All the best for the future......Jonah

Sorry to say i'm a bit late with this, as it happened last week, but i wanted to give it time to see what happened with some of the players before jumping in with my thoughts.
So the retained list came out. It took a bit longer than first thought and when it did come out there were no surprises to be honest. Joe Murphy and David Mirfin had told manager Alan Knill they weren't going to sign new contracts, the gaffer told them both they were too good to be playing in League One, so everyone seems happy. Murphy is a good enough keeper to be playing in at least the Championship, maybe even a lower end Premier League team would take a punt on the Irishman. Mirfin will hope for a second tier team to come in for him, maybe former manager Nigel Adkins will take a chance on the man known as "The Ox", but i can see him playing in league one, along with his former Iron team mates, maybe at Sheff United or one of the bigger teams in that league (anyone for a return to Huddersfield??) Josh Wright is an interesting one. How low can your stock go, when the team that you've played for doesn't want to offer you a new contract, just in case you don't get another offer somewhere else and they are stuck with you !! When he first came into the club he was looked on as the next big thing and slotted into the team quite well. I didn't think about it at the time but it was a little bit strange that Charlton let him go without much fuss, but now we can see that maybe he carries a bit of baggage along with him. It seems that he has all the talent in the world, but without the application of that talent it means nothing. He has all the potential in the world, but seems more intent at becoming as famous as his brother Mark on the Only Way is Essex. Good luck to him in the future, i think he might end up lower down the league ladder than people expect him to.
While Murphy, Mirfin and Wright were first teamers it was no surprise that they were leaving. As much as saying that it was no real surprise to read the other ames on the list. Paris Cowan-Hall played about 20 minutes of first team football, his signing was a bit of a panic by former manager Ian Baraclough, he needed names in but the player never looked good enough to make an impact, even in the reserves. Ian Morris is the forgotten man at times. He spent time on loan at Chesterfield this year, but didn't play too often on their march to the League Two Title. The man who stepped up well to play in the teams Play-Off final win against Millwall a few years ago is now looking for a club, hopefully he won't be one of a long list of players struggling to look for a club this summer, he deserves a break. Youngsters Jonathan Williams and Rory Coleman were both on the list as well. They both warmed the bench but never played a minute of first team football for the Iron. Williams played well in the reserves but was never given the chance to step up, Coleman played a lot of pre-season for the Iron but then found himself out on loan and may count himself unlucky to play in the teams troublesome left back spot. Both came from the youth set up, but were not deemed good enough to make the step up. Once upon a time the youth team produced the likes of Matt Sparrow, Nathan Stanton, Andy Butler et al in recent times only Niall Canavan and Matt Godden have got anywhere near the first team, Godden yet to score his first goal for the team and Canavan struggling with injury and then going out on loan toe Shrewsbury.
One other person who has since left the club is Rob Jones. His time at Sheff Wednesday has gone well for him, their fans seemed keen to sign him full time, the only surprise really is the fact that he was allowed to leave on a free transfer. Maybe the club just wanted one of the top earners off the wage bill, his alleged wages could pay two or three others players for a League 1 push next year. The highlight of Jones' Iron career is hard to pin point. Low lights are there for all to see. Possibly his worst moment probably came early in his career for the Iron, ironically at Hilsborough. After being at fault for at least two early Wednesday goals, the man known as Jonah amongst his team mates, collided with the post after a corner and had to be carried off on a stretcher wearing an oxygen mask. Usually that would be a bad sign for the fans, but i think most fans were happy to see him leave the pitch. Hopefully the money saved from Jones' wages will be put to good use on a striker or two.....please !
Their are others on the retained list that i'm sure Alan Knill would be happy to see leave the club, no names have been mentioned but i'm sure some will be allowed to leave if offers come in for them.
The summer months are hard times for football fans. The only thing to get you through is a summer of speculation on who's coming and going, hopefully we'll see more come in than go out.
Recent speculation has linked us with a few Jamie Vardy, a striker/left winger, who has scored a good amount of goals for FC Halifax, seems a good prospect, someone who has the potential to fill the gap left by Martyn Woolford perhaps. One man we won't be signing is Will Hoskins, the Bristol Rovers striker has finally signed for Brighton, probably for bigger wages than the Iron could have paid the player. Hopefully all our eggs are not firmly placed in the Adam Le Fondre basket, we need more than one striker to come in and fill a Gary Hooper sized hole. Knill is still being linked with a return to former club Bury to take star striker Ryan Lowe. A man in his thirties who did well under Knill in his time in League 2, maybe Knill wants to bring in someone he knows well to fire a promotion push next year. As well as trying to take Nicky Ajose on loan from Man United for next year the future looks good transfers wise.
Its not long now till the fixtures come out on June 17th. Hopefully the longer trips, Bournemouth, Exeter, Yeovil, etc, don't come on tuesday nights. There will be a few short trips next season, i'm personally looking forward to trips to Chesterfield, Bury and Rochdale as well as continuing our recent good form at Bramhall Lane with a victory over Sheff United. There will be some hard games next year, with some teams seeing us as a decent scalp. My only hope is that we have better home form than this year and we don't concede as many goal, whilst maybe scoring a few ourselves, my job is made a lot easier when i've got goals at our end to photograph, i've had far too many away goal pictures this season for my liking !
Whatever happens in the run up to the new season it seems were in for a good ride under the "Ginger Mourinho" he'll steer this ship back to the promised land of the Championship, it just might take a bit longer than most people expect it to, but give him a couple of years and i think think our golden era can last just that little bit longer !