Wish him all the best. Had maybe the best season of his career as a result of hard work in pre-season. But I’m not too sad to see him move on to the next chapter - we’re clearly aiming very high now.
Reading between the lines, I get a feeling negotiations for extensions are happening right now. Of the old-stagers, who would you keep? Unless anything’s changed it looks like Gale’s retiring, Thornley’s off to play part time, Bowden to Doncaster.
From what I’ve seen, I can’t see Franco (played quite poorly, regular in the reserves, Olpherts brought in) or Croft (we’ve signed two centres) staying.
The big unknowns for me are Ashurst, Kay and Pitts. We all rate players differently, but for me the only decent SL player there is Pitts. Ashurst is still class, I just don’t know if he’d worry any SL team. And I rate Kay’s utility value, but can you really see him jumping in at 6 against Saints next year?
The two old-stagers I’d love to keep are McGillvary and Griffin. They’ve made the Championship look like men against boys at times, and I reckon if kept fit they could still cause havoc against top teams.
Then there’s Cozza, who could be a good squad player if we don’t bring in any more middles.
