we started making signings.

Surely just reflects when contracts due to expire. 

In the past more short term deals I suppose meaning more churn. 

Correct - we only had four players with expiring contracts. Two won’t get new deals (Taylor, Berry) and two we are in discussions with (Godden, Dykes).

Genuinely surprised how people seem to be unclear on what the retained list is and isn’t.  

SporadicAddick said:

WSS said:

Can imagine with Dykes it's a "make a decision before you go to the World Cup or it's thank you and goodbye"

Why would you imagine that?

Because if we don’t tie him down now we won’t be able to afford him after he wins the golden boot. 

Retained list means nothing what does is the squad we rock up to the first game of the season with