Transfer window

I’ve mentioned him before but I still believe Cole Stockton at Morecambe would be worth a punt to replace Cauley. Scoring goals for fun and could be our new David Currie

 

No Idea I'm not on the recruitment panel.

 

Matt O’riley and Scott Twine Mk dons

 

Could and should have gone for Twine in the summer. He’d cost a lot more now and doubt he’d be interested given our league position.

 

Lets be honest we are down, we should be using this january to shape the squad for division one next season , bring Kane , Miller & the lad back from Forest Green,, try & move on some of the deadwood or players who will fetch a decent fee & start to bring in the players with proven division one pedigree & steel a march on next seasons rivals .

 

He'll cost a bundle.

 

Get Kane back. Clear out some players that are never going to cut it. Get another Solly in at the back for the rest of the season & we might at least put up a fight. At the moment we are going down without a whimper.It's not the worst Barnsley team I've watched. The one that made our first "Great Escape" under Flicker was weaker IMO, but had more grit & experience.

 

He’s 27 so not a chance….

 

And there’s our problem. Right there. A couple of 30 somethings in our midfield with higher league experience, plus a goal scorer like Stockton and we could still survive, even though it looks hopeless.

 

Never the Twine shall meet.

 

Freddie Ladapo from Rotherham.

 

True, but well worth trying to tie up a deal

 

We're all but gone at this stage, so I expect recruitment to be aimed at a promotion push from L1, coupled with whatever sales we can get.

Assuming there's interested in Helik and Woodrow, I expect them to go. I'd be surprised if anyone wants to take Styles or Brittain based on this season, but their performances last year may attract some interest. Hopefully not enough to let them go. If there is interest in Brittain, I guess you could make the argument that J.Williams can replace.

I think Moon will be the replacement for Helik so wouldn't expect a signing in that position.

Which basically means the players we need to improve the team are exactly the same ones as in the summer. A left back, a midfielder, and a forward at the right level. None of Cole, Iseka and Oulare have been good enough for the level we're at, so those at Oakwell will seek to judge if they'll do the job at L1 level. If they want a crack at staying up, they need one who is good enough now, to play alongside Morris.

I do think we should recall Kane if possible as I think he's every bit as good as what we have, but let's not kid ourselves he'll take the Championship by storm. Again if we want a go at staying up we need an improvement, if not then give Kane plenty of game time so he's ready for next year.

If we really want to give it a go I think we need at least 3 players better than e currently have, which would cost a fair chunk. I don't think we have that cash, so I don't think we'll do it. But let's see.

 

I’m not expecting a lot this January apart from outgoings. Woodrow and Helik will be gone, no doubt. Also wouldn’t be surprised to see Brittain, Styles and Andersen gather some interest.

It gets me really disheartened seeing fans thinking we’ve got a real chance of staying up this season. With these clowns in recruitment and the even bigger clowns in management, I’m expecting a Stockport style Easter relegation.

We’ve been an utter disgrace this season. Conway being the CEO until the new one came in all pre season, the Schopp appointment, the Asbaghi appointment and the lack of leadership on the pitch. Helik, Woodrow, Styles and Brittain have been nothing short of pathetic this season despite them being top performers last year. They choose to play like ****, can blame Schopp and Asbaghi all you like. Schopp’s ability to pick a side and the inexperience of Poya has let us down massively on the management front.

It’s so frustrating seeing what we had last year to what we have now. Everybody at the club between the board to the squad ought to be ashamed of themselves. Any wonder fans have a go. Those behind the scenes in admin are class and always have been. Only positive thing at the moment.

On the positive side for our impending League 1 campaign, we have a really good squad at that level and with a few decent signings, return of loan players and Asbaghi learning from this disaster, we may have a good chance of coming back up. I do believe Poya Asbaghi will be a good manager one day and hopefully it’s with us. Unfortunately, we will then see star players leave again and see another disaster season back in the Champ when we choose to replace whoever the outgoings with some young lad with potential from either Denmark, Germany or France.

