By AD
August 11 2009

I was hoping to write a fair few things for this site over the summer, brimming with positivity and highlighting the ambition and progression of the club.

Mixed with Ray Ranson stating “supporters will be really excited when they see the players we start to bring in” and stating that he wanted to tie down our better players on longer contracts optimism was high, despite the poor end to the previous season. Then as usual reality comes along and gives you a massive kick in the knackers.

The departures of Andy Marshall, Donovan Simmonds and Michael Mifsud had all been announced long before the end of last season, none of whom had played a significant amount of first team football and were therefore replaceable. It meant the loss of a fair bit of experience, but fitted in with the management team’s desire for a younger, hungrier squad brimming with potential which they could develop into the finished article.

Despite these ‘promises’, I was fully expecting the sale of one of the ‘big four’ during the summer to plug the probable shortfall in funds available from SISU due to the recession, so when Scott Dann upped sticks for Birmingham in mid-June it didn’t come as much of a surprise. Of all four he was probably the one we could most afford to lose as we’re pretty well stocked with centre backs and we got a decent price for him too if rumours of £3.5-4m are accurate. If the money allowed us to bring in two or three players in more urgent areas, like a couple of wingers and an attacking midfielder, then it’d be an acceptable loss.

However, the following week was a rather testing time with the squad being left woefully short of numbers. Robbie Simpson was sold to Huddersfield, Beuzelin rejected the offer of staying for another year and Kevin Thornton was told to pack his bags after a conviction for drunk driving. Again, none of these players would be considered integral to the first team but had a vital role to play as squad members (Simpson and Beuzelin both featured in over 30 matches each last season) and would need to be replaced.

Four youngsters from last year’s academy side (Ashley Cain, Curtis Wynter, Adam Walker and Jermaine Grandison) signed one years deals to make up part of the shortfall so at least we’d have enough players available to fill a matchday squad (provided there were no injuries or suspensions) but more experienced names needed to be added, and quickly if they were to be able to join in during pre-season and enable the team to hit the ground running. Last season the on-going saga of Freddy Eastwood and the late acquisitions of Stephen Wright and Clinton Morrison meant the team started the season without really being able to get to know each other’s games, and we didn’t want that to happen again this season if at all possible.

The rebuilding programme wasn’t helped with Coleman’s main summer transfer target, Andrew Driver, featuring for England U21’s in the European Championships, resulting in his club, Hearts, linking his transfer value to the Zimbabwean inflation rate and thus totally beyond our means. The player never seemed overly keen on joining anyway, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise allowing us to concentrate on other targets rather than waste the rest of the summer in a fruitless quest.