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After the promotion party has finished and the players depart to their various holiday destinations, for some of the fringe players this will be an uncertain time.

For the ones that are out of contract, their futures will be unclear, 34 year old striker David Connolly will see his existing contract expire in the summer, along with the likes of centre-back Radhi Jaidi, goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski, and winger Lee Holmes. These players have been part of the first team squad since the aphotic depths of League One, and who have by and large served the club well in the past two or three seasons. However, in recent months both Connelly and Jaidi have seen their playing time limited due to recurrent injury problems.

To be brutally honest I cannot see any reason why we need to keep any of these players for next season, Jaidi is almost certain to be released, at 36 years old he did not make a single appearance this season due to injury.

As for David Connolly, age is not on his side also, and he has seen his time at the club interrupted by niggling injuries. His late season goals helped to propel the club towards promotion from League One, and he started this season in a rich vein of form, helping the Saints to lead the table with 4 goals in the first 5 games. However, the goals soon dried up, and he found himself either dropped through poor form or through injury.

If we were still in the Championship for another season then he may well have been awarded a new contract, but our promotion to the Premier League leaves manager Nigel Adkins with a difficult decision. The only thing in Connolly’s favour is the fact that he is one of the few existing players in the squad who have experience of playing in the Premier League. Although I firmly believe that the club will be looking for new acquisitions in all areas to help secure our Premier League status.

Bartosz Bialkowski may well earn himself a new contract, but personally I’d like to see us sign a new goalkeeper, one who can learn from number one, Kelvin Davis and challenge him for a starting place. I have little faith in Bialkowski, especially after his “rabbit in the headlights” display in his one and only league start against Blackpool in December.

That was probably one of the dire goalkeeping displays by a Saints goalkeeper I have witnessed, and I have seen Dave Beasant play! Not only did he proceed to fumble the ball at every opportunity, like someone attempting to grasp a wet bar of soap whilst wearing boxing gloves, but he then gifted Blackpool a goal by letting an innocuous shot from distance, through his legs. All this live on television to boot, in fact so low was his managers faith in him that he actually got dropped from the bench, with manager Nigel Adkins naming five outfield substitutes for a considerable part of the season.

Lee Holmes has never been able to hold down a regular first team place, and this season he joined League Two side Swindon Town, where he helped them to win the League Two championship. I can see him making that move permanent in the summer if Paolo Di Canio liked what he saw from the winger.

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That leaves one or two players who although not out of contract, may be shown the door anyway. Both had off the field problems during the season, and they are Lee Barnard and Dan Seaborne. Both Barnard and Seaborne were involved in disturbances in different night clubs, with Seaborne obtaining serious head injuries, and Barnard suffering a hand injury and being accused of a serious assault. Seaborne has recovered fully but not in time to make a comeback this season and Barnard was found not guilty but only made a couple of appearances this season and not one league start. The management may well decide to dispense with their services during the summer, as I doubt that either is really up to Premier League standard and they seem more trouble than they are worth.

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It’s now becoming a commonplace in modern day football to see young English players being bought and sold for wallet aching transfer fees.  The value of these players has continued to soar higher and higher with each passing season seeing another absurd height reached.

2011 has already seen four players fee’s smash the £100 million mark in cumulative transfer fees. Liverpool have invested heavily in Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson whilst Manchester United have spent big on Phil Jones and Ashley Young. Apart from Young, who has been performing consistently for four years at Aston Villa, the rest can hardly be labelled as experienced players.

Carroll’s transfer is the most baffling of the lot with the Merseyside club shelling out a staggering £35 million pounds for his services in January. It really does beg the question as to whether these clubs have more money than sense or is there a serious issue in the production of quality English players starting at grassroots level?

It’s likely that a mix of the two is causing the downward spiral in quality and speedy rise in price. The standard of English players certainly has decreased over the last 10 years or so and big clubs seem to be panic buying. Many have seen the failings of the national side and come to the conclusion that England are now producing more players at an average standard. It seems that when one really good player comes through the ranks the vultures all start circling and a bidding war ensues.

