Released and Retained list

The one player that I would absolutely love to see remain is Taylor Allen and I hope the club do everything in their power to make it happen.
I’m not particularly confident that it will happen but he’s exactly what we need to have in the team if the club are serious about taking us forward.
For me personally I’ve accepted what happened although I still want answers why, aside from the forum and hopefully getting those questions addressed I’m ready to sit back see what happens over the coming months and prepare for the new season.

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He’s the only player who has got anywhere near the first team via the youth system in the past few years ( mainly due to having no reserve team) and yet he doesn’t seem any closer to gaining a place on the bench let alone a starting place.

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You just literally said Williams was one of our best players.
You don’t think the decision to leave him out for a spell of games when we subsequently looked a defensive shambles has any correlation? During the spell of games Williams was dropped, which included the crucial 3 in a row against promotion rivals, we conceeded a minimum of 2 goals in all but one game. When he came back into the side we conceeded 2 once in 7, 0 or 1 in the other 6.
There’s a thing called evidence, which can be used to logically support an opinion

I just give up. In every argument all you are ever going to do is play the impoderable card to deflect the bleedin obvious and defend a spell of atrocious management, the latest chapter of which are the aforementioned names on this retained list.

But who knows eh?? As we stand right now Matt “could” score 25 goals next season and play every game running the opposition ragged…I mean we just don’t know do we??

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Yes but I’d turn that back on you ask you why Sadler makes these decisions which seem to have no obvious reason.

I know the obvious reason is that he is clueless,but clueless managers don’t win 9 on the trot. Clueless managers don’t get given 3 year contracts by Americans who are after a return.

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Done to death, i know, but its about the context of this season. Im sure they would have taken the end result in september, but then to go and back a manager thats basically overseen an historic meltdown needs a lot of justifying.

On the RnR list:

Why we have offered a 28yo Farq a contract i have no idea - 3 games this season?

Matt is absolutely shot. Let the man leave.

DJT is terrible.

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None of the released did anything this season.

Some of the retained / negotiating are open to Q. But most make sense.

I’m not surprised by any of it really. I’m not sure this was / could ever be a list greeted with joy. It is what it is and is broadly as expected.

Good.
True fans will be there enjoying the season as it unfolds.

12 goal contributions and plenty of quality shown, I’d happily see him stay for another year.

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Could argue for Simpkins, Jellis and Dave tbh
Perhaps not the finish article but all showed signs of been better (especially first half of the season) than they did when they first came

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Oh shush yourself and go back to your moms basement

Not you @Acuman referring to a higher post

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:+1:

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I’d likely go with the obvious answer on the balance of evidence.

In response to your second point, Paul Merson as manager of Walsall won 7 in a row at the level above.

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Half of those goals are DJT in Ireland!
One third of them are JM - who has scored 3 in half a season since Lowe departed, and 0 in his last 12 games.
Based on his last 2 season’s appearances and goal rate, the expectation for JG would be 3 goals in a full season.
Only Levi looks to have any halfway reasonable League 2 goal threat - which doesn’t fill me with a huge amount of confidence for the state of our attacking resources.
Let’s ease back on the hyperbole.

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That’s a valid point.

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I would not use the word “clueless” but other adjectives that suit him better are “stubborn”, “inflexible”, “unimaginative”.

When he hit up a winning formula, those characteristics helped him maintain a winning run, and he deserves credit for that. It can be difficult for some managers to leave things alone when they are going well, and they tend to tinker too much.

Unfortunately, when the key part of the formula, in the form of Nathan Lowe, left those attributes meant that he continued far too long with a set-up that was not working.

No, but stubborn and inflexible managers can be offered 3 year contracts by inexperienced owners.

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I wouldn’t say clueless either, but he has massive blind spots he’s unable or unwilling to see until action is forced on him. They cost us promotion and should, to me, cost him.

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Yes I accept these points, I just find it hard to believe that more care isn’t taken by our American owners. Where Bonser had a motivation for keeping playing costs down, I can’t see a similar motivation for Trivela. It would cause alarm bells at their other clubs/potential acquisitions

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Yes, I agree, I don’t think this R&R list is going to shift too many season tickets! I think we need to freshen things up, especially in attack. Where are the goals coming from in a forward line of Matt (finished the season as the worst target man I’ve seen for years), Flush (more bookings than goals), Amantchi (as raw as uncooked chicken) and DJT, well, he’s still DJT! At the moment, I can see us lining up like this:

Hornby - Farq, Dave, Allen - Barrett, Jellis, Comley, Lakin, Weir, - Matt, Flush. Subs: Browne, Amantchi, Loanee1, Loanee 2, Loanee 3, Allui, DJT.

It seems a bit of a trend in modern football to have managers who refuse to deviate from Plan A even when it’s clearly not working.

Somehow this approach has been dressed up as a progressive and modern way of managing.

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But how could it have done? What matters is who comes in. Assuming the contract offers are taken up, we seem not too bad at the back, with some reinforcements. Browne and Weir have both shown promise and we have the lad from Drogheda to come in.

It all comes down to the attacking players and we have to see who comes. I am much more optimistic about Amatchi, who I think has real promise, and if Jellis stays, that is a decent start.

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