Contractual Obligations
Amongst many conversations we had whilst watching the Palace game in town Friday was around which Rams players are out of contract this summer.
Clearly some have been well documented such as Greeny, Leacock, Pearo, Bywater etc. However when you start looking at it, it’s potentially quite a list!
By our calculations (and we definitely stand to corrected if anyone knows more than we do) the full list is:
- Paul Green
- Dean Leacock
- Stephen Bywater
- Stephen Pearson
- Saul Deeney
- Jake Buxton
- Lee Croft
- Russel Anderson
- Dave Martin
In addition to the above we couldn’t quite agree on Cwyka. If he was given a two year deal (my vote was that he was) then he’s up too. This could potentially mean 10 players out of contract of which only Greeny probably has a realistic chance of being retained.
With the January window now only weeks away, I would not be surprised to see Clough make some early call and some of these guys get loaned, released or sold for nominal fees (Martin, Cwyka and Croft are definitely top of this list). I don’t however expect a great deal of incoming action to replace them as the majority have already been replaced by academy players or by the summer’s recruitment drive.
Either way the summer will show a significant drop in our wage bill and squad size which can only be a good thing when you consider some of the ludicrous contracts dished out by dcfc in, pre Clough, recent history.
CSpaceram
Posted on December 5, 2011, in General Rams Comment and tagged derby county, Nigel Clough, Paul Green, ramspace, the rams. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
RAMSPACE.CO.UK 
I think Doyle is also out of contract. According to wikipedia (?) Croft signed a 3-year deal which makes him up this summer.
There’s also a few who got one year deals in the summer such as Severn, Atkins and Riggott. Not major players but all adds to the “12 axed!” headlines.
Off any of those players, Green is the only one I’m bothered about keeping. Despite not being particularly exciting, he offers a bundleload of energy seemingly lacking in a lot of our players.
The next priority is a decent winger (Ben Davies is not good enough) and some bite up front.
Cywka is out of contract in the summer – signed a 2 year contract. He’s been a major disappointment for me, looked the mutt’s nuts when he first came in on loan (against Palace he was a monster), but by my calculations it’s been over a year since he was last good. Easy for the haters to point the finger at ‘poor management’ but sound similar to the comments that were hanging over him when he left Wigan – loads of ability, rarely applies it though.
Non of that little lot will be missed except Greeny.
I’m astounded by this list. Well done for putting it all together. It looks like we’re heading for significant savings on our wage bill. However, I doubt we’ll be able to farm many of these players out on loan or offload them in January, if past experience is anything to go by. This means we’ll have to wait for their contracts to lapse in the summer. Hopefully this will free up some cash for signings but will it be enough to sign someone for over a million? Not so sure.
Another one for the list – Gareth Roberts. Signed two year deal (again according to wikipedia – too much time on my hands). Think we’ll do a J-Mac on him “done ok but not solved the problem, let’s move on”
The list pleases me. I hope we keep Green, otherwise, the veterans and discards can be shifted on, allowing new blood to be recruited. I’m sure there won’t be too many lavish fees floating around, but then, that will be the same all around the Championship, as Financial Fair Play regulations will stop anybody from cheating via the route of ‘financial doping’ (hello, Leicester).
As one of the bigger clubs in the division in terms of fanbase, we should hopefully be well positioned, although the clubs coming down with parachute payments will still have the edge, unless they have been horrendously mismanaged whilst in the PL (hello, Birmingham).
So revised list is Greeny, Leacock, Bywater, Pearo, Deeney, Bucko, Crofty, Ando, Martin, Cwyka, Robbo, Riggott and Doyle! That’s 13 players from the first team squad and I agree with Ollie it’s actually a positive representation of how we now run our club.
Expect an article to this effect in the DET at some point in the next week.
Another for the list – Steve Davies! We think he was given a one year extension with an option of a further year.
Assuming he won’t make his minimum appearances for the ‘option’, thats another decision for Nigel to make. The difference is that one won’t be an easy one.
Actually still think you’ve missed a few guys – if you want to include first-year pros then the full figure comes to a frankly astounding 20. As follows….
Bywater, Atkins, Deeney, Roberts, Riggott, Leacock, Buxton, Anderson, Cywka, Martin, Pearson, Croft, Green, Doyle, Steve Davies.
Plus youngsters James Severn, Chris Jones, Aaron Cole, Alex Witham and Ryan Connolly.
To me, that should free up a massively significant figure from the wage bill over the summer, how much is open to debate but I’m willing to take a guess and say there’s not going to be much change from £60,000 a week there.
So, it begs the question, who do you keep? After the last few performances, Greeny is a must. He was superb at Palace (especially after being moved further up the pitch), and gives us something we don’t really have at present – the ability to make something happen. I’d be inclined to keep Ross Atkins as well – he’s been performing well at Burton by all accounts, and would fit in well with the current ethos of young home-grown players being given their chance. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a couple of the youngsters given one-year deals as well – can’t say I know an awful lot about any of them really, other than that Connolly was very highly rated 18 months or so ago, and has done well to battle back from a serious knee injury.
Of the rest, I don’t think many tears will be shed if/when they’re allowed to leave – the only real disappointments for me would be Cywka (as already mentioned, bags of potential, but seemingly unable to realise it) and Steve Davies (looked good back in August, never really had that injury-free run that he needed to answer his critics). Would be nice to have an opinion on David Martin, but I’m not sure many of us have actually seen him!!
UTR