1st team contracts

[blade67]

There used to be thread showing the current status of players contracts. With the next transfer window only 60 days away I thought I'd have a look at the current status.

The 25 first team players are listed below, alongside how much they have been involved so far as an indication of their importance to the side. I can't personally see any of the other players signed to the club pushing to replace any of these players in the short to medium term, so it gives an indication of where the recruitment side of the club needs to focus in the next 90 days.

CWAK are effectively operating with a 19 man squad Premier League squad, as 6 of these players have had very minimal involvement so far.

Of the players that have been integral to our season so far only Henderson and Lundstram are out of contract in the summer.

From what I've seen so far up-front, I can see us continuing to rotate around the 5 players already being selected for the foreseeable.

Elsewhere on the pitch it seems the challenge in January is to find players who can offer a real challenge to the current incumbents as we've really only used 10 players so far.

 

[JackSUFC]

Of the players that have been integral to our season so far only Henderson and Lundstram are out of contract in the summer

That will be when Henderson’s loan with us is up. He signed a new contract at Man Utd before he rejoined us.

Can’t be long before Lunny gets a new deal. Can’t see any of the others getting an extension.

 

[blade67]

That will be when Henderson’s loan with us is up. He signed a new contract at Man Utd before he rejoined us.

Can’t be long before Lunny gets a new deal. Can’t see any of the others getting an extension.

The Henderson deal is what it is and I'm sure a plan to deal with that will wait till the summer
Lundstram probably needs sorting in the next few weeks
I can see us looking to bring in 1 or 2 defenders to provide more competition
Will Besic / Everton be happy with his 9 minutes of premier league activity so far ? Otherwise midfield seems pretty well covered
Having spent £35mill on forwards in the summer and having 5 players fighting for 2 slots it might be that we go with what have up front.

I'm sure there will be plenty of scope for fax machine jokes come the end of January

 

[Kanye]

Wonder if someone will come along and offer Lundstram a better deal elsewhere? Hope not.

 

[Grizzly blade]

I believe there will be one or two bits of movement in January.

1. I don’t see Morrison hanging about, he’s not making the bench or seemingly having any impact with us and I suspect his character isn’t able to cope with that.
2. The forwards line is still a worry, I know players need time to settle in but McBurnie just doesn’t seem to be getting it and looks miles away from a premier league striker.
3. Robinson seems way out of his depth as a striker. Maybe he’s not being used to best suit his attributes but for me he’s another who looks out of his depth.
4. Clarke was a late addition after we/he didn’t find a new club.

So, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Morrison leave on a free and end up in the championship.
Clarke to get a transfer out on a free looking for final contract somewhere.

So...who will we bring in?
Well I wouldn’t be surprised to see us try for another midfielder, someone who’s got a goal in him and perhaps replace the duffy role and take Morrison’s spot.
Also think we will try for at least one striker to replace Clarke, but who will have more impact than the three mentioned. Depending on the cost of that could see one or both of McBurnie and Robinson leaving. I doubt anyone will stump up the cash to pay us back enough to look to sell McB, but could see a few trying to buy Robinson. But a loan out may do them good is the current performances and scoring returns continue.

Personally, I hope they both hit a bit of form and settle down. Still 2 months til the window!

 

[CaptainMorgans]

Lundstram needs looking at before Christmas.

Shocked that Bryan's deal runs to 2021.

Be interesting to see what Wilder does with Fleck & Norwood's. Areas I suspect we may look to upgrade on in the Summer if we keep up our current form & survive comfortably.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

There used to be thread showing the current status of players contracts. With the next transfer window only 60 days away I thought I'd have a look at the current status.

The 25 first team players are listed below, alongside how much they have been involved so far as an indication of their importance to the side. I can't personally see any of the other players signed to the club pushing to replace any of these players in the short to medium term, so it gives an indication of where the recruitment side of the club needs to focus in the next 90 days.

CWAK are effectively operating with a 19 man squad Premier League squad, as 6 of these players have had very minimal involvement so far.

