I believe there is an "option" for another year on both sides. Unfortunately that almost certainly means that not only will we not be able to afford him (let's face it we couldn't even in League 2 at the beginning of this season) and on his part I would doubt he would want to drop out of the League at this stage of his career. All depends on what other offers he gets I suppose, but I would have thought it pretty unlikely.hector wrote: I'm probably wrong but I thought Cooper's deal took him through next season as well. I probably imagined it.
Like you say - it's not the worst side to have in the Conference, but I think mid-table is more likely for us next year or just below the play-offs...I don't think we will be challenging.
I know what you are saying about our likely prospects for next year (in the Conference) but actually I think we could do quite well. Unlike the last time we went down, there aren't the same powerhouses that there have been over the past few years such as Oxford and Luton. Of course there are still the likes of Grimsby, Wrexham, Lincoln, Cambridge (possibly) and Chester who may (probably do) regard themselves as " big" clubs in that division but they, in the main have all got or at least had some financial difficulties and some of the biggest teams have been down three a good few years now and are still struggling.
Just looking at the League tables and, based on the bookies odds (to determine promotion and relegation), the League would look like this next season ....
Grimsby, Wrexham, Lincoln, Chester, Kidderminster, Aldershot, Barnet, Hereford, Macclesfield, Halifax, Woking, Nuneaton, Forest Green, , Braintree, Salisbury, Welling, Alfreton and Gateshead ... to be joined by Bromley and Eastleigh and AFC Telford and North Ferriby United ??????(thank goodness it's only north and not north and South combined, eh!). To be joined (sadly) by TUFC and one other ... probably not Northampton I would suggest.
Now provided we can keep some sort of stability, which is why I no longer advocate chucking any more of Thea's money at it during what remains of this awful season, I don't think that sort of line up should really fill us with any real dread. Assuming Luton and say Cambridge do go up, the only one of the so called "big" boys in that League who are going really well are Grimsby and it might even be in our interests if they went up rather than Cambridge.
When you look at Barnet being up in the play off spots, who although relegated last year were seemingly fairly stable financially ... more so than the likes of Aldershot, Hereford, Lincoln and Macclesfield when they went out of the League I would suggest ... then I really don't see why with the basis of a reasonable squad (at that level) we couldn't do at least as well, perhaps even better. I would imagine the likes of Chapell could flourish and even young Cameron .... we do need to sort our pitch out though! If we could keep say Lathrope for next season,alongside Harding we would be ok in midfield and a central defensive pairing of Downes and Pearce would be a cut above that standard I would have thought. Clearly one are where we will need to recruit well is up front, although Benyon should be capable of scoring plenty down there, when you consider how many the likes of Rendell (could we even see him back here next season?) have scored this season.
The huge downside, if and when we go down, will be the huge drop in attendances. This season,with the away ends filled to at or near capacity for the likes of Argyle, City, Pompey, Rovers and probably Newport we will probably end up with a relatively healthy average attendance of considerably over 2500. Next season that would drop dramatically, unless perhaps we are challenging at the top and winning games (something we haven't been doing regularly for a couple of seasons) which is why we must throw everything at a quick return and try and get the "feelgood" factor back at TQ1!
