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I have to say I have never quite seen a format like the one the club have used to announce who will be leaving the club. In a detailed article on the official website they unveiled the players not offered new deal and the players who have or are being offered deals, as well as those set to stay on.
Players leaving us include; Marc Antoine Fortune, Gaten Bong, Ali Al Habsi, William Kvist and Kim Bo Kyung. No surprised there then. Fortune was always likely to leave after two seasons the striker was never likely to stay whilst the other four players are all still hoping to continue international careers as well as having bigger pay cheques.
We are though in the process of trying to keep hold of; Emmerson Boyce, Jermaine Pennant, Jordan Flores, Matty Hamilton, Tim Chow and Ryan Jennings. The six mentioned players are in various stages with the club over new contracts apparently. All of whom you would expect to be within the main squad come next season if we can keep hold of them. Pennant is a player who given a full pre-season could shine in League One after impressive performances in the Championship were restricted by a lack of match fitness.
Hopefully all of the above are just a matter of formality. So if the first game of League One was to kick of tomorrow this is how the squad would look as it stands.
Goalkeepers- Scott Carson and Lee Nicholls.
Defenders - Jason Pearce, Leon Barnett, James Perch, James Tavernier, Rob Kiernan, Andrew Taylor and Aaron Taylor Sinclair.
Midfielders - Chris McCann, Emyr Huws, and Don Cowie.
Attackers - James McClean, Martyn Waghorn, Oriol Riera, Billy Mackay, Andy Delort and Grant Holt.
It will be interesting to see how many of those signed players will be here come the start of the season, with many I suspect heading for the door to reduce the wage bill and others looking to get into higher leagues. One thing is clear that we need to bring in a lot of midfielders, yet if we managed to keep most of our defensive and attacking options we could have the core of a capable squad for next season.