Yes, quite a few L1 & L2 clubs have issued their released list (BBC Sport Football on Transfers page) and whilst none are as long as our record breaking seventeen, they make interesting reading.
It is noticeable that high earners feature on many of them. Probably understandable given the massive loss of gate receipts. So we are not alone in cutting our cloth.
Some will not have too much trouble finding a new club, but others will definitely have to accept a salary reduction to secure employment.
So there will be decent players out there and if clubs go about it in the right way there’s no reason why a competitive squad can’t be assembled on a budget.
The question is will Scunthorpe United go about it in the right way?
Most clubs will have been monitoring players. They’ll have experienced scouts and will be talking to knowledgeable ex-professionals. The manager and coaches will be involved in the recruitment process and the assembled squad will be a balance of experience and youth and not overloaded in any one department.
This doesn’t seem to have been the case with us for the past few seasons. We have a chairman who is now more interested in property than people. A chief scout who has barely started shaving, and a manager who must think he’s just walked bruised but otherwise unscathed out of a plane crash! We use wide-boy agents who could sell sand to Arabs and have an unbalanced squad.
It would be possible to rebuild the team, but on past records I remain sceptical.
