how far are we away from a play off challenging side?

A striker, a left winger and a central midfielder imho

question is, have we got any money to spend in january.

 

28 fathoms

or 18 furlongs in old money

 

measured with a Trundle Wheel?

 

The first 11 is just a regular goalscorer away. We need to strengthen with quality though. I would agree with your positions, although I would add LB to it. No cover at all for Koz. I think we may have to sell Muller in January to spend some decent money, but is PC is gonna spend a couple of million? I think it is worth a gamble. 3 or 4 million spent over the next 2 transfer windows and we could be right up there.

 

RE:no point strengthenin now wait till summer when we can offload the crap nt

 

RE:no point strengthenin now wait till summer when we can offload the crap nt

Every point in strengthening now. If we can get the players SD wants then we can get them bedded in ready for next season. Should always be looking to strenghten. I reckon Mostto and KO will be gone in January. Try and get Coulson out on loan. A LB/LM is a must regardless of how many crap strikers we have. We aren't carrying many players you could call crap in other positions.

 

do we really need to spend 2 - 3 million over the next couple of windows?, Davey's pulled some good freebies out of the bag. There might be a couple of others crop up

 

I hope your right but the gambling on unknows and lower league players hasn't unearthed a consistent goal scorer. I reckon our next 2 striker purchases need to be in the bracket of Humes. 1 - 1.5m. Goalscorers at this level rarely come for nothing.

 

28 fathoms is 168 feet

18 furlongs is 11880 feet. (doh) </p>

Maths not really your strong point is it? </p>

 

Not really

Personality not really yours?

 

At least I have one. nt

 

No, you don't

 

Wow, that's witty. I've heard of Jay-Z

are you Jay-(zzz) or something?

 

Like I said, no you don't

 

We're already a pretty solid side - with regard to avoiding relegation, this season looks as though it'll prove to be a good deal more comfortable than the last couple.

We've been doing alright in defence and midfield even with a few injuries/suspensions and the departure of Howard. Steele is more than adequate backup for Muller, so we've not got much to worry about in the first three-quarters of the pitch, assuming that all things remain equal after January.

What does concern me is the fact that we have seven trillion strikers, and all bar two of them are hopeless. As much as Davey is slowly winning me round - I've never been his biggest fan, and I called for his dismissal at Crystal Palace - he needs to get rid of three, possibly four, and bring in one or maybe two decent ones. Taxi for Mostto, Odejayi, Coulson and Rigters, please. Rigters has been getting slightly better, I admit, but I'm not sure he's what we are looking for or need.

That poses us a problem. Who's going to want hapless - or seemingly hapless - players like Mostto and Odejayi? There's a Championship-level footballer inside Mostto. I've always been convinced of it, and I've seen it in the briefest glimpses. I accept by now, though, that we'll never see him fulfill his potential at BFC, so it's better to cut our losses and get whatever we can for him. Odejayi is plain out of his depth, for all the good work that he does occupying defenders and making the opposition's life awkward. His card is marked now by almost the whole of the fanbase, me included, and it's difficult to see what can be done to turn his fortunes around here. If we can't get rid of them, I don't see how we can sanction bringing in any more strikers even on loan. We've got seven that I can think of (including Hume), two of whom are on loan. That's a lot of dead wood.

Even if the unexpected happens and we get that number down to three or four, Davey's record of signing strikers isn't one that inspires confidence. You'd have to hope that if he does find the right one or ones, our away record magically improves on the back of that. I think we won nine times away from home in the year we got to the (2000) playoff final.

In short, we aren't that far away, but the pieces we need to put in place to bridge that gap might not be easy to come by. What we're looking for, so are 23 other clubs, most of whom have bigger fanbases/more money, and are more 'attractive' options. That isn't to say it can't be done, though. Davey spoke about year-on-year improvement in his interview after the game yesterday and we're on course to get another eight or 10 points more than we did last season - assuming that another massive cup run doesn't sidetrack us again!

I believe in Davey more now than I've done before. I'm very fickle like that. If we get pumped in the next two games I'll be wavering once more. I really, really would have sacked him after Cardiff at home, and again after Palace.