Gary's January Transfer Window

[Snoop Fog]

Err, Sinisalo, Trevitt and Rankine are all decent, right?

Yes, and he's also made permanent signings of Carroll and Mitchell who are both quality. However, permanent and loan signings of White, Scott, Muskwe, Jules, Woods all haven't been good enough. To be fair under KMT there were just as many failed signings as there were good. The problem currently is there's no balance to the team. It's all very well getting a Joe White or a Caleb Watts in to compliment an already experienced and established squad, but when you fill a team of them it doesn't work.

I think the warning signs were there last season when we lost 6 on the bounce, but this was masked by the fact we were already safe, and finished the season with a 3-2 win against Morecambe so it went somewhat overlooked.

We've lost Stanno, Nombe, Collins, Key, Sparkes, and Brown, and replaced with Scott, Muskwe, Harper, Trevitt, Jules and Wildschut. Trevitt is a great player but the other 5 don't touch the level of those other players that have moved on.

 

[Boyo]

Yes, and he's also made permanent signings of Carroll and Mitchell who are both quality. However, permanent and loan signings of White, Scott, Muskwe, Jules, Woods all haven't been good enough. To be fair under KMT there were just as many failed signings as there were good. The problem currently is there's no balance to the team. It's all very well getting a Joe White or a Caleb Watts in to compliment an already experienced and established squad, but when you fill a team of them it doesn't work.

I think the warning signs were there last season when we lost 6 on the bounce, but this was masked by the fact we were already safe, and finished the season with a 3-2 win against Morecambe so it went somewhat overlooked.

We've lost Stanno, Nombe, Collins, Key, Sparkes, and Brown, and replaced with Scott, Muskwe, Harper, Trevitt, Jules and Wildschut. Trevitt is a great player but the other 5 don't touch the level of those other players that have moved on.

I think every manager signs a few duds along the way. Indeed, look who Matt Taylor signed for us in 19/20. How many of those were successful? Any of them?

1 July 2019	DM		Nigel Atangana	Cheltenham Town	Free transfer	[47]
1 July 2019	CF		Alex Fisher	Yeovil Town	Free transfer	[48]
1 July 2019	GK		Johnny Maxted	Accrington Stanley	Free transfer	[49]
1 July 2019	CB		Tom Parkes	Carlisle United	Free transfer	[50]
1 July 2019	GK		Lewis Ward	Reading	Free transfer	[51]
1 July 2019	CB		Gary Warren	Yeovil Town	Free transfer	[52]
3 July 2019	CF		Nicky Ajose	Charlton Athletic	Free transfer	[53]
9 July 2019	DF		Noah Smerdon	Gloucester City	Undisclosed	[54]
11 October 2019	GK		Dino Visser	Cape Umoya United	Free transfer	[55]
17 January 2020	LM		Brennan Dickenson	Milton Keynes Dons	Free transfer	[56]
19 February 2020	GK		Jared Thompson	Free agent	Free transfer	[57]

And the loans:

5 July 2019	CB		Robbie Cundy	Bristol City	3 September 2019[70]	[71][72]
16 August 2019	DF		Jayden Richardson	Nottingham Forest	30 June 2020	[73]

 

[Hants_red]

On the basis that we didn't pick up a free agent we're going to have the difficult task of paying a fee for a striker.

Hopefully we've started that process as far as the rules allow but I don't think we're going to have someone in place for the Reading game

 

[AndyR]

Yes, and he's also made permanent signings of Carroll and Mitchell who are both quality. However, permanent and loan signings of White, Scott, Muskwe, Jules, Woods all haven't been good enough. To be fair under KMT there were just as many failed signings as there were good. The problem currently is there's no balance to the team. It's all very well getting a Joe White or a Caleb Watts in to compliment an already experienced and established squad, but when you fill a team of them it doesn't work.

I think the warning signs were there last season when we lost 6 on the bounce, but this was masked by the fact we were already safe, and finished the season with a 3-2 win against Morecambe so it went somewhat overlooked.

