Carey's Contract.

[Rednready]

Several threads including Malone's have mentioned Carey being offered a 1 year, by year contract. No different to Murray who received 1 year contracts for the past 2 seasons. Senior players must expect shorter contracts as they wind down their careers, unless of course they have an outstanding talent. I agree with GJ on that point, as you end up paying top wages for a senior player who is getting slower and not getting selected.

Lets look at a few statistics.

Seniors : Murray 34, Basso 33, Adebola 33, Trundle 32, John 32, Carey 32 in January, McAllister 30, McIndoe 30 next season.

Under 23: Fontaine, Maynard, Ribiero, James Wilson, Akinde and Artus who has dropped off the radar completely.

Regular squad members, in between: G Williams 28, Brooker 27, Noble 26, LJ 26, McCombe25, B Wilson 25, Elliot 24, Orr, Sproule and others who make the squad.

Given the speed and fitness required for the modern game, I cant see any of the senior group of 8 getting more than a 1-2 year contract, especially the 32 and over group. GJ has shown his hand with Ribiero, James Wilson, Maynard and Akindi. With the club running at a 2 million pound loss, there will be no room for charity, unless as in Murrays case they are involved in our juniors developement structure.

[GrahamC]

If it's true that Louis Carey has been offered another year then I think that's fair, he's 32 in January and whilst he is still a very good player we can't commit longer term to someone who could be starting the slippery slope to being injury prone anytime soon.

My real concern though is our strikers, if we sign Stern John, we'd have the 33 year old Dele Adebola and two 32 year olds in Lee Trundle and John, I expect Steve Brooker to be on his way in January but my guess is that at least one of those 3 won't be here by June, either.