12 games into the season and the only place we are going with our current squad is down. Reading Sammy in today's Visitor he states that ''If we want to push on and stay a League club, we need a cutting edge. If that means spending money then maybe that is what we need to do.'' I fully respect SM and totally agree with him about spending, but first we need to release players and the only way to do this is to buy them out of their contracts. Pre-Season i posted my concerns about the quality of the signings, stating that the majority were free agents after being released from their clubs and out of all the signings we made, how many were Sammy's first or even second choice, after all, many of the players that HE WANTED, turned us down/we could not afford. I believe the biggest mistake we made in the summer is giving some of these signings 2 year contracts, but now is the time to bite the bullet and get the cheque book out, state to the players they are no longer in the club's plans and offer them a golden handshake. I know it won't be popular with everybody, but the players i would release are, Carr, McCann, Wainwright, Parrish and OCarrol. We could use the money from the sale of Baker, bring new players in on 2 or 3 month contracts, have a look at them and then if we think they are suitable, give them longer contracts. I know we can't afford massive transfer fees or pay inflated wages, but bringing players in on short term contracts allows us the freedom to look at a large number of players relatively cheaply. I don't get any pleasure in saying it, but unless we sort this squad out now, if we don't go down this season, we almost certainly will next season........................................
PS- To those who keep saying we have a strong squad, look at the players we have lost in the last couple of seasons, Thommo, Baker, Blackburn, Perkins, Carlton, Newby, Elam (i've included Elam because we have never found a quality left sided player to replace him)