Now we are at the business end of the Season Buffs Mad's thoughts turns to next Seasons' Team.

The retention poilcy remains that 11 players will join the 3 stooges as next Season's starting line up.

Goal Keeper

The policy of signing a GK from the Scout Market every 3 or 4 Seasons will be maintained.



Defenders

The Defence has and will continue to be based on youth - both NordGen and others' Academy product. 3 players have made the cut so far with 1 possible spot up for grabs.



Central Midfielders

The Buffs have a revolving door policy for the midfield: perform and your in otherwise "there's the door". 2 players are usually carried over to fill the roles while the new Season hunt for 2 performers goes on. Performance is a selection criteria but more important is value - just in case there is an issue selling off midfilders at the Season's end.



Wingers

Unfortunately this is a no brainer - the 2 spots will be filled by the only current wingers despite Left Winger Davie Cooper not quite reaching the usual Buffs' standard.



Strikers

There are currently 2 Strikers in the squad and 1 has been a stand out - last Season's only Scout Market capture Denis Law. Whether the 2nd Striker gets one of the spare slots remains to be seen.



Possible Additional Candidates

With 2 spots to fill there are 3 main candidates. The decision seems to rest on formation decisions:

to continue this season's 3N-1- Defence would require a DC & a ST; or
to increase flexibility in defence would require a DR and either a DMC or ST.



Although the Elephants in the Room are 1 spot gong to either the 1.5k wage back-up GK or the free Academy MC recruit.....or both or just keep the last 2 to sell.

On this retention issue Buffs Mad said "While DR Alan Hutton has not shone, given limited opportunity admittedly, he represents an investment that can't easily be ignored" (ie Scout Market purchse) "however, rejecting financial considerations and starting the season 3-5-2V/3-1-4-2 is a powerful 'performance' argument and one that seems more attractive than restricting things to 4-5-1V/4-1-4-1."