City Squad Building: Where Are We, And What’s Needed?

bristol rovers skubala — Credit Graham Burrell

A little over a week ago, nothing had happened at the club, and I went for a week’s holiday, hoping for a quiet few days away.

Since then, we’ve had incomings and outgoings and a squad that is slowly beginning to take shape. With fixtures due this week, there’s going to be a real ‘new season’ feel upon us before too long, but what do we need before that arrives?

To ease myself back in after a week relaxing, I thought I’d have a look at the current squad and see what i think we’ll need before the transfer window closes.

Goalkeepers

Currently, we have three keepers, namely Lukas Jensen, Sam Long and Jamie Pardington. That makes me think we’re not going to see another come in, unless there’s movement on Jensen. I would suspect if we were to sell Lukas, then we’d likely go for a loan keeper again, as we did with Rushworth and Palmer.

The big question here is what happens with Long and Pardington. Long has just had a solid season at Falkirk, whilst Pardington feels like a reserve keeper, with ‘pushing Lukas’ mentioned when he signed. One will be sure to go out on loan but, if it is Sam Long again, where does that leave him long term?

Defenders

Let’s split the defenders up into two categories, shall we? On the one hand, we have Elicha Ahui, Zak Bradshaw, Jayden Brown, and Hayden Cann who I feel will perhaps not be a part of the first team squad this season. I think that’s more or less been confirmed in the case of Ahui, Brown and Cann, and it feels soon to be dropping Bradshaw into the left wing back slot. That said, he has been playing regularly for Dundalk there. Michael Kamson-Kamara is probably a bit longer term.

It also poses a major question over tactics. Bradshaw has been playing on the left of a four. If our plan is to go with a four, it changes what we need and what we do not need. So, the players I have that feel like first team squad members currently are Jay Benn (possibly), Adam Jackson, Paudie O’Connor and Sean Roughan. Currently, we have no update on Lewis Montsma.

If we’re playing four at the back, and if Montsma stays, then we’re likely to not need a centre back. If Montsma does not stay, and we play three at the back, we’re likely to need two. Alex Mitchell is no longer on the table, Charlton have that more or less sewn up, so I can see us perhaps going for a permanent signing here, and possibly a loan signing.

The full back positions are interesting. If we play as a four, we could have Roughan at full back, but it would likely rule out Duffy and Hackett in that role, so we’d likely sign one. With Lasse going, I can see another player coming in on the right as well. There’s no doubt the defence needs some additions, but who and where depends on the direction Michael Skubala wants to take the team in terms of formation.

Midfielders

We have a strong assembly of players in the middle of the park, namely Tom Bayliss, Ethan Erhahon, Oisin Gallagher, Ethan Hamilton and Conor McGrandles. Alistair Smith is likely to depart, and Gallagher may go back out on loan. However, that still leaves us with four for maybe three positions, and I can see us bringing another in. The addition will be in the Bayliss mould, a direct replacement for either Mandroiu or Bishop, both of whom seem likely to depart.

If we do make a signing here, and if we keep Erhahon, then I don’t think there will be any other major shifts. Bayliss, Erhahon, Hamilton, McGrandles and one other gives us a huge amount of flexibility in terms of shape.

Forwards

Of course, everyone wants to see us sign a striker, but actually, we’ve got a good number around the squad. In terms of first team players that I class as ‘attackers’, we have Freddie Draper, Dylan Duffy, Reeco Hackett, Ben House, Jovon Makama, Jack Moylan and Tyler Walker.

It’s fine to say ‘we need to replace Joe Taylor’, but Tyler Walker technically does that. Ben House will be hoping for a better season after struggling all last campaign, and Freddie had showed signs of real promise in the latter stages as well. Jovon proved to be a handful from the bench, and on the left Hackett and Duffy were fighting for a place in the side, and if we go three at the back, they’ll scrap for the left-back position.

We do need a recruit up top, but for me, it needs to be a player who can naturally play on the right. Perhaps this is an area we can exploit for a loan player; young, energetic players such as Morgan Whittaker and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi have been in our sights before and gone on to do well. Perhaps this is one place we can play our loan card.

Conclusion

It’s obvious there’s work to be done – we don’t kick off for six weeks or so, and if we were the finished article now, it would be a miracle. Every single club in the land is in our position, and that shouldn’t be forgotten.

We do need to add a member of backroom staff as well, that’s worth noting, so Jez and the recruitment guys are hard at it, undoubtedly, as I type. I can see exits, almost certainly for Brown and Smith, hopefully not Erhahon, but if someone has £2 million in the bank and are willing to give us it, you’d have to say crack on.

What we must not do, as fans, is lose sight of those final few minutes against Portsmouth, in the wake of their second goal where the whole ground applauded a Herculean effort to get us into the top six. We were so close, and that make sus a team to fear going into the new season. With a couple of solid signings, we’ll be okay.