Of the players that have been integral to our season so far only Henderson and Lundstram are out of contract in the summer.

From what I've seen so far up-front, I can see us continuing to rotate around the 5 players already being selected for the foreseeable.

Elsewhere on the pitch it seems the challenge in January is to find players who can offer a real challenge to the current incumbents as we've really only used 10 players so far.



View attachment 63633

That's an interesting analysis, mate well-done.

Of the players in red above, I wouldn't lose any sleep over losing any of them tbh. As you say, it's really only Hendo and Lundstram that are currently around the first team.

Hendo, I think is a good goalkeeper, sometimes a great one, but I'm not sure I want to see us spend £20M on him in summer. Not when we've got a decent keeper in Moore as back-up - and supposedly Belgium's finest young goalkeeper on our books. We should at least have a very close look at Verrips and see if he is up to Prem standard before we splash big money on Henderson.

As for Lundstram...I'd be tempted to sell him in summer and make a handsome profit on him and put that money towards a higher quality attacking midfielder. I appreciate this won't sit well with the new bandwagon of Lundstram Lovers on here - but that's what I'd do. I like Lundstram, I think the lad has come on leaps and bounds and makes a good contribution in most games, but not an outstanding one. And we need to keep raising the bar.

I think the most startling thing about these stats is that which you've summarised in your last sentence:

"the challenge in January is to find players who can offer a real challenge to the current incumbents"

I think this will become the main issue for us. We have too many players on the fringes of the first team, who cannot get into it, because they haven't shown any good reason too. We've also got the likes of McBurnie and Robinson, who are in and out of the first eleven, because they haven't shown any good reason to stay in it. It's like you say, we don't even have 11 players who automatically pick themselves every week because they are just so good that they can't be dropped. That's where we need to get to and to reach there we are going to need to jettison at least half a dozen players off in Jan and bring 3 or 4 more in.

 

[JackSUFC]

Wonder if someone will come along and offer Lundstram a better deal elsewhere? Hope not.

He can be approached by clubs outside of England from January onwards, then domestic clubs when his contract expires in June. I’m sure he’ll sign a new deal in the coming weeks though.

 

[Grizzly blade]

Also interesting that the best players we have at the moment have been here the longest.
JOC, Bash, Fleck have arguably been our best players so far and we’re with us in league one.
Enda and Baldock also been superb and were seen as Championship strugglers but are now without doubt proving to be good enough.

So confirms that with time there is scope for lots of players from them lower leagues to also be good enough. I keep hearing the lad Watkins being mentioned for one.

 

[Kanye]

He can be approached by clubs outside of England from January onwards, then domestic clubs when his contract expires in June. I’m sure he’ll sign a new deal in the coming weeks though.

His agent can be approached by anyone, at any time, unfortunately.

 

[mancunianblade]

Lundstram needs looking at before Christmas.

Shocked that Bryan's deal runs to 2021.

Be interesting to see what Wilder does with Fleck & Norwood's. Areas I suspect we may look to upgrade on in the Summer if we keep up our current form & survive comfortably.

Wonder if City played a part in the length of Bryans contract

 

[JackSUFC]

Hendo, I think is a good goalkeeper, sometimes a great one, but I'm not sure I want to see us spend £20M on him in summer. Not when we've got a decent keeper in Moore as back-up - and supposedly Belgium's finest young goalkeeper on our books. We should at least have a very close look at Verrips and see if he is up to Prem standard before we splash big money on Henderson.

I think we should go out all to sign Henderson. With his age, ability, future potential, International chances etc we'd have a real asset on our books. We would have to spent £20m+ on him though like you say. Also I think he's genuinely holding out for the #1 shirt at Man Utd, so how open to signing permanently would he be?

Moore is an alright back-up but only that, unfortunately nowhere near PL standard. Can't comment on Verrips as I barely know anything about him but he seems to be third choice - whether that's to do with his contract situation or not I don't know. If Henderson isn't an option at the end of the season, we'll still need to invest heavily in a new keeper.

