'Player Exodus' headlines a reason to panic?

Players who have contracts definitely expiring in this period are Hamid Barr, Marcus Bignot, Alex Bonnot, Paul Bruce, Fraser Digby, Matthew Rose, Terrell Forbes, Leroy Griffiths, Doudou, Steve Palmer, Mark Perry, Justin Cochrane, and Andy Thomson, with probables being Stuart Wardley, Richard Langley, Karl Connolly and Chris Day. Throw in two or three youngsters, and that's the lot — not forgetting of course Rhys Evans and Ben Askar's loan deals will also expire.

Danny Shittu, Clarke Carlise, Kevin Gallen, Gavin Peacock and Chris Plummer are the only players contracted to QPR until 2003 or beyond.

Quite a few of those 19 we wouldn't necessarily miss or indeed need — Barr (injury prone, untried), Bruce (won't get much of a look in from now on), Perry (the man with no position), Wardley (time to move on), Bignot (should only be considered for right-back).

Bonnot would be useful to keep as back-up, Griffiths needs a lot of working on if given a new deal, Digby has proved a decent 'keeper but may not be kept on if Day makes a full recovery, whilst Connolly is a hit or miss but has been playing well of late.

That's 9 players who, if they were all to go, wouldn't necessarily decimate the squad in terms of value or ability — replacements can always be found.

As for the rest, all must and hopefully will stay, including Langley and Thomson. Losing any of these players on free transfers — Palmer apart — would mean losing players who normally would fetch transfers fees, and perhaps in the future, quite considerable sums of money for the likes of Langley, Forbes and Doudou.

With a few players let go, making a large pool of money for wages for others, QPR will hopefully come out it with a smaller squad, but with greater quality and longer-term contracts for our most valuable assets.