Thinking beyond the play-offs

The season is now quite over but next season is only around the corner especially if Cardiff does make the play-off final at the end of May. What will happen on the players’ front, who will stay and who will go?

Cardiff City defender Anthony Gerrard is back at Cardiff City after a season loan with Championship rivals Hull City with the Player of the Season tucked under his arm. It will have to be seen if he is in the plans of Cardiff boss Dave Jones for next season. If he is allowed to leave Hull would be interested and probably a few others, also returning are midfielders Solomon Taiwo from Dagenham & Redbridge and Aaron Wildig at Hamilton.

Cardiff will be losing a number of players who will return to their clubs are after their loan period with Cardiff, goalkeepers Stephen Bywater and Jason Brown will heading back to their respective club when the play-offs are over. Defender Jlloyd Samuel will be going back to Bolton while midfielders Seyi Olofinjana and Jason Koumas will be hitting the road back to their clubs. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas will head back to Arsenal with a big question over Craig Bellamy. He has expressed a wish to stay with Cardiff for next season, promotion or not, but his club Manchester City will have something to say about his future plans.

City boss Dave Jones may well like to keep one or two for the loan signings, but will need to wait until the club and manager nowhere they will be playing next season, Premier League or Championship. For now it's a case of seven out and three back in.

Another player on his travels is young defender Adam Matthews who is off to join Joe Ledley at Celtic on a free transfer? He could be joined by striker Jay Bothroyd who is out of contract this summer and available if he decides to move on? He is hoping for a move to the Premiership and maybe he will get his wish with the Bluebirds and a new contract to boot. Along with Bothroyd midfielder Chris Burke is believed to be out of contract in the summer has well.

There is also Dave Jones release list to add to the outgoing players, but who would be likely to see their names on the list. I have a feeling Gabor Gyepes, Martin John, Jonathan Meades, Gavin Rae, Aaron Wildig and Solomon Taiwo could all feature on the list, but that is just a guess until the published the list.