His agent can be approached by anyone, at any time, unfortunately.

True. I'm sure we'll reward him with a new deal soon. Wouldn't be surprised if he's currently one of the lowest earners in the squad, but that'll change.

 

[TCsLoveChild]

The Henderson deal is what it is and I'm sure a plan to deal with that will wait till the summer
Lundstram probably needs sorting in the next few weeks
I can see us looking to bring in 1 or 2 defenders to provide more competition
Will Besic / Everton be happy with his 9 minutes of premier league activity so far ? Otherwise midfield seems pretty well covered
Having spent £35mill on forwards in the summer and having 5 players fighting for 2 slots it might be that we go with what have up front.

I'm sure there will be plenty of scope for fax machine jokes come the end of January

Please God NOooooooooooooooo. They weren't funny the first time around and are even less so now. UTB

 

[Dronfield Blade]

Also think we will try for at least one striker to replace Clarke, but who will have more impact than the three mentioned. Depending on the cost of that could see one or both of McBurnie and Robinson leaving. I doubt anyone will stump up the cash to pay us back enough to look to sell McB, but could see a few trying to buy Robinson. But a loan out may do them good is the current performances and scoring returns continue.

I would be majorly shocked if either of McB or Robinson got sold or sent out on loan.

Mousset is clearly not fit enough for 90mins and both Sharp/McGoldrick are on the wrong side of 30. If we did acquire a new striker, he would take time to adjust to our system and settle in.

Both McBurnie and Robinson have underwhelmed, but, some persistent is going to be required with both of them.

 

[BladeInIreland]

As for Lundstram...I'd be tempted to sell him in summer and make a handsome profit on him and put that money towards a higher quality attacking midfielder.

He can go fir nothing in the summer. He's worth offering a contract even if we look to improve on him.

Agree about Henderson, he's not a sign at all costs player. I'd approach Manchester United closer to the summer and offer a deal with the bulk of it dependant on survival again, England caps etc. If they want too much upfront we move on.

 

[LondonBlade89]

Great info + analysis. Wonder if it’s worth sticking it up at the top for reference?

On squad usage, I reckon that’ll change. The whole team bar McGoldrick’s striker partner is picking itself at the moment. I don’t think it means the competition isn’t good enough as I don’t think they’ve had a chance yet. Luke Freeman had a couple of games and looked tidy and you could argue that may be part of the reason why Fleck came back even stronger. That said, it probably suits us to have a settled 11 as I don’t think we’re in a position money-wise to be signing and paying players like starters who will end up on the bench like other teams can.

Either way, I think we have to assume that there will be a need for the depth pretty soon as 1) we’re approaching a busy Christmas period which will call for rotation 2) we’re getting closer to a few yellow card suspensions and 3) the inevitable injuries, which we’ve fortunately avoided so far (other than Fleck being out for a couple of games). That’s when we’ll get a good sense of whether the likes of Luke Freeman, Ben Osborn, Mo Besic, Jags and Ravel Morrison are up to much as back-ups. I don’t think we can make a judgement on it now.

In my opinion for Jan, I reckon we’ll have three target types: defensive competition/back-up (Jags on his own isn’t great cover and is ultimately a stopgap), a box-to-box midfielder (Ravel ain’t it, IMO) and a striker if things continue the way they are. I think we’ll be fishing in the upper end Championship pool again, although I’ve heard bits about European scouting and there was the Sander Berge interest, so there could be a wildcard in there.

 

[JS Blade]

Personally wouldn’t worry about someone coming in for Lundstram, as much as he’s improved I don’t think he’s at in position for teams to target him.

Would be worried regarding Fleck & Stevens however. Stand out players for me and can cut it at this level. Interest is guaranteed and if they were to go we don’t have the money to pick at the market (£20-30milllion etc) so finding a replacement wouldn’t be over night.

