Boss explains his decisions
Boss Steve Davis has talked for the first time since his 2016 retained list was announced earlier this week and explained the decision making process behind the outcomes.
In total, 11 players were released, made up of four senior pros in Marcus Haber, Lauri Dalla Valle, David Fox and Chris Atkinson, with the further seven made up of academy products.
Steve told crewealex.net: “It was something I’d thought about for a while. One or two I’d left to wait and see over the last seven, eight, nine games whether it was going to change my mind.
“I’d already made my mind up about most of them, they hadn’t done enough in the season or the previous one for me to keep them. When you get a season like we’ve had, it needs to be freshened up and try to get better in.
“Brad and Zoumana have gone away to think about things and weigh up their options, so at the moment it’s quiet with those two.
“When you take the young ones they’re always a risk. We took them for a year to give them a chance in the Under 21 games and we hoped they might progress, but they found the transition very difficult from Under 18’s to first team and in the end they all fell short.”