Molyneux

[GazLaz]

Surely if we are offering out contract extensions we have to judge players on their contribution over there time here. Not just the last few months when they are essentially playing for their livelihood. He’s been ok this season, he has ability and works hard, generally underwhelms me though. He’s put in some good performances recently as we all can see, he’s replaceable and replaceable with better imo.

Yep, that clinches it for me.

Give Moly another contract.

You are one weird guy.

[Campsall rover]

Surely if we are offering out contract extensions we have to judge players on their contribution over there time here. Not just the last few months when they are essentially playing for their livelihood. He’s been ok this season, he has ability and works hard, generally underwhelms me though. He’s put in some good performances recently as we all can see, he’s replaceable and replaceable with better imo.

Based on that would you offer Close an extension?

Think Close is a luxury player.
I would much rather have Mathew Craig. He has been a revelation. A proper combative midfielder along side Owen Bailey who has been our most consistent player this season.

If we can get Craig on loan again then it’s a no brainer for me. Think Spurs will want him to go to a League 1 club next season.
Biggins on current form needs to be signing another deal imo.  Think the penny has clicked with him and the role he has now suits his game.

Wood another 1 yr contract on sensible money is a no brainer. His leadership is invaluable.
McGrath and Faulkner are the future but one of Wood or Anderson needs to play providing their fitness is 100%
You can’t underestimate experience and leadership at CB.

Molly give him a contract that will get him focused on staying at DRFC. He is a massive player for us.
The best is yet to come. If he stays we will see it next season I think.

Adalukan no brainer. If we can get him without having to break the bank on wages is a must have player.
He is a match winner.

Nixon i would also sign and think he is better than Sterry. Just got a bit more physicality to his game.

Westbrooke is a yes also.

Lo Totula is also a no brainer. He is miles ahead of Lawlor and Jones.
GM has to do what it takes to sign him.

Release, Close, Rowe, Taylor.

Any others out of contract I have missed?

[Chris Black come back]

We are unlikely to be going into next season with Wood, Anderson, Olowu, McGrath and Faulkner as centre backs, when we seem to have settled on a back four, and with both Bailey and Senior able to play at centre back more than competently. It’s too many to keep happy. And we cannot have another season of Faulkner being sent out on loan. He’s either competing for match day squad or he may as well leave to further his career.

The easiest move to make is to not renew Wood, although he has been at heart of us having a decent defensive set up more recently.

[Campsall rover]

Maxwell I missed
Yes offer him a deal.

Faulkner also. No brainer

Release Seaman & Lavery.

Waters if available not sure on him.

[GazLaz]

Surely if we are offering out contract extensions we have to judge players on their contribution over there time here. Not just the last few months when they are essentially playing for their livelihood. He’s been ok this season, he has ability and works hard, generally underwhelms me though. He’s put in some good performances recently as we all can see, he’s replaceable and replaceable with better imo.

Based on that would you offer Close an extension?

The most important thing in offering contracts is value isn’t it? Would I give close an extension for £500 a week? Yes. £5k a week? No. It’s not binary is it really? I’d work out his value to the team, his performances vs an average L2 player in his position, then I’d factor the average L2 wage for a player in his position to that and work out what his actual value in monetary terms was. Obviously considering what his availability has been and any non quantifiable assets he brings.

How do the club set a figure for these things? How do they decide if someone is worth 1000pw or 1200pw? Cant be paying too many players 20% more than they are worth and end up successful. Need to be able to apply a constant model to what you are prepared to remunerate players. Most clubs just guess essentially. 

[Alan Southstand]

Camps wrote:

Any others out of contract I have missed?

See out of contract thread for more info.

[NickDRFC]

One top half division 1 side other lower Championship unfair to say who, but both said he played well and left footed.

Is that the level of insight needed to be a scout? Every team has at least 1 or 2 left-footers. They’re 10% of the population.

So on averages then, only one left footer in every team.

Being left footed is a commodity in itself, I’d expect it to be much closer to 20% given it’s pretty standard to see a left footed left back, left winger, possibly a centre back etc.

[andyst79]

Surely if we are offering out contract extensions we have to judge players on their contribution over there time here. Not just the last few months when they are essentially playing for their livelihood. He’s been ok this season, he has ability and works hard, generally underwhelms me though. He’s put in some good performances recently as we all can see, he’s replaceable and replaceable with better imo.

Based on that would you offer Close an extension?

The most important thing in offering contracts is value isn’t it? Would I give close an extension for £500 a week? Yes. £5k a week? No. It’s not binary is it really? I’d work out his value to the team, his performances vs an average L2 player in his position, then I’d factor the average L2 wage for a player in his position to that and work out what his actual value in monetary terms was. Obviously considering what his availability has been and any non quantifiable assets he brings.

How do the club set a figure for these things? How do they decide if someone is worth 1000pw or 1200pw? Cant be paying too many players 20% more than they are worth and end up successful. Need to be able to apply a constant model to what you are prepared to remunerate players. Most clubs just guess essentially. 

