It's heading to that time again for the contracts to be signed up and the anticipation and trepidation starts as to who will be sign up and who might be offski.

 

As far I'm aware, the following players are signed up for next season:

 

Signed up till the end of season 2013-14:

• Ryan Esson
• Billy McKay
• Richie Foran

(Butcher and Malpas are also in this category)

 

Signed up till the end of season 2014-15:

• Josh Meekings 
• Nick Ross  
• Gary Warren
• Graeme Shinnie

Joining next season:

• Ben Greenhalgh

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

The following players are out of contract at the end of this season:

• Andrew Shinnie
• David Raven
• Owain Tudur Jones
• Ross Draper
• Antonio Reguero
• Simon King
• Daniel Devine
• Aaron Doran
• Shane Sutherland
• Gavin Morrison
• Chris Hogg

Loan deals expire at the end of this season:

• Charlie Taylor
• Philip Roberts
• Jordan Gibbons

Deals unknown:

• Scott Mathieson
• Martin Laing
• Liam Polworth
• Conor Pepper
• Matthew Cooper

Not really that many players signed up so far.  Hopefully some people will be able to shed more light to those that are unknown and I'll update the list accordingly, and also when new deals and decisions are announced.

 

Besides that though, who would you keep and who would you punt?

Edited March 4, 201312 yr by Renegade

Whoops, I know what u mean^ :S

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but I can't see anywhere it has. It appears we have signed a young Irish defender called Joe Gorman http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12691/8776180/SPL-Inverness-announce-another-signing-by-completing-deal-for-Joe-Gorman

Apparently, released U20 defender Ryan Watson has signed for Brora.

Apparently, released U20 defender Ryan Watson has signed for Brora.

Yeah and Whyte turned down Brora along with Nairn amd Forres to join Clach

Todays P&J suggests that we are in the market for one more player, a goalkeeper, and that TB has identified who he wants to sign and is awaiting a response.

 

Sounds like the squad we currently have will be pretty much be the squad we start the season with. Given that we have used the loan system over the last few years I would expect a couple of loanees to come on board to supplement numbers

Disappointed that we have not recruited a single player with SPL experience.

Our squad is full of players with SPL experience.  All we can afford from here is journeymen who can't make it at Hibs or St Mirren.  Is that going to make us stronger?

I would much rather us sign younger players with potential who have no SPL experience than has beens from bottom six SPL teams just because they have SPL experience

 

We have retained about 95% of our team from last year and we can all agree that last year was a very successful campaign ergo 95% of our team have SPL experience. Do we need more?

 

I'm more than happy to supplement that with players from down south with no SPL experience.

In reality, 'only' 16 of our signed players, from a squad of 25 have played any SPL... = 56% !!  

Hibs had a squad full of experienced players last season.  How well did they do?  Plus, it is unreasonable to count youngsters.  If that was the case, Celtic would have a very inexperienced squad indeed!

I think it would be safe to assume that our starting line-up will be something along the lines of:

 

ESSON

 

RAVEN  MEEKINGS   WARREN   SHINNIE

 

DRAPER   FORAN

 

A.N.OTHER                              DORAN

 

A.N.OTHER

 

McKAY

 

81.8% with SPL experience. Not quite the 95% I suggested but my point stands, we will have a starting line up will a very high percentage of players having SPL experience.

 

The way people are banging on about signing players with SPL experience you would think that the SPL was some amazing league full of technically gifted players and superstars

Unless we sign another striker i reckon Foran will be getting used as more of an attacker this season.

 

Atm i would go with

 

Esson

 

Raven, Meekings, Warren, Shinnie

 

Doran, Vincent, Draper, Watkins

 

Foran, McKay

Unless we sign another striker i reckon Foran will be getting used as more of an attacker this season.

 

Atm i would go with

 

Esson

 

Raven, Meekings, Warren, Shinnie

 

Doran, Vincent, Draper, Watkins

 

Foran, McKay

Move Foran back and put Allen up with McKay.

