Laws Now Thinking About Out-of-Contract Players

Our new manager, Brian Laws has certainly had a lot on his plate since becoming the gaffer only last month.

He has had an hectic time in the January transfer window bringing in six new players including sorting out David Nugent's loan extension from Portsmouth. Laws has also had to sort out his backroom staff and make the releveant appointments.

Games have also been coming thick and fast including high-profile matches against Manchester United and Bolton away plus Chelsea at home. Sadly we have lost all matches along with being knocked out of the FA Cup by Reading at the Madejski.

So its four defeats out of four so far for Laws and everybody will be hoping we can break this bleak spell with a victory against fellow strugglers, West Ham at Turf Moor today (Saturday 6th). None more so than the busy Laws who if you include his last few weeks at his former club Sheffield Wednesday has now gone 13 games without a win!

If that is not enough, he also has a number of players out of contract in the summer; in fact eleven first team players

They are as follows:

Keepers

Brian Jensen
Nicky Weaver

Defenders

Clarke Carlisle
Steven Caldwell (captain)
Christian Kalvenes
Stephen Jordan
Michael Duff

Midfielders

Joey Gudjonsson
Graham Alexander (player-coach)
Robbie Blake

Striker

Steven Thompson

We also have a number of first-year professionals to consider including Wes Fletcher and Alex-Ray Harvey.

All will be anxious to know if they have a future with the club and Laws will now be giving some attention to this.

'Decisions will have to made so it`s something I`ll be looking at over the coming weeks," said Laws speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph

"I said to the players that if they could leave me alone until the window shut I`d start looking at them more closely and observing what I think is right for the football club.

"Those that are out of contract will want to know, so I`ll be letting them know in the not too distant future.

"And when you`re out of contract of course it will motivate you to work harder.

"No-one`s got a divine right to get a contract. You`ve got to work and show that you`re the type of player that`s going to give everything to the football club.

"But I have no question about that, because they are good people."

He will certainly need to make some tough decisions and that could involve saying goodbye to a number of players who have become legends at the club with a number having certainly been around for some time both under Cotterill and/or Coyle. Jensen and Blake of course also played under Stan Ternent.

He might also have to make decisions on the assumption that we could be in the Championship next season where some of these players might do a better job at that level than they have been able to do in the top flight.

We might see a number of one-year contracts to that effect with Laws edging his bets on whether we get relegated or not.

Although the contracts run out in the summer, those players will want to know Laws intentions as soon as possible since they can now speak to other clubs about a possible move. Laws will therefore not have the luxury in all cases of knowing whether we have survived the drop or not and will have to make decisions and inform the players earlier.

So who would you keep and who would you let go? Why not tell us below this thread or discuss in our forum? You might also like to discuss whether your mind would be changed depending on which division we are in next season.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.