Just been doing some thinking. and if we don't make any new signings because of funding. I still think we will manage to stay up with what we have.
We have Two keepers, in which i think Hamer will improve this year at a higher level. and i believe John will be okay for backup.
We have Solly,Cort,Morrison,Taylor,Wiggins,Evina,Hughes as Defenders (Loan a RB/CB if we have limited funding?)
We have JJ, Stevenson, Pritchard, Hollands, Green, Wagstaff and Hughes who can also cover CM (If Limited funding, Spend what we have on a decent CM? Or loan one)
And up top, Yann, Phillips, Hayes, Haynes(Can also play Winger) and that young academy striker who could get a run in
Looking at that squad it should be good enough to stay up, as long as we make 2-3 Loan signings to give us cover. it will be a hard season. but in Powell we trust.
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Defensively in squad terms we need to replace the Doc and it looks judging by the pursuit of Shackell it looks like we are going for a left footed player .This could also mean that Evina is farmed out on loan maybe to L1 because at his age he needs to be playing .In the medium term I have been impressed with either Harry Lennon and Morgan Fox from the youth team ,but I suspect that this season might be too soon for them .
There is also a consensus that Solly needs a deputy ,again Jordan Cousins could fill this void in time ,but an experienced option would be needed this season .
I like the sound of Connor Henderson as a potential CM and although he is left footed ,I believe we still need a fast left footed winger or failing that someone experienced and direct like Lee Cook as a back up for Jacko although in time Ruben Bover or Callum Harriott could fill this void.
Up front I think we need options ,BWP ,Kermo and Haynes will do for me ,but we need one maybe two extra options here and let Hayes go.
How good would it be if 6-8 of the starting 11 and subs were from the academy?
Then look at the records of teams that get promoted from league one- they tend to do ok. I think Peterboro who squeaked through via teh play offs were weakened by the loss of their star player in league one but still managed to stay relatively clear of the dropzone.
Then as you rightly point out, we have to legislate for players improving. Seems to me that the players brought in last season are the kind that you would expect to improve.
All logic suggests that those predicting a season of struggle will be way off the mark. The question for me is, do we have the strength to challenge for promotion - of that I am not sure about but wouldn't rule it out.
I know opinions differ on this so I expect to get criticised but from January onwards I don't think the quality of football that we played can be extrapolated to a top 10 finish in the league above. Unlike the first half of the season, I can't think of too many games that we looked a completely different class to our opposition (which a top ten team in the league above should). We were comfortable at best. I know away fans might be bitter etc and it's the common phrase when you play a bigger team but how often did we hear from away fans that we 'didn't look that great'. I'm not a pessimist, far from it and I would love to be proved wrong. But even yann said improvements are needed (without specifying whether he means players or performances of current crop)