The rebuild was always going to come eventually, that's just squad evolution and it's a process I look forward to and also one which does frustrate me at times. There are going to be squad changes over the summer, those which have become stale, or have been passed by will no longer be with us and I think the likes of Boaz Myhill, Zoltan Gera, Jerome Thomas, Steven Reid, Graham Dorrans, Jara-Reyes and Marc Antoine Fortune will find themselves at the top of that category. I don't think we should extend the Gera deal given his injury problems and age, Jerome Thomas is perhaps needing an upgrade after doing the job required, Steven Reid, again there are doubts over his fitness with age starting to catch up with him, but he also features in a position which has needed upgrading for a while. Dorrans has had his future clarified over the last few weeks and I struggle to see what Fortune will continue to offer us so those players listed shall need replacing.
There are question marks over whether Scott Allan, James Hurst, Yassine El Ghanassy, Markus Rosenberg and Craig Dawson shall be good enough for us. All of them have received next to little game time and decisions on there careers will also need to be made. If not, then they require loan spells away from the club to keep their progress going with El Ghanassy and Rosenberg being the exceptions. YEG shall return to his parent club and Rosenberg shall have to win over supporters. This also comes at a point where Odemwingie is 32 years of age and Romelu Lukaku will have headed back to Chelsea meaning our options look short.
The summer will have question marks thrown towards us and Richard Garlick who will need to prepare himself for this whirlwind of work. Do we need to upgrade on those which have become stale or are the club comfortable knowing they can probably do the job? The latter would stink of a lack of ambition for me and although we probably have reached our peak we shouldn't reject the opportunity to try and keep moving forward. Decisions need to be made on those youngsters, whether they need moving on or whether they need a loan spell away and most important you want to improve the competition within the squad. I'd like to see Popov signed permanently, a striker shall be needed if there's no Lukaku next season and the wide areas will also need strengthening with possibly another midfield addition. The club will also have to decide on a replacement if Olsson decides he wants to leave and you could also pose the question whether we could and should upgrade on McAuley but I think the club should be mindful they don't want to much change.
Added to this, I would also like to see Claudio Yacob have his contract extended as I'm sure he'll only have a year left plus a futher option in our favour.