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Well, for me at least, the only positive to come out of Owers’ post match interview was the confirmation of the speed with which he is intending to start planning for next season. He has said that the “retained” list such as it is will be done and dusted by Monday teatime .... which is a refreshing change from recent seasons when it has dragged on for weeks ... remember Nicho last season and his list which bizarrely was split into two, with the “definites” and the “maybes”?

Owers has said that all the loanees are going back to their clubs - which is totally understandable. The better ones are clearly not going to be interested in turning out for an NLS outfit. The one player we might have hoped to have landed - Elliot Romain, has aspirations to play in the Football League I know for a fact and like he has said to a fellow fan recently he has been trying so hard to “get out of that League” (NLS) in recent seasons and so has no wish to return straight back to it. Whether he gets his wish (to play in League 2) remains to be seen but at least, as things stand, he has another year on his contract to fall back on with Dagenham in the National League if nothing else comes up in the summer.

As for the players that will be retained, well the “waters are muddied” somewhat by not knowing the terms and lengths of the contracts issued by Nicho last summer. What is clear though is that quite a few players that he signed are completely out of favour with Owers and so you would expect them to either be released, transfer listed or talks put into place to pay up their contracts.....

In my opinion, that list would include:

Clarke (we wont need 2 expensive, experienced keepers at that level); Osborne; Klukowski; Chaney; Gosling; Pittman and Keating. I would also expect the short term contracts of Sokolik and Mitchell (who?), to be brought to an end as they haven’t made an impact. Likewise, although he has played plenty of games I don’t think Balatoni has done enough to earn an extension either.

So, that leaves ....
Dorel
Davis
McGinty
Gowling
Young

.... as players he (Owers) inherited from Nicholson/Herrera AND who have featured regularly under Owers. So, a fairly small group to whom I believe he might offer new terms. Some may accept, some may decline, but I think these are the “core” group of players that might get an offer. Of course the one exception is Gowling who appears to have another year anyway - but will he still be here next season? I’m not so sure, I sense that the player and the Manager don’t exactly see “eye to eye” and so like maybe one or two others who have another year to go ... I expect some agreement might be reached to allow him to move on.

On top of that we have two players signed by Owers:
Williams
Reid

In the case of Reid, I expect him to stay, not least because he probably also has another year on his deal and I wouldn’t be surprised if Williams does too ... whether either can make an impact at the level below remains to be seen though!

It is entirely possible that we could see all the squad leave! The ones he wants to keep, may not want to stay and play at that level. While others may simply not want to play for this Manager or may want to move “closer to home” - which we hear all too often or perhaps go and play part time football elsewhere and supplement their income with a “day job”.

Whatever happens, I think we are looking at a major overhaul of the squad in the weeks to come ... and I imagine that there wont be too many amongst the fan base who would be that bothered if the whole squad upped and left quite frankly!

On a positive note, I did hear that Owers has already started making “cash bids” for targets of his and I do believe that we will have a competitive budget, from what I am hearing, next season - at least in so far as the level we will be playing at! But then so we should given the relative size of our club in that League.

Good read CP Gull.

The bit about Owers already making bids for players disturbs me a bit. We don't know if he's had players lined up for some time behind the scenes but if not then it comes across as a bit willy nilly knee jerk.

My concern is that York assembled an entirely new squad of players when they were relegated from the football league and they went down again. It's not easy for a talented, experienced manager to identify and bring in 20 odd players and then mould them all into a league winning side so Owers hasn't got a prayer i'm afraid.

It’s funny isn’t it, and I am sure there are plenty who will disagree with me here! But I actually think that Owers’ strongest card as a Manager is RECRUITMENT. That may not be saying much, because he appears to be lacking in plenty of other areas when it comes to football management BUT he does watch an awful lot of games and knows a lot of players both at or around this level and from u23 squads in the region.

His recruitment has been “hit and miss” this season BUT he has brought in some decent players - not all of whom have worked out admittedly.