The transfer of Carroll is the best example of the lot.  For Liverpool to pay such an extortionate amount of money for a player with very little experience is staggering. From the eyes of a Newcastle fan I was sad to see him leave because he did well for us but £35 million for an academy graduate who is very limited in what he does was too hard to turn down. Obviously Tottenham were interested and they’ve been known to splash the cash before but even they weren’t stupid enough to pay the fee. To put it into perspective, David Villa moved to Barcelona just a few months earlier for the same fee. Which one would you have in your team?

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Don’t get me wrong Carroll is a good player if you mould the team around his style of play, which Newcastle did to great effect. But for a player with only six months Premier League experience, 11 goals and a hoard of off the field problems it seems hard for Liverpool to justify the outlay on him. The same applies to Jordan Henderson who has played consistently in the last two years for Sunderland but hasn’t set the world alight. He isn’t a midfielder who will score important goals, create openings or take a game by the scruff of the neck and drag his team to victory.

For Liverpool to open their chequebook and pay £55 million for the two is ludicrous. Looking at their strategy it seems as if they are playing the transfer window like an adolescent on Championship Manager. Spending like this is nothing short of madness and is leaving clubs with crippling debts.

A more serious problem in the decline in English talent is the state of the grassroots game. It’s been well documented that there are participation problems with the number players, coaches and referee’s falling dramatically. Issues like pitches, facilities, and behaviour and coincidentally, the cost to actually play football, is driving people away.  To get young players out onto the pitch is becoming increasingly difficult for parents and clubs financially.

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If money is the problem then it’s up to the FA to rectify the problem.  They aren’t pumping enough money in to alleviate these problems despite it staring them right in the face. Coaching standards are falling and this is having an effect on a player’s ability to learn and evolve. Youngsters aren’t being given the opportunity to play, be coached and guided properly before they are spotted by a club and taken on. A majority of these players will fail to make the grade at a professional top-flight club because of this.

The small number of English players that do fulfil their potential, come through the ranks and show glimpses of their talent are instantly snapped up and lured by the bright lights of big clubs. This also puts the selling club in a strong bargaining position to get the best and most extortionate price possible which is wrong. The smaller clubs, both in the Premier League and Football League, who are producing the players, are merely turning into feeders for the bigger clubs.

Desperation to secure the best English players ahead of their rival’s means it’s impossible for smaller club to resist hiking up the price in the midst of a bidding war. With Carroll now the most expensive English player in history it will be no surprise if one of our own finally breaks the £100 million barrier. When that day comes we’ll know for sure that football has finally lost touch with reality.

Aston Villa currently lie 13th in the Premier League and only 3 points off the drop zone. It is too early to say yet whether Houllier is better or worse than Martin O’Neill but considering that a few fans are starting to get on Gerard’s back already its worth taking a look at the French mans credentials.

If we take a look at the stats, Martin O’Neill had a slightly superior record in his first 14 games of the season, in that he had won 6, drawn 6 and only lost twice. Houllier currently stands with a record of won 5, drawn 4 and lost 5 times. It must be said Kevin MacDonald, former acting manager took charge of some of these games, however, the facts remain Martin O’Neill’s Villa reign started more convincingly.

This said, “Under O’Neill, by this stage of the season Villa were already out of the Carling Cup and had only won 1 more game than Villa have this year despite the fixtures this year being more challenging than the start of the 2006/2007 season, not to mention the league has generally become a lot stronger since 2006.” This alludes to the idea that at these early stages of Houllier’s Villa career he is showing that he has the potential to emulate O’Neill.

We must also remember that this is Villa’s third manager of the year, adjusting to a new style is always a transitional period. Villa still have a lightweight squad, and some would argue that Houllier is currently on par with O’Neill when looking at the early stages of both their stints at the club.

