Has our Summer Transfer Window started?

Cheltenham Town have received a bid for Alfie May
Is it us? I know Derby are interested in him

 

The bid's from Charlton.

 

Its Charlton mate.

 

A few interested in him, and Smith at Cambridge. We won't be getting either of them

 

Or dodged a bullet? Certainly at his peak now, and not the sort of player an aspiring championship club should be looking at. In my opinion.

 

Thank god for that

 

We need a couple of strikers who will get the goals to fire us up next season. He’s proved he can do it in a struggling side so he’d definitely do it in a better side. He’d have been worth a punt short term but we can’t compete with clubs like Derby and Charlton.

 

I'd be happy is we recruited left field for a striker. Someone who's notched a few in the division below or done it in a struggling side. I like the look of Tom Nichols. Think he'd do a job up front.

 

Little striker in the Conor Chaplin mode I would say. Good player who would fit in well especially under his old boss.

 

Said all this before but there are so many benefits to signing Alfie May.

Duff knows him very well and can arguably get the best out of him. May still has a property in Donny, therefore won’t need time to settle in the area. Has vast experience like Norwood and will be beneficial to have around for the likes of Marsh, Dyer, Jalo and other young strikers we could have come up to the first team.

It’s a no brainer for me, as it was last season but I fear now he will have a lot of clubs making bids for him.

 

I see Sam Smith at Cambridge is out of contract and a free agent. Scored 14 last season and averages almost a goal every three games.
At only 25 I think he'd be a good signing for us too.

 

I can’t see us signing 2 strikers, in Cole and Norwood we already have 2 decent ones and Shaw should now step up after a full preseason to become the 4th choice. There’s budget for one decent strike, Watters loan wage contribution can’t have been too different to Cole/Norwoods, wage wise there’s room I think/hope.

It doesn’t have to be the top goal scorer of league 1/2 for me not hat I’d complain if it was, a Woodrow type for instance, came out of nowhere last time, a young kid from Fulham who’d not done much and he went on to score 19 in half a season, I’d take that again, but it definitely needs to be a killer finisher we’ve been crying out for. We need someone who long term could do the job in the championship too, as had we gone up I’d have said our striker force was the weakest department, so they need to have potential to get better, youngish with a decent pedigree or career record

 

We deffo need two strikers. Would love to be able to bring in Jay Stansfield from Fulham. One of the best strikers we’ve faced this season. Would obviously be a loan deal. I don’t think we’ll have the cash to be bringing in strikers worthwhile so might have to be a risk and reward if we are gonna spend.

I would also like us to get Dale Taylor from Forest. Only 19 so would be a loan as I think Burton was quoted just under £1 million when they tried to sign him permanently. Would obviously be great to see us bag someone that belongs to the club but I’m not sure we’ll do it unless we get big bucks for players we have.

It’s a shame Jack Diamond looks like he could be sent down as he would have been a superb addition to our attack. Think there were some creditable rumours that we might have initially been after him this coming summer.

 

It also looks like we might need a left back, centre half and a keeper at the moment based on the loans going back. Luke Thomas is Josh Martin’s replacement once he’s fully fit.

Todd Kane has been released by Coventry and will add some experience. He wasn’t on massive wages apparently. Can play both sides as wing back. Hopefully we sign Isted and Thomas permanently for the other two positions. Wouldn’t surprise me if we signed Larkeche to be fair.

 

Larkeche might be in the pipeline. At the end of his statement on the loans leaving story he said “see you soon”. Maybe a bid already submitted?

 

We'll see, but there's no guarantee he'd have got the goals he did for us either. His form over the last 2 seasons has been remarkable, but is completely at odds compared to the rest of his career, where he's been largely a lower league journeyman averaging a handful of goals a year. With how careful we'll have to cut our cloth, it's not a gamble I'd be taking personally.

 

We can only afford the wages of one decent striker IF we have the same wage budget as last year, the owners had to put 3m in just to keep last years wage budget the same, I can’t see them putting in more than 3m to expand the budget. I’m presuming Tedic was on loan without any wage contribution, but we must have been paying some of Watters championship wage, I’d guess Watters was being payed similar to Cole/Norwood, so we’ve enough to afford one decent striker but a second would have to be another low wage loan.

If Shaw isn’t deemed good enough after preseason then we should be loaning him out or selling to free up some wage room, but I get the feeling Shaw will step up to that 4th choice striker spot, meaning we only really need 1 decent striker (which we should be able to afford wage-wise)

If Cole/Norwood/Watters/Tedic was enough to finish 4th and score 80 goals this season (1 goal short of 3rd and 2 goals short of 1st) I’d like to think Cole/Norwood/Shaw/New Striker would be enough to match or better that tally next season. 2 new decent strikers seems a bit far fetched on our budget and unnecessary IF Shaw can do a job and contribute a similar amount or more than Tedic.

 

I would not be surprised to see Jalo promoted to the first team squad this season as he continues his progress , Duff showed a lot of confidence in him & will be working through the close season again , I am not saying he is the finished product & the answer to our striker conundrum but we should not dismiss our own developing players , after all that is what our academy is designed for , to develop our own .