Here's to the departing old boys. Thanks for helping us up.

[Risso]

Elmo has been the unsung hero of the second half of the season.  After a few disastrous performances around Christmas time, he's been great ever since.  Consistent in defence and helpful in attacking situations.

[Duncan Shaw]

I think we'll keep Whelan too, 12 months to help the transition for the club as a whole, rather than just the first team, would make good sense.

[walsall villain]

I think we'll keep Whelan too, 12 months to help the transition for the club as a whole, rather than just the first team, would make good sense.

Agree, I expect it to happen too.

[Dave]

There's no room for sentimentality here unless we want to go straight back down. Fulham spent £100m and were still miles off.

To play devil's advocate you could argue that the cautionary tale that Fulham offer is that spending huge amounts on a brand new team might not be better than keeping a hard-working team together that play well and is confident after promotion.

Fulham provide circumstantial evidence that maybe there is room for sentimentality.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

There's no room for sentimentality here unless we want to go straight back down. Fulham spent £100m and were still miles off.

To play devil's advocate you could argue that the cautionary tale that Fulham offer is that spending huge amounts on a brand new team might not be better than keeping a hard-working team together that play well and is confident after promotion.

Fulham provide circumstantial evidence that maybe there is room for sentimentality.

Fulham is just one example though - there's no evidence that if they kept the playoff winning squad with a couple of additions, they would have done much better.

Villa need 6-8 quality players, as well as signing Mings, El Ghazi and Hause.

[KRS]

Agree there is no room for sentimentality and we need to move on a good few players in the summer, but we also need to keep hold of a few to maintain the team spirit in the dressing room that has quite clearly blossomed this season. Dean and the management team will know who we should keep and move on.

[Ad@m]

There's no room for sentimentality here unless we want to go straight back down. Fulham spent £100m and were still miles off.

To play devil's advocate you could argue that the cautionary tale that Fulham offer is that spending huge amounts on a brand new team might not be better than keeping a hard-working team together that play well and is confident after promotion.

Fulham provide circumstantial evidence that maybe there is room for sentimentality.

There are plenty more examples of clubs that haven't spent money and have come straight back down.

Spending money doesn't guarantee you'll stay up but not spending money guarantees you'll go down.

[PeterWithesShin]

Spending it wisely is far more important than just how much you spend. As we've shown more than once.

[Dave]

Spending it wisely is far more important than just how much you spend. As we've shown more than once.

Quite. McGinn cost us £2.7m. He's no worse a player because of that.

[Risso]

It's about spending it well, whether it's £2m or £20m.

[Ad@m]

It's about spending it well, whether it's £2m or £20m.

Of course it is, but it doesn't matter how well we spend £2m, it won't keep us up.

Like it or not, if we don't spend big we're going down.

If we spend big badly, we're going down.

If we spend big wisely, and put sentiment to one side with some of the guys who've done us proud in the Championship but won't cut it in the Prem then we just might stay up.

[Steve67]

None of those out of contract played a significant part in the promotion bid, other than Whelan.  The rest can go.  Thanks for the memories but time to move on and all that. They played, they got paid, they move on. 

[cdbearsfan]

Spending it wisely is far more important than just how much you spend. As we've shown more than once.

Quite. McGinn cost us £2.7m. He's no worse a player because of that.

He's the exception to the rule though. Generally you're much more likely to get a top player for £27 million than you are to get one for £2.7 million.

I'll be delighted if we can find another McGinniesta for pennies. If we base our entire strategy around bargain-hunting, though, we will struggle. As we did when we tried that strategy under Lambert.

By all means look for up and coming talent on the cheap to supplement the squad. But to seriously compete we need to be buying players for big fees.

I'll be amazed if Darren Bent is still our record transfer this time nexy year.

[Damo70]

The transfer market is a strange thing. Manchester United wanted God to take a pay off and retire in 1989. We bought a 29 year old with dodgy knees and whose off field activities in the Manure drinking club with Robson and Whiteside had been made public. It didn't take a genius to know he was a decent player but who thought he would play on with us for about eight years let alone how consistently brilliant he would be. If I remember correctly the only other club interested in him was Terry Venables' Spurs. Collymore seemed like a great signing based on his performances for Southend, Forest and Liverpool and a move to his boyhood club at the peak of his career seemed a match made in heaven. After selling Andy Gray and John Deehan to our local rivals a past his best centre forward who was about to turn thirty and had spent the last two seasons in the second division with Newcastle didn't appear to be a signing that would help us win things.

[TopDeck113]

Players coming and going is the nature of the business.  If they played a bit part in this season being ultimately successful, I'm grateful, but the reality is that on many an occasion those who will be leaving were slagged off on these pages for not being good enough/devoid of character.

Hopefully we will now be moving on to greater achievements and just as I didn't give Bobby Campbell a second thought when I was cavorting on the Clock End in '81 or likewise Mark Burke when we won at Wembley in '94, when the next major success comes I'll have forgotten about many of those who are about to depart.