“This is where it gets really interesting, after the first 14 games O’Neill then went on a terrible period with Villa where his squad picked up just 3 wins in the next 21 games!” I would be extremely shocked if Houllier did not ‘emulate’ this poor record and subsequently place himself in a stronger position with the fans than O’Neill had done previously.

It is evident that O’Neills first season in charge was one he would probably want to forget, it also shows that miracles will not happen overnight. Whatever your opinion of Houllier is at the moment, the man deserves time to transform the club back into a force to be reckoned with. Houllier has a very decent managerial record and I am confident he can enjoy some success at Aston Villa…after his transitional period

What do you think? Can Houllier emulate Martin O’Neill’s efforts at Villa?

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On a recent slow boat to China or rather my train from West Croydon to Islington, a few friends and I decided to quash the impending boredom by debating the current state of the Premier League. We noted the irony that arguably the worst team of this seasons Champions League qualifiers (Chelsea) had managed to progress the furthest, in what has been another disappointing year in the competition for English clubs. There was a universal agreement that the once acclaimed ‘Top 4’ had become significantly weaker in seasons gone by, but a question mark surrounded whether this had impacted the standard of the Premier League.

The simple and perhaps short-sighted answer is a resounding ‘yes’, the Premier League elite have lost a number of their prized assets that has inevitably weakened the quality of their playing squad. Cristiano Ronaldo and Cesc Fabregas have both achieved their desire to flee to Spain whilst Carlos Tevez and Samir Nasri have joined the revolution at Eastlands. Liverpool’s former talisman Fernando Torres exchanged Merseyside for the nations capital and joined a side that has seen its once imperious team begin to show the effects of old age.

Each club undergoes a transitional period every few years, it’s in the fabric of the game, but it just so happens that the majority of our leading clubs have all decided to do so at the same time. It’s therefore vital that you remain successful during this period, a feat only Sir Alex can claim to have achieved.

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The main victims of this ‘process of change’ have arguably been Arsenal and Liverpool, who have gradually relinquished their roles as title contenders. This opportunity to infiltrate the League’s hierarchy has not gone unnoticed with both Manchester City and Tottenham asserting themselves at the summit of the table. It’s fair to say that the once unyielding ‘big four’ now consists of five or six teams who all look capable of competing with their rivals across the continent.

One of main arguments you’ll hear when individuals are criticising the state of the Premier League is that English teams are no longer present in the latter stages of the Champions League. “In 2008/09 we had three teams in the semi-finals” they’ll cry, as if that is the be all and end all of proceedings and the only way to judge the stature of a team. At the end of the day it’s essentially a cup competition, which teams can share equal measures of good luck and ill-misfortune. Cypriot minnows APOEL defied the odds to reach the quarter-finals but does that mean they’re one of the top 8 sides in the world? The fact that Manchester United were knocked out of the Europa League by Athletic Bilbao who are 7th in La Liga, is not a satisfactory means of claiming the Premier League is somehow inferior than its Spanish counterpart.

I believe the Premier League is nowadays a far more interesting and entertaining spectacle and not as a result of the standard slipping. Yes, the title race involves just two teams from Manchester but then it’s always historically been a two horse race. It’s important to consider the League as a whole entity when you deliberate over its apparent demise, as events at the bottom of the table tell an entirely different story. Long gone are the days of Derby County’s poultry 18 points with many promoted clubs often distancing themselves from their tag as relegation candidates as early as Christmas. Can you imagine a promoted club playing in the same free-flowing style as Swansea a decade ago? Relegated teams are no longer simply bouncing back up from the Championship, which has in itself vastly improved. Instead they have to revaluate their squads and build strong foundations in order to compete with the increasing intensity of the modern game.

