The out of contract players

blandford_cherry

blandford_cherry

UTC Legend
Articles over night suggesting the club or players rejected moves away last summer including Steve Cook, Lerma, Brooks, Billing, Danjuma and Rico. The Steve Cook one interested me....

As I understand it Stanislas, Smith and Steve Cook are all able to leave for free at the end of the season, with Gosling, Simpson, King, Oforborh the other ones who were out of contract already departed.

I can’t imagine the likes of Stanislas and Steve Cook are waiting to find out what league we will be in before committing to a new contract - potentially Smith could get away with a PL move. Surely the club isn’t prepared to let these two or three move on a free?
 
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Think all three will be offered contracts by Prem clubs as squad players. Would not be at all surprised to see all three depart.
 
New Forest Cherry said:
Really? On what evidence?
Most prem squads already stuffed full of make-weights, why would anyone what our underperforming 30 pluses?
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You're right that managers will always be pushing to sign players for the first team but...

Steve Cook will be 30 for the majority of next season and could easily be cover for any team in the Premier League if there's a gap.
Adam Smith also 30 for the majority of next season, can play left and right back, wingback, and can replace a winger if holding onto a lead. Great utility option for a lot of clubs.

Stanislas I think will spend most of next season at 32 and while technically gifted has an unenviable injury record so he's the one I think might struggle for a contract with a squad size cap.
 
Kudos said:
You're right that managers will always be pushing to sign players for the first team but...

Steve Cook will be 30 for the majority of next season and could easily be cover for any team in the Premier League if there's a gap.
Adam Smith also 30 for the majority of next season, can play left and right back, wingback, and can replace a winger if holding onto a lead. Great utility option for a lot of clubs.

Stanislas I think will spend most of next season at 32 and while technically gifted has an unenviable injury record so he's the one I think might struggle for a contract with a squad size cap.
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Ironically Stanislas is also the one I’d most like to see us keep. Smith I think it is time to move on tbh.
 
Stacey is more than an adequate replacement for Smith and there were rumours Burnley wanted him in the transfer windows. Stanislas’s injury record wouldn’t be attractive to a PL club although his goals to games ratio when fit must be pretty good. I’d be gutted if Steve Cook left on a free, ive always thought he is Bournemouth through and through and surprised no contract has been offered (that we know about).
 
DJ said:
Not entirely sure how Cook and Stanislas can be referred too as “under performing 30 pluses”.

Both have had excellent performances this season....




... and Cook is only 29
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semantics
yes, both have performed well at times this season but they're a million miles away from a move to a prem club
 
Couldn’t agree more RH. Moreover I think Infrastructure FC have a 50% sell on clause for Steve Cook. If so it makes perfect sense to hang on to him to the end of his contract.
 
Another point is that I think we do need a bit of a rebuild, the balance of the squad isn’t there at the moment imo. Both in character and in playing styles. We have a lot of very good individuals but they can not seem to gel as a team. Maybe the club is willing to let some of its higher earners (I assume) leave to facilitate this rebuild.
 
Are we not overrating these players slightly? I’d be shocked if there is a queue of clubs wanting to sign them.
Cook is far more important for us than he would be any other club, and he was at the heart of a defence that consistently conceded more goals than most in the Prem. I just can’t see that he’d be in high demand.

Stanislas spends most of his time injured and isn’t exactly young for an attacking midfielder/winger. Smith has not had a great season.

Id imagine they are waiting to see what league we’re in, but more because it will determine the wages we can offer them rather than decide whether they stay or not.
 
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james_AFCB said:
Are we not overrating these players slightly? I’d be shocked if there is a queue of clubs wanting to sign them.
Cook is far more important for us than he would be any other club, and he was at the heart of a defence that consistently conceded more goals than most in the Prem. I just can’t see that he’d be in high demand.

Stanislas spends most of his time injured and isn’t exactly young for an attacking midfielder/winger. Smith has not had a great season.

Id imagine they are waiting to see what league we’re in, but more so as it will determine the wages we can offer them rather than decide whether they stay or not.
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Quite right. For instance, if we don't get promoted this season, then Cookie's new contract will almost certainly be with a lower wage than he is on now. He is currently earning wages from his PL contract ( albeit somewhat reduced due to relegation ) and I think it is unlikely that we will offer similar terms whilst mired in the Championship for the foreseeable future.

So the club needs to know which league we'll be in next season and Cookie's agent needs to know which terms we can offer his client and then seek a better deal if we are not offering enough.

I'm sure Cookie will be happy to stay here if we can offer him what he is on now but he won't necessarily accept a pay cut if there are other better offers available to him.

His fate with us will be decided in the summer, one way or another. I can't see either side committing to a new contract before then.
 
Think a few people need to remind themselves of how poor some of the bottom half squads are before deciding that a couple of our players with 100+ premier league appearances under their belt are not worth signing on a free transfer as first team backups (as a minimum).
 
This situation no doubt has caused lack of focus and again I cannot believe the powers to be have let this happen. Proves that EH was probably right to step away and what an impossible job JT was having to get this team playing to their proper potential.
 
Something I've been thinking about for a while now... With most players who have recently had their contracts running down, there has at least been a little bit of communication about their statuses... I'm surprised more-so with Cook, being the club captain that there has been not one word mentioned (that I've seen) about where things are with his contract...

Whilst I fully understand the comments above about both parties needing to be in full understanding of where we are at before they can commit to things, you would have thought we'd have heard murmurs of such negotiations/discussions in the media...

For me, I too would be gutted to lose Cook. Yes our defence was leaky in the PL, but we talk of forwards only been as good as their midfield service and I firmly believe that a defence at times can only be as good as the midfield that protects it. Yes he has mistakes in him but his last-ditch blocks and challenges have far outnumbered the mistakes...

I think Smith has also been great for us but I do think Stacey is probably a better option now... Smith will feature less and less the longer he is here, where I imagine he could walk into most other top Champ sides as first choice RB... Poss even bottom end PL sides.

Stan is difficult as he's been awesome this year and (touch wood) largely injury free. When he's good, he's really good, but his age and record is massively going to go against him upcoming contract negotiations...

I'd love to see all 3 stay, but push comes to shove... Steve Cook is a must for me...
 
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