Walsall boss Darrell Clarke says he will be sitting down with out of contract players over the next few days as he looks to build a squad capable of pushing for promotion next season.
Clarke will have to make decisions on nineteen out of contract players but says a fresh impetus on a club which has been relegated is a good thing.
The nineteen Walsall players out of contract are Joe Slinn, Chris Dunn, Nicky Devlin, Jon Guthrie, Dan Vann, Luke Leahy, Callum Cockerill-Mollet, Zeli Ismail, Liam Kinsella, Jordon Sangha, Maz Kouhyar, Tobias Hayles-Docherty, Isaiah Osbourne, Adam Chambers, Joe Edwards, Kieron Morris, Omar Mussa, Cameron Peters and Dylan Parker.
We ran a poll on our Twitter account earlier this week and the majority of supporters called for most of the above to be released. Only Chris Dunn, Nicky Devlin, Liam Kinsella, Joe Edwards and Kieron Morris were deemed “remain”.
Speaking to Express and Star, Clarke said
“I will be holding meetings (with out-of-contract players) in the next few days,”
“There is a lot of work to be done.”
“This is a club that hasn’t got many contracted players and is a club that has just been relegated. So I think the fresh impetus that comes with building a new squad is probably a good thing.”
“It’s good that we have got a clean slate.”
“I cleared a lot of the dead wood out of (Bristol) Rovers when we got relegated.”
“You are pleased with that aspect of it.”
“But then you have the pressure of players you do sign, making sure they come in and hit the ground running.”
“The preparation in pre-season is going to be very important.”
EFL rules state that the retain/released lists must be submitted by the third week in May.
