Next Season

I am really excited for next season, if our XI looked like this I would be hoping for top 8.

Macca

Hall-Johnson - Ohman - Davis

Hendrie - Whitehouse - Clifton - Hessenthaler - Ring

Cook.- Dennis

Buzzing UTM

Why top 8?

I was going to put top 10 but we are looking like we might get that this season, and I don't want to jinx it too much!!!

Quoted from Nutsy

I am really excited for next season, if our XI looked like this I would be hoping for top 8.

Macca

Hall-Johnson - Ohman - Davis

Hendrie - Whitehouse - Clifton - Hessenthaler - Ring

Cook.- Dennis

Buzzing UTM

Compared to this year there is a big Elliot Embleton shaped hole in that XI, is Whitehouse the player to replace him? Difficult to say until he is back...

I am undecided on Whitehouse as I have never seen him. A Lincoln City mate of mine reckons he is class, but similarly he was deemed not good enough for Lincoln.

Embleton is a cut above the rest imo; are we in the running to sign him this summer?

Sunderland have signed Max Power to play CM, in a role Embleton has played for us?

Would love to sign him tho

Dennis will still have 2 years on his contract at Notts county at end of season, they apparently paid around 150k for him, now unless the board are willing to pay around that back then he won’t be with us next season

Quoted from scott_gtfc_89

Dennis will still have 2 years on his contract at Notts county at end of season, they apparently paid around 150k for him, now unless the board are willing to pay around that back then he won’t be with us next season

Notts County might not be in the best position to negotiate.

Whitehouse is more of a box to box type of player.  We need someone in our team once Embo leaves that is unselfish and can create, and has that bit of flair.

Where does Vernham for into this??..get him 100% fit and, from what I have seen of him he'd adequately fill Embletons boots, imo anyway, I'm sure plenty will disagree..but whatever happens, the core of the squad has to be up there with the best we've had in recent history

Quoted from marinerdazza

Notts County might not be in the best position to negotiate.

They might be looking for a goal scorer to get them out of the Conference first time of asking and if he gets amongst the goals for us in the remaining games (as I hope he will) then they may welcome him back for the rest of his contract and won't want to sell him anyway

Personally I'd like to have a choice of Cook Thomas and Dennis next season (if Thomas leaves to go down south somewhere on the basis of his goals for us this season I'll be a bit drunk off frankly that he kick started his career with us then left)

Players seem to come and go so often I'll be amazed if there aren't a few new names in next season's "best" team.

Quoted from Ipswin

(if Thomas leaves to go down south somewhere on the basis of his goals for us this season I'll be a bit drunk off frankly that he kick started his career with us then left)

That'll be 32 year old Wes Thomas who has played almost all of his career so far at least a division above this one?

Quoted from scott_gtfc_89

Dennis will still have 2 years on his contract at Notts county at end of season, they apparently paid around 150k for him, now unless the board are willing to pay around that back then he won’t be with us next season

If they went down, they might be happy to get shot of his (presumably decent) wages?

All this vague talk of Thomas and him inevitably signing for a London/SE club - for the 6 years before his 2 at Oxford he was permanently contracted to Cheltenham, Bournemouth, Rotherham and Birmingham (with loans at Portsmouth, Blackpool, Swindon and Bradford) - all miles away!

(yes, I have omitted his 2 months at Crawley)

Quoted from Northbank Mariner

Where does Vernham for into this??..get him 100% fit and, from what I have seen of him he'd adequately fill Embletons boots, imo anyway, I'm sure plenty will disagree..but whatever happens, the core of the squad has to be up there with the best we've had in recent history

A fit Vernam start's upfront ahead of Cook for me, on his day, he is a top league 2 player

i suspect that there are a number of teams with deeper pockets than ours , who would be after Dennis in the summer, especially if he continues to score for us

Could be that Dennis does not like Notts County and he does not fit with them.
It does happen quite commonly that a fee gets paid then a year later let go.

Asante had a fee paid but someone took a dislike to him and it was goodbye.

Quoted from marinerdazza

Notts County might not be in the best position to negotiate.

If he scores a bunch for us if we won’t pay around 100k for him someone else will.

Not unfeasible that Dennis will have a relegation release clause in his contract.  What that would be I can only guess but I doubt it would be anywhere near the fee County paid for him.  Of course it would also open up the market for other clubs to sneak in but having spent the last two-and-a-half years at struggling clubs, Dennis may well just want to be at a club going somewhere.

Be it financial or other methods of persuasion, Jolley is very capable of attracting players.  Hendrie no doubt had other suitors but opted for us.  I can't imagine that we were the only club that were in for Ohman, even Dennis will have had other clubs interested in him.  If it came down purely to money the likes of Salford would no doubt have had plenty to throw at a proven Conference goalscorer.  

Quoted from bedders78

That'll be 32 year old Wes Thomas who has played almost all of his career so far at least a division above this one?

Yes why do you think he lowered himself (if he was a 'division above' us) to come to Grimsby Town?

Was he a regular at his Div 1 club?

Quoted from Ipswin

Yes why do you think he lowered himself (if he was a 'division above' us) to come to Grimsby Town?

Was he a regular at his Div 1 club?

Yes. Played 37 league games for Oxford last season.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Not unfeasible that Dennis will have a relegation release clause in his contract.  What that would be I can only guess but I doubt it would be anywhere near the fee County paid for him.  Of course it would also open up the market for other clubs to sneak in but having spent the last two-and-a-half years at struggling clubs, Dennis may well just want to be at a club going somewhere.