Henderson on a permanent is a no for me due to the fact I know how high the price tag will be now he’s had an England call up which ironically is down to him been here .... money could be spent way better in other areas of the pitch with a smaller fee on a goalkeeper

 

[Cerberus Blade]

I think we should go out all to sign Henderson. With his age, ability, future potential, International chances etc we'd have a real asset on our books. We would have to spent £20m+ on him though like you say. Also I think he's genuinely holding out for the #1 shirt at Man Utd, so how open to signing permanently would he be?

Moore is an alright back-up but only that, unfortunately nowhere near PL standard. Can't comment on Verrips as I barely know anything about him but he seems to be third choice - whether that's to do with his contract situation or not I don't know. If Henderson isn't an option at the end of the season, we'll still need to invest heavily in a new keeper.



True. I'm sure we'll reward him with a new deal soon. Wouldn't be surprised if he's currently one of the lowest earners in the squad, but that'll change.

Not a bad suggestion that Jack. We'd have to weigh up whether his value would increase significantly over the £20M in future years. 2 years ago Ederson joined Man City for £35M - but more recently fees of £60M and £70M have been paid out. These are for really high profile international goalkeepers of course, so the question is, can Henderson get himself in the England team and be that kind of international standard? If he can, then £20M might be a good investment. I can't see him getting ahead of De Gea at Man Utd, he signed a 5 year contract recently with them, so I think they are thinking the same. The other unknown is whether we can stay in the Premier League for the next few years, because if we don't then that could adversely affect his future value.

I think Verrips is 3rd choice because of the contract situation. It's currently with FIFA isn't it? It's an interesting one this because effectively Verrips broke his contract with them and came to us for nothing, a few hours after we'd offered a fee. He could argue, and probably will argue, that the conduct of his club was tantamount to them breaking the contract with him - but I don't think that's a very strong case tbh. I think FIFA will probably order us to pay some kind of compensation to Mechelen - despite Mechelen's conduct in terms of match-fixing. In a further twist, Mechelen were due to be relegated as a result of the match-fixing but the Belgian FA have overturned that decision and said relegation cannot be a punishment for match-fixing! Strange! So a club can be relegated for failing to win enough games to accumulate the necessary number of points, but if they bribe another club to get those points they can't!

Belgians eh? They were never any good at "It's a Knockout" and they should stick to making beer and chocolate and covering their chips in mayonnaise and ketchup.

 

[stringer]

Not a bad suggestion that Jack. We'd have to weigh up whether his value would increase significantly over the £20M in future years. 2 years ago Ederson joined Man City for £35M - but more recently fees of £60M and £70M have been paid out. These are for really high profile international goalkeepers of course, so the question is, can Henderson get himself in the England team and be that kind of international standard? If he can, then £20M might be a good investment. I can't see him getting ahead of De Gea at Man Utd, he signed a 5 year contract recently with them, so I think they are thinking the same. The other unknown is whether we can stay in the Premier League for the next few years, because if we don't then that could adversely affect his future value.

I think Verrips is 3rd choice because of the contract situation. It's currently with FIFA isn't it? It's an interesting one this because effectively Verrips broke his contract with them and came to us for nothing, a few hours after we'd offered a fee. He could argue, and probably will argue, that the conduct of his club was tantamount to them breaking the contract with him - but I don't think that's a very strong case tbh. I think FIFA will probably order us to pay some kind of compensation to Mechelen - despite Mechelen's conduct in terms of match-fixing. In a further twist, Mechelen were due to be relegated as a result of the match-fixing but the Belgian FA have overturned that decision and said relegation cannot be a punishment for match-fixing! Strange! So a club can be relegated for failing to win enough games to accumulate the necessary number of points, but if they bribe another club to get those points they can't!

Belgians eh? They were never any good at "It's a Knockout" and they should stick to making beer and chocolate and covering their chips in mayonnaise and ketchup.

If he is available for £20m, and that amount is available, it shouldn’t even need second thought.