We've lost Stanno, Nombe, Collins, Key, Sparkes, and Brown, and replaced with Scott, Muskwe, Harper, Trevitt, Jules and Wildschut. Trevitt is a great player but the other 5 don't touch the level of those other players that have moved on.

He also signed Aimson who is pretty decent although maybe not skipper material and Niskanen who was also looking good before he got injured on international duty. Another of his loan signings was McDonald, also class.

I think overall his signings have been good, the only problem is the strikers innit!

 

[edwin_price]

He also signed Aimson who is pretty decent although maybe not skipper material and Niskanen who was also looking good before he got injured on international duty. Another of his loan signings was McDonald, also class.

I think overall his signings have been good, the only problem is the strikers innit!

Strikers, tactics and coaching of players... no one who was already here is a better player than before he came in. At least I can't think of any. Kyle Taylor maybe, but not sure he counts. He almost managed to ruin Key by messing about with his role.

 

[AndyR]

Strikers, tactics and coaching of players... no one who was already here is a better player than before he came in. At least I can't think of any. Kyle Taylor maybe, but not sure he counts. He almost managed to ruin Key by messing about with his role.

Hmm, not sure I agree with that. Clubs seem quite prepared to send players on loan to us e.g. Rankine and Trevitt plus Stanno seemed to genuinely appreciate GC and what he did for the upward path of his career. Harper looks promising to me and Cole has had the downward trajectory of his career rescued.

 

[edwin_price]

Hmm, not sure I agree with that. Clubs seem quite prepared to send players on loan to us e.g. Rankine and Trevitt plus Stanno seemed to genuinely appreciate GC and what he did for the upward path of his career. Harper looks promising to me and Cole has had the downward trajectory of his career rescued.

Well, I'd say Harper looks a decent signing. I'm not convinced he's "improved" measurably in the 3 months he's been here. Rankine, Trevitt, Cole... again, decent signings, but have they "improved"? They've been here 5 minutes. Stansfield, yeah, fantastic. He genuinely improved through last season and has gone from not being a guaranteed starter in league one, to doing the business in the championship. I feel like that's despite as much as because of Caldwell, but lets be generous and credit him with it. But what about our younger players? Hartridge, Kite, etc. These players kicking onto the next level is what makes the club tick.

 

[AndyR]

Well, I'd say Harper looks a decent signing. I'm not convinced he's "improved" measurably in the 3 months he's been here. Rankine, Trevitt, Cole... again, decent signings, but have they "improved"? They've been here 5 minutes. Stansfield, yeah, fantastic. He genuinely improved through last season and has gone from not being a guaranteed starter in league one, to doing the business in the championship. I feel like that's despite as much as because of Caldwell, but lets be generous and credit him with it. But what about our younger players? Hartridge, Kite, etc. These players kicking onto the next level is what makes the club tick.

Yeah I take the point but we're operating at a higher level where we were probably always bound to struggle. I mean, MT certainly improved some players when here but how many did he improve at Rotherham? Presumably not many. Maybe GC is in a similar position here.

 

[edwin_price]

Yeah I take the point but we're operating at a higher level where we were probably always bound to struggle. I mean, MT certainly improved some players when here but how many did he improve at Rotherham? Presumably not many. Maybe GC is in a similar position here.

You've got to take all that into account and build expectations accordingly. Expectations for this season are not to fight for promotion. They're to stay up and build the side a bit. But the last time we scored more than one goal in a league game was the 26th August. The next opportunity will be 25th November, so even if we score two away at Bolton (spoiler: we won't), it'll be pretty close to a full three months. A quarter. In that time, we've picked up 7 points from an available 36. That is not an acceptable return. And if you watch the games, rather than just look at the stats, you'll feel even worse about it. Even taking into account what's reasonable given the limitations and the fact we haven't built a massive stand.

 

[Red Monster]

The Real EFL are reporting Cole Stockton could be on his way of
Burton ,Carlisle are interested.
So could we persuade him to relocate to sunny Devon.