Sorry if this sounds cruel but I hope T+B have a good clear out. This squad was not good enough to seriously threaten for promotion and we want one that can. In fact we could well have faced a worse fate if we had not been rescued by primarily Dorian.But there were no players of sufficient quality waiting in the wings to put the regulars under pressure for their places even when our form was poor.
I disagree totally there.
Alot of the team were new to Southend this season, injuries and loanees caused a big problem at first and we were down to the bare bones, they still managed to compete ok...
You make it sound as though our back ups/youths/loanees should all the time be good enough for promotion, it doesn't happen like that. The players needed time to gel, and once they had, plus our first teamers came back into play and we got a couple of good loanees, the team showed we can compete for promotion.
The backups also proved they were good enough.
Joyce won every game he played in,
Sankofa was solid right back cover (also ousted Francis for a while)
Herd is a brilliant left back cover.
Scannell got himself into the first team and did well.
The moose started as a back up and even went on loan, he came back and proved himself.
Grant was a back up at first and then competed and was brilliant.
Walker showed glimpses when he played.
Betsy when he got his confidence back, looked a very handy back up player.
I could probably go on, in my eyes the team geled very well this season and the main problem early on was injuries.
I don't think theres any need to release any of the current squad, maybe a few of the youths who haven't developed as needed. And also we have to many strikers, maybe one needs to be cut.
I think we just need our strikers to stay fit next season, get another centre back and a winger and we will be fine.
Don't think by any means a clear out is needed though.
