As part of the Stacey West Podcast this week, we were asked to assess the future of six current Imps.
These are the players that are widely believed to be out of contract in the summer, and we were given the remit of deciding what we, as laymen, would do if we were in the club’s shoes.
We are Chris and Gary, and here is a tidied-up transcript from the podcast, for those who prefer to read rather than listen.
Reeco Hackett
Chris: New deal.
Gary: A lot will depend on whether he wishes to stay. He’ll have been with us for three years. He’s from the South; he played the majority of his football there: Charlton, Portsmouth, Bromley, I believe. He’s getting to the stage where League One and Two players look beyond football.
That’s player-led, but I would renew. I like Reeco Hackett.
Ben House
Chris: His value is on the pitch and he’s very valuable for us. Side note: because of his versatility and how he’s played in so many positions already this season, editing his positions on the Football Manager database for the upcoming game has been a nightmare, to make him not be the best player in the world because of his versatility.
That took some tinkering. Versatility 20 out of 20.
Gary: There aren’t many players with his profile: the way he plays, where he plays, how flexible he is. He can play deeper in midfield, he can play as the nine, gives you cover, and I like him pressing hard.
Horses for courses: in some games, in the 10 role we need him over a creator. Renew all day long. I think the window for selling him for big money to the Championship has passed.
Conor McGrandles
Chris: Renew again. We’ve been waxing lyrical about McGrandles since the start of this season and retrospectively changed our opinion of last season in hindsight, haven’t we?
He’s almost irreplaceable at the moment. I know we’ve got a long-term successor in the building in Ivan, but Conor is a really experienced head now and very dependable. He offers calmness in a frantic midfield and front few because of how intense we are. You have to offer McGrandles a new deal, maybe a couple of years.
Gary: There’s recency bias in these answers. If we’d lost three or four on the bounce, we might say we need to freshen up. We were fourth going into the international break, and we’ve come out sixth with teams overtaking because of games in hand.
I’m going to say renew. I did an article this morning, six of the most underrated players of the EFL era, and I picked McGrandles straight away. Stacey West readers named him Player of the Year in 2020–21. He hasn’t changed as a player, if anything, he’s more industrious, hard-working, and functional. Not sexy words, but he does everything right.
Adam Reach
Chris: Impossible to decide after five or six games. I really like what he’s brought: delivery, calmness, decision-making in possession. We’ve got a more defensive-minded left-back in Riley Towler, who we expect to see more as a centre-back over the next two or three seasons.
We were heavily linked with Mr. Honohan at Shamrock Rovers in the summer, so I imagine we’ll still look to bring in a really athletic left-back who can bomb up and down. Towler is a centre-back who can play left-back or left of a three. Reach has really good delivery, right place, right time, can drift into central midfield; he’s rarely going to get on the overlap. I don’t think he’s got the legs for that anymore, but he picks his moments well.
If you just need legs, that’s what we haven’t got. Signing another left-back doesn’t mean Reach is no longer required, his skill set is important. So, provided he stays fit, another one-year makes sense for his on-ball quality even if we sign someone else.
Gary: It’s hard to decide because we haven’t seen enough. There isn’t any chance of selling, we won’t sell him in January; nobody’s going to buy Adam Reach. It depends on fitness through to the end of the season and what targets we may or may not land in January as to whether we renew.
At some point with older players we have to make decisions: you can’t renew a 35-year-old three years in a row. It’d be unfair to judge Reach now because we’ve only seen him five or six games. I’ll sit on the fence.
James Collins
Chris: I really like James Collins. However, I feel we’ve succession-planned well. We’ve got Freddie Draper waiting in the wings to play that role, and Rob Street.
Long term, I imagine Draper and Street will have an honest battle for our starting nine. It might be horses for courses—whether we want an in-behind runner or someone to play back-to-goal. Fred’s been dropping into the 10 and done well, but I don’t think that’s his long-term position.
Rob’s done really well on the right, becoming a second striker at times when he cuts inside running in behind, but I don’t think that’s his long-term position either. He deserves to be in the team, which is why he’s out there. It depends: if James scores 20 this season and there’s another-year option, you’re not going to say no
Gary: Keep James Collins. Look at Billy Sharp. Year after year, he turns up and scores, even if not a starter. It depends on finances, but even at 34, he isn’t going to get any slower than he is now, and he’s not blessed with pace, so you won’t see a huge drop-off.
I don’t think there’d be a huge change from where he is now to a year or two down the line. He’s the type of player you want in the squad.
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