Strengthening the defence?

I had a trawl through the options. Good defenders in League Two are mostly pretty ancient, so not much good for us. The best option I could find in League One would be Paudie O'Connor at Lincoln City, who have a decent defensive record and he is a lynch pin of it. Downside is that he has been sent off twice this season, but then we need physicality. I had a trawl through the Championship looking for players who might come on loan with view to staying if we get promoted. Most were more experienced, but there are a few young 'uns. This is what I came up with: either Marc Roberts, or Kevin Long at Birmingham, the latter out of favour with Rooney; Kai Naismith at Bristol City, a hugely influential player at Luton before moving west; McFadzean at Coventry, almost drawing a pension now, but very experienced and dominant centre half; Matt Clarke at Boro, if they wanted Roberts back, maybe we could do a deal, but he has just got back in the team after injury - hugely experienced defender who reads the game very well; Blackett at Rotherham, unless he is injured, as he doesn't seem to have played for a while; Matty Pollock at Watford - still young, not getting first team appearances and Ismael owes us one; Caleb Taylor at West Brom and my best shout - still very young, but so impressive on a season's loan at Cheltenham last year and he is still nowhere near their first team - has all the attributes we need in central defence, plus a full season's successful experience at League One level.

I know nothing about Scottish football, nor the continent, but those names might gets the discussion started.

Any more?? Nothing in the rumour mill at the moment.

 

Agree.

Will be a loan from Champ or Prem if wages are shared.

Decent Champ defenders who are 30+ will be wanting at least £15k+ a week for a final pay day to move.

If we sign an overseas player, I’d be ok with that - Sollbauer was immense after 2 games in, so it’s doable.

 

Elliott Moore from Oxford is fantastic and would be perfect if we could convince them to sell.

Mattie Pollock from Watford too is very good and not getting much game time.

 

Elliott Moore would likely see it as a sideways move, and I can't imagine we'd be able/willing to up his wages massively (if at all).

Mattie Pollock is a very good shout and one that looks realistic, assuming he's wanting first team football.

 

Good shout tbf - And Pollock played under Duff when at Cheltenham I believe - Duff wouldn’t entertain idiots either.

Pollock’s also from the North East - so you’d guess a loan up here might suit in terms of family.

Just looked at his stats, and he played a lot of games for Grimsby when just a kid, so has a lot of early experience.

 

Moore also has 18 months left on contract so unlikely we would sign him in January unless it was an on loan with a view in the Summer,

 

I'd expect a loan with view to looking at options in the summer depending on league we are in next year - seems to be been our policy last few years

 

Pollock would be a good signing weren't we linked with him before? Still only 22 aswell.

 

Not sure if there was anything too it or not. He did play on loan for Duff at Cheltenham the season before he came here so it may have just been a 2+2..

 

Adam Jackson would be an interesting shout. Solid in the air which is one of our weaknesses, but not much pace. Robbo would be great but again not the fastest.