 

[sufcboy95]

Wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something in Ravs contract that means It can be terminated if he hasn’t played a certain amount of minutes.

 

[guancheblade]

That will be when Henderson’s loan with us is up. He signed a new contract at Man Utd before he rejoined us.

Can’t be long before Lunny gets a new deal. Can’t see any of the others getting an extension.

It might be sensible to tie Fleck down for longer before he enters his final year next season.

 

[guancheblade]

Not a bad suggestion that Jack. We'd have to weigh up whether his value would increase significantly over the £20M in future years. 2 years ago Ederson joined Man City for £35M - but more recently fees of £60M and £70M have been paid out. These are for really high profile international goalkeepers of course, so the question is, can Henderson get himself in the England team and be that kind of international standard? If he can, then £20M might be a good investment. I can't see him getting ahead of De Gea at Man Utd, he signed a 5 year contract recently with them, so I think they are thinking the same. The other unknown is whether we can stay in the Premier League for the next few years, because if we don't then that could adversely affect his future value.

I think Verrips is 3rd choice because of the contract situation. It's currently with FIFA isn't it? It's an interesting one this because effectively Verrips broke his contract with them and came to us for nothing, a few hours after we'd offered a fee. He could argue, and probably will argue, that the conduct of his club was tantamount to them breaking the contract with him - but I don't think that's a very strong case tbh. I think FIFA will probably order us to pay some kind of compensation to Mechelen - despite Mechelen's conduct in terms of match-fixing. In a further twist, Mechelen were due to be relegated as a result of the match-fixing but the Belgian FA have overturned that decision and said relegation cannot be a punishment for match-fixing! Strange! So a club can be relegated for failing to win enough games to accumulate the necessary number of points, but if they bribe another club to get those points they can't!

Belgians eh? They were never any good at "It's a Knockout" and they should stick to making beer and chocolate and covering their chips in mayonnaise and ketchup.

Why should we factor in a potential resale profit into whether or not to splash the cash on Hendo? If we're signing him its cos we want him around for several years. And if we stay up we'll have spent £20M on McBurnie FFS, but there certainly won't be any future resale profit in him LOL.

Hendo is a major reason why we are doing as well as were are doing. Spend £20M+ on him in the summer after securing another year of PL mega bucks into the Blades coffers and its a sound investment and would go a long way to helping us establish ourselves in this division.

 

[Cerberus Blade]

Why should we factor in a potential resale profit into whether or not to splash the cash on Hendo? If we're signing him its cos we want him around for several years. And if we stay up we'll have spent £20M on McBurnie FFS, but there certainly won't be any future resale profit in him LOL.

Hendo is a major reason why we are doing as well as were are doing. Spend £20M+ on him in the summer after securing another year of PL mega bucks into the Blades coffers and its a sound investment and would go a long way to helping us establish ourselves in this division.

Yes, that's a fair point. I'd like to see how good this Verrips guy is though before we make that decision. I don't think he's come here to be a reserve keeper. I just looked him up on Wiki and didn't realise that he's played a total of 6 times for his national team (Netherlands). His goalscoring record is crap though 0/6!

 

[bromtom]

Yes, that's a fair point. I'd like to see how good this Verrips guy is though before we make that decision. I don't think he's come here to be a reserve keeper. I just looked him up on Wiki and didn't realise that he's played a total of 6 times for his national team (Netherlands). His goalscoring record is crap though 0/6!

I think we got Verrips as a potential number one for the future. Certainly he's got a lot more minutes at a decent level recently than Moore, and has come in off a success so confidence will be there, so I'd imagine he'll play in the Premier League for us this season against Man U, Wilder might give Moore and Verrips one each though.

 

[jono_t2000]

That's an interesting analysis, mate well-done.

Of the players in red above, I wouldn't lose any sleep over losing any of them tbh. As you say, it's really only Hendo and Lundstram that are currently around the first team.

