Squad for 2025-2026

[ILoveMoonPig]

I'm getting the impression that life in L1 is very much a case of basically doing a yearly squad rebuild. You can't really build long term, anyone young enough and developing well will take their shot at a step up to the champ.

I'm really grateful we have a pipeline of promising youngsters coming through and I hope we keep that going. It means we have a steady stream of young talent waiting to step in.

A lot of clubs will have to get promoted the first time they start doing well, or basically lose their star players and fall away.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I'm getting the impression that life in L1 is very much a case of basically doing a yearly squad rebuild. You can't really build long term, anyone young enough and developing well will take their shot at a step up to the champ.

I'm really grateful we have a pipeline of promising youngsters coming through and I hope we keep that going. It means we have a steady stream of young talent waiting to step in.

A lot of clubs will have to get promoted the first time they start doing well, or basically lose their star players and fall away.

That's not really true. We've lost Craig and Wareham to rivals when they could have been good squad options, and which may not have happened if we had the ability to open contract renewal negotiations earlier last season. We lost Mbengue to QPR, but again I bet we'd have tried to renew him and Bindon last summer.

Of course the best and highest potential players will move to the Championship, but ideally it would be a maximum of 2 or 3 a season and all for good fees. Then maybe add 3 or 4 who you let go when contracts expire, but by definition they will be easier to absorb. You should never be negotiating contracts for key players upon expiry, and if they want to run it down they become one of the players you sell.

So overall, you'd expect a churn of 5 - 7 players a season, of which most are fringe players you choose to let go and the better ones bring in money. No need for a full rebuild every year.

We've been rebuilding the squad pretty much every summer apart from 2024 solely because of bad ownership.

[Sutekh]

I'm getting the impression that life in L1 is very much a case of basically doing a yearly squad rebuild. You can't really build long term, anyone young enough and developing well will take their shot at a step up to the champ.

I'm really grateful we have a pipeline of promising youngsters coming through and I hope we keep that going. It means we have a steady stream of young talent waiting to step in.

A lot of clubs will have to get promoted the first time they start doing well, or basically lose their star players and fall away.

That's not really true. We've lost Craig and Wareham to rivals when they could have been good squad options, and which may not have happened if we had the ability to open contract renewal negotiations earlier last season. We lost Mbengue to QPR, but again I bet we'd have tried to renew him and Bindon last summer.

Of course the best and highest potential players will move to the Championship, but ideally it would be a maximum of 2 or 3 a season and all for good fees. Then maybe add 3 or 4 who you let go when contracts expire, but by definition they will be easier to absorb. You should never be negotiating contracts for key players upon expiry, and if they want to run it down they become one of the players you sell.

So overall, you'd expect a churn of 5 - 7 players a season, of which most are fringe players you choose to let go and the better ones bring in money. No need for a full rebuild every year.

We've been rebuilding the squad pretty much every summer apart from 2024 solely because of bad ownership.

This is also the first window in ages where the restrictions are off and the club can move to bring in players they actually want (and that therefore are also wanted at other clubs) rather than having to wait to dig around in the freebie bin and look for loans no-one else is particularly interested in. Presume there will be a lot fewer triallists around the club this summer too.

[ILoveMoonPig]

I'm getting the impression that life in L1 is very much a case of basically doing a yearly squad rebuild. You can't really build long term, anyone young enough and developing well will take their shot at a step up to the champ.

I'm really grateful we have a pipeline of promising youngsters coming through and I hope we keep that going. It means we have a steady stream of young talent waiting to step in.

A lot of clubs will have to get promoted the first time they start doing well, or basically lose their star players and fall away.

That's not really true. We've lost Craig and Wareham to rivals when they could have been good squad options, and which may not have happened if we had the ability to open contract renewal negotiations earlier last season. We lost Mbengue to QPR, but again I bet we'd have tried to renew him and Bindon last summer.

Of course the best and highest potential players will move to the Championship, but ideally it would be a maximum of 2 or 3 a season and all for good fees. Then maybe add 3 or 4 who you let go when contracts expire, but by definition they will be easier to absorb. You should never be negotiating contracts for key players upon expiry, and if they want to run it down they become one of the players you sell.

So overall, you'd expect a churn of 5 - 7 players a season, of which most are fringe players you choose to let go and the better ones bring in money. No need for a full rebuild every year.

We've been rebuilding the squad pretty much every summer apart from 2024 solely because of bad ownership.

This is probably reasonable. My head is still operating at 2005 levels, where you being in 2 or 3 players a year and the squad gently changes over time. That's just not the case any more.