McQuoid and Murphy were decent “on paper” - they ended up with Aldershot (play offs) and Gillingham (Lge 1) respectively. While Callum Evans joined Macclesfield (NL Champions) after leaving us and Alex Davey left us for Boreham Wood (NL Play Offs). The likes of Rhys Healey and Elliott Romain have been quality in an otherwise dire side, while Dowling and Lemonheigh-Evans have also shown their quality at times.

Ok, so there are a few more that didn’t work out at all - but overall it has been a “mixed bag”. He just hasn’t been able to get the best out of a team that has always contained a mix of his signings (loanees in the main) and those he inherited from Nicho - no doubt in part because of poor man management on his part, in my opinion.

I think a lot of it also is down to the players too. I mean how many of these non league players actually have a real burning desire to want to succeed in the game? Not many if you judge them what they give out on the pitch. They play for Torquay, one of the biggest clubs now in non league i think it's fair to say and the platform and opportunity is there for them yet they don't seem to give their everything. It's bloody weird.

Good post CP Gull. I think Young, Dorel, McGinty and Davis are capable of playing at National League level at least. Players lose form when they are playing in a struggling side and I think this has been the case here, although Dorel has been fairly consistent. In my opinion, all four would benefit from playing in better sides with a more experienced managers.

I don't quite know why Sokolik hasn't been given more game time. I think he picked up a knock and then he was one of the players down with the sickness 'bug' that hit the club a couple of weeks ago, but when he has played, he looked a reasonable player. All will be revealed next Monday, then.

Great post CP.

Personally, I’d like to see Owers name down on the “find another club” list. Unfortunately, I fear we are stuck with the loser for another season at least.

Owers has mentioned that there will be a big clear out on Monday.
My hope is that Osborne has a big clear out on Monday and he gets shot of the lot of them.

But don't we have a Head of Recruitment called Hedges - what role does he play in all of this and what are we paying him for?

After Tuesday's game I also heard about "cash bids" for players at other clubs already tabled. The retained/released lists along with recruitment are going to define next season in what will be the most important one in the club's history as more than one season in National South can't even be contemplated.

Osborne is paying him to advise him on just how well the 5 year plan is going.

Posted on wrong thread , sorry , retained list saturday at 6pm now, at least he says new players will be
given throrough medicals, no more sick notes Merse !
Dont quite get the bit where he says some players said they were not going to be available on monday
what are they doing , going shopping ? Or does the contract end at final whistle saturday?

Well, if Owers is staying he will go up slightly in my estimation if he shows some balls and shows the door to absolutely every player other than Dorel. Cant see Dorel staying though.

He could have shown some balls by dropping Gowling, saying "you're dead to me" and leaving him to rot away from the football club. Then actually got in a youngster and showed managerial acumen by not only getting the young lad to compete at first team level but also to give him belief and confidence so that players who aren't interested don't keep getting a look in just because the manager is desperate.

But no. It's easier to keep sticking bad apples in the side and hoping they might have a good game or two even when the end result is always the same.

He could have shown some balls by resigning, but there we are.

I went to the game Tuesday night, just couldn't be bothered to share my opinion on what could only be described as a horror show. Ower's should be in no doubt after that who stays and who goes.

Yes there are times where you can blame the players, you can coach, and coach until your blue in the face, once you send them over the white line, then stand there and witness them get simple basic decision making wrong, time and time unable to get the very basics right, and I'm talking about schoolboy stuff the professional players at all levels should know, and really shouldn't need any coaching on.

We didn't lose Tuesday night because of poor tactics, or no passion, team spirit. we lost because of a goalkeeper and centre back couldn't communicate, see the 2nd goal, seriously go and watch an U16's PYL game and you'll see players deal with the same situation better, we lost because our defence couldn't identify an unmarked player in our box, who had all the time in the world to pick his spot and score, how many times have said that this season.

Unfortunately we had two kids on the park that don't belong to the club, who showed they had more about them, than the rest put together. The only other one for me is Romain, who isn't going to stay anyway.

Who stays? Who goes? If Owers had any sense and enough backing, he should can every single one of them, as far as footballs concerned they're not worth a spit.