Despite the current lull on the European circuit it won’t be long before the quality of the Premier League is once again reflected in the Champions League. The likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid will soon stutter and tumble from their lofty pedestals and I believe there will be an English side ready to take their place.

Join me on Twitter @theunusedsub where I’m currently looking at the best midfielder in the world…

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With Mark Hughes, Carlo Ancelotti and Gerard Houllier leaving their respective posts recently, I want to analyse where the managerial art has gone.

Firstly, I understand that there are circumstances that can’t be helped. Houllier was ill, his ticker couldn’t take it and despite having a record of re-building teams to some success (e.g the treble winning Liverpool side of 2000-01), there was no way that the board could get the assurances they needed.

He is clearly upset at not having the opportunity to oversee the development of a team with bags of potential, stating; ‘I am extremely disappointed that I will not have the opportunity to manage Aston Villa next season’.

He must feel robbed, deprived of an intriguing project that might have brought success to the ambitious club given more time.

Instead, his lasting legacy will be the signing of Darren Bent in January, leaving behind him a more than capable strike force.

His situation differs to Mark Hughes, who has jumped at the chance to further his career, clearly viewing Fulham as ‘stepping stone’.

Upon resigning, he claimed that he had left a ‘strong foundation from which they can go forward’, a foundation that will surely be wiped away and built on again by a new manager looking to develop and integrate his own management styles.

Having been introduced into management 7 years ago, Hughes has had predominately successful spells at Wales, Blackburn and Fulham.

At Manchester City, he was in charge of a club that would sign anyone and everyone to achieve success. He handled his egotistical squad well and produced some exciting football, but their final position wasn’t enough to convince the owners and the one project he might have been excited about was snatched away from him.

Despite demonstrating his abilities as a top flight manager, it is frustrating to witness his refusal to commit to a team who lack the funds of the big boys.

It is hard, but not impossible to build something that can challenge for a Champions League birth. Just look at what Harry Redknapp has achieved at Tottenham, taking over a side that was in the relegation zone and bereft of confidence and transforming them into top four contenders.

Sure he had access to more money perhaps than Hughes, but he also showed faith in players that were becoming a laughing stock. Gareth Bale is now one of the world’s premier players, as opposed to the guy that didn’t win a match of football for 24 games.

Players such as Bobby Zamora can become hugely effective if they have the backing of their manager, as proved under Roy Hodgson before unfortunately breaking his leg. I accept this a farfetched statement, but could he have been the next Gareth Bale?

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Whether it is at the top or bottom of the Premier League, the appreciation of this perverse football hierarchy at some clubs is rife. Certain managers have this sickening reverence to the teams that have the most money, rather than focusing on their job.

There appears to be less respect of the managerial art by greedy chairmen looking to play a real life version of the PC game Football Manager.

All this has left me confronting the actuality that we may never see another manager like Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger or Bill Shankly, a sad indictment of the modern game.

Read more of Lewis Constable’s articles at This Is Futbol

Theo Walcott and Gareth Bale are both players who played for Southampton before joining a ‘bigger’ club. They are also, perhaps, players who for a while, we’ve wanted to see more of. Criticism is often levelled at Walcott for a bad decision-making process. There are always those frustrating moments in his game when he’s left his marker for dead and chooses to pass instead of shoot or vice versa. Bale despite being labelled one of the brightest young talents currently in the game, and certainly being one of the best left-side players in the game has on many occasions failed to live up to his billing.

I would suggest that in Bale’s case this is because of a misunderstanding of the kind of player he is. He had a decent first season for Spurs, where his free-kicks in particular caused defences a lot of problems. Even so, who can forget that Bale went through 25 Premier League games before recording his first Spurs win? His sophomore season for Tottenham wasn’t a great success either, as he struggled to adapt to his role as a Left Back. It wasn’t until Harry Redknapp had the confidence to use Bale higher up the pitch that Bale began to excite fans once more.

