For the purposes of this I have assumed that Leadbitter turns down his contract (which looks likely) and that both Richard Wright and Cormac Burke are not offered contracts (which again looks likely).
This leaves us with the below:
Goalkeeper - (First choice - non-existent, Squad depth - weak)
We will only have one GK on our books and this is Arran Lee-Barrett, who it is clear to any regular watchers of ITFC is not good enough to be a number 1 in the Championship. I think he is a very loyal and dependable number 2, but if he had to cover a period any greater than 2 weeks I'd be very concerned. We desperately need to sign a new number 1 goalkeeper, and with the release of Cropper and O'Donnell from the Academy we now need to sign a number 3 also.
Full Backs - (FC - decent, SD - weak)
We have 2 recognised senior full backs in Carlos Edwards and Aaron Cresswell, both of these have had relatively good seasons but there is room for improvement. In reserve we have Jack Ainsley, Joe Whight and Jamie Peters. It is clear Jewell doesn't rate Peters so I will discard him from this and Ainsley and Whight have yet to be trusted with any real game time so there is a severe lack of depth in this area. We need to sign a senior player who can cover both full back positions - someone like David Wright who has never been adequately replaced. This would allow for pressure to be put on the Edwards and Cresswell and cover to be given as and when required.
Centre backs - (FC - weak, SD - non existent)
Our only 2 centre backs are Tommy Smith and Damien Delaney, and while they have performed adequately over the past 3 months I would be hugely concerned if they were our starting centre halves on the opening day of next season. They to me are both the left sided centre back and need a partner. I think Delaney is the more impressive of the 2 and he should have the nod ahead of Smith for the left sided berth but not too fussed either way. What this does mean though is that a right sided centre back is an absolute necessity and also a back up.
Central midfield - (FC - weak, SD - ok)
We have 4 central midfield players with professional contracts; Andy Drury, Luke Hyam, Jimmy Bullard and Ryan Stevenson. Drury has been impressive this year but all 3 of the others have a lot to show that they are capable of a full season in the Championship. Luke Hyam has his limitations, but in my view could be a key player for us - we seem to have much better results when he is in the team and it can't just be co-incidence. Jimmy Bullard has been an almighty waste of space this season and needs to prove the doubters wrong next year by knuckling down and concentrating on his football. Ryan Stevenson looks fairly poor so far, but I have faith that with a good pre-season behind him he will be a decent squad player.
Wingers - (FC - Strong, SD - weak)
In Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Lee Martin, we have 2 of the best wingers in the division (when on form!). With a full pre season behind both of them you'd hope they'd come into the season flying and be one of the very few reasons to give ITFC fans any hope of competing for the play offs. In reserve we also have Josh Carson, who hasn't made as big an impact this season as would have been hoped, but hopefully will get more opportunities to impress next year. Other than that though there is no-one who can step in which is worrying.
Strikers - (FC - decent, SD - weak)
Our first choice front pairing of Michael Chopra and Jason Scotland should be better than it is, however they don't seem to be able to play together and rarely find the net when starting together. This is one of the reasons why we tend to play one up front quite often. I think Chopra would benefit from having a big man to play alongside when starting in a pair, and Scotland is a true lone striker as good at bringing people into the game. In reserve we have Nathan Ellington who hasn't done anything this season, and Ronan Murray who has had a seemingly productive loan spell at Swindon this year - neither of these seem in a position to put much pressure on the first choice front 2.
If we were to line up a first and second XI in a 442 formation I would imagine they would look like this:
| GK | N/A | Lee-Barrett |
| RB | Edwards | Ainsley |
| LB | Cresswell | Whight |
| RCB | N/A | N/A |
| LCB | Delaney | Smith |
| RW | Emmanuel-Thomas | Carson |
| LW | Martin | N/A |
| CM | Drury | Bullard |
| CM | Hyam | Stevenson |
| CF | Chopra | Ellington |
| CF | Scotland | Murray |
So looking at our first XI, we need a new GK and CB, and probably another central midfielder….but more worryingly there are only 3 players in the 2nd XI who have proven they can cut it in the Championship in the last 2 years (Smith, Carson and Bullard), one of whom has had serious questions raised about their character in the last year.
My main concern is that outside these players, there is a gaping chasm to the academy, there are not any players I haven't mentioned who are between the academy and the 2nd XI and this seems extremely short sighted. While the likes of Bennett, Cropper, Maduako, Lavery and Eastman may not have been ready for the Championship at the moment, with financial fair play coming in there is a big worry that we haven't invested a relatively small outlay in them for a year or two to see if they can be improved with coaching or sent on loan to the lower leagues to improve them. To bring players in from other academies or the lower leagues will invariably involve a transfer fee and higher wages and if we are looking at a long term plan it is vital that we give our youth the best possible chance of getting through - it feels as though they have been discarded too early, or offered derisory terms or contract lengths that have forced them into taking a pragmatic decision for their careers and we have pushed decent players out the door.
The start of this U21 reserve league that was mentioned on TWTD yesterday makes it even more concerning that we lack such depth in the squad as we may not be able to get full benefit from this. There may be more to it, that the 1st year scholars going into 2nd year are seen as a great year or something we aren't aware off, but I can't help but think that we are releasing players who deserve to be given time to see if they can improve and the relative cost of it will be miniscule in the grand scheme of things for the football club.
