We now have 30 players in our first team squad and I am not convinced that this is a great advantage for the club. Of course it means that we can have a good standard of players on the bench (no more under 18s), and more quality players for the manager to select from, but it could also lead to some discontentment among the players regarding how much game time they get. This must create an additional challenge for the manager that he could do without. Selles himself has said that he would prefer to work with a a squad of 22- 24 players, (as did Ralph I think) so it's curious that we have put together such a large squad when all of them are potential first team players - in fact I think that all of them have at some time started a game. For example, according to my calculations we currently have 5 centre backs, 6 full backs (inc. AM-N) and at least 6 wide players. Additionally this squad size is costly in terms of wages, so I presume there will be some leaving the club at the end of the season, and that number will probably depend on what league we are in. Also we have some loanees due to return who would be expecting to figure in the first team squad (e.g. Smallbone, Teller and Stevens) Overall is this squad size a nice problem to have? - I'm not so sure. | |