Thimble Keegan
Remy LeBeau
unfortunately we can't officially do much about Painter until his contract with Swansea expires in June. Hopefully we are in touch with them and Marcos knows that there is a contract waiting with us when the time comes but dont expect to hear anything sooner than mid to late June on that front and a similar situation could be with Lualua and Hendrie.
Calderon I expect to have been offered a contract already and we will hear quite soon when (if) he signs it.
I would not be at all surprised if Arismendi joined us on loan at least until Christmas but we won't hear anything on that before July I guess. Barnes is in contract at Plymouth so we need to make an offer and they need to decide on their core squad ahead of next season. I'm guessing July before we hear anything on that front too.
Contract extensions should be sorted reasonably soon. Players who are away on loan (ie Forster) won't be officially resolved before their contracts expire in June. Gus has already said that he may not be able to contact all the players straight way and presumably this is what he is referring too. I expect to hear about Virgo/Kuipers/Hart/Cox etc by the end of this week.
My reckoning was on Virgo and Kuipers joining Whing, Hart, Hawkins, Cox and Carole in the revolving door marked "exit" before the Bristol match but there is some smart money on the former two staying for another year and on Hart getting a coaching gig (I for one would be well pleased if that happened).
Expect Dickinson, Davies, McNulty and Wright to be back at the end of June for pre season but expect three of them at least go on the official transfer list in July with one or two others also being available for the right offer. Hawkins might also be still with us pre-season as he needs to get fit to find a new club.
An excellent summary there but one thing for clarification: I thought Lua-Lua is contracted to Newcastle for next season already so if we are to sign him we would need to make them an offer and buy him when the transfer window re-opens. Obviously I would like to think that we would be in dialogue with Newcastle before transfers are allowed again and I reckon it is nailed on that we are going to try and get him in....I mean them permitting him to come back to complete he re-hab speaks volumes and I am pretty sure if we chuck them 50-75k with a sell-on clause then they would take that.
Albion & England forever.
Thimble Keegan
Rustington BHA