Camp seems together but questions remain over some players
VIDEOS posted by Burton Albion’s media team of the players chatting about each other seem to show a happy camp of people who get on well.
They are seen discussing who has the worst banter, who dresses worst, who is the vainest, the best dancer, etc.
It is an entertaining few minutes and one thing it confirms is that players who did not get a lot of game time last season, who seemed on the periphery of things, were still very much involved.
Realistically we know this – it’s a squad game and they are all professionals who understand that only 18 of them are going to be involved on a match day with only 11 guaranteed to cross the line and play.
But it is easy to forget about players who do not feature.
Prominent in the video, seeming relaxed, happy and getting on with their team-mates, are Frazer Blaketracy, Terry Taylor and Charlie Lakin.
Privately, though, they are three who must be wondering what next season might bring in their careers.
And they will have been wondering that whether or not Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink remains as manager next season – we go into the weekend apparently knowing nothing further about Barnsley having spoken to the Dutchman about their vacant managerial position.
Blake-tracy, Taylor and Lakin are all under contract.
Blake-tracy, when he came in from Peterborough United, was seen as a solid option.
After a decent spell in non-league with home town club Dereham Town, then Lowestoft Town and King’s Lynn Town, he was picked up by Peterborough in 2019 but made only 32 appearances in two years.
“It was important to have two good left-backs in the building,” said Hasselkbaink at the time (he had already signed Cameron Borthwickjackson).
He referred to Blake-tracy’s potential, although the player is now 26.
In the event, he made only five League One starts, with a further two substitute appearances, and despite one very good game away to Fleetwood, he made costly slips in other games.
Would he be likely to play any more regularly in the second year of his deal. Pre-season does, at least, offer him the chance of a fresh start.
Lakin was signed on the last day of the summer window and hailed as a coup by Hasselbaink – a midfielder he felt he could not miss out on once his availability from Birmingham City became known.
Uniquely in the squad, he was given a three-year deal.
Lakin is hard to miss on the pitch. He has an unusual, upright way of running and certainly showed he was not afraid of hard work in his early appearances.
But those appearances became less frequent and often only briefly from the bench as the season wore on, with half of his eventual 30 appearances as a substitute. He will go into the new season with plenty to prove.
Taylor, similarly, spent much of the season on the bench or uninvolved and Hasselbaink felt he was disrupted by being away several times with Wales Under-21, who he captains.
He was signed from Wolves as “one for the future” and there have been times when he looks a class act on the pitch, calm and with more time than most.
There have also been mistakes, though, and Taylor must, you would think, have hoped to have furthered his career more than he did in the last campaign.
That said, he is not 21 until the end of this month and the potential remains.
So do the question marks. Will Hasselbaink entrust him with more game time next season? If Hasselbaink leaves, will Taylor thrive under a new manager?
There are always such questions in football of course. The worry for Burton at the moment is that there are rather too many questions – and the clock is ticking.