I'd imagine he's a high earner & doubt he'd want to take a drop in wages . Personally I think we can do better , it would be interesting to know how much Bailey is on compared to Close as he's been a revelation this season. It's easier said than done scouting players from the lower leagues but it appears we'd done our homework on this one.

[Dare to dream!]

Biggins is a no brainer- he’s a solid squad player with and no injury prone.

I’d offer him a deal.

[Chris Black come back]

We are getting in the trap here of trying to keep players who haven’t moved the club on in the time they have been here. McCann can only add so much - we go up by signing players better than we have. It is as simple as that. If we don’t sign several players better than those we are replacing, we will remain a bottom half League Two side.

[Silkscarf]

One top half division 1 side other lower Championship unfair to say who, but both said he played well and left footed.

Is that the level of insight needed to be a scout? Every team has at least 1 or 2 left-footers. They’re 10% of the population.

So on averages then, only one left footer in every team.

Being left footed is a commodity in itself, I’d expect it to be much closer to 20% given it’s pretty standard to see a left footed left back, left winger, possibly a centre back etc.

That’s right, it is a commodity in itself. At least one or two in a team, preferably more. Obvious though, that’s the small point I was making.

[NickDRFC]

One top half division 1 side other lower Championship unfair to say who, but both said he played well and left footed.

Is that the level of insight needed to be a scout? Every team has at least 1 or 2 left-footers. They’re 10% of the population.

So on averages then, only one left footer in every team.

Being left footed is a commodity in itself, I’d expect it to be much closer to 20% given it’s pretty standard to see a left footed left back, left winger, possibly a centre back etc.

That’s right, it is a commodity in itself. At least one or two in a team, preferably more. Obvious though, that’s the small point I was making.

Yeah don’t disagree with it being obvious - easy job if that’s top of the report that they take back!

My comment was more that it’s pretty uncommon to only have one left footer in a team and the percentage of professional footballers doesn’t have a correlation with the number of left handed (footed) people as part of the wider population.

[Bills view]

10-15 games ago, views were different.

Let's not get carried away by players. It seems some quality January loans/signings that have undoubtedly helped the Team may be clouding judgements.

[Cramby10]

We are getting in the trap here of trying to keep players who haven’t moved the club on in the time they have been here. McCann can only add so much - we go up by signing players better than we have. It is as simple as that. If we don’t sign several players better than those we are replacing, we will remain a bottom half League Two side.

spot on. Some are being totally blinded by recent performances. Where were some of these players for the previous year and a half?
We need to reduce the size of the squad and use that money on fewer but quality players.

[Padge_DRFC]

Maxwell is probably one of our best players. Annoyingly very injury prone in his time here.

I'd still get shut of the lot out of contract.

We want promotion next season.

[Sprotyrover]

We are getting in the trap here of trying to keep players who haven’t moved the club on in the time they have been here. McCann can only add so much - we go up by signing players better than we have. It is as simple as that. If we don’t sign several players better than those we are replacing, we will remain a bottom half League Two side.

spot on. Some are being totally blinded by recent performances. Where were some of these players for the previous year and a half?
We need to reduce the size of the squad and use that money on fewer but quality players.

Mainly injured I would guess

[drfchound]

One top half division 1 side other lower Championship unfair to say who, but both said he played well and left footed.

Is that the level of insight needed to be a scout? Every team has at least 1 or 2 left-footers. They’re 10% of the population.

So on averages then, only one left footer in every team.

Being left footed is a commodity in itself, I’d expect it to be much closer to 20% given it’s pretty standard to see a left footed left back, left winger, possibly a centre back etc.

That’s right, it is a commodity in itself. At least one or two in a team, preferably more. Obvious though, that’s the small point I was making.

Yeah don’t disagree with it being obvious - easy job if that’s top of the report that they take back!

My comment was more that it’s pretty uncommon to only have one left footer in a team and the percentage of professional footballers doesn’t have a correlation with the number of left handed (footed) people as part of the wider population.

I’m very aware of the things you said Nick, in my first response to silscarf I was making a tongue in cheek reply.

[ncRover]

Regarding Biggins, may I remind everyone that this forum was split on whether to offer Aiden Barlow a new deal after his late contract form. Now he’s a benchwarmer at Eastleigh.

[Cramby10]

We are getting in the trap here of trying to keep players who haven’t moved the club on in the time they have been here. McCann can only add so much - we go up by signing players better than we have. It is as simple as that. If we don’t sign several players better than those we are replacing, we will remain a bottom half League Two side.

spot on. Some are being totally blinded by recent performances. Where were some of these players for the previous year and a half?
We need to reduce the size of the squad and use that money on fewer but quality players.

