Pinch of salt time?
First they warn everyone on the staff of impending redundancy, now everyone who will be out of contract is dumped.
Fer will be missed, a tad, for his inspirational qualities, but Routledge is a keystone of the squad.
When they've sorted out the "hole" with a couple of transfers and offloaded the wage drain of Ayews and Baston there will be wriggle room to offer the maestro a new contract. Timing may be a problem as he could have sorted out a flat and car share with Angel by then.