As the article says, Butcher is now to look at contracts of the players. So who should stay and who should go? For me, my players would be (although I know some already have contracts):

ESSENTIAL

Tokely, Proctor & Munro (the heart), Rooney, Hayes & Cox (the future)

IMPORTANT

Esson & Foran (but I wonder if their wages will be too much), Sanchez (unless we can get a genuine attacking mid like Vigurs from somewhere)

NEGOTIATE

Bulvitis, Duff, Gillespie, Ross & Shinnie (none the finished article but all look very promising), Duncan (SFL1 level but if his wage demands are too high, not a huge loss), Eagle (looked good early on - as long as he's on a developing young player's wage, it might be worth a punt, but not on higher wages), Stratford (again, only on fringe players wages - decent utility player for the bench), Allison (any better around for the same price?)

OFFSKI

Golabek (Probably Elgin level now), Djebi-Zadi (unless we play with wing-backs, his style can't be used), McBain (good servant but time's up)

REQUIRED

A left-back. Attacking midfielder. I've no problem with Tokely at centre-back, so either a right-back or central defender - even if only as cover. Naturally replacements for those leaving.

I'd probably go with that.

Esson Tokely, Munro, Proctor and Foran are all SPL level players with the experience. Whilst it may be difficult to keep Foran the other 4 would be great to keep. They are the foundations of the team and have the most experience.

Rooney scored a good half dozen in a relegated SPL team and is improving with each game. HE's got a knack for getting goals and is young and improving.

Hayes has really stepped up in the last few months. If we can it would be fantastic. And Cox has done fantastic for coming in at 18 years of age. Great potential

Bulvitis, Duff, Gillespie, Ross, Shinnie too. Plus Sanchez.

If we lose Odiambho, Eagle, Stratford they can be replaced. And the left backs plus McBain have no real future. Tho we do need a new left back if Shinnie is not ready and for cover anyway. Nothing special. Solid and reliable will do.

So basically what you said.

Hasnt Gillespie already left? and what about daniel park, morrison and sutherland?

I thought Gillespie was just away on loan? I forgot Odhiambo too. I wouldn't say any of them were essential to the team. Even Eric would be no big loss. He probably adds something from the bench, so as long as that's his role and cost, then stick him in the negotiable column. Can't say anything about the rest as I can't remember seeing any of them.

I'd probably go with that.

Esson Tokely, Munro, Proctor and Foran are all SPL level players with the experience. Whilst it may be difficult to keep Foran the other 4 would be great to keep. They are the foundations of the team and have the most experience.

Rooney scored a good half dozen in a relegated SPL team and is improving with each game. HE's got a knack for getting goals and is young and improving.

Hayes has really stepped up in the last few months. If we can it would be fantastic. And Cox has done fantastic for coming in at 18 years of age. Great potential

Bulvitis, Duff, Gillespie, Ross, Shinnie too. Plus Sanchez.

If we lose Odiambho, Eagle, Stratford they can be replaced. And the left backs plus McBain have no real future. Tho we do need a new left back if Shinnie is not ready and for cover anyway. Nothing special. Solid and reliable will do.

So basically what you said.

Yeah.... basically what he said....

For the backbone of a first team I'd want to keep Esson, Tokely, Proctor, Munro, Duncan,Hayes, Cox, Foran, Rooney. I'd also want to keep the best of the U-19's (though if we go up we'll need a full squad of them). Plus Allison, Morrison, and Sutherland.

Why Duncan? I believe we need to retain one or two with that level of experience to help and influence the younger players.

I think terry should be looking for a front man who can get more out of Rooney. He has potential but needs a lot of feeding. He also needs left sided players for defence and mid and strengthning at the right side of the back row. Though, hopefully, Duff will be back and raring to go.

I find it interesting that Proctor is now a "must keep". It wasnt that long ago that many posters were saying he was useless !!!

I would tend to mostly agree with Starchief although I would have Esson in the 'must keep' column along with Tokely, Proctor, Munro, Cox, Hayes and Rooney. I would add Duncan to the important column along with Foran and Sanchez, and everyone else including the likes of Golly and LDZ in the negotiate column.

Where I am not qualified to speak, after so many years away from Inverness is in regards to the youngsters. We have had so many over the years that we have been told "have it" ... the likes of Zander and such like, and few if any ever seem to make it so I am not sure about them. I have heard that Duff is good and similarly the same has been said about Shinnie and Sutherland but I had also heard that Gillespie was a good one too and we let him go .... perhaps some of our younger posters on here, some of who seem to have a connection to the youth teams either past or present are more qualified to speak about the potential of the young lads ......

None of us really know what Butcher wants to achieve with the squad as, to date, he's pretty much had to work with what he had and fill in the gaps to make the team work.

Despite being of the opinion that being in a situation where only a very small number of players are contracted beyond the summer is unwise, it does present Butcher with the chance to put together his own squad for next season without being hindered with offloading players he may not wish to keep. It also means he has the opportunity to crop the size of the main squad back to a more manageable and financially viable size (somewhere around 18?) and offer at least a couple of the younger lads a chance to move into the first team squad....even if it is just for the benefit of full time training to begin with.

I think it's fairly certain that we'll all have "favourites" who depart in the summer, either because they get better offers or they simply don't fit with Butchers vision of the squad for next season, and I'm even more certain we'll have any number of threads along the lines of "Why on earth did we let him go" or "He's re-signed him, is he crazy".

Taking all the above into consideration it seems fairly inevitable that next seasons squad will look a whole lot different to this seasons...I just hope we can all get our frustrations out of the way in regard to players signed/released over the summer and be in the right mindset to back the team from the get go on the opening day of season 2010/11.

Outwith the youngsters I can only come up with 8 players I'd like us to keep

In no particular order:

Esson

Rooney

Munro

Tokely

Foran

Cox

Hayes

Duncan

Edited March 2, 201016 yr by kencar

Will Tel be able to put together the team he'd like:

Esson

Tokely, Tokely, Tokely, Tokely

Tokely, Tokely, Tokely, Tokely

Tokely, Tokely

Will Tel be able to put together the team he'd like:

Esson

Tokely, Tokely, Tokely, Tokely

Tokely, Tokely, Tokely, Tokely

Tokely, Tokely

Big question is will Tokely be here at all next season?

Going back to the stay or go question I think you have to trust the management with this, it will then be his team and by signing a new contract Butcher must feel he is confident he has the resource's to be successful.

Out of all those out of contract i'd like us to keep Hayes, Foran, Esson, Tokely, Proctor, Sanchez, Cox and mayb'e Odhiambo. Would love to try and keep Bulvitis as well.

Would use Allison, Ross, Shinnie, Morrison and Sutherland as cover.

With Munro, Duncan and Rooney already here that gives us a squad of 17 players to work from, it involves younger players and also frees up space to bring in some new players as well.

I would be happy for us to only make 3, at a push 4 signings, so long as this squad stays as intact as possible.

Munro, Rooney and Duncan already on board.

2 Year Deals- Esson, Tokely, Bully, Duff, Proctor, Cox, Hayes, Foran, Sanchez

1 Year Deals- Djebi-Zadi, Odihambo, McBain, Stratford plus Allison, Ross, Morrison, Shinnie, Sutherland.

Offski - Eagle, Golabek

2 Year Deals- Esson, Tokely, Bully, Duff, Proctor, Cox, Hayes, Foran, Sanchez

How many of these will stay with us if we don't get promoted?

As CaleyD says above, next season's squad could look very differnt to this season's.