It's a mess. But maybe not for much longer ... The David Rawson Rotherham United Fan Column

We have 11 first-team players under contract. Of those, at least one - our only striker - is likely to leave, and only two have completed a full season as first-choice in their position in English football. Few of them look a natural fit for the fourth division.

As it stands, only one of the signings from the frenzy of two summers ago will still be at the club in August. There are few signs of any foundations laid in the reset and rebuild promised this time last year.

Meanwhile, Sam Nombe, as he starts the last of his few contracted years, will be on his seventh managerial team.

All of which is to say we're in a mess.

Are we a club that develops our own young talent? Are we a club that polishes hidden gems and sells them on? Do we prefer passing, possession-based football or a more direct, physically aggressive style?

Do we know where the 15 to 20 players we'll need to sign to have a basic squad for next season are coming from?

It's good news that the season isn't about to start because if it was we'd not be well placed to pull up many trees.

But, equally, we wouldn't, perhaps, be as weighed down by dead wood as in previous years.

And that's where the hope lies.

None of the players released can feel hard done to. Almost to a man, they showed signs that they could make a difference, push us forward, but then either couldn't, or wouldn't, do it.

We paid them a lot of money in wages for not a great deal on the pitch. Now they're gone, less of next season's budget will be allocated to paying players the manager doesn't want and who we can't easily transfer elsewhere. There's a real chance to reimagine and reinvent the squad, the team and the whole culture of the playing staff.

It may even be possible to divert wages from the playing squad into funding a “proper” behind-the-scenes structure.

I'm not sure many of us will be demanding promotion next season. I'd define being in play-off contention as success, given the state we're in. That might allow some brave choices about where to place the budget, between the stadium on a Saturday and the training ground during the week.

It's a high-wire act. The players we have right now are not good enough to stay in the league, let alone succeed in it. I'm fearful of what lies ahead, if we get it wrong.

But if we get it right — or even show signs of knowing how to get it right — then that fear might yet turn into excitement. Or at least a bit of hope.