| Date: 16-05-22 Who’ll be staying and who’ll be going? |
Following the (early) conclusion of the season the club announced the retained list earlier this afternoon. There were a couple of surprises with two leaving that weren’t fully expected and some that were.
Staying with us (and winning awards)
Let’s start with those players that had already signed new contracts either this season, or last. Sam Austin, Keziah Martin, Ethan Freemantle, Kai Lissimore, Amari Morgan-Smith, Ashley Hemmings, Caleb Richards and Alex Penny are those that will definitely be with us barring some moneybags club coming in for them and tempting them away. The only one that would have fitted that bill is Sammy when it was rumoured that Crystal Palace were keeping tags on him at the start of the season but that’s all gone quiet now, thankfully.
Hanging his boots up
Five players will be offered new contracts on the expiry of their existing ones and they are Tom Palmer, Geraldo Bajrami, Omari Sterling-James, Jaiden White and Jamie Emery with two others: Nathan Cameron and Cliff Moyo currently in discussion about theirs. Out of those the standout ‘want’ is Bajrami who we know is probably too good for us but if we want to get out of this division next season then he’s the level of quality that we should endeavour to keep.
Five are definitely leaving us and in amongst the obvious ones are two surprises. Keith Lowe, Luke Simpson, Mark Carrington, Nyal Bell and Lewis Montrose. We were told last week that Keith was already going when he said that he was going to take up a teaching post near his home in Stafford and hopefully finding a part time team to play for.
Nyal Bell had been a disaster for us although he actually made twelve appearances for us. His highlight was scoring twice at Sporting Khalsa in the FA Cup after coming on as a sub but then he vanished to Tamworth and Curzon Ashton on loan but didn’t achieve much with either of them. The last we heard was there had been a big falling out and he hasn’t been or trained with the club since he played in the Worcester Senior Cup in February.
Had a great season with the Reds
The two that have come as a surprise are Mark Carrington and Luke Simpson. Carra has decided to hang his boots up at the age of thirty six and possibly due to the travelling from Manchester. That was the reason stated by the Harriers Online sponsored Luke Simpson too who said that the travelling had become too much and that he was looking for a club nearer to his Manchester home. That could possibly be Altrincham after their keeper Tony Thompson said earlier today that he was leaving the club.
Lewis Montrose is the other one to leave and also being Manchester based it seems that has coloured his decision.
Finally we have the loan players that were with us to the end and they will now return to their respective clubs. Joe Foulkes (Walsall), Corey Panter (Luton Town) and Devonte Redmond (Wrexham AFC) will now go back and fight for their places next season. Of the three Joe was the stand out and was almost an ever present for us last season with just a short break while he recovered from a bad injury picked up in the FA Cup at Ware FC.
Photo © KHFC
In other end of season news it’s a pleasure to announce the winners of the Player of the Season poll and also the Goal of the Season poll. The first award goes to Caleb Richards who ran Geraldo Bajrami and Amari Morgan-Smith close but finally came out on top by just two points from Baj.
The GotS was scooped by Omari Sterling-James with his free kick at home in the 3-0 victory against York City in January. Running Omari close was Sammy Austin at Gloucester City and third was Mark Carrington towards the start of the season at home to Chester FC.
Congratulations to the winners, and runners up, and thanks to all that took time out to vote for them.