Transfers

[john Mathison]

There you have it. We all knew what we were up against. Virtually every premier side has one player that cost more than our first 11, and some the entire match squad. CW will wheel and deal, sad to say , Fotheringham will be one to lose his place. Its obvious the defenders have lost confidence in him.

 

[Silent Blade]

Why do you take comfort from this ?
We are clearly the worst of the three and need to make the biggest improvement in order to challenge next season.

What comfort?
We are going down with Luton Town and Burnley

 

[10-0 win]

Prince fixing loans from Saudi league? CW saying 3 ins and starters.

 

[LBA_Blade]

Why do you take comfort from this ?
We are clearly the worst of the three and need to make the biggest improvement in order to challenge next season.

Plus as things stand, the 3 that went down last season will leave at least one (Leeds or Southampton) still in the Championship providing Ipswich still manage to keep their form.

 

[JayGreen17]

I'd rather we didn't spend anything in January. If anything start planning for next season back in the Championship. See which players are out of contract in the summer and get them on pre-contract agreements now so that we get off to a flying start in pre-season, rather than our standard lagging behind and poor excuses.

As for movements out, let anyone go in January. It's not like we'll stay up with out without them. My only worry is how many going out of contract has extensions written in which we'll activate. I'd consider keeping Bogle and that's about it. The rest can go. Massive clear out and rebuild requried.

If the Prince was serious about staying up and having a go at trying to stay up he'd have released funds in the summer. So why release them now when we're dead and buried? Save the money for the summer when it'll actually make a difference.

I have to agree with you, any money spent on large loans deals will be a complete waste spent. Build now for next season.

 

[Wizard]

Wilder keeps emphasising that they'll look to bring in 2/3 players at starter level.

It's interesting because I think there are a couple areas where the squad is shallow in terms of depth but not necessarily in the quality of the starters.

We've played a couple shapes depending on the opposition but assuming our default under Wilder so far is:

Wes
Bogle - Anel - Robinson - Trusty
Hamer - Souza - Brooks
McAtee - McBurnie - Archer

Then I'd say the two obvious weak areas from a first eleven quality perspective are Brooks (inexperience) & Wes (form).

And from a depth perspective we look short at keeper, centre back, winger and striker. You could also say our depth of quality at centre mid is lacking despite the options we have (Slimane Norwood, Osborn, Davies, Arblaster)

So where do we target? The two that feel obvious are:

GK - Meets criteria for both depth and quality. Feels like somewhere that we could quite feasibly get a decent upgrade for either a loan or reasonable fee and I'd feel more secure if Wes was our number 2 rather than Davies.

ST - I like McBurnie but we can't rely on his fitness and he has poor games. Bringing in a quality loan striker and having McBurnie on the bench would make us look a lot stronger. Even though we lack depth out wide I'd rather we make do with using the likes of Osula, Slimane, Osborn, Brewster etc. out there as backups and target a striker instead.

But if we can get a third I don't know where I'd look.

• McAtee is great but would getting a proper winger on loan and having McAtee on the bench as an impact sub make us a more threating attack? Could we even move McAtee to the Brooks role or is he too lightweight for that in the prem?
• We have no fit centre backs on the bench but I think it'd be hard to get one that walks in as Anel is captain, Robbo has been one of our best players and Trusty is playing at left back. If RND is fit then he could be proper competition at left back which would free up Trusty/Robinson to be a bench option
• Centre mid. We've got lots of bodies there but not a lot of quality and it's the weakest of the 3 positions in our current best eleven. If Davies can get fit then he solves that problem in my eyes but I wouldn't bank on that.

In my view I'd target a winger to take Brooks' starting spot and move to a more traditional 4-4-2. That'd leave us with:

Starting lineup
ST - Archer
LW - Souza - Hamer - McAtee
Trusty - Robinson - Anel - Bogle
GK
Bench
Wes
Lowe
Baldock
Norwood
Brooks
Slimane
Osborn
Osula
McBurnie
Returning from injuries
RND
T.Davies
Arblaster
Brewster
Surplus?
Fleck
Traore (loan?)
A.Davies
Larouci
Thomas
Coulibaly
Jebbison (seems to be going in Jan/Summer)
Long term injuries
Egan
Basham

 

[Bladesman]

Prince fixing loans from Saudi league? CW saying 3 ins and starters.

CW saying a few players are now surplus to requirements. He was pretty blunt and clear with that message as well.

 

[AdamSufc1997]

Nixon says we’re still after the loans

 

[Pittsburg Blade]

Minimum 12 transactions in 30 days?

This info, if you've been told it or made it up, is untrue. The club does not have the administrative capability to handle it, regardless of finances

You’ve not seen the size of the new fax machine…

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Tbh I doubt they'll be mostly loans as I can't see us signing forgein players again? Maybe Schmeichel who's PL experienced.

And we've got munneh for perms?

 

[ancientblade]

What comfort?
We are going down with Luton Town and Burnley

and the 3 relegated clubs will get promoted i think ipswich will run out of steam as another poster has eluded to abdullah gave us no chance of survival this season no matter who the manager was with the pittance he was prepared to invest in better quality players

 

[FinBlade]

The fact that we are able to get players in, is so awesome and lights up hopes of staying in Prem!
I didn't expect us to have much (nothing) left in transfer-wise (this season), so I'm pretty delighted!

