Grella and Jones get new contract offers

9:10am Thursday 10th May 2012 in Bury FC

AMERICAN striker Mike Grella and right back Andrai Jones have been offered deals to keep them at Gigg Lane, as the Bury retain list was revealed this week.

Manager Richie Barker has fulfilled his pledge to offer 25-year-old New Yorker Grella a contract after he weighed in with an all-important four goals towards the end of the season.

Midfielder Luke McCarthy has also been offered a deal, while youth team second year scholars Liam Boswell, Jordan Melia, Christian Dibble and Dalton McLaughlin have been offered their first professional contract.

But midfielders Patrick Cregg and Andy Haworth, goalkeeper Ritchie Branagan, Zachary Rothwell and Danny Hudson have all been released.

Comments(19)

Eileenshakers says...
2:48pm Thu 10 May 12

No surprises here then,at least there are only 5 casualties.I would have kept Danny Hudson & Richie Branigan for another year,Cregg showed what he could do against Preston North End but had few if any opportunities to shine in our team this year.I don't really expect any of the players who have been offered new contracts to accept them.They can do a lot better elsewhere from a financial perspective and i won't lose any sleep if they don't sign up for us.

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nomoresurfin says...
5:32pm Thu 10 May 12

Jones and McCarthy in particular are a little bit lucky to be offered new contracts,if Jones signs we are left with three pretty unconvincing full backs by league one standards.Even if we assume that Belford is moved on and replaced by Carson,it's going to be very difficult to improve the goals against column with players like Picken,Skarz,Hughes and Jones in the squad.Can't understand why you would have kept Hudson & Brannigan,Eileenshak
er,neither were likely to become first team players and we need to have a lean squad of about twenty all of whom are good enough for league one.

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Eileenshakers says...
5:58pm Thu 10 May 12

Well Nomoresurfin in answer to your queery as to why i would keep those two players.Perhaps they have not been used and therefore we haven't really seen their potential.I think it a little unfair on both players that they could have at least been loaned out to another club and someone could have watched their performances at their respective clubs.I don't think we have been fair on young Richie who has seen loan keepers come and go and he has been stuck on the bench for the past 2 seasons.For me that is a waste of resources.You are probably right if you look at it from a squad perspective.Maybe neither would have made it at this level but we will never know now will we?.

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nomoresurfin says...
6:24pm Thu 10 May 12

Eileen,the biggest problem with Richie Branagan is that he's just not tall enough,with him and Calamity Belford we undoubtedly had the smallest pair of goalies in the country. At least Christian Dibble who's been offered a pro contract is a tall lad and looks like a goalie.

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Eileenshakers says...
7:01pm Thu 10 May 12

Yeah but hasn't he had a really nasty injury recently which might keep him out of contention for a wee while?.I read he was in collision with another player and had internal injuries?.We shouldn't sign players who are short when it's a goalkeeper.I agree with you there,it begs the question what on earth was he doing on our bench.Did you see the goal he conceeded against Tranmere Rovers in The Jonhstone Paint Trophy last season?,that was one of only 2 games he played for us last season.

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onchan says...
1:06am Fri 11 May 12

Agree with Schumacher about us needing a hit man etc. Was suprised about Cregg not geting a conract, but I am optomistic about next season, think we have done well this year, and will do better next year. To be honest Eileenshaker I think you tend to be a bit down beat about Bury at times. Lets think about the positives and not the negatives

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onchan says...
1:06am Fri 11 May 12

Agree with Schumacher about us needing a hit man etc. Was suprised about Cregg not geting a conract, but I am optomistic about next season, think we have done well this year, and will do better next year. To be honest Eileenshaker I think you tend to be a bit down beat about Bury at times. Lets think about the positives and not the negatives

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Eileenshakers says...
2:45pm Fri 11 May 12

Onchan get to specsavers boyo,your message came up twice ha ha,just kidding.
You are bang on anyway i do tend to get very uptight when The Shakers lose.We have had to stomach too many bad defeats this season in contrast to last season.Conceeding 3 or more goals in a third of our fixtures.Offering 2 year contracts to useless defenders who have been found out at this level.I only speak the truth or as i see fit but if i'm downbeat there were mitigating circumstances as you can see from my reasons outlined here.Oh and don't get me started on the 4 gems that we sold for peanuts.

