2025/26 Ins & Outs Discussion

[stv]

What happened to we need rid of everyone but Ox, new team required ,get rid of the injury prone jinks , has beens non triers and send loanees back.. I love it , close season discussion with no reference to what's been posted before. 🤪 if I recall correctly Miller and Sneddon were only ones worth keeping. And Sneddons a bit of a perma crock

I still think there is a player in Thomson somewhere.

[wellgirl]

5 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

I'm a bit puzzled by the "still negotiating" and recently released players. Of the original 5, I would have thought the most likely to leave would be Moses and Matty Connelly. In the latter's case he is now 22 and we already have a back up keeper in Callum Ward.  Jack McConnell is our development  squad goalie, aged 17. Connelly has never played for the first team and obviously wasn't trusted when we had a keeper crisis last January.  What is his future? Dom Thompson I expected to leave. Of the 5 the only one I would have retained keeping was Steve Seddon and he's moving on. 

Still this does clear the decks a bit for our new man coming in.  

Someone said on Facebook that it's possible we offered them all terms and they said no. The thing is you don't know because the club haven't said. I'm sure they did last year though. Pretty sure they listed the players they had offered terms to and they turned down. 

 

[weeyin]

Did the loan rules allow a recall of Connelly last Jan?

Regardless, I don't really take much notice of the messaging from the club at this time of year. It's all meaningless until an actual contract is signed and actual clearance obtained.

[wellsince75]

Reads like several players were offered terms.  All loanees should have been returned to sender and those not playing every week who're out of contract should have been automatically released. 

Good point was made earlier re clearing the decks. I don't think we're being strong enough. For me we're far too accommodating to many average Joe's.  Concerning that people are watching these guys every week and think we should continue to pay them.

I can't help but think it's  partly due to being led by a society rather than a single owner. A single owner with their own money being wasted would be less tolerant.   

Having triggers in contracts that keeps aging and average players on the books together with these negotiations doesn't fill me with confidence that we're a tightly run ship. 

[weeyin]

I don't think it's anything to do with being a Society, tbh, as the Board runs the club and makes the budgeting and footballing decisions.

More to do with the fact that we made poor choices with injury prone players and then had to make do with who was available in January (and we can afford).

We did unearth a few good loanees though, like Gent, Spencer and Biereth.

Wimmer wanted a squad of about 22 players, and that seems about right to me.

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, weeyin said:

Did the loan rules allow a recall of Connelly last Jan?

If I recall rightly, he was on the bench for the St Johnstone cup game in Perth, but he went back to East Kilbride. 

[unknown]

Connelly had come back a couple (I think) times where the club exercised the option for an "emergency short term recall"

There are going to be changes, for 16-21 year olds with the new cooperation system as well
https://news.stv.tv/sport/scottish-fa-introduces-new-cooperation-system-in-shake-up-of-loan-player-rules#:~:text=Under the new “Cooperation System,to increase their game time.

[wellgirl]

16 minutes ago, unknown said:

Connelly had come back a couple (I think) times where the club exercised the option for an "emergency short term recall"

There are going to be changes, for 16-21 year olds with the new cooperation system as well
https://news.stv.tv/sport/scottish-fa-introduces-new-cooperation-system-in-shake-up-of-loan-player-rules#:~:text=Under the new “Cooperation System,to increase their game time.

When Archie Mair broke his thumb im sure 

[joewarkfanclub]

6 hours ago, wellfan said:

Stama probably falls into that category too, unfortunately. Based on what we've seen this season, it's hard to imagine him making any real impact over the next 2 years.

Stama has at least shown he has the talent/ability to score goals at our level. 

Whether he can stay fit long enough to prove that remains to be seen.

I still hold out some hope for him, as he could still be a player that we can develop and sell on.

[wellgirl]

1 minute ago, joewarkfanclub said:

Stama has at least shown he has the talent/ability to score goals at our level. 

Whether he can stay fit long enough to prove that remains to be seen.

I still hold out some hope for him, as he could still be a player that we can develop and sell on.

Agree. I'd like to keep him 

[joewarkfanclub]

1 hour ago, wellsince75 said:

Reads like several players were offered terms.  All loanees should have been returned to sender and those not playing every week who're out of contract should have been automatically released. 

Good point was made earlier re clearing the decks. I don't think we're being strong enough. For me we're far too accommodating to many average Joe's.  Concerning that people are watching these guys every week and think we should continue to pay them.

I can't help but think it's  partly due to being led by a society rather than a single owner. A single owner with their own money being wasted would be less tolerant.   

Having triggers in contracts that keeps aging and average players on the books together with these negotiations doesn't fill me with confidence that we're a tightly run ship. 

