Now that we know we are in The Championship next season, which of the current team should we keep and who should we look to offload. Who can we afford to keep?

Meekings and Doran definitely 2 of the best of quality players to have played up here and still with the potential to be greats

I really hope we're not too late with all this....think we are. None of the players out of contract can afford to hang around to see what happens - they are redundant as of tomorrow. Without a new boss in place, who can make a footballing decision about who should be offered deals? Worse still, there's bound to be a bad smell about the place (rotten apples), so who would want to stay?

Meekings is a top player and his loss this year was a key part of our demise - Warren suffered without his pace alongside. The only hope of him staying is to complete his recovery and get himself back in the shop window. If that's an option, I'd grab it!

1 hour ago, TheMantis said:

I think Meekings is easily the best centre half the club has ever had.

When he grows up he want to be Darren Dods....

1 hour ago, PerfICT said:

I really hope we're not too late with all this....think we are. None of the players out of contract can afford to hang around to see what happens - they are redundant as of tomorrow. Without a new boss in place, who can make a footballing decision about who should be offered deals? Worse still, there's bound to be a bad smell about the place (rotten apples), so who would want to stay?

Meekings is a top player and his loss this year was a key part of our demise - Warren suffered without his pace alongside. The only hope of him staying is to complete his recovery and get himself back in the shop window. If that's an option, I'd grab it!

Meekings has a local girlfriend. Maybe that will keep him here, maybe not?

10 hours ago, TheMantis said:

I think Meekings is easily the best centre half the club has ever had.

Agree with that.  That is why I never understood why Hughes would often play him at right back where he wasn't nearly as effective.  Unless it was that Hughes had fallen out with Raven by then?  But as central defenders, at their best, he and Warren were as good a combination as any in the league.

The decision to part company with the manager was, in the end, the entirely correct one. However, when it comes to the recruitment and retention of players, the timing could be a disaster. Who wants to join, or, for that matter, stay aboard a rudderless ship ?

There are many things, such as geographical location, modest crowds and limited finance that we can't control but it would help if we could be more proactive when it comes to thinking ahead and forward planning. We seem to have been entirely reactive of late with even that reaction often being too far delayed.

11 hours ago, TheMantis said:

I think Meekings is potentially the best centre half the club has ever had.

Meekings is a good player and has performed well and developed a lot in his time, however he has also been cursed with injury. I do think that a back line built around Brad, Laing and Meekings would develop and be one for the future but I expect JM to want to play Premiership level. If he has a local girlfriend he may just decide he wants to stay in the north and with Ash Taylor leaving the Dons then being honest to see him depart along the A96 wont be a surprise.

Sadly his departure is our own fault - firstly for not offering  decent contract or one he felt was acceptable, perhaps due to paying for duds like Anier, MacNaugton etc who probably took more than they gave in terms of value and having no contingency budget and secondly due to our failure to stay in the Premiership I doubt we would match his ambitions or offers that he will have from other teams - outwith perhaps Celtic & Rangers I would expect he makes the radar of ever Scottish team.

54 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

The decision to part company with the manager was, in the end, the entirely correct one. However, when it comes to the recruitment and retention of players, the timing could be a disaster. Who wants to join, or, for that matter, stay aboard a rudderless ship ?

Agree that the timing is lousy, but it's still more important to find Mr Right rather than a Mr Right-now, even if it takes a couple of weeks. (Getting Mr Wright would be even better, but back to reality.....)

A new manager will be more than happy to build his own team rather than have the vast majority of his budget already committed on players.

If the Daily Express is to be believed (I know....!) contract offers have been made to Meekings and Fisher, and I don't think anyone would disagree that they are the out of contract players who are most worth keeping. The rest, meh.

14 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

If the Daily Express is to be believed (I know....!) contract offers have been made to Meekings and Fisher, and I don't think anyone would disagree that they are the out of contract players who are most worth keeping. The rest, meh.

If it's a Scott Burns article he is normally pretty reliable. Not always right of course.

So the club appear to have confirmed that Meekings is away despite the player seemingly being unaware of this yesterday.

What the hell is going on!?

29 minutes ago, RiG said:

So the club appear to have confirmed that Meekings is away despite the player seemingly being unaware of this yesterday.

What the hell is going on!?

At face value this looks like shocking trearment of long serving player 

where have the club appeared to confirm that meekings is away?

 

6 minutes ago, Div1309 said:

where have the club appeared to confirm that meekings is away?

http://ictfc.com/news/club-news/1933-statement-from-ictfc-board

I wouldn't be suprised in Meekings isn't away - great player but has had a horrendous run of injuries.

Bit mystified as to why most people here are down on mcnaughton - it was hardly his fault he pucked up a bad achillies injury, a fully-fit mcnaughton would have made a difference last season (as would a fully fit meekings).

1 minute ago, RiG said:

http://ictfc.com/news/club-news/1933-statement-from-ictfc-board

hadn't realised there had been an official statement. my bad

 

Statement also confirms that we offered Fisher a contract but he has chosen to join another (unnamed) club.

