Squad may be big already but there’s room to manoeuvre for Hasselbaink
HAMER LOOKS LIKELIEST TO ATTRACT OTHERS’ INTEREST
THE release of the retained list always creates a buzz for supporters of clubs.
By the time it comes out, fans are already starting to feel starved of news and action, a while after the last games of the season, for those who are not involved in the playoffs.
Ahead of the release, much is the speculation about who deserves to be retained and who doesn’t, who might or might not be made available and which of the out of contract players might be offered a new deal.
You get some very polarised views but, then, so you do about most things from supporters as a season pans out. It’s part of what makes the world of football so irresistible for so many of us.
Quite often, Burton Albion have released their list later than many clubs. With some, the fans are still supping their aftermatch pints following the last game when the list appears.
And some are more dramatic than Burton’s usually is. Look no further than Gillingham for an example, where Neil Harris went in as manager at the end of a season which began with Steve Evans at the helm and has ended with relegation.
Harris raged that he had seven players left under contract at the club and “none of them” would be there for the following season! Burton supporters have found plenty to complain about in a hugely inconsistent but nonetheless completely safe League One season and, sometimes, there is an element of “careful what you wish for.” Who’d be a Gills fan right now?
By contrast, there is no great clearout at Burton and a large number of contracted players already on the staff. For better or worse – and it is surely mostly for better – that is the legacy of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s work last summer and in two January windows.
He has handed out a lot of twoyear deals, twoand-a-half and three in some cases, with a view to developing assets who might be sold for a profit later.
He has also demonstrated that, with the agreement of all parties, such contracts do not have to run their course, Omari Patrick’s return to Carlisle United in January being a prime example.
The move had not worked out for Burton or the player and the wise decision was a clean break. He had arrived on a free transfer, after all, as most of them have.
As has been pointed out before, the overall cost of a player in wages and bonuses is far more relevant than a transfer fee, particularly in the lower divisions, and that is usually a matter for player, manager and chairman to work out.
Given the number of players under contract, Burton’s retained list, when it was issued late on Monday afternoon, contained few surprises.
Twelve players were released last year. Only five have been released this time.
The under contract list, this time, is unusually large, by Burton standards, at 17, especially since only one, Charlie Williams, is a junior player without significant first-team experience.
However, I do think that, interesting as poring over a retained and released list is, it remains only a starting point and does not necessarily point to how the team might look next season.
Of the 17, seven of the senior players have not had significant roles in the team in the season just finished, for a variety of reasons.
Ryan Leak started in the team but was barely used in the second half of the campaign; Frazer Blake-tracy could make little of the few chances he was given; Terry Taylor, despite making 20 appearances, still appears to be seen as “one for the future”; Bryn Morris, of whom the manager had high hopes, ended the season on loan with Hartlepool United and made only one League start for Burton; Ciaran Gilligan battled injuries in two stages of the season and while showing a lot of promise again, finished with half the number of appearances he had made in his first professional season; Louis Moult unluckily spent the first half of the season injured and never hit his stride once he recovered; and Charlie Lakin flitted in and out of the team without holding down a place.
Leak, Taylor, Gilligan and Lakin are all young and the hope is that all will go on to play a bigger role. Of the remainder under contract, Hasselbaink has said he expects interest from other clubs in some.
Despite having a reliable, rather than eye-catching season, Tom Hamer looks to be the one most likely to be head-hunted. It would be a blow if he was but hardly an unex
There is an element of ‘careful what you wish for.’ Who would be a Gillingham fan right now?
pected one.
He advanced his career more than any of the others in 2021-22, although it could be argued that Conor Shaughnessy ran him a close second in a season in which his 43 appearances was close to three times what he had managed in any of his previous four seasons as a professional.
Shaughnessy may have a bit more proving to do before a bigger club chases him but it would, again, not be a surprise if that happened.
Anyway, there are 17 professionals under contract, two juniors have been offered pro deals, four more young players have been offered new terms and three seniors, John Brayford, Joe Powell and Michael Mancienne have been offered new deals.
If all of these accepted their terms, the Brewers would have a squad of 26 even before the manager brings anyone new in.
That is why the retained/released list is only a starting point. Logic suggests some of those players will not be lining up for the start of next season and that is not just the ones who may turn down deals. I expect Hasselbaink to cut his losses with one or two of the retained players, even though Burton have not officially said they are on the transfer list, as some other clubs do with those they see no future for.
In addition to that, you might not entirely rule out the four players whose loans have ended – Harry Chapman, Jacob Maddox, Christian Saydee and Matej Kovar – returning in some capacity.
Chapman is the only one who is a free agent, yet. Saydee and Kovar might be candidates for renewed loans, while Maddox, one of the season’s enigmas, has a future still in the hands of his Portuguese club.
It all adds up to the likelihood of a busy summer, again, for Hasselbaink, especially as it will be a shortened one, however big his squad already appears to be.