Hendo, I think is a good goalkeeper, sometimes a great one, but I'm not sure I want to see us spend £20M on him in summer. Not when we've got a decent keeper in Moore as back-up - and supposedly Belgium's finest young goalkeeper on our books. We should at least have a very close look at Verrips and see if he is up to Prem standard before we splash big money on Henderson.

As for Lundstram...I'd be tempted to sell him in summer and make a handsome profit on him and put that money towards a higher quality attacking midfielder. I appreciate this won't sit well with the new bandwagon of Lundstram Lovers on here - but that's what I'd do. I like Lundstram, I think the lad has come on leaps and bounds and makes a good contribution in most games, but not an outstanding one. And we need to keep raising the bar.

I think the most startling thing about these stats is that which you've summarised in your last sentence:

"the challenge in January is to find players who can offer a real challenge to the current incumbents"

I think this will become the main issue for us. We have too many players on the fringes of the first team, who cannot get into it, because they haven't shown any good reason too. We've also got the likes of McBurnie and Robinson, who are in and out of the first eleven, because they haven't shown any good reason to stay in it. It's like you say, we don't even have 11 players who automatically pick themselves every week because they are just so good that they can't be dropped. That's where we need to get to and to reach there we are going to need to jettison at least half a dozen players off in Jan and bring 3 or 4 more in.

This would actually make a lot of business sense IF Lunny had longer to go on his contract.

For sure he has changed my tune on him and he looks a prem quality player and still reasonably young too.

So selling him in Jan with little left on his contract would actually probably net us less than what he's actually worth now.

 

[bromtom]

If we'd bought Lundstram this summer and he'd played as well as he has, the suggestion of selling him a year later would get you run out of town.

People need to stop thinking people who see how important he is for us are some kind of hipsters and let their prejudice go.

 

[Wooden Blade]

Wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something in Ravs contract that means It can be terminated if he hasn’t played a certain amount of minutes.

The only thing I read at the time when he joined, is that United had the option to extend for another year.

 

[Bladesthorpe]

I think we should go out all to sign Henderson. With his age, ability, future potential, International chances etc we'd have a real asset on our books. We would have to spent £20m+ on him though like you say. Also I think he's genuinely holding out for the #1 shirt at Man Utd, so how open to signing permanently would he be?

Moore is an alright back-up but only that, unfortunately nowhere near PL standard. Can't comment on Verrips as I barely know anything about him but he seems to be third choice - whether that's to do with his contract situation or not I don't know. If Henderson isn't an option at the end of the season, we'll still need to invest heavily in a new keeper.



True. I'm sure we'll reward him with a new deal soon. Wouldn't be surprised if he's currently one of the lowest earners in the squad, but that'll change.

Not being clever here but how many Premiership games have you seen Moore play in ?

 

[YES Blade]

If we'd bought Lundstram this summer and he'd played as well as he has, the suggestion of selling him a year later would get you run out of town.

People need to stop thinking people who see how important he is for us are some kind of hipsters and let their prejudice go.

But we didn’t and this is his 3rd season, he’s done well in 10 matches so it’s still early in the season.

If he’d been putting in man of the match performances and looking world class it would be different, but he’s looked a 6 or 7 out of 10 most matches. For that reason I won’t be losing any sleep over his contract situation. It’s likely if he did leave, he’d be back in the championship.

 

[bromtom]

But we didn’t and this is his 3rd season, he’s done well in 10 matches so it’s still early in the season.

If he’d been putting in man of the match performances and looking world class it would be different, but he’s looked a 6 or 7 out of 10 most matches. For that reason I won’t be losing any sleep over his contract situation. It’s likely if he did leave, he’d be back in the championship.

He's had 2 of these, so in a fifth of our matches so far he's been MOTM.

By your reasoning we'll be selling half our team, outside of the defence there aren't many regularly putting in 9/10 performances, Fleck has had a couple of good games but not a consistent performer.

Honestly can't get my head around why people don't want one of our better players and most consistent player around, fair do's if you want Freeman on but to say you'd be happy if he left is ridiculous in my opinion.