Over recent seasons, what with relegation and promotion, we have seen large changes in personnel but this season, it is seemingly massive!
At the start of the season we had 26 players needing new contracts (actually 24 but then we add Murray and Walker's contract was cancelled) and once January came along it was clear that more than half the team had their minds on other things. Yes some were playing for a deal, but it was also evident that friction was building between the club and the players.
We managed to negotiate and retain 12 of the 26
Porter
Shervington
Hayes
Murray (Marquee)
Percival
Gillies
Betty
De Carpentier
Arr
Drauniniu
Howard
Pennell
Which with the use of some complex maths leads me to think 14 are leaving
Mullan
Lutui
Big Dave
Currie
Best
Kvesic
Cowan
Perry
Frost
Goode
Carlisle
Walker
Short
Claassens
If you even up the teams a bit and lend the leavers some locks I can't help but feel that the leaving team would win! Don't get me wrong, we have retained some key guys; Shervington, Murray, Percival, Pennell etc and we have extended the deals for some exceptional young talent with the likes of Porter, Hayes and Howard. Just look at the players and positions we have lost; Matt Mullan loose head international prop, Aleki Lutui international captain, Big Dave one of the best tight heads in the sport, James Currie an exciting and dynamic young tight head, Matt Kvesic now called up for full England honours. The list goes on. It seems such a shame to have worked and developed these lads and now to lose them.
Mullan, Currie, Kvesic, Frost, Carlisle and Short are all English Qualifying and have all come through our academy system. They are leaving for the likes of Wasps, Leeds and Bristol leaving a very large gap in our development cycle and even bigger one in the front row.
Not only have we lost 14 playing staff we have lost our coaching staff too
Richard Hill
Nigel Redman
Phil Vickery
Phil Larder
Mathieu Rourre
All gone. Former England players, world cup winning player, world cup winning coach, head coach, forwards coach, front row coach, defensive and attacking coaches. The whole set-up is changing. To be honest the likes of Vickery and Rourre do not seem to have made much of an impact as part time specialist coaches, especially as Rourre cancelled his dual role in December to take over at his French job share club Biarritz.
Dean Ryan and Shane Howarth have been brought in with other, full time, coaches to be announced soon.
The man at the top, Charlie Little has been replaced due to being, in Cecil Duckworth's words, too young “When I brought Charlie into the club, my plan was always to train him up to be managing director, but the general feeling on the board is that he is still a young man and not mature enough to take us forward, so we thought a change would be better now." Worcester News
The disruption due to change has been vocal throughout the support base, let alone the squad itself. Since January we have been drip fed announcements of new deals, new signings and players leaving. In the most part the official news coming some time after the likes of BBC Sport or local papers making the *BREAKING NEWS* statements. This was compounded at the last home game of the season. The traditional point at which the fans get to say thank you and farewell to the outgoing players.
At the home game against Quins in April we were still awaiting official news on the futures of; Lutui, Dave, Best, Perry, Currie and Frost. After the game fans flooded the pitch to thank and have pictures with the likes of Goode, Mullan and Kvesic but long standing stars Lutui and Best had not officially been announced as leaving and therefore did not give the fans chance to say thank you.
It was not until the end of season party that Cecil finally confirmed that Best, Currie and Frost are leaving and as of writing this, it has still not been published on the official website.
To offset some of the lost players we have made 8 new signings
Leonardo Senatore
Paul Warwick Augustin Creevy
Ignacio Mieres
Paul Andrew
Ofa Fainga'anuku
Mike Williams
James Stephenson
These signings will add some quality and flair to the side, though the jury is still out on how having 3 Argentinian internationals will affect the squad.
What does all this change mean? For a start there is no looking back. Having finished 11th in the premiership there are many lessons to learn but with all of the coaching staff changing and a massive part of the playing staff leaving do we have the systems and personnel in place to learn from our mistakes? With the culture and team spirt absent from the team can we rebuild and start to play for each other again? With an entire front row of Mullan, Lutui and Dave leaving how will our front 5 function? A complete change at fly-half, bringing in a 10 that has hardly played in the 2012/13 season and a full back, will this be an improvement or will they both need time to get up to premiership speed? Youth and pace seemed to be the target with the new signings but we have also lost a lot of premiership experience. Of the 8 signings only Mieres has played in the premiership and he has only made 26 starts.
Change is good, change improves processes, increases effectiveness and ensures objectives are achieved but change is also disruptive, time sensitive and can go drastically wrong. When trying to get to the root cause of an issue it is key that you do not make too many changes at once as you may never understand the true failing and worst case can create new problems to compound the original issue.
Has there been too much change? Will Dean Ryan need his much talked about magic wand? We will find out this time next season!
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