I seem to recollect Butcher saying that one of the things we was wanting was a big striker for McKay to feed off (Allen's not that big I believe).  I wonder if that means we'll be seeing a different formation more next season and with Jones away, I wonder if a 4-4-2 diamond will be the main set-up for next season.

In reality, 'only' 16 of our signed players, from a squad of 25 have played any SPL... = 56% !!  

 

*64%

I think it would be safe to assume that our starting line-up will be something along the lines of:

 

ESSON

 

RAVEN  MEEKINGS   WARREN   SHINNIE

 

DRAPER   FORAN

 

A.N.OTHER                              DORAN

 

A.N.OTHER

 

McKAY

 

 

Presumably, Vincent will directly replace Andrew Shinnie, as he's an attacking midfielder I believe.  Doran's more likely to be on the right I'd have thought with Williams, Greenhalgh or Watkins (all left-sided wingers; or both sides in Watkins' case).

It's interesting to see that most people have suggested Doran will play on the wing. 

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see him tried in the Andy Shinnie role during pre-season especially if all our new wingers show potential.

 

I do think however, that Foran will be played deeper this season and Vincent may well be a squad player. His goal scoring record doesn't suggest that he'll be up to replacing Shinnie's goal scoring from last season. He may well be a deeper lying midfielder but i'm yet to see him play.

 

In reality, 'only' 16 of our signed players, from a squad of 25 have played any SPL... = 56% !!  

 

*64%

 

Well picked up, Sir! In my mind, I wasn't going to count Cooper or Polworth. that would have been 14 from 25 = 56%. But then I messed up!

Its almost as is Terry has been reading these pages.

 

Article in today's P&J regarding trying to sign Scottish or Scotland based players:

 

 

"I would have loved to have signed Scottish players and Scotland-based players. The ones available, such as Willo Flood and Gregg Wylde, were well outside our pay scale and we cant get near them."

 

 

"I can sense that our supporters want more Scottish players, I would as well. It is something we cannot do with the money we are paying. Other Scottish players would not touch us, we have to be realistic"

 

 

"We have signed some young Scottish players such as Ryan Christie, Liam Polworth and Matthew Cooper who will be in the first-team squad and who will have learned a lot from last year as well."

 

Whilst we would all rather more Scottish players in the team it is simply not feasible given our wage structure. Personally I fully understand and accept this and have no problem where Terry sees fit to source our incoming transfers.

The official site has updated the squad details for the coming season, interesting to see that we have 26 in our first team squad. Clearly a few will be predominantly if not entirely U20 squad players but still a decent sized pool of players.

 

Back up GK and maybe a loan signing or 2 to add some competition and were pretty much there. Cant say I ever remember a time when we were so well organised going into pre-season. Impressive close season work

 

1.            Allen, Curtis

2.           Cheyne, Jay

3.           Christie, Ryan

4.            Cooper, Matthew

5.            Devine, Daniel

6.            Doran, Aaron

7.            Draper, Ross

8.            Esson, Ryan

9.            Evans, Adam

10.          Ferguson, Calum

11.          Foran, Richie

12.          Gorman, Joe

13.         Greenhalgh, Ben

14.         Hooman, Harry

15.          Mckay, Billy

16.         Meekings, Josh

17.         Pepper, Conor

18.          Polworth, Liam

19.         Raven, David

20.         Ross, Nick

21.          Shinnie, Graeme

22.         Taylor, Charlie

23.         Vincent, James

24.         Warren, Gary

25.         Watkins, Marley

26.         Williams, Danny

It's the 25 we already knew we had - but with Charlie Taylor (surely a mistake) also included! Unless I have missed him re-signing on loan!?

I hadn't noticed that. Would be happy to have him back

^^^ Me too, Libero. He'd be a great addition.

Further confirmation in today's local press that a back up keeper will be the last permanent transfer we will be making this summer. However Terry has indicated that using the loan market has not been ruled out but that any loan would be conducted closer to the end of the transfer window

According to today's Press & Journal, we are trying to get Charlie Taylor back on loan for this season. Hopefully, we will be successful in that attempt.