Mainly injured I would guess

righto. We’ll blindly stick with those that have taken us to the lower reaches of league 2 and hope for the best then. Sounds like a good plan……

[MachoMadness]

We are getting in the trap here of trying to keep players who haven’t moved the club on in the time they have been here. McCann can only add so much - we go up by signing players better than we have. It is as simple as that. If we don’t sign several players better than those we are replacing, we will remain a bottom half League Two side.

This. A few half decent games and we should all of a sudden retain the bulk of the (bloated, expensive) squad that had us hovering above the trap door to non-league not long ago? Not for me.

With the exception of Faulkner and possibly Maxwell we should be looking for better than all those out of contract. If we're serious about pushing for promotion, at least.

[Move DRFC]

We are getting in the trap here of trying to keep players who haven’t moved the club on in the time they have been here. McCann can only add so much - we go up by signing players better than we have. It is as simple as that. If we don’t sign several players better than those we are replacing, we will remain a bottom half League Two side.

This. A few half decent games and we should all of a sudden retain the bulk of the (bloated, expensive) squad that had us hovering above the trap door to non-league not long ago? Not for me.

With the exception of Faulkner and possibly Maxwell we should be looking for better than all those out of contract. If we're serious about pushing for promotion, at least.

Correct. Would like to keep Maxwell and prob Molynuex but not bothered about anyone else.

[Draytonian III]

Is Bobby Faulkner still injured ?

[Reg of the Rovers]

The difference a decent keeper (Tim), decent centre mid (Craig) and decent creative forward player (Haks) has made has completely changed our team. Sticking with the same hasn't worked, however good on paper our team / squad looked previously.

To make signings like this we need to free up cash, so some of the bigger earners will need to go. Taylor obviously should be first gone as hasn't added anything in years, but then the bigger earners (Close, Biggins, Rowe, Anderson etc, Miller even) need looking at so Grant has resources to freshen up properly, however resurgent they've recently been. 

[DonnyOsmond]

Moly is our best contracted player for me. He has improved recently but that's as the team has improved and another threat on the opposite side has been added, harder now teams don't need to just double mark up Molyneux and they've finished us off.

[jmt23]

Agree with the above, we miss him badly when he is not in the team. It’s not just his forward play, he along with Bailey are the hardest workers.
He also gave Everton’s defenders a very very good run for their money.

The downside to him is he can go mia for a couple of games, but always works hard.

[pib]

Biggins has been decent recently, but has he really done enough in the past two years to justify another deal? If we want to stay where we are, maybe, but if we want to be in the promotion hunt, I'd say almost definitely not.

Molyneux is a funny one. I think he's decent and hardworking and clearly contributes a fair bit to this side at the minute. Maybe there would be better options out there, I don't know. I get the feeling (based on no inside knowledge, just a gut feel) that he will hang on to see what offers he gets in the summer, and quite possibly go somewhere else for more money. I'm sure there will be other clubs in this division who'd gladly take him. He's scored and caught the eye twice against Graham Alexander's teams this season so I wouldn't be surprised if Bradford were interested.

[Pancho Regan]

I always listen intently to GM's interviews because in my opinion he thinks carefully about what he says and talks a lot of sense.

When interviewed after the Crewe win, he was asked about Moly's excellent performance and how he has hit a good vein of form (or words to that effect).

Grant considered the question and replied that he thought Moly has been consistently good all season. He said he often delivers good crosses which deserve better outcomes (which in turn of course would improve Moly's own stats), for instance two excellent crosses at Bradford which we didn't quite get on the end of.

I'm guilty of being over-positive sometimes and trying to see the best in every player, but I agree with GM about Moly. He isn't MOM every game but he is always a threat and has certainly benefited from the more attacking style which we have adopted since GM arrived.

So I repeat, for me, Moly is among our better players and definitely deserves another contract.
How much we offer him, I have no idea. But unlike some, I trust GM and the club to get that bit right.

[Jonathan]

Inclined to agree with that. We also have to remember that wingers (especially at this level but really at every level) will have the odd 5/10 performance here and there which Molyneux has had. But he has lots to work with and has been one or our better and more productive players over the season. If the deal is right I’d be happy to see him stay.

[Spud]

I'm in the in camp too, I tend to imagine how I'd feel if a player was playing against us. Granted he doesn't do it week in, week out (if he did he'd be playing a league or two higher), but he tears full backs apart at times.
As has been said, maybe his stats would be better if better players were on the end of his product, & he's certainly gone up a gear of late.
He'll get offers for sure, I hope he stays, I'll even buy him a pint in t'Sal.

[Pancho Regan]

Before the start of the season, I took an opportunity to ask Moly what differences there were in the camp now that GM had arrived.

Obviously he was bound to give a positive response, but he genuinely felt that last season he was at times frustrated and confused about his role in the team. He said there was quite a negative approach and that he didn't feel encouraged to play with freedom and take the game to the opposition.
"We started every game with a point and holding onto that point was a priority" he said, or words to that effect.

I do remember him on several occasions playing very deep and looking quite lost last season.
So I do think this season's more positive style under GM has benefited Moly a great deal.