Smallwood Has Left The Building

Regression going froward , I didn’t mention his past performances.

 

McGoldrick is 3 years older and spent part of last season injured. He was made an offer but rejected it. It's not an exact mirror image. That said I will have no issues with the decision if we replace Smallwood with someone of equal or better quality, although I do worry about maintaining the togetherness of the squad, bur that's GA's job.

 

This article, albeit cutting and inflammatory, as you say is merely one person's side of the story. My fear is that this could disupt the cohesion within the existing squad and make the recruitment that bit harder by showing such a ruthless approach. I hope this all boils down to GA assessing our style, and what we need to progress in L1, and already has a replacement lined up/signed up who he feels can take us to that next level. I do hope we get a response from GA sooner rather than later

 

There is no guarantee that Ritchie performs next season. As he did this. Undoubtedly his best of the 3 but still with terrible set pieces , which he took 90%
God forbid we get relegated, with a two year deal we’d have the same guy trying to get us out again two years older and on more money
GA has made the decision and as good as ritchie has been this season, I can not see him signing for anyone on far greater wages than he is on currently
I wish him well, but we move on, hopefully to better things

 

Yes he was offered a year but wanted a big increase as well if their forum is to be believed. My apologies .


David McGoldrick has rejected our offer of a new contract.

A statement from our board of directors reads: “While we’re of course disappointed to be losing a player of David’s quality and character, he leaves having given us many fantastic memories over the last two years.

“Unfortunately we have been unable to reach an agreement on this occasion, but everyone at Meadow Lane thanks David wholeheartedly for his charismatic performances, wonderful goals, leadership and dedication.

 

It looks like the rumour that Smallwood wanted 2 years but City only wanted 1 were correct, and somewhere along the line Smallwood then conceded he was only going to get 1 year but City have since pulled the plug. He will be a big miss and I only hope a decent replacement is coming in.

 

Maybe I'm being too optimistic around who we're going to replace him with, but I don't think its the end of the world that he's leaving.

If we were putting together a starting 11 to start the season and he was in midfield along with Power, I'm not entirely sure I'd feel comfortable that we'd have the legs to cope. Would have been a good to keep around as a squad player, good for leadership/experience, so we'll have to make that up elsewhere - but maybe he wouldn't have wanted that/his wages are too high for us to carry that.

 

It was mainly their ages and injury record I was comparing but perhaps both clubs have made the right decision. Personally I thought Smallwood had another good year left in him but do appreciate the risks too. It will be really interesting to see where he ends up.

 

He only wanted a 1 year deal though, he was satsified with that. If thats the case, I would have given him it.

Would you have been shocked and upset, citing no room for sentiment if Smallwood was announced as getting a new 1 year deal?

 

In a way I do actually admire Alexander for his stance. It would have been easy to play it safe and offer Smallwood another year given the season he’s just had but GA obviously thinks we can do better with the wages he’s on and has shown a level of ruthlessness we need to make the step up. On the face of it though the whole situation was poorly handled. Clearly Alexander wanted to keep him at some point (or strongly considered it) or he’d have been released when the departure/retained list was announced.

 

That would be my worry as well. Maybe that is what it is designed to do. I don’t know why and I certainly don’t have any evidence to back it up but I think R/S could be a handful to manage. Last season he activated his own 12 months clause, if you think about it the club might well have been looking for another player to take his place. I think the only reason he wasn’t on the “thank you and goodbye list” was his performances this season and his contribution to promotion.

Thinking about the club may well have wanted to look elsewhere this season and anticipated him asking for 2 years. It was at that point the club said no.

 

Let’s not forget Smallwood was a Hughes signing, so Alexander worked with the hand he was dealt with. GA had to keep moral going to get us promoted, with Smallwoods influence in the changing room being crucial. GA might have felt the budget was too restricted with his wages and maybe felt any offer would’ve been an insult. It’s never good washing your laundry in public and I can only see this as a negative. Time will tell if it’s the right decision or not, but maybe he was too big a character. The Middlesbrough gang have quite a big presence, (character wise) in the dressing room and this could be GA taking back control. Only my opinion though.

 

GA played him every time he was fit and available and was always full of praise for him. The reason he is going is as you say budget related we have probably missed out players to other clubs and has to do this to compete in the market

 

Good luck to Richie - hopefully whoever signs him doesn't have to wait 18 months for him to produce something meaningful.

 

Yeah maybe he blamed him for nearly chucking promotion away. It certainly killed any title hopes.

Alexander must have felt terrible, he went up to Boro to break the news to Richie in person.

 

But @Bradford End states it is not money related.

 

There might be some truth in that. After we beat Hull in the Cup the club got Cooky, Gilly and Richie a minibus to drive down on matchdays. GA stopped it as he felt it was too cliquey.

 

We’ve got Tilt, Byrne and Baldwin signed up, have offered Kelly a new deal and are considering Huntington. That’s potentially 5 out the of 6 CB’s we need signed up. Not even Pearson would help bridge the gap required to make that a top 6 defence.