Gloucester have 24 players out of contract at the end of this season

Among the alarmingly high number of players whose deals will expire next year include England internationals Freddie Burns and Billy Twelvetrees, along with former New Zealand scrum-half Jimmy Cowan.

Those players will be able to sign for other clubs from January 2014 if they decide to look elsewhere, giving Gloucester time to tie down their key stars.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_8891761,00.html

Ouch. Tigers had big problems last season with large numbers of players out of contract and attracting attention.

24 sounds worse than it is as players like Tindall, Taylor and that Welsh lock of theirs are probably on rolling 1 year deals. Hazell and JSD will probably join that list. Due to age and injury status. They'll be young guns on yearly contracts as the club don't want to tie down someone who doesn't make it and the player will want to see his development acknowledged in financial terms annually rather than every few years whilst in peak development.

Certainly Billy "I've got a dodgey as fudge agent" Twelvetrees and Burns will be high on the contract priority list and negotiations are probably already underway

I've got my eye on Glaws - they have been enthusiastic since Ole Tom Walkinshaw passed on.

24 isn't ideal, but a number of them are finishing one year extensions or are at the end of their career. There are a number of players we must re-sign, but no more than any other year in reality.

The players out of contract are:
Huia Edmonds, Rupert Harden, Darren Dawidiuk, Shaun Knight, Dan George, Lua Lokotui, Will James, Sione Kalamafoni, Akapusi Qera, Matt Cox, Andy Hazell, Jimmy Cowan, Freddie Burns, Tim Taylor, Jonny Bentley, James Simpson-Daniel, Charlie Sharples, Billy Twelvetrees, Henry Trinder, Tim Molenaar, Ryan Mills, Mike Tindall, Rob Cook and Martyn Thomas.

For me the players we must re-sign are Kalamafoni, Qera, Burns, 36, Trinder, Sinbad, Sharples and Cook. I can see George, James, Cox, Hazell, Taylor, Molenaar, Tindall and Thomas all leaving or retiring. I really wouldn't be surprised to see Cowan added to that list; with Robson and Knoyle at SH too, Cowan's salary would be better used in the pack.

I can see Burns and 36 re-signing; they both admit that their game has improved since they started playing alongside each other and they have broken into the England set up during that time. With the World Cup 2 years away they'll want to make sure they are in the best position possible to be in that squad and I am very confident they'll think that is at Glaws. My biggest concerns are over Kalamafoni and Qera as I can see both receiving enormous offers from French sides.

If we offer a few guaranteed starting places, that should do the trick!  

The wages from Tins, Hazell, JSD, Morganand Will James should be enough to keep Qera and Kalamafoni on board along with the other key signings. Who'll be your marque then? I guess it's Cowan at the moment?

Marquee players are an undiscussed and an unquantifiable conundrum as well you know, yapp.

As it's a fundamental means of cheating the cap, no meaningful discussion can be tolerated.

Cowan is likely to be our marquee player, but there is speculation it is Sinbad - so either way the wages should come down from these two.

JSD must be close to retiring surely? His defence gets worse every year, he'll be like a revolving door by 2015.

Has Martyn Thomas ever kicked on at Glaws? He was an electric little player who unfortunately featured for the 'wrong region' so to speak, hence no international caps. Very unlucky there. I think that ankle break set him back a bit too.

The ankle break x2 set him back... Great pace, always looked to run. Couldn't kick though.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:JSD must be close to retiring surely? His defence gets worse every year, he'll be like a revolving door by 2015.

What a load of hogwash! His poor defence is a perpetuated myth based upon a few Sky broadcasted games where he rushed out of the line.  He was the form Jeff winger last season until he was injured (again!).  Here's 2 reasons why he is still one of the best wingers around! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdq6xy0NYhA & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wU6Y7a8yEc (I couldn't find a proper clip of his involvement in Shaun Knight's try against Welsh but that was arugably better than Qera's try).

youngguns6 wrote:The ankle break x2 set him back... Great pace, always looked to run. Couldn't kick though.

He suffered from an injury at the start of last season which meant he never really got a look in as Rob Cook's form was so good.  We'd only signed him for a year's contract and initially we let him go, but when it became clear that Olly Morgan's rehab wasn't going well we re-signed him for another year.  In general he has looked better on the wing than at FB for us; his kicking has been woeful there!  There is no doubting his pace or endeavour, but I'd be surprised if we retain him beyond this season as he simply hasn't shown enough so far.

Could be interesting. Rumour has it that Matt O'Connor now at Leinster has been casting an envious eye at Anthony Allen who I believe is out of contract in the Summer.

Perhaps that would pave the way for the prodigal son to return and form an interesting partnership with Manu  

I thought that the Marquee player had to be a foreign player! So rules out Sinbad.

