this summer

[strooood]

anyone else looking forward to the rumoured "upheaval" of the squad?
i absolutely love pre season friendlys when you only recognise half the squad, and a few of the unknowns really impress you. parkin and miglioranzi in their first pre season, igoe and mooney in theirs.

then again, it is always a gamble, especially if we wave goodbye to 7 or 8 squad players in the summer, king will really be tested with his additions.

if upheaval was an option as it is said to be, i'm all for it, why not give it a bash from another angle, the current squad after so much promise last year have really become the usual "swindon" side of years gone by, where they irritatingly under perform and bottle it. and for this reason, why should they be kept on? why shouldnt a sparkly new squad be given a go?

as far as im concerned parkin's gone already in terms of looking towards the new season and also if it is to be believed evans will be following suit which is likely aswell as dissapointing although he hasnt hit top gear since the playoffs he is a really good keeper and should really be flourishing. apart from those two i'd only be sad to lose howard, o'hanlon, miglioranzi, smith and roberts, which for the most part are our flair players, and we could build the grafters and battlers that would get us out of this league around that little lot.

i dont really know where everyone stands on this because it's always worrying to lose alot of players in the summer, but i think it may do us good, because before the 2003 pre season, we were starting to get into a bit of a rut, although constant league improvement under king up until then, he really got us by the scruff of the neck that summer and hauled us into a team 30 seconds from cardiff. who's to say he wont do it again if given the chance come the summer?

[le god cuervo]

hewlett out! heywood out! they've been here far too long & have been consistantly shit for the last few seasons. igoe needs a kick up the arse or he should be on his way too. reeves will probably retire, & book was only contracted for 1 season. we would be better off getting another young keeper released from a prem club to challenge rhys.

robinson is definatly going, & i imagine if anyone bids for fallon he will go coz king doesn't like him anymore. parkin sold like you said.

so this leaves us with... evans (he wont leave yet) ohanlon, smith, jenkins, miglioranzi, duke, ifil, roberts, nicholas, howard & a few youth teamers (10 first teamers!  :shock: )... which looks very small. lets hope a few decent players will join in the summer!

[Titch]

Like you say he has built a squad before so i can see no reason why he can't do it again!  The problem is that a lot of the playres could/should be good players at this level which makes it really disappointing!

Most playres have had a bad season so maybe all ours decided to get theirs out the way together!  :?   I believe we do have a fairly good squad and i am sure with just a few additions in the right areas we do not need whole-sale changes, although that looks like what is going to happen!

It is going to be even more difficult again this time but i am confident (hope) we will get some good players and improve next season!

[Ben Wah Balls]

I agree with Dex. Should be interesting.

[Dazzza]

I bloody loves the pre-season, especially the rumours and new faces.

The player trials with all of the Johnny foreigners at the end of the season that King ran for a while where superb.  They should really try something like that again whatt with all these new cheap EU States and the success of the likes of Ugarte in the lower leagues.

Fully agree with Dex, time for a chance, bit worrying all the same with so many out but should if anything make for an entrtainin summer.

[sonicyouth]

It's something that definitely needs to happen for us to progress, but it will be an unnerving time for sure. I'd write more but I'm too depressed at Reeves being made assistant manager, but I agree with most of what Dex said anyway.

[DV]

I wouldnt mind a completely new sqaud, if I thought King could replace what we have with better quality......but due to financial constraints I very much doubt that he can

[santini]

so this leaves us with... evans (he wont leave yet) ohanlon, smith, jenkins, miglioranzi, duke, ifil, roberts, nicholas, howard & a few youth teamers (10 first teamers!  :shock: )... which looks very small. lets hope a few decent players will join in the summer!

Can't see Howard's ego letting him stay where he isn't automatically starting.

It's only a matter of time before one of the premiership teams queing up to sign him steps in.

[sonicyouth]

Can't see Howard's ego letting him stay where he isn't automatically starting.

It's only a matter of time before one of the premiership teams queing up to sign him steps in.

...or Farnborough Town.