I've attached my latest update of lists of squads for our division, up to and including yesterday evening. Chatham and Horsham have been the big movers in the last week, mainly announcing retentions of players who helped them finish in the top 4 last time.
Players confirmed as retained are in black, new signings are in red. (Asterisk = new terms offered but not yet signed. Names struck through have since rejected those offers.)
Those highlighted in yellow are additions or amendments since last weekend. (Dover players highlighted in pale yellow were mistakenly omitted from the previous list.)
Surprisingly there's still no sign of any of our released players turning up at other clubs yet, either in our own division or elsewhere.
Must admit, I'm surprised we haven't announced more players with less than 3 weeks to go until the first friendly, particularly given the number of players we've released or are negotiating with. Are we still 'in talks' with that list of players from last season? I can't imagine we've been locked in discussions with Sean Bonnett-Johnson & co. since 27th April without resolution!
Fully expect
Pink Panther to come in and say something level-headed here, but it feels odd to me.
It's now 6 weeks since we issued the retained and released list, which was much earlier than usual, therefore it seems like relatively little has happened since. I'm sure in most previous seasons we've barely heard anything at all much before now, then most of the activity has been condensed into the 4-5 weeks immediately before the opening pre-season game. I was under the impression there's an expiry limit on those retention offers, after which they become void, but I don't know when the deadline will be.
SBJ is the sort of reliable squad player you need who can do a job, but I wasn't especially expecting him to be retained and I wouldn't have thought he'd get a better offer from elsewhere at this stage. Kresh was late confirming last summer, so maybe it'll be the same again. Lakin travels from Lincoln and we've just signed another keeper; I'm amazed he stayed as long as he did when he wasn't playing regularly, so I won't be surprised if he doesn't return. Shonibare turned down a retention offer from Maidstone last summer to go on trial at Forest Green, so I wonder whether he's looking for a trial with a higher level club again? I'm hoping Jeffrey and Scott will return, but I reckon they're the two most likely to have other suitors looking to make them a firm offer.
If Kaya is now under contract he can be loaned out for one month or more to a club one division lower, whereas if he's non-contract the only "loan" option is dual registration with a county league club two levels lower. I believe he was also playing for Bromley's development team last season, meaning he was effectively on loan to us, but I don't know whether he's still associated with them.
