It promises to be a busy summer at the John Smith’s Stadium
New manager Michael Duff and sporting director Mark Cartwright have spoken on their plans for the summer transfer window and how they see the squad shaping up in terms of in and outs.
Duff admitted: “We have already had quite a few meetings. Just trying to build relationships but get an understanding of what we want and putting lists together.
“You need contingency plans. There might be people that leave that we don’t want to. But for whatever reason, whether it’s market value getting met or whatever; it’s right, who’s the next person? Everybody’s character needs to be right as well as being a good player.
“The ones that I really want are probably out of our price range! No, I have got my opinion on lots of players. It’s getting a collaborative understanding because it can’t just be my opinion. It’s a group decision and then we pick what we think is the best player.
“It’s who wants to be here, who doesn’t. Who do we think can move us forward and it is not just a case of a player going ‘I don’t want to be here so you have got to sell me’. There isn’t a fire sale here.”
Asked how big the overhaul will be, Cartwright said: “That will depend on the marketplace! There are certain players that have naturally come to the end of their lifespan at the club contractually and then there’s another group that haven’t actually sort of touched the first team this year.
“You don’t need to be carrying too many players. I know the B team model was here that has maybe heavily overinflated the squad so there’ll be players there that just aren’t going to touch the first team we need to move on. Then of course you have got the players that will think they want to go.
“There is going to be a natural change. There’s obviously people that we are going to want to change and move around.
“I am not going to say we will do this huge overhaul. We are going to do an overhaul. As much as we possibly can.
“Michael’s been in this situation before. Up until the deadline closes, every player is going to think they are still a Championship player and we have to deal with that situation all the way through.
“We will have benchmarks that say if somebody offers £20m then we are going to accept that.
“There’s a lot going on behind the scenes. We had already spoken and already had a certain amount of first team players we wanted to bring in so the budget was already in place for that. That hasn’t changed. We are expecting to bring players in and at the same time overhaul and move players out.
“In an ideal world we have got as many people out by the start of pre season and as many people in because Michael on that first day needs the bulk of his squad there to start working. The further you get into pre season the less they’re up to the fitness levels, tactical knowledge Michael wants.
“We have already spoken about two or three people we are trying to move forward on. It could be a case that two or three come in then it will be one in one out, one in one out or two out one in. It depends how the market goes but the market is starting to move so these things are happening.
“We are having daily updates so it’ll all become pretty apparent soon, I think.”
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