Rage Online

Hog wrote:re Cameron Gayle, I mentioned him joining Sutton Coldfield Town a while back ...

search.php?keywords=gayle&t=4697&sf=msgonly

Good work Hog!

SWA wrote:I'm wasting too much time on this. We will find out either way soon enough.
Have a good weekend.

Sorry SWA, hope it wasn't too annoying.

Haha. No worries GY

No real surprises as the U's release their retained list
this morning.

Johnny Mullins has not been offered terms to stay;neither has
enigmatic forward Jordan Bowery and the disappointing Patrick Hoban.
Youngsters Freddie Grant and AJ George will also be leaving Grenoble Road.
There are stories suggesting Max Crocombe will be loaned out again too

United have offered new deals to Danny Hylton, Josh Ruffels, Benji Buechel
and Chris Maguire.

So only the departure of Mulls could be regarded as a surprise.
I would expect him to get fixed up quite quickly at a club
such as Cheltenham, not too far down the M5 from his
midlands home.

He has given great service to the U's and is a top professional.
He made 149 appearances scoring nine goals
during two spells with the club.

Best wishes Johnny for the future.

No surprises with that lot (nor any complaints from me). Bit harsh on Mullins maybe, but I thought he looked our shakiest central defender last season and he's stopped scoring goals.

Benji's contract extension had already been triggered after 15 appearances, according to this article, which also suggests he wants to know the club's plans for his position before accepting.

Would be interesting to know what kind of deals Hylton and Maguire have been offered...

Kernow Yellow wrote:No surprises with that lot (nor any complaints from me). Bit harsh on Mullins maybe, but I thought he looked our shakiest central defender last season and he's stopped scoring goals.

Benji's contract extension had already been triggered after 15 appearances, according to this article, which also suggests he wants to know the club's plans for his position before accepting.

Would be interesting to know what kind of deals Hylton and Maguire have been offered...

The club had a 1 year option on Buchel, so he doesn't get to accept. The club can impose it. That said of course, you don't want unhappy players at the club, and he isn't good enough to be making demands.

Appleton has got the Mullins situation just right. Reading between the lines, I suspect Mullins has been told he might be offered a new contract on reduced terms as a back up player, and Mullins wants to see if he can get better. I think that properly reflects what both sides should be looking at.

No surprises I think Appleton has got it right here.

For me, the one person we need to keep hold of is whoever is head of player recruitment...

Our playing staff has rocketed in quality in the last 18 months, with drastically fewer 'bad signings'

Agree with all this.

I agree with the inference that the conversation with Mullins seems to have been an adult an responsible one - you can stay (on reduced terms), but you'd do better to leave.

The aim of the club at the start of the season was "promotion, and promotion again", so the club are hopefully looking at players who can compete at the top of L1 and on into the Championship.

For Buchel, I think the article implies that by making 15 appearances he can trigger a contract extension, but that he'll wait and see what's happening before deciding to take it up.

Old Abingdonian wrote:I agree with the inference that the conversation with Mullins seems to have been an adult an responsible one - you can stay (on reduced terms), but you'd do better to leave.

Absolutely. I'm sure he'll find another good side to sign for - probably in Div 4 - but if he doesn't, and he's prepared to take less money and to be a backup until/unless either party can find something better, that sounds like a decent arrangement. He's been very good and very consistent for us, but he's probably reached his level.

Like everyone else, I think Appleton's made good choices. I still wouldn't be surprised if another 'keeper was brought in as first choice, with Büchel as backup (and one of the other released or sent out on season-long loan).

recordmeister wrote:For me, the one person we need to keep hold of is whoever is head of player recruitment...

Our playing staff has rocketed in quality in the last 18 months, with drastically fewer 'bad signings'

Tend to agree with that although it could be argued that will all the duds we'd signed over the previous few seasons, it's a low threshold!

But, yes, recruitment is going to be absolutely key. By my reckoning, we need at least 6 quality signings to be properly competitive in League One, certainly if we have any pretensions of "doing a Burton".

FWIW, I think we need GK, CB, RB, CM, RM, STx2.

Myles Francis wrote:FWIW, I think we need GK, CB, RB, CM, RM, STx2.

And that's assuming that those offered contracts accept them and that no-one else under contract leaves. Could be a busy summer...

Yes - we'll have to see if Roofe and O'Dowda are here at the end of the Summer. O'Dowda has been linked with several Championship clubs and it seemed to me that only wage demands have held back an earlier move, and his sparing use in the second half of the season suggests we may be preparing for life without him. Similarly Roofe way well fancy a Championship club after taking a step right down to League 2 to showcase his abilities, and also he missed a few of the games at the end of the season, though that was reportedly fitness issues.

I wonder what deal Hylton has been offered? I don't think Appleton likes his terrier style of play particularly and would prefer a more stylish striker, but as a fans favourite I don't think we could just let him go without at least some contract offer (a bit like the Constable situation). So might Hylton end up at a league 2 side looking for a proven goalscorer? Or Eastleigh?

Kernow Yellow wrote:

Myles Francis wrote:FWIW, I think we need GK, CB, RB, CM, RM, STx2.

And that's assuming that those offered contracts accept them and that no-one else under contract leaves. Could be a busy summer...

Absolutely. That's kind of the "best case scenario" with nobody leaving. If the murmurings I'm hearing come true, there will be a couple of significant additions to the "Need" column...

Pretty sensible squad assessment from Appleton, I'd say.

Mullins has been a decent player for us, but he's third in the pecking order but at an age where he probably wants to be first choice. Appleton's words suggest he's welcome to stay, as third choice, but out of respect he's been given the opportunity to look elsewhere. Fair dos.

Hoban is a funny one. When you watch the highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75IC0T8KCmk, you see he actually had a decent number of assists and I'd bet his goal per minute ratio for us this season wasn't too bad. But, he was sooooo slow. It's funny that a club like ours that has a clear idea of what a player should look like, chose to buy one who moves so un-athletically. He didn't quite cut it for us, and I certainly can't see him cutting it at League 1 level either. So again, farewell, best wishes.

Bowery I liked. Won us a lot of points last year. The goal at Wimbledon was one of the best of the season. Moved like an athlete. Seemed a decent bloke in interviews. More of an Appleton DNA player than Hylton in many ways. Surprised he didn't get offered a deal. Perhaps his wages were steep. If we get a better option than him, we are doing well.

Never saw Freddie, but what I did see of AJ I quite liked. But it would be hard to see him getting any first team action next season.

Benji got better as the season went on. He's weaknesses - aerial bombardment - became less apparent when Chey came into the team. I'd hope we sign a better keeper though.

It's hard to see Slocombe being around come August. I'd be surprised if Ryan Taylor features much...I've heard whispers his injury is going to be hard to recover from fully. Will Appleton fancy Roberts and Long in this higher division? Will Ruffels sign on knowing he's going to be a back-up?

And of course, will we hang on to our real big assets? Roofe has made all the right noises, but belongs at a higher level. If he starts scoring early next season, it will be hard to keep him. O'Dowda's ambition is unquestionable. Lundstram also might fancy another at a higher level. But at least we'd get decent money for all three.

Here's my controversial thought: I know we've just offered Hylton a new deal, but we don't know the details. It would have been hard not to have offered him a deal after a second successive fans player of the season award. But I've never really thought that Appleton really rates him. It wasn't long ago we'd have let him go to Hartlepool. I can't see Appleton offering Hylton a deal that was too good to turn down am therefore I'm totally convinced he'll be with us come August.

So it could be a busy summer. Hope we don't make too radical changes. We have a really decent team, seemingly great team spirit...I'm confident we'll do really well next year too.