 

[Bell4]

All three promoted teams going down

This

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

Why do you take comfort from this ?
We are clearly the worst of the three and need to make the biggest improvement in order to challenge next season.

Not sure we would be the worst next season. Depends on the rebuild of all three, but given the investment so far Burnley would look the strongest, I’m not sure on Luton who I think will take this season as an unexpected windfall.

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

I have to agree with you, any money spent on large loans deals will be a complete waste spent. Build now for next season.

I'd say we need to build longer than that tbh. I wouldn't be looking to try and go straight back up with a patched up team.
We need to build a team and squad that is a lot more established and proven together. If and when we do go back up, it then needs a couple of well thought out key signings to get it to a prem strength squad.

 

[8lade]

Virtually every premier side has one player that cost more than our first 11,

Hold on there Bald Eagle (you gotta be a certain age and remember the Texan advert for that) at one point we could've started 11 with a combined (est) transfer fees of £125m and I still think £80m is possible, of course United never release fees so it's just guestimating but we have spent good money (badly) over the last 5 years.
Liverpool have the fifth most expensive player with Nunez at £85m, so more accurately speaking the big 5 have a single player who cost more than our team whilst established EPL relegation fighters such as Everton or Palace have generally spent about twice what we have on their squads.
(Sorry to be picky it's a boring time of year for me.)

 

[tincan]

Depending on the deals HRH can arrange with the Saudi Pro league, there is the upside for the Saudis for their top players playing in the PL. Gaining publicity and recognition for the league if their loans can turn our season round. A nominal fee might be possible for the right players. Their squads: https://www.spl.com.sa/en/teams

 

[JJBlade]

Agree with most of your post… but I’d want a lot more for Anel

I'd want more for Anel, not sure we'd get it, because all he's proven is that he's a Championship player.
As for the rest in steve26272 's post, we'd not get a million for the whole lot combined

 

[Bladesman]

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Will it just be loan signings this window?

The way Wilder and Prince spoke about the budget and needing to recoup in the summer if relegated made me think we'd spend some transfer fees?

We've got 2x forgein loans available after signing BBD and 1x english loan when Thomas goes back.

CW only wanted 3 players in so the other 2 could be loans/frees etc meaning we don't need to recoup transfer fees in the summer?

Also 4m recouped for Traore if he does well.

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Will it just be loan signings this window?

The way Wilder and Prince spoke about the budget and needing to recoup in the summer if relegated made me think we'd spend some transfer fees?

We've got 2x forgein loans available after signing BBD and 1x english loan when Thomas goes back.

CW only wanted 3 players in so the other 2 could be loans/frees etc meaning we don't need to recoup transfer fees in the summer?

Also 4m recouped for Traore if he does well.

Find it bizarre we apparently have money but after loan signings like Danny Ward

 

[Grappler]

Will it just be loan signings this window?

The way Wilder and Prince spoke about the budget and needing to recoup in the summer if relegated made me think we'd spend some transfer fees?

We've got 2x forgein loans available after signing BBD and 1x english loan when Thomas goes back.

CW only wanted 3 players in so the other 2 could be loans/frees etc meaning we don't need to recoup transfer fees in the summer?

Also 4m recouped for Traore if he does well.

Said this on another thread, but listening to how CW was praising Thomas after the Gillingham result, it doesn't sound like he is going back, to me.

 

[ATL Recs]

Find it bizarre we apparently have money but after loan signings like Danny Ward

Danny Ward its like signing John Fleck again but with Gloves

 

[Bladesman]

Said this on another thread, but listening to how CW was praising Thomas after the Gillingham result, it doesn't sound like he is going back, to me.

Probably due to Lowe being injured.

 

[billyblademan]

Probably due to Lowe being injured.

I also guess that any loan from another PL club would be fairly last minute, so makes sense to keep Thomas around until that point, as well as whilst Lowe is injured.

 

[loyalblade95]

I also guess that any loan from another PL club would be fairly last minute, so makes sense to keep Thomas around until that point, as well as whilst Lowe is injured.

Problem is, we can't get a loan from another premier league club with both Mcatee and Thomas here as that covers our 2 domestic loans.

 

[Fjortoft's Aeroplane]

Problem is, we can't get a loan from another premier league club with both Mcatee and Thomas here as that covers our 2 domestic loans.

Be a shame if our hand is forced into actually building for the future.

 

[Boxer Blade]

Hopefully RND is back permanently which feels like a new signing for our left hand side, Thomas should be sent back if we can , he looks no better than Larouchi and worse than Lowe, hopefully bring someone in in another position possibly.

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Still think we need 3 more positions for the long term, even though it won't keep us up still.

Goalkeeper
Defender
Midfielder

 

[Mouth of the South]

Hopefully RND is back permanently which feels like a new signing for our left hand side, Thomas should be sent back if we can , he looks no better than Larouchi and worse than Lowe, hopefully bring someone in in another position possibly.

It would incredibly risky to plan for RND being available for or able to play in every game. It will take him a long time (probably the end of the season) to build up strength, conditioning and match sharpness. As shown on countless previous occasions, players coming back from long term injuries are very prone to picking up other injuries. I'd much rather he be eased back in, even if that means Thomas playing more games. That said I'd draw the line at playing Larrouci or particularly Osborn there - I'd rather pick someone out from the crowd.