Can someone please tell me what we are going to do with our 2 million dollar cap space?
We will be front ending some contracts, securing Reid and a few others. We will do the same with any new recruits (basically have most of their salary stacked in the first year). This will in turn allow us to turn our attention to some free agents & the trade table in 2014 as we will have a monster pot of cash. Among those free agents coming up next year are Mundy, Boak, Frawley & Gibbs.
There is also still a real possibility we will trade Harry O this year. His value has never been higher and next year he will also become a free agent, where any compo we get (should he leave then) would be minimal. If Shaw goes I would be loath to lose Harry too as Harry can move back to his old role - but do we want him back there now? He may be squeezed out of the midfield next year anyway with the depth we have there.
This year is a real change in direction for the club which is clearly trying to set itself up for the next 5-10 years. A critical part of that will be next years (2014) strong draft & free agency period. I think this year will be about clearing the decks for the new generation, which is always a painful thing and has come upon us much sooner than expected or wanted. Part of this is making some hard decisions & resisting the temptation to over commit on players like Daisy and lashing out on ill fitting big name recruits in desperation.