The trouble with Bale is that he’s not as flashy or tricky as a number of other high profile players and as a result he has to do something really special to get noticed (like score a hat-trick at the San Siro). Bale is perhaps best defined as a player by his inexhaustible engine, his fast and direct running and a great work ethic. Walcott has up until now been defined by his pace. But now the signs are there that these players are willing to push on an become the world-class players that they seem destined to be. All it takes is a little consistency.

As mentioned before, Bale made the media sit up and listen with his hat-trick at the San Siro. Nobody expects this week in and week out, but Bale’s energy and determination will be vital if Spurs are to maintain their challenge for a top four position this season. He has, through hard work, become a very important player for them and if he keeps turning out such vital and charismatic performances, then it’s likely he’ll earn his label as the best left-sided player in the Premiership.

Walcott, despite only just returning from a six-week layoff, seems to be enjoying himself. He scored a double last night in Arsenal’s Carling Cup clash with Newcastle and has an amazing 6 goals in 6 appearances for his club this season. After the game Wenger had this to say regarding Theo’s development: “Theo Walcott is 21 years old – that’s the age where other players start to play. He is a very young boy and he is a very intelligent player and that’s why I believe he will continue to develop normally.”

Develop normally? Despite difficult starts to their top-flight careers, Walcott and Bale are currently developing extremely well. they are both in form and justifying the hype previously heaped upon them. These are no longer ‘prospects’ or players of the future, they are players to be aware of and for defences to fear in the here-and-now.

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I am not alone in saying that I had not expected this result.

After a dismal performance at Rotherham a week ago the last thing that Argyle fans wanted was a home game against one of the form teams in League Two.

However supporters do not choose the fixture list and promotion contenders Shrewsbury Town made their way down to Plymouth in form and fully confident of collecting three points. The Shrews left Devon with their tails firmly between their legs after Argyle put in a performance that shocked League Two.

A Paul Wotton goal, his first since his return to the club, gave the Pilgrims all three points and lifted them out the relegation zone to the jubilation of majority of the Home Park crowd.

Argyle manager Carl Fletcher made two changes to the side that lost at Rotherham. Luke Young made way for full league debutant Joe Lennox on the right wing whilst Warren Feeney returned to the starting line up in place of Alex MacDonald.

From the off, one of the changes nearly resulted in a goal. Warren Feeney was inches away from lashing home a loose ball, but beat the post as well as Neal in the Shrewsbury goal. Nick Chadwick then opted against putting his foot through the ball and instead controlled, took on a defender but sadly placed his shot straight at the keeper.

Then, from out of nowhere, Argyle took the lead.

Quite how Chris Neal did not claim Paul Wotton’s curling 30 yard free kick remains a mystery to everybody in Home Park, but the keeper somehow managed to allow the ball through his hands and into his goal when he looked set to make a routine catch. Not that the Green Army cared one bit as they celebrated the first goal on home turf for more than five hours!

The Pilgrims made it to half time unscathed and when they came out of the second half I honestly expected Shrewsbury to throw the kitchen sink at us and equalise, but this was not the case. Argyle were dominating (yes dominating!) the Shrews and should have extended the lead further first through Juvhel Tsoumou’s one-on-one chance and then Robbie Williams floated free kick that was just begging to be headed home.

Alex MacDonald, fresh from the substitute’s bench then cracked the adjournment of post and bar from 20 yards as Argyle continued their search of a second goal to put the game to bed.

It was only a matter of time before Shrewsbury started attacking though, and with about 10 minutes to go Argyle dropped deeper to defend and Salop put to test the Green defence. How Argyle made it through the final period without conceding was nothing short of a miracle, the defending was brave and strong, but Shrewsbury are a strong attacking force and twice when they looked odds on to score they were denied by Argyle keeper Jake Cole, who was in amazing form all game.

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The four minutes of added time were agony for Argyle fans, who were forced to watch Shrewsbury take corner after corner as Argyle failed to clear their lines. The Shrews looked to have got a point with virtually the last kick of the game, but Marvin Morgan hit the bar instead of the back of the net.

