I think Ayala would be the only one I'd try to keep, and it looks pretty certain he's off. Howson is a nice tidy player, but to be honest I've been pretty underwhelmed with his performances in the main. It is baffling that on relegation we had a squad that went up automatically, have spent a fortune and and three years later we're on the bones of our **** with hardly any senior pros, goal scorers, pace, creativity, set piece taker of any great ability and still no attacking providers / wingers. It is almost unbelievable that the make up of the squad has been mismanaged to such an extent.
I don't really have any faith in Gibbo, Gill and a PowerPoint from Woody turning the squad around in the coming season(s). Bola, Diijksteel and Browne have varied between bang average and woeful for most of this last season in their limited playing time. Isn't it a bit weird that Woody (who was appointed in part, as he knew all players and youth players coming through) identified two young full backs as being his first signings and what was required, when arguably the only bright spot from this season has been the emergence of Spence and Coulson?
I'll also be pretty annoyed if we are decimating the squad to allow enough wage budget to bring Ben Gibson back and pay his premier salary (or a good chunk of it). Plenty of other clubs assemble competent, competitive squads in this league on a fraction of what we spend. It has been joked about before but it would surely be an astute business move to assemble a recruitment & scouting department from Brentford or wherever rather than continuing on with the same duffers who have brought us to the edge relegation / despair.
I'm just going to have to go on with blind hope that things will get better I suppose.