Rovers 3rd team

[Bristol Red Rover]

Well, its just about possible as we now have 34 pro's at the club with Husband and Beye, and not including our three out on loan boys. When was the last time we had this many or is it an all time record?

[streatham dave]

something similar at the start of the Penney era

[benaldo]

I get the feeling the broom is getting dusted off for January.

[sedwardsdrfc]

hopefully they half the squad and have decent players instead of lots of crap bring in loans too booste numbers when the usual injurys happen

[albie]

Congrats to Husband earning a deal, good to see youth coming through the ranks.

Besides that, I am still struggling to understand how the wage bill is reducing from £8m to £4m as we were told.

With Beye now joining, presumably with Villa picking up the tab for the vast majority of his wages, we are adding costs without subtracting. Only Wilson and young Radford have gone out.

January will only clear the decks if players under contract are wanted by other clubs. Barnes and Naylor are on short term deals.

In truth, only Sharp will attract a buyer, so we may have to pay up the players no longer required.

[Bristol Red Rover]

Don't think there were quite that many at the beginning of Penney's reign. I can remember squad numbers reaching 30ish but there were gaps.

One positive is the amount of youngsters we have. So whilst we are using all these loanees, there is some emphasis on the future too.

Its not so simple as a sweeping out of the excess but most players are sellable depending on their current wages. Some will see the option of leaving being better than staying at the club and not being used if thats likely to be the case, and if they don't go, I can see loans going out till the end of the season. Beyond the loanees, I think about 5 players will leave one way or the other come Jan.

[Wokingviking]

Man City famously had 55 pro's on the books when they dropped through to the third division (10 or so years ago?).  The story went that that training was a complete shambles since there were just too many people to involve.