Retained List 2018/19 & New Signings

[the duke]

I wouldnt lose too much sleep over the players who have left , to put it into perspective the best Manager that the Darts have ever had decided in the final 6 games of the season that Hayes , Harris , Duane and Collier would NOT be in the starting line up and Brown only got in the latter part of the season after spending a lot of it on the bench , the ONLY player who has left who was performing was Berti !!!

I would suggest that the addition of Driver , Greenhalgh , DSY and Wall [ and Kudas , IF he can fulfill his obvious potential ?] will be a benefit NOT a negative !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Note to Parklife , Liverpool fans were distraught when Kevin Keegan left for Hamburg and then [King ] Kenny Dalgleish came along , no one in this world is indispensable !!!!

[Park Life]

I never liked Dalglish

[w.hoops]

I wouldnt lose too much sleep over the players who have left , to put it into perspective the best Manager that the Darts have ever had decided in the final 6 games of the season that Hayes , Harris , Duane and Collier would NOT be in the starting line up and Brown only got in the latter part of the season after spending a lot of it on the bench , the ONLY player who has left who was performing was Berti !!!

I would suggest that the addition of Driver , Greenhalgh , DSY and Wall [ and Kudas , IF he can fulfill his obvious potential ?] will be a benefit NOT a negative !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Note to Parklife , Liverpool fans were distraught when Kevin Keegan left for Hamburg and then [King ] Kenny Dalgleish came along , no one in this world is indispensable !!!!

Never heard of Kevin Keegan!

[Arthur Horsfield]

Arthur here,
Dont mention the var,
Over and out
Arthur

[w.hoops]

Arthur here,
Dont mention the var,
Over and out
Arthur

Okay Arthur!

[w.hoops]

Arthur here,
Dont mention the var,
Over and out
Arthur

.... or as the Germans say " Var Sprung durch technik" !

[Pedro]

Can we expect the signing of a second choice goalkeeper following Tony Coxall's departure to Lordswood?

[Lincoln exile]

Worth reading the recent press article on Deren to see the management view.

[spike]

Worth reading the recent press article on Deren to see the management view.

I'll be honest, in the past I was never completely convinced about Deren as although he is undoubtedly a great shot-stopper, I always felt he was a bit light-weight in the box and had a tendency to push the ball back into the danger area rather than away to safety. However, when TB promoted him to number one he started that season looking physically stronger and seemed to have a real air of confidence about himself. He excelled beyond all my expectations and despite my initial doubts, I ended up voting for him as my player of the season. As far as I was concerned, going forward he was our number one, no problem. Nevertheless, I do believe that Deren's form dipped last season and I understood why TB brought in Berti. Competition is always healthy and I'm sure that, given the chance, Deren would have reacted positively, but unfortunately for him, Berti played so well for the remainder of the season that the chance never came. Whilst that must have been hard on Deren, those decisions made sense to me and I felt they were in the best interests of the club.

Whilst I would not want our club to stand in the way of someone playing international football, one way or another, Deren's Gibraltar exploits had an adverse effect on the Darts. Personally, I feel his performance levels seemed to drop after he returned from international duty. Some might say that this was just coincidence but I'm not so sure. Less debatable was the difficulty we had in finding suitable cover during his absence. Now because the loan rules forced people to sign for a month, TB struggled to find an experienced keeper to provide cover for just one or two games as nobody wanted to loan out a keeper only for him to be sitting on our bench for 3 weeks. A consequence of which was that in two games we played young Beeney in goal and the poor sod wasn't ready for the job. His calamitous errors cost us a goal (and a point) in the 0-1 home defeat versus East Thurrock and another goal (2 more points) in the 2-2 daw at Hampton. In fact he made several disastrous errors at Hampton but we got lucky. I don't blame the lad and he'll probably be a decent keeper one day, but he clearly wasn't ready for this level of football. I am as certain as I could ever be, that Deren would not have made these errors and ultimately, those 3 extra points would have made us champions.

By all accounts, Deren is a great guy and a loyal clubman and at his best he's also a fantastic keeper. I will be more than happy to have him back as our number one but I do worry about the international absences. If he's selected for his country again, we either need a competent number two or face the same problem finding a loan keeper. If we have to go down the loan route, then I'm inclined to think that if we can only entice a decent replacement by offering them more games, then maybe Deren would have to sit on the bench for at least a few extra games after returning. I really like Deren and loyal, hardworking clubmen like him are hard to find, but I don't want to see us throw away points needlessly by being forced to play some young kid in goal. I just hope the new management team are on top of this as last year it cost us the title.

[Lincoln exile]

I'm not sure there will be a "Gibraltar problem" again- they seem to have left him out of the last squad.