Sometimes it seems like the Seagulls are permanently engulfed in turmoil, football’s answer to ‘Unlucky Alf’ from the fast show. Earlier this month we saw the questions over McGhee’s future which were eventually solved with the managerial reshuffle, but the future of 9 squad members is still yet to be determined.
For a club such as Brighton, it is crucial to ensure there is nobody on the payroll who is simply a passenger due to the limited finances. This makes the decision over renewing or releasing players even harder.
The 9 out of contract players include club captain Charlie Oatway, 2004 player of the year Guy Butters and longest serving player Kerry Mayo.
The natural reaction to any such disappointment as the 2005/06 season would to instigate a wholesale clear out. In our case, this could easily prove to be a false economy. Attracting players to the Withdean Stadium is far easier said than done and it’s futile releasing players only to replace them with weaker stock than you began with.
Looking at the current Albion squad you can’t fail to notice the significant amount of youth team graduates. As been proved with the sale of Adam Virgo and Dan Harding for healthy fees, this is no bad thing but a wholesale clearout could leave the squad dangerously low on experience.
However, it is important to ensure no deadwood lingers on, simply for the sake of nostaglia. News has already leaked of Chris McPhee’s release, which is a decision that must be welcomed. The striker always gave 100% when he played but the jury was definitely out on whether he was a top end of League 1 player.
It would also be surprising if Jason Dodd is retained, as injury decimated his 2005/06 campaign and as said in the introduction, we can’t afford ANY passengers this time around.
Who will stay? Don’t ask me for any predictions, because there is one big thing I’ve learnt following the Albion, you never know what’s around the corner!
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