No such thing as an average Joe in my humble opinion! 😆😆😆

[wellgirl]

The photos of all released players on Facebook hurt my heart. I was on the phone to my mum and I started crying - that's why I would never make a football manager. 

Just practicing for when Slattery leaves us 

[El Grew]

So how many are being kept and who are they?

[joewarkfanclub]

6 hours ago, El Grew said:

So how many are being kept and who are they?

• Aston Oxborough
• Calum Ward
• Stephen O’Donnell
• Liam Gordon
• Kofi Balmer
• Paul McGinn
• Johnny Koutroumbis
• Ewan Wilson
• Tom Sparrow
• Callum Slattery
• Andy Halliday
• Lennon Miller
• Dylan Wells
• Lukas Fadinger 
• Luca Ross
• Zach Robinson
• Apostolos Stamatelopoulos
• Filip Stuparevic
• Sam Nicholson
• Tawanda Maswanhise
• Olly Whyte
• Jordan McGhee
• In Discussions - Dom Thompson, Matty Connelly

[wellup83]

 

39 minutes ago, joewarkfanclub said:

• Aston Oxborough
• Calum Ward
• Stephen O’Donnell
• Liam Gordon
• Kofi Balmer
• Paul McGinn
• Johnny Koutroumbis
• Ewan Wilson
• Tom Sparrow
• Callum Slattery
• Andy Halliday
• Lennon Miller
• Dylan Wells
• Lukas Fadinger 
• Luca Ross
• Zach Robinson
• Apostolos Stamatelopoulos
• Filip Stuparevic
• Sam Nicholson
• Tawanda Maswanhise
• Olly Whyte
• Jordan McGhee
• In Discussions - Dom Thompson, Matty Connelly

While the squad undoubtedly requires strengthening it has to be said that there's good scope there for sell on. If the club (and players) play their cards right Stama, Sparrow, Slats and even Tawanda could potentially bring us in a decent return. Of course that'll depend on contract status.

[thewelllfan]

Squad looks like in position atm looks like

GK - Oxborough/Ward

RB - Koutrombis, Mcginn, SOD

Cb - Gordon, Balmer, Mcghee

Lb- Wilson

Cm - Miller, Slattery, Halliday, Fadinger, Wells, Sparrow

Rw- Nicholson, Ross

LW- Maswanhise

St- Stam, Robinson, Stuperavic

Miller will be sold for a big fee. We then have to shift guys like Nicholson, Stuperavic and one of the Rbs ideally SOD.

 

[weeyin]

I'll need convincing McGinn isn't just a recurring injury waiting to happen this season before I considered punting SOD.

[thewelllfan]

18 minutes ago, weeyin said:

I'll need convincing McGinn isn't just a recurring injury waiting to happen this season before I considered punting SOD.

I'd of happily let all 3 Rbs leave I don't think any of them are great. I could of understood keeping Mcginn for the leadership he brings before SOD triggered his extension clause but once that happened I thought we should have let him go. For me Mcginn is a better player and defender than SOD.

[Spiderpig]

1 hour ago, thewelllfan said:

Squad looks like in position atm looks like

GK - Oxborough/Ward

RB - Koutrombis, Mcginn, SOD

Cb - Gordon, Balmer, Mcghee

Lb- Wilson

Cm - Miller, Slattery, Halliday, Fadinger, Wells

Rw- Nicholson, Ross

LW- Maswanhise

St- Stam, Robinson, Stuperavic

Miller will be sold for a big fee. We then have to shift guys like Nicholson, Stuperavic and one of the Rbs ideally SOD.

 

Very lightweight and short of cover, up front, left and right wing backs, and left back, so some serious recruitment is required over the summer.

[weeyin]

18 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

Very lightweight and short of cover, up front, left and right wing backs, and left back, so some serious recruitment is required over the summer.

Which is a good thing, and what we need when a new manager comes in. Room for some new faces to fit their style.

[thewelllfan]

Dependant on what formation we play we need to recruit

- A CB

- LB/LWB depending on formation

- Holding Midfielder

- Box to Box Midfielder

- LW and RW depending on formation new manager wants to play

- A Striker

[Kmcalpin]

57 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:

Very lightweight and short of cover, up front, left and right wing backs, and left back, so some serious recruitment is required over the summer.

Yes very light on the left and up front Allan. On paper we're almost ok for strikers with the exception of a physical target man. However 3 of them are injured long term and have question marks over them in any event. Herr Wimmer had identified our striking department as being in need of an overhaul. 

Another big central defender is also a must.

[weeyin]

50 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Another big central defender is also a must.

I'll settle for one than can tackle and stay in position.

[MelvinBragg]

1 hour ago, weeyin said:

I'll settle for one than can tackle and stay in position.

I'd agree that lack of positional sense and concentration has been more of a problem recently than lack of physicality...