[NottsRed]

Originally Posted by noisy1

We are not good enough this season but we are not far off.
Four or five key players needed over the summer, three midfielders and one RB. Maybe a LB too, if a better one becomes available.

GK

Signing Lainton on is a priority for me with Dibble as back up is good enough.

DEFENCE

LB, I'd keep Jenno (though try and sign better then use Jenno as back up),
RB, we definitely need a better signing here, again keep Roberts as back up.
CB, Pearson, Lawler, Smith, Kennedy and Tharme are perfectly good enough, could argue that we can release one and Loan out Tharme to get him game time (he needs to be getting minutes on the pitch).

MIDFIELD

Needs a complete upgrade, we need hardened midfielders in the mould of Pearson, Lawler and Kennedy to improve the strength of the spine.
This should have been the Continuous Improvement from last season but Ricketts failed then and it is glaringly obvious it hasn't been addressed.
I'd keep Young and Summerfield as back up, then loan out Wright (see Tharme).

UP FRONT

Your not going to like this but I'd stick with what we have initially as the changes to the rest of the team could improve their game.
Oswell and Stockton could come good with improvements made elsewhere, I would say Beavon but he's going to be 35 soon, he has the best work ethic and football brain out of all of our players and if he can go another season I'd use him as the impact sub.
I'd even keep Fondop but loan him out again if he didn't knuckle down.
If however there is the possibility of getting proven goalscorers then they must be brought in.

We have had the best defence for two or three seasons now, last summer should have seen a stronger midfield being put in place, the failure to do that has set us back 12 months and now it will need addressing this coming summer, where we should have been in the position of getting the 15-20 goal a season strikers as the last pieces of the jigsaw.

Equally as important is the set up of a reserve team to give back up players game time to keep them fit and ready to step into the first team when called upon.
It would also be there to develop our own youngsters which we absolutely need to be doing.

Kind of tied attacker wise with Oswell and Fondop still having contracts Problem is with our midfield being so poor we don't know if they can do a job or not.

Any funds available needs to be put into two or three quality midfield players who have experience in this league and are not youth team casts off from higher level teams.