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onchan says...
1:32am Sun 13 May 12

Hy eileenshaker, sorry about the double message, dont know what happened there. Dont you think that taking everything into account Bury have done well this season? I tend to differ from you about this seasons transfers. Yes we really did miss Lowe and Jones, but in Lowes case at his age Bury werent going to get mega bucks for him, and I think he will be moved out this coming season. As to Mozza, although a decent player, not as good as Sweeney. Also Kyle Bennett has not done brill at Doncaster, and we will be entertaing them at gigg next season. The big failing this season has been a lack of mid season form in our back 4. Could be just a blip, did notice that some of teams in League 1 have some big players, whilest ours are only average size. We have missed a good goal scorer, Hope Harrod can come good this season

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nomoresurfin says...
10:55am Sun 13 May 12

onchan, i agree with you about the back four being the main problem this season, we started with a very dodgy 'keeper and two iffy full backs then Barker compounded the problem by signing Hughes who was nowhere near good enough.If we can obtain Carson and Clarke next season the goals against column should improve but the thought of Skarz and Picken or Jones appearing as the full backs again next season still worries me a lot.

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Eileenshakers says...
3:44pm Mon 14 May 12

Yes Onchan i agree with you that certainly the final position of 14th was better than i had expected.I also agree that we are not physically up to the demands of this league.We may get found out next season.The really bad beatings which we suffered from came against strong attacking teams.Had it been an ordinary season and we had ordinary attackers in midfield then we would surely have gone down.79 goals against tells it's own story.The Goalkeeping issue probably robbed us of a few more points.Short keepers aint no good against strong tall attackers.Belford is too affraid to come off his line and doesn't command his area properley.Some of the sales did underperform at their new clubs i agree.The likes of Lowe,Jones & Bennett have been found out and are merely small fish in a big pond.Mozza is inconsistant and very moody you never knew what to expect from him.

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onchan says...
9:35pm Mon 14 May 12

I thought, that Clarke had been let go. Which suprised me because I thought that he was okay. Do agree with both of you about Hughes. I am no football expert but think that both Pickin
and Skarz seem afraid to tackle at times. I was at the Sheffield Wed., game at Hillsborough, and Skarz couldnt seem to get two grips with their attack, they outplayed him. In fact Schummy had to help him out several times

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Eileenshakers says...
2:08pm Tue 15 May 12

Clarke is free to talk to any club as he is a free agent now at Puddersfield,i hope we get first refusal but i'm sure there are plenty of good defenders available on frees.I don't think Richie was watching all of the poor performances by Skarz & Picken.Either that or he is pig ignorant and won't listen to reason.Surely any manager worth his salt would have seen how poor the pair were last season

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shakencity says...
7:36am Wed 16 May 12

He must have noted Pickens performances as Andrai Jones was picked ahead of him towards the end (until he got sent off at Notts). We have no cover at LB, so Skarz is safe, unless we put a CB there. Imo the problem isn't with his tackling, it's his speed, i'm 41 and i reckon i'd still beat him over 15yrds. His positional play is absolutely rank so constantly gets caught out by faster wingers when the ball's played inside him......it's just naive and basic defending that.
I'm pretty sure Clarke and Coke will have been spoken to by Bury FC, they'll just be biding their time over the summer to see if anything better comes in before deciding.
I trust Richie to make the right decisions over the summer by adding players/cover to the areas we need them most.

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Eileenshakers says...
1:53pm Wed 16 May 12

Yes i agree he must have noticed how bad Picks was but why did the club offer him a new contract given his poor performances?.Person
ally i would have signed a couple of full-backs when we had our shocking run in the autumn.I wouldn't have perservered with players who are so obviously out of their depth at this level.We have no chance of signing Coke permanently now that he has gone back to S6.Maybe a season long lan for him is our best bet.I was surprised to see Jonah & Lowey are still with The Owls.They didn't feature much for The Owls in the second half of their season.

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shakencity says...
8:30am Thu 17 May 12

I spoke to an Owls fan this week, he said Jones is really struggling up there and may well be loaned out or even sold next season. Lowe is well like and does what's required.....scores goals, but doubts he'll make many starts (baring maybe cup games) because they have better strikers.

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Eileenshakers says...
2:11pm Thu 17 May 12

I phoned the football heaven programme up some time back and made a few comments about how well they might do with Jonah & Lowey in their team next season.The presenter thought that Lowey might have to play as a squad player and Jonah might struggle to get in their match day squad.At the end of the day both players cost them next to nothing.I hope that we might get first refusal if they are to be loaned out or sold.I see Lateef has been released at W.B.A. as is often the case when parent clubs loan out players to teams in the lower league.I bet you are feeling on top of the world after that shattering title victory for your other team Shakencity.

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shakencity says...
2:41pm Thu 17 May 12

How good was that Eileen? Seeing all those Utd faces turn to utter horror when Aguero scored made it all the more sweeter. With that and Bolton getting relegated, it was a truely fabulous day.

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Eileenshakers says...
2:21pm Mon 21 May 12

Well it may have been a wonderful day for all City supporters but it pretty much put me off watching Premier league football for life.There is way too much tribalism and the money men are ruining the top end of our game.I'm glad that i only support The Shakers.Yes it was good to see The trotters trot down a division now we can aim to have parity with them if either they go down or we go up next season.

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