Tranmere missed out on a play-off spot in the cruellest of circumstances

May 6 2009 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

Tranmere missed out on a play-off spot in the cruellest of circumstances

SUPPORTERS nursing the disappointment of Tranmere’s narrow failure to make the League One play-offs are liable to find little consolation in the thought that their team can be kept together to have another crack at promotion next season.

The squad that took Rovers to within two points of a sixth-place finish could well lose some of its most influential players this summer, to the irresistible pull of football’s market forces.

More than a dozen professionals at Prenton Park will be out of contract next month. And while manager Ronnie Moore would like to hold onto many of them for next season, he will be hard pressed to match the kind of deals offered to those players by clubs with greater wealth and deeper pockets.

The players due to become free agents in a few weeks’ time include the star performers in the team this season: Wales international goalkeeper Danny Coyne, centre-back Ben Chorley, skipper and supporters player of the season Antony Kay and players’ player of the season Steve Jennings.

Moore believes some of his men performed so well this season that they are likely to become targets for Championship clubs.

If that proves to be the case, then Tranmere will be in no position to compete as they grapple with falling revenue through the turnstiles, rising debt and the general effects of the recession.

Moore is back at his desk this morning to work on planning for next season. The process has become the priority sooner than he wanted after Tranmere’s promotion campaign was snuffed out by a Scunthorpe equaliser in the 88th minute of the 1-1 draw at Glanford Park last Saturday.

The result meant Tranmere had to settle for a seventh place finish on 74 points while Scunthorpe went on to a play-off semi-final against third placed MK Dons.

Moore said: “It is going to be difficult to keep the better players here. There will be a lot of interest in them because they are good players.

“We have players here who will attract the Championship clubs – and if they come in for them there is not a lot we can do.

“The agents will be working now. The phones are ringing. The wheeling and dealing starts.”

Moore told shareholders last week that the expects the squad for next season to rely more heavily on young, homegrown players, whose contracts are usually less expensive.

Tranmere have already signed up some of their brightest young prospects on new deals.

Aaron Cresswell and Terry Gornell, 19-year-olds who broke into the first-team during their first season as professionals, agreed new two-year deals recently and Rovers are taking on three first year pros in Ash Taylor, Ryan Fraughan and Josh Macauley.