Squad 2016/17

And that just about sums it up Rob (though it would be unfair to judge him on this seasons return from injury). 1st part of the season, fine. Rest of the season though when opponents realised we were fairly brittle?
Missing far too often in games and unable to exert influence in the centre of the park. That's not something that could be applied to

Of those that I'd think we have a chance of retaining, I'd be very disappointed if we can't persuade Dan Butler to stay. I'd be surprised if Nico isn't equally as impressed with Butler's positive influence within the club, and will therefore be especially keen to keep Dan at Plainmoor.

I think Courtney Richards will probably stay. His late season goals will have boosted his confidence, and his attitude is good, but just as in the case of Tony Ajala, are we or Nico judging those players on what we saw last season and deciding that that's as good as it gets ? Often with two games a week and a great deal of travelling, it was little more than play and rest during the months Nico has been in charge so far. To what extent does Nico back his coaching skills to improve these players ?

Getting your ideas over without the hustle and bustle of the League season being in full flow, implementing his fitness ideas and perhaps tweaking the style of play a bit, Nico might well reckon it's worth persevering with both Courtney and Tony, in the belief he can send them both out as better players for us in 2016/17 compared to some of the inconsistent performances that characterised a fair bit of their 2015/16 season.

I'd guess that the Luke Young discussion is mainly academic as I'd expect him to be off to pastures new. Of the players on our books for 2015/16 it would surely be Young who would have to take a hefty pay cut if he intended staying. I'd think Chris Hargreaves had to offer a fairly attractive wage along with dangling the Captaincy in front of him to get Luke to Plainmoor in the first place.

In that first season I on occasions think that Young tried to do too much in his efforts to impress. This was probably due to feeling the responsibility of Captaincy, knowing he was on substantially more than most of his teammates, and wanting to show commitment to the Yellow cause, something particularly important if you've just turned up from Argyle. Young could go from being seemingly everywhere, to having spells where you had to check he was still on the pitch. Now whether this was partially caused through tiredness as a result of putting in too much to early, or equally due to an inability to read the game and get his positioning right, I'm not entirely sure.

In fairness to Young we need to remember that the workload often wasn't shared out too well during 2014/15. If you were looking to Courtney Cameron to do a bit of grafting it could be a long wait, also Louis Briscoe wouldn't always be running and tackling with much energy in the last third of a game. In our current side however, over the last few months we've had an impressive midfield engine room, with Josh Rees performing really well. I wouldn't be surprised if Rees doesn't get a better offer from elsewhere, but if not I'm sure Nico would love to sign him.

Some hope that Cap'n Angus might stay, although I would have expected him to have been looking for a move to a League club, but great news for us if he's happy to stay. Surely no one can make out a case for convincing Nathan Smith that a further year of non League football would benefit his career, but I'm sure we'll all continue to follow the progress of a player who was so impressive for us.

I'm quite relaxed about the retained list as I'm sure Nico will make sensible decisions for sensible reasons. Only if he should declare he has no interest in retaining Dan Butler would I consider it worthy of raising an eyebrow.

Pleased to read Chaney has signed a deal with us.

I agree this is a good signing but I think Chaney is from London.

link - Hancox has penned a 1 year deal

Sadly, some more progressive Conference Clubs have already signed some players, some after already having a reasonable nucleus of a squad even after releasing people. We have around 4 players signed comprising of vastly inexperienced individuals (aside from KN). Time rolls on and still no reasonable news about our future direction. Would be very concerned if (by the beginning of June) if we have not secured some decent squad players, have confirmed we can continue to play in the Conference National League and have learned exactly how and when this mysterious take over is going to affect the Club. Starting to feel a little sorry for KN who will have a mammoth task ahead I suspect! Perhaps we can no longer be seen as a progressive club and our status on and off the field will be amongst the dribs and drabs of lower league teams?