If we're looking on the basis of who we've lost since we started shipping water financially, rather than just administration, I don't think we we could realistically say that we'd have kept hold of all of them anyway, even without all our difficulties. If we'd not had any major financial issues , I'd say we could have kept the following:
Jordan Brown: I always rated him and think he's probably one of our biggest losses. He might have wanted to move on though anyway as he would have been struggling for a regular first team place given the competition that he would have faced. The Orient fans seem to rate him highly.
Lee Buchanan: he might have got duff advice from his agent anyway, but I'd like to think LB probably wouldn't have acted as badly as he did. Interestingly (or not), he seems to be one of the few members of BCFC team who their fans would like to keep when they meet their richly deserved fate and disappear into the abyss of the third division (the A38 derby will happily remain in place, just in a different direction....). The same is not true of Bielek, by the way.
Jason Knight: would he really have gone to Bristol City if we'd not got relegated? And for that matter, would Birdy have gone to join him?
Omari Kellyman: reputedly he didn't want to go at all, and I fear that he will be a big loss.
Dylan Williams: we would have been in a good position to reject Chelsea's offer and Dylan by now might have got 100 first team performances behind him. As it is, I don't think that he's kicked a first-team ball for Chelsea, and I wonder whether he wonders if he did the right thing.
Malcolm Ebiowe: we could have offered him a longer contract than we did. The same is possible with Luke Plange. But their subsequent stuttering progress suggests we have probably not lost as much as we thought (I hope they both prove me wrong by the way).
One that we probably would have lost anyway:
Morgan Whittaker: I have enormous respect for what Wazzer did for us, but his treatment of MW is probably his worst moment. For me, MW was the most naturally gifted on the 2019 youth team and his stats were phenomenal at that level. But as we can probably all recall, when he got into the first team his languid style didn't endear him to everyone, so Rooney wasn't alone in underrating him. To be fair, Whittaker didn't pull up any trees at Swansea or Lincoln. As Angie has rightly said Plymouth would already be back in Division 3 if it wasn't for his goals and assists. But his form does appear to have fallen off a cliff since Schumacher left and the Plymouth fans, or at least some of them, seem to be beginning to have their doubts: https://pasoti.co.uk/forums/plymouth-argyle-fans-forum.30/
Those that we almost certainly would have lost anyway:
Archie Brown: contrary to what is often said here about us letting him go, in fact he left of his own accord :
https://archive.ph/20211130171732/https://theathletic.com/2666370/2021/06/23/why-derbys-young-star-archie-brown-turned-down-a-new-deal-to-go-to-switzerland/
He has done brilliantly since leaving, but it's not a given that his progress would have been the same had he stayed with us. He's had to get used to different football and different counties, so he's had a lot to cope with, all of which may have helped his progress (the reverse is also true of course).
Liam Delap and Kaide Gordon: We never had them under professional contracts because of their age and we could not have stopped them leaving even if we were rolling in cash. Any young player given the chance to move to Liverpool or Man City was always bound to go. The same is likely to be the case with Festy - would he really have preferred to stay in Championship obscurity if he had the chance to go to Serie A?
As for the like of Kain Ryan and the three who went to Man U, moves at youth level and earlier happen all the time - after all Tom Huddlestone and Will Hughes were, I believe with the Red Dogs for a while. Those lads may go on to be great players- but then again they might not.
