10/05/2008 - Crewe boss looking to make room for key new signings
Steve Holland insists he has to make room for quality signings by pruning Crewe's fringe set.
With only a handful of senior appearances between them, Ryan Lynch, Junior Brown, Nick Farquharson and Mat Bailey were released this week as Holland embarked on a squad rebuild over the summer.
A desperately disappointing campaign, which ended with last week's flirtation with relegation, has convinced the coach he has to free up cash.
While the quartet will have been on modest wages, the retirement of high earner Neil Cox offers greater savings to throw into the transfer kitty.
And several more senior stars, such as Eugen Bopp and Ryan Lowe, could also leave to be replaced by fresh faces.
"We have to make some room as the team needs improving," stressed Holland. "I just can't add to the numbers as there is a budget I have to operate within, so we have had to make decisions to try to keep a fairly tight first-team squad for next season.
"We will have a small development group which will need a bit of time next year. Maybe they will break through, maybe they won't. But they're going to need time all of them.
"But above that we don't want a large group of maybes, we need the best possible group of players who can play first-team football."
Lynch, signed as defensive cover after being released by Coventry last summer, struggled for a foothold.
In his one and only start against Tranmere on New Year's Day the full-back was caught in possession by Chris Greenacre, who then fired home for the visitors.
Promptly, dispatched on loan to Stafford, the 20-year-old finished the season off at Altrincham.
Brown and Farquharson, both 19, had, along with James Bailey and Byron Moore, risen to the ranks of first-year professionals this time last year.
Yet unlike Moore, who made rapid strides into the first team, they spent part of the season on loan in non-league football.
Winger Brown came off the bench for a brief debut at Brighton in February and Farquharson started up front in last September's Johnstone's Paint Trophy clash at Chester.
However, neither have convinced Holland they can stake their claims quickly next season after finishing off at Kidsgrove and Nuneaton.
While Mat Bailey's conversion to centre-half proved an interesting experiment and earned him a start at Oldham in the FA Cup last December, he faded out of the picture on loan at Weymouth.
"They've all been here a long time and maybe in an ideal world we'd have kept hold of them to see if they could make the step-up. But we have to make room to improve the team at the top end," said Holland.
"The timing of the performance last Saturday has reinforced that changes are needed.
"We have always had to operate to a budget, that guarantees you don't get a situation like Bournemouth have had. But we obviously want to improve the first team and the Oldham game was a wake-up call in that account.
"There will always be an opportunity for our younger players to progress through to the first team if they reach the required standard and we have taken on six first-year pros this year."
Holland will also have room for manoeuvre after accepting he won't be able to forge permanent deals for any of the players he loaned to assist the battle against the drop.
Striker Dean Morgan is likely to exit Luton, who have already axed veterans Don Hutchison and Paul Peschisolido after their relegation.
But, like Steve Jones, who has returned to Burnley, and former midfield favourite Kenny Lunt, who has gone back to Sheffield Wednesday, the gulf between their current pay packets and what Crewe could stump up will be massive.
"We were allowed to handle their wages short term given our situation, but I think it is highly unlikely we would be in a position to sign those players permanently given that obstacle," admitted the coach. "They would be well out of reach in terms of the salaries they earned."
Preston winger Joe Anyinsah may be more affordable and Everton's Patrick Boyle could yet be a summer defensive target.
But they are unlikely to feature highly in the coach's strategy, which could see other departures sooner rather than later.
"There is going to be a need to create space to bring in the players we quite clearly need.
"But we don't have a great deal of players who are out of contract, so it is case of communicating with some over the next few weeks and giving them an idea how we see their future and adjusting from there."
And Holland stressed: "I was very frustrated with the performance against Oldham, so there are mixed feelings. When we go a goal down early we don't handle it very well. That has happened three or four times this season at home and that has just highlighted again the need for some action during the summer."