HongKongCherry wrote:

Sgt_Pooly wrote:JSD must be close to retiring surely? His defence gets worse every year, he'll be like a revolving door by 2015.

What a load of hogwash! His poor defence is a perpetuated myth based upon a few Sky broadcasted games where he rushed out of the line. He was the form Jeff winger last season until he was injured (again!). Here's 2 reasons why he is still one of the best wingers around! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdq6xy0NYhA & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wU6Y7a8yEc (I couldn't find a proper clip of his involvement in Shaun Knight's try against Welsh but that was arugably better than Qera's try).

youngguns6 wrote:The ankle break x2 set him back... Great pace, always looked to run. Couldn't kick though.

He suffered from an injury at the start of last season which meant he never really got a look in as Rob Cook's form was so good.  We'd only signed him for a year's contract and initially we let him go, but when it became clear that Olly Morgan's rehab wasn't going well we re-signed him for another year.  In general he has looked better on the wing than at FB for us; his kicking has been woeful there!  There is no doubting his pace or endeavour, but I'd be surprised if we retain him beyond this season as he simply hasn't shown enough so far.

Not more youtuve video's agghhhhhh!!!!

I'm not quite sure what the Sky reference is, my opinion on JSD's defence is by watching him get skinned and caught out positionally time and time again over the years.

I'm pretty sure Wade was the form winger in the AP....

propdavid_london wrote:I thought that the Marquee player had to be a foreign player! So rules out Sinbad.

Nope. It can be a player that has been with the club for a number of years. Tigers fans will correct me, but I am sure there's is Dan Cole, who has taken the mantle from Castro.

I too thought the player had to be foreign...

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

HongKongCherry wrote:

Sgt_Pooly wrote:JSD must be close to retiring surely? His defence gets worse every year, he'll be like a revolving door by 2015.

What a load of hogwash! His poor defence is a perpetuated myth based upon a few Sky broadcasted games where he rushed out of the line.  He was the form Jeff winger last season until he was injured (again!).  Here's 2 reasons why he is still one of the best wingers around! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdq6xy0NYhA & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wU6Y7a8yEc (I couldn't find a proper clip of his involvement in Shaun Knight's try against Welsh but that was arugably better than Qera's try).

youngguns6 wrote:The ankle break x2 set him back... Great pace, always looked to run. Couldn't kick though.

He suffered from an injury at the start of last season which meant he never really got a look in as Rob Cook's form was so good.  We'd only signed him for a year's contract and initially we let him go, but when it became clear that Olly Morgan's rehab wasn't going well we re-signed him for another year.  In general he has looked better on the wing than at FB for us; his kicking has been woeful there!  There is no doubting his pace or endeavour, but I'd be surprised if we retain him beyond this season as he simply hasn't shown enough so far.

Not more youtuve video's agghhhhhh!!!!

I'm not quite sure what the Sky reference is, my opinion on JSD's defence is by watching him get skinned and caught out positionally time and time again over the years.

I'm pretty sure Wade was the form winger in the AP....

Wade was the form winger for the season, but as I've stated Sinbad was out from early January and up until that point he was the form winger. He didn't score as many as Wade, but he made more.

The Sky reference is partly in relation to one dodgy game he had which I can't for the life of me remember and secondly because unless you're a Glaws supporter you probably won't have seen him that much. Whilst I may be a parochial Glaws supporter, I am equally not that one eyed to defend players in complete contradiction to the truth. His tackling has never been in question, but his defensive faults have been due to his eagerness to rush out - which has resulted in a fair few interceptions, but I don't think the Shaun Edwards book of defending would appreciate that! - His defense isn't his strongest skill, but as a winger I'd rather his attacking ability was; his defense is not a liability and you can count the errors of his that result in a try on one hand - which to me is 6  

My biggest concerns are over Kalamafoni and Qera as I can see both receiving enormous offers from French sides.

Would he be a big loss if Kvesic performs to the level expected...

England v Barbarians was the JSD game I think.

Marque player has to have been at the club for a few years or come from outside the premiership. It's to stop clubs giving crazy salaries to England based players from other clubs and inflating salaries. It's to bring in 'top' signings from outside the premiership or to retain top players in the premiership.

Haha, good comeback HKC

GeordieFalcon wrote:

My biggest concerns are over Kalamafoni and Qera as I can see both receiving enormous offers from French sides.

Would he be a big loss if Kvesic performs to the level expected...

The loss would be softened by Kvesic, but Q is a world class player and not the kind of player you want to see go.

Well yes i take your point...

Qera world class?

Bathite wrote:Qera world class?

Well, he's no Stephen Donald, but he is rather good  

You're right, he's no world cup winner