There are nine games to go now for Argyle to retain football league status. Should they perform like this for most of those, we should be ok. I’m not getting too carried away just yet though, the battle at the bottom is so tight, if we lose on Tuesday night we could be bottom of the league again.

By Plymouth Argyle blogger Sam Barker

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West Ham are confident they will be Olympic Stadium tenants, but Steve McClaren will not be leading them in the Championship.Hammers chairman David Gold has reaffirmed the east London outfit’s commitment to move to the Olympic Stadium despite their relegation from the English Premier league, with the club having factored in a loss of revenue after dropping to England’s second tier.

“Oh no, absolutely not,” Gold told Sky Sports, when asked if their move to the stadium was affected by relegation, which had been confirmed on Sunday.

“We were budgeting last year for relegation, fortunately we managed to survive under (Gianfranco) Zola.”

“There are absolutely no financial issues at all. We’d always budgeted for the possibility of relegation.”

Speculation has begun in earnest over who will replace the sacked Avram Grant at the Hammers, but former England boss McClaren has announced he does not want the hot seat at the relegated club.

“It is very flattering to be linked with a club of West Ham’s size and historic stature, also one that has tremendous fans,” McClaren told Sky Sports.

“However, at this moment in time I do not wish to be considered for the position. But I wish everybody at West Ham all the very best for the future.”

Despite McClaren’s declaration, Gold said the club would aspire to hire a manager at their earliest convenience to begin the work of guiding West Ham back into the top flight.

“The sooner the better, that is important,” he said.

“There is lots of work to do, an enormous amount of work. But at the same time we mustn’t be rushed.”

“This will be a very, very important appointment. We are choosing a manager capable of getting us out of the Championship and continuing once we’ve achieved that.”

“We are looking at everybody. It’s important that we have time for CVs to come in to us. I’m sure that there will be many managers who will see the West Ham job as challenging and exciting.”

“It’s important that we pick the right person.”

Manchester United striker Michael Owen has hinted that he may decide to retire from the game if he is not offered a new contract at Old Trafford.

The 30-year-old former England ace's current deal runs out at the end of the season and he seems unlikely to extend his time with United into a third season.

Owen told The Sun:"I would honestly love to stay, but you will have to ask the manager about the long term. I could score at this level for many years and would love it to be at a top club like United.

"Whether I would want to be dropping down to a poorer Premier League team, I don't know. Yes I could score goals but I would probably get less opportunities and less enjoyment.

"I just don't feel my game is suited to a team that is really struggling. I won't drop down the leagues.

"I have played in big teams before and played every game and I have played in a struggling team. I know which I prefer. When you play here, you play with quality.

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"I'm on my second stage of coaching badges and management is a real possibility."

Former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Newcastle United frontman Owen has scored 12 goals in 38 appearances for the Red Devils, with 24 of those outings coming as a substitute.Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Tottenham fans have been reacting to a report that claimed three of their top six rivals want to sign Heung-min Son, and let’s just say they’re not buying it.

According to Sport1, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool are all eyeing a summer swoop for Tottenham’s Son.

Affectionately known by fans in North London as “Sonny”, the South Korean put his name in the history books on Wednesday, breaking away to score the second goal in his country’s 2-0 win to send Germany home from the World Cup.

Fans have been concerned about the possibility of the 25 year-old having to leave the club to fulfil two years of mandatory military service, but they seem slightly less worried about these exit links.

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The report claims all three rival clubs are sniffing around a potential €70m (just over £60m) deal for the versatile winger, who grabbed 12 goals and six assists in the Premier League last season.

Tottenham are of course on the brink of something really special as they prepare to move into their new stadium, so selling one of their best and most loved players to a rival is probably not on the agenda.

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Fans clearly don’t think so either, and you can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below…