 

We are not down. As bad as we've been we are still only 7 points adrift with half our games left. Get back Kane or someone with a similar amount of EFL experience to put next to our many midfielders that don't so need help (Benson, Palmer, Gomes) and find someone who knows where the net is.

We are still in with a good chance of staying up. We will know more Feb 1st. There has been signs of improvement recently.

 

We'll know very soon if the owners have any intention of trying to stay up 'cos if they have they need to act very early. Deadline signings will be too late as we'll be too far adrift by then and even players as good as Dike needed a while to settle in.

Is it possible we could stay up? Performances to date say not but on the other hand it's not as if the league is full of world-beaters either. We beat most of them last season and there's only really been Fulham I've seen who I've thought were that impressive. Most of the time it's been our own ineptitude, tactics, fitness etc that's been the determining factor.

So we could do it but would need major 'surgery' to be able to give it a decent shot. To me, that would mean as a minimum replacing like-for-like what we lost last summer, the central midfield leader in his prime, the older head at the back who influences on and off the pitch and the big, strong powerful goal-scorer up front. It would mean additionally addressing the longstanding problems of no natural left-back (can't believe we didn't go for Pickering at Crewe whose fee and wage were both well within our range and who has been brilliant for Blackburn) and overall lack of pace and winger-less-ness .

Lastly, I'd bring back Kane, whose second half performance at Bournemouth last season was by far and away the best one by a midfielder not called Mowatt, so we know there's something to work with, and Aitchison who seems to have something about him by all accounts, if loan clauses permit, plus try to get Sibbick back in the fold - not sure what has gone wrong there but getting him back to last season's levels would be like adding a new player too.

At the same time and in order to provide some wage headroom there's some easy decisions on outgoings to my mind. Frieser's gone and was one of our biggest earners so that helps. Vita can go back to Bayern; Moon, Thompson and Ben Williams ought to go on loan to 3rd or 4th division; Vic and ICD should go too, on frees if necessary.

So 5 in, 2 loanees coming back and 7 out is my recipe for giving it a go. Do I think the owners will give it a go? Well, sadly, probably not 'cos:-

(1) It would need a bit of investment in fees up front, even though they've nowhere near spent the Val and co and Craplin money 'on reinvestment into playing strength' as they promised and the fact that even they know that not staying up will cost them £7m in lost EFL revenue along with £hundreds of thousands of season ticket money;

(2) There doesn't seem to be any real cohesion between coach, ownership and the recruitment function as further evidenced in Poya's recent interviews;

(3) The owners probably won't be able to resist selling a couple of the less bad existing squad members if someone dangles a fiver in front of them, weakening us further; and

(4) I'm not sure that they're that bothered anyway.

 

It is all about opinions & I sincerely hope we pull off another miracle however looking at it realistically we need somewhere in the region of 10 more wins from our remaining games & a few draws , we have currently won 2 games all season , our best goal scorer we have had at the club for years has been getting that much stick from some fans it is obvious he wants away & we have owners who would sell anything at the club that moves to make a couple of bob , experience would help & so would a magic wand but if you think that our wonderful owners are going to fund a rescue mission then I think you must believe in the tooth fairy , accept it now as it is easier to digest , we are sunk , I accepted it around Schopps dismissal time & now I have come to terms with it & want us to look to the future & once again try to learn from our mistakes .

 

If you were Ladapo why would you consider leaving a club that will probably be in the championship for a team that will be in division one ? & besides that why would you want to be a striker in a side that provides virtually no supply or support from a none existent midfield ? , he is currently at a club on the way towards promotion there is no chance he is going to jump ship from there .

 

Fully agree with Archerfield.

Sadly the main purpose of this transfer window should be one of self preservation. Cash generation and wage reduction.

The accounts are well out of date and show minimal reserves and cash and don’t take account of the worst of the covid period.

 

For our billionaire owners this should be an opportunity. Dearth of cash in the game, so should be some bargains to be had.