Opinion: Those Still Contracted Who Need Shifting

This likely will not be a very controversial article in the most part. Bolton Wanderers have a number of players on their books who have proved themselves at various stages to be not up to the job. In addition though it is also necessary to look ahead at who will be able to make the step up to the Championship.

An expensive player who clearly showed his flaws as the club dropped out of the Championship. Cardiff City took him off us this season but I’m not aware of him playing regularly. It will be an uphill struggle to find anyone prepared to take him off our hands and pay a decent proportion of those wages. But offloading even part of a wage that large could be vital as we look to add to the squad which got us promoted in the summer.

Brought in as Parkinson’s man he failed to make an impact in half a season before being loaned out. His form in front of goal did seem to pick up a bit while out on loan, but after the evidence of his Bolton form there must be serious doubts he will be able to compete in the Championship. Finding a League One club prepared to take a chance should though, hopefully, be possible freeing up a valuable squad space.

He is another player who failed to hit the ground running at Wanderers. He has already been offloaded by one Championship club in Blackburn Rovers and I expect Bolton to be a second. I am not sure how he fared at Oldham Athletic but he seems like a player who a League One side will be prepared to take a punt on again.

For me Pratley is just not going to be good enough in the Championship. He runs around a lot but does little else of consistent value other than keeping the clubs yellow card stats ticking over. Add that to his large wage and off loading him should be a priority. Only problem is the aforementioned high wage putting teams off.

Both have showed themselves to be very capable this season. Alnwick probably shades it for me as number one mind. Next season though I do not see us successfully offloading Amos and that means one of these two will need to be moved on, especially if we continue under the transfer embargo squad restriction.

If we do move Amos on I would be looking to bring in a goalkeeper who is proven in the Championship to supplement what we have with one of Howard and Alnwick staying on. Its no reflection on the season they have both had, but in an ideal world we will be improving the squad in all areas this summer.

When you further consider that we have Jake Turner, the clubs young player of the year, and Will Jaaskelainen waiting in the wings as promising keepers we don’t really need three established options. It would be far better to make the space in the squad and wages to ensure they are contracted going forward.

I anticipate this being the least controversial pick. He was celebrating promotion as if he played a role in securing it. If anything he did the opposite with his useless performances this season. He is a player on a high wage considering his age and general lack of ability. The problem is, who is going to take a chance on him? I think we will have to hope that a League Two side sees something in him.

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So there it is. With so many out of contract too it may be hard to create a full squad without keeping on some of these lads. But if we could shift and replace even half of them I would be very happy. With our current restrictions though finding replacements could be even more difficult than moving the players on in the first place, it is going to be an interesting summer at the Reebok.