Be it financial or other methods of persuasion, Jolley is very capable of attracting players.  Hendrie no doubt had other suitors but opted for us.  I can't imagine that we were the only club that were in for Ohman, even Dennis will have had other clubs interested in him.  If it came down purely to money the likes of Salford would no doubt have had plenty to throw at a proven Conference goalscorer.  

I do believe that Hendrie worked with Jolley when they were both at Burnley. I can see the possibility of some more players coming to BP who have worked with Jolley at Burnley especially the ones that didn't make it to the top two flights of English football.

Quoted from mariner91

Yes. Played 37 league games for Oxford last season.

So why did he come to Grimsby Town?

Quoted from Ipswin

So why did he come to Grimsby Town?

Because he was out of contract?

Quoted from Ipswin

So why did he come to Grimsby Town?

Presumably because he wasn't offered a contract at Oxford and we gave him the best deal out of any that were offered.

Quoted from Ipswin

So why did he come to Grimsby Town?

Who gives a 💩

Let’s just be thankful he did.

He actually came us to initially on trial, he had no other offers in league football at the time...but it's pretty irrelevant really, just be nice if he showed a little loyalty and signed for another year...on the flip side, I would completely understand him taking an offer from a team closer to home, this coming from someone who commuted 170 miles a day from 9 months and as soon as I got an offer closer I jumped at the opportunity

Quoted from mariner91

Presumably because he wasn't offered a contract at Oxford and we gave him the best deal out of any that were offered.

Thank you, I rest my case. He was a free agent no club no contract. We took a chance on him and his (excellent) performances have probably brought him to the notice of other clubs (down south possibly) so he did rebuild his career here and it would be nice if he gave us another year.

Quoted from Ipswin

They might be looking for a goal scorer to get them out of the Conference first time of asking and if he gets amongst the goals for us in the remaining games (as I hope he will) then they may welcome him back for the rest of his contract and won't want to sell him anyway

Personally I'd like to have a choice of Cook Thomas and Dennis next season (if Thomas leaves to go down south somewhere on the basis of his goals for us this season I'll be a bit drunk off frankly that he kick started his career with us then left)

Quite happy to start getting a reputation for kick starting/ developing players careers

1) It shows we have good coaches that improve players
2) Allows us to attract players that we would otherwise not be able to afford.
3) Shows potential parent clubs we are a good club to develop their players out on loan

As a side note, and I know this has been discussed on another thread- but if we have this model of developing young players or kick starting other players careers, then having only having Jolley and Limerick on short term deals is madness.

We need to give them security and confidence to look at the long term health of the club as well as the short term. If they only have '6 games' as Fenty has previously said- it goes directly against the recruitment and development of players philosophy.

Youth policy progression and being able to bring in players who fit and add to the team are good signs - ok , Hooper and Robles were 2 that didn't work here but in the main, most fans should be able to see that we are in the top half and playing better football.

Another year of similar progress will be very interesting to wstch !!

Hooper was a Slade signing.

Quoted from acko338

Youth policy progression and being able to bring in players who fit and add to the team are good signs - ok , Hooper and Robles were 2 that didn't work here but in the main, most fans should be able to see that we are in the top half and playing better football.

Another year of similar progress will be very interesting to wstch !!

Robles was a gamble because I assume MJ thought he had potential. Once he realised that he wasn't going to develop then he got shut. Sometimes you have to take chances , the skill is realising when it's not working and not being stung for a lot of money.

I'd love to see Wes sign for another season. He is class and I love his salute, he forgot last Saturday. This 3-5-2 is working well, but I do wonder about Charles Vernam who is a quality footballer. Can he play in this formation? Is he an out and out centre forward?

I suppose that Jolley has Cook, Vernam and Cardwell to play that second striker role alongside Thomas in the 5-3-2 shape favoured. Competition. So long as one of those 3 is fit/doing the business then they're in the team and the other two have to wait for a chance and then take it. Fair enough I reckon.

Quoted from pizzzza

Compared to this year there is a big Elliot Embleton shaped hole in that XI, is Whitehouse the player to replace him? Difficult to say until he is back...

I seem to recall that v Newport when Elliot want off Harry went in to that role and did ok

If Dennis gets on well here, and likes the set up, that will go a long way towards persuading him to stay. If we have to fork out £100k, then I'd say it's a sound investment for a proven goal scorer.

It looks like we are building a sound defence, and have some good options in midfield, so a strike force of Thomas and Dennis would set us up very nicely.

If Jolley can raid the Swedish league for another couple of class players, or find another couple of young gems to fit into his 3 5 2 jigsaw for next season, then the playing side is looking very good !

The change in the defensive strength over the last few matches has been the mainstay of the team winning each time.

Embleton will go back to Sunderland at the end of the year with huge thanks for his contribution, so the search is on for a natural replacement.

Will a fit Elliott Whitehouse be the one already here, or has the search begun already for that position?

Another year for Max Wright to have matured, Akheem Rose also a year older and wiser, Matty Pollock to complete his growing process, more youth players knocking on the door to become squad players in the first instance?

All looking good to begin a bit of a conveyor belt of maturing talent for the next 3 to 4 seasons.

What looked to be an impossible task two months ago is now going to be a challenge to better opponents' results and catch up at least 6 to 8 points on all those immediately above us, with some teams playing each other to nullify their own chances.

The remainder of February and March will pan out if the challenge is realistic or not, but progress is excellent to date compared to last years' poor runs under Slade.

Be good to see a couple of of over 5,000 + home attendances as well, almost there last Saturday.