I’m wary of signing L2 players - especially ones that have had a poor season - but Grant might be the exception given the success he’s had here previously and Lennon’s knowledge of how to maximise his talent. Hopefully he wouldn’t be in as much demand and could be acquired cheaply.
I do think we’ll end up retaining players from the current squad that aren’t good enough - Rumsby/Page, Livingstone, JBH, maybe even Docherty - because we’ll fear not being able to sign essentially an entire squad over the summer with our budget constraints and the issues we had last year with missing out on targets. These players must only be kept on as depth - if kept on at all - and on the fringes of things this year.
Personally, my priority retention list would only be Parry, Cuddihy, Splaine and Cunningham. Some of the others named above (plus possibly Gomis depending on wage) will likely reappear and we obvs have Kennedy and McGrath on the books for next season.
Its ruthless - I don’t see the retention list being as tight as this - but it’s a put up or shut up year for us in L1. Never mind Lennon’s chat about making progress in the division next season, we need a revamp and a check in the expectations of our squad if we’re hoping to compete in an even more competitive division next year.