Anthony O’Connor wants to stay next season

Time to move on for me. We need better if we want to progress. I'd prefer players that will be strong in both this and league 1. He's been here for 3 years and hasn't brought enough to the side to say he deserves another contract.

 

We can't have him continuing at right back if he stays.

We need a proper right back.

 

?

 

I'd defo keep for another season good league 2 defender. You need for central defenders staunton, paudie canavan and o'conner good competition for next season.

 

He's not strong enough to play in the centre and is easily best in the air. He be half decent at full back of he had a bit of pace and could find a man with a pass. I don't think he's done too bad in this recent spell but added up over the spell of his contact, I doubt think we've had value for money. Him, Wood, O'Donnell, Pritchard and Donaldson need to go as we've stagnated and regressed with them in the squad. If we're serious about promotion next season, let's be ruthless and go for it...

 

I agree with the point of the post but I'm not sure if he's better. He's definitely younger though and has some potential.

 

At the beginning of the season , even as far into it as December, AOC was a player that I believed was still here for no reason other than his contract ran to summer 2021, and we couldn't shift him elsewhere. He'd been as complicit as the rest of the team at the time, that got us relegated.
My personnel thoughts on him were, I never want to see him in a city shirt again.

Since T&S took over the reins, we've seen a far more settled and happier AOC, at both centre half and full back.
Putting in some tremendous ( arguably) goal saving challenges, lots of effort, and recently (may have been Bolton) I had him as my MOTM.

Having said that, he's not a full-back, and out of our centre-half's he's probably the weakest.

It's likely he'll leave in the summer, however, from been part of the pathetic relegation squad, he'll now leave without a cloud over his head from his time here. And bravo to him for that, it show's how the lad has pulled it around and clearly does care.

 

I’ll get his cars washed for free and drive him to his his new club.

Even put a few free air fresheners in his car, as a goodbye present.

 

When AOC makes an error or has a poor game it’s immediately jumped on but his good performances always seem to go under the radar. It’s almost like he hasn’t put in a string of strong performances and been part of a defence which has served us very well of late. He’s not perfect, but he adequately covers two positions and we’ve got far bigger issues to address further up the pitch.

Keep.

 

Keep on an improved contract and hand him back his armband.

 

It’s probably best for both parties to have a fresh start, same with Wood. Both have had some good and not so good performances whilst here but have been part of the club that were top half in league 1 fighting for promotion to bottom half league 2. By no means am I blaming them, but sometimes it’s best to get fresh eyes in the club who haven’t been part of non stop negativity like they have the last 3 seasons. I think he’ll be on far more than his worth as he came in when Rahic was throwing money about.

I wish them all the best in the summer but I’d be looking at both full back positions especially if we are to persist with a formation that is heavily reliant on them. It’d be nice to have full backs who make more of an effort to stop easy balls into the box for a start.

 

I would keep both Aoc and Wood the former has done a good job overall both in central defence and full back. And I think we would struggle to improve on Wood with the resources we have.
The next transfer window needs to concentrate on central midfield and a more balanced forward line

 

Completely agree with this. He's good competition for what are two very slow centre backs in POC and Canavan. Also covers more than one position pretty adequately which is more than can be said for other 'utility' players we have.

 

I’d be shocked if Wood wants to stay, regardless of the odd generic interview he’s given when he’s said he’d be open to a new deal I wouldn’t expect a player to say anything else. The biggest tell for me was when he said it could be lonely away from his family in Essex, fully expect him to move to a club down south in the summer and can’t blame him. Sometimes it’s best for both parties to start a fresh.

 

He's also reportedly amongst the higher end of the wage structure though. Do we really need a back up or utility player eating up that much of the budget?

 

Some contributors on here are like the protesters outside that Batley school, they won't give up until the teacher is got rid of. They won't accept AOC being given a new contract and he's out of the club, regardless of what the managers/headmaster think.

 

He probably wouldn't be offered the same terms.