1 minute ago, RiG said:

http://ictfc.com/news/club-news/1933-statement-from-ictfc-board

Seens pretty clear to me - reasonably happy with the squad we appear to have (particularly Draper), suprised OFW hasn't left (with a view to selection for Wales).

Gutted that Fisher has gone, although don't blame him at all. Shame about Meekings leaving & I'm slightly suprised that Ebbe has gone - though he had the potential to shine in the championship.

Guess we will be relying on Scott Boden as striker then...

Solid back line, though - no worries there.

Midfield - decent there too. As said before, would LOVE to see a fully fit Doran tear up the championship, along with Mulraney.

Maybe we should play Carl Tremarco as an out & out striker!!

18 hours ago, Northern_jaggie said:

Jake wasn't a bad apple so why is there such a major drama over him?? By all accounts he is a decent chap and figured quite prominently in Ritchies team during the run in. Imagine a fit Aaron and Jake on the wings, we would run riot next year in the Championship.

I had an opportunity to meet most of the current players on our recent trip and I do have to say that Simon took an instant liking to two players ... David Raven and Jake. If it hadnt been for the fact he was on the bench for the final day, Simon may have chosen him over David Raven to walk out onto the pitch as mascot !!! From what I hear, Jake is a pretty decent guy off the park too and when we were down at the stadium a couple of times he recognised Simon and stopped to have a chat. To a 3 year old (and his Dad), that's really impressive. I would seriously doubt him - or most of our players - should be tagged as bad apples

As a postscript - before our trip I had asked Simon who his favourite players were .... his answer was instant ..... Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco ! I asked him again yesterday and he said David Raven and Jake Mulraney !!!

Meekings when fit can walk into any top 6 premiership side, not surprised he's rejected a contract with us. 

meekings and ebbe are possibly the only two that have left that i'm overly concerned about.

what we have left is the bones of a decent team...if we can get the right people in around them and the right people at the helm...

p.s. why oh why does BR still have a feckin job mun?!

11 minutes ago, ICTRoughi said:

Meekings when fit can walk into any top 6 premiership side, not surprised he's rejected a contract with us. 

100% correct, with the caveat of 'when fit'...didn't think he was, just now? Thought he would maybe take a short term deal & get fit again. He has had little game time recently.

Will be sorely missed, though..

1 minute ago, ictfcsince94 said:

meekings and ebbe are possibly the only two that have left that i'm overly concerned about.

what we have left is the bones of a decent team...if we can get the right people in around them and the right people at the helm...

p.s. why oh why does BR still have a feckin job mun?!

Does BR still have a job?  Doing what? Seriously doubt the board will tell our new manager that he has to have BR as an assistant..

18 minutes ago, ICTRoughi said:

Meekings when fit can walk into any top 6 premiership side, not surprised he's rejected a contract with us. 

We see this a lot in MLS when contracts expire in December and the league doesn't start up again until March. Admittedly the mechanics are a bit different due to the various drafts and signing policies but most clubs get the players they want signed on long(-ish) term deals and then for those who they either don't want, or simply can't afford under the salary cap they leave them "exposed" to the various drafts or "waived" so they can sign for any team as a free agent.

Its a bit of a gamble for the clubs, but in many cases, when the player isnt picked up by anyone else in the various drafts or not signed as a free agent because other clubs have wage constraints or are worried about injury proneness they end up back at the original club they were with on a contract that is less expensive for the club. Perhaps that is what the club see for Josh ? Dean Brill has already been in the papers recently talking about how hard things can be trying to get a contract as a free agent so perhaps its a gamble by ICT to see if JM might look at a reduced deal than the one he was previously offered now that we are in the championship.    

 

 

 

 

11 minutes ago, Scotty said:

We see this a lot in MLS when contracts expire in December and the league doesn't start up again until March. Admittedly the mechanics are a bit different due to the various drafts and signing policies but most clubs get the players they want signed on long(-ish) term deals and then for those who they either don't want, or simply can't afford under the salary cap they leave them "exposed" to the various drafts or "waived" so they can sign for any team as a free agent.

Its a bit of a gamble for the clubs, but in many cases, when the player isnt picked up by anyone else in the various drafts or not signed as a free agent because other clubs have wage constraints or are worried about injury proneness they end up back at the original club they were with on a contract that is less expensive for the club. Perhaps that is what the club see for Josh ? Dean Brill has already been in the papers recently talking about how hard things can be trying to get a contract as a free agent so perhaps its a gamble by ICT to see if JM might look at a reduced deal than the one he was previously offered now that we are in the championship.    

 

 

 

 

Who knows...think we have a decent back line anyway..McKay,Tremarco,Warren,Raven,McNaughton(perhaps)-not much cover there though..

Still would have liked Meekings & Laing...they are definetly a loss..

We need a striker...suprised Ebbe has gone!

Well, it's not really a surprise in that it would have been the signing of the century if a player plucked from amateur Sunday league football in Ireland had made it as a first team regular here, but it maybe is a surprise that he wasn't given longer to adapt and develop.