Summer 2023 Transfer Rumours

It has been a crap window.

Worth noting that Richards has never been a full back or wing back outside of a handful of games on loan at Harrogate. He was always a left sided central defender at Wolves. Seemingly we are convinced there is a left back in there. Pattison looks to have had little muscle injury issues in his legs for a lot of his career. You can tell there is talent there but the fitness issues might have been what's stopped a lot of clubs going in for him. Smith needs to show some consistency outside of playing in the trophy against kids and reserves. He's always had issues keeping a place in the side and it's clear to see why he never keeps favour. Seems to be the type that needs an early goal or good chance to get in the groove, otherwise he just never gets going. Like that sitter the other week (Barrow maybe?), 99 out of 100 strikers slot that home.

The loanees cant make the matchday 18, how are they anything but poor signings? The only one who has is Oyegoke who hasn't impressed in any position. He's making the bench because his athleticism makes him cover for a few slots, he's there on fitness rather than ability. Kelly? Signed for potential? He's 25, he turns 26 before the start of next season. By that point, potential has gone out the window and you need to know your role and need to be playing games.

McDonald - legs have gone but smart on the ball
Odour - zero consistency
Pattison - talent but fitness issues are back
Smith - needs consistency
Taylor - truly terrible
Richards - might be something in there
Wilson - need to see more of him
Oyegoke - not good enough
Afoka - forgot he was here
Tulloch - had 1 good game
Tomkinson - did he actually sign here?

Some terrible signings, but I couldn't really say any were great signings on what we have seen so far outside of maybe Pattison.

 

What about the loan signings? They've hardly kicked a ball.

 

Our 4 biggest issues this season....

1 - Tomkinson, brought in to replace Crichlow just hasnt worked out. Injuries, not risked, international calls. Disaster.
2 - Pattison is a key player for me and his injuries haven't helped - we miss him dearly. A fully fit Pattison last season and I think we would have gotten promotion. Thats all we lacked last season, a dynamic CM who could find the net.
3 - No short term competition for Cook. We have waited on Oliver far too long.
4 - Harry Lewis gone from Buffon to Buffoon in a few months.

I dont disagree with your assessment on recruitment. The loan signings have been absolutely shocking.

 

You can't just ignore the loan signings. What if we sign someone in a 12 months contract (the same length as most young loans), do we just ignore them if they don't play much of a part?

 

Chances are were paying less for a loan player.

I can't imagine Afoka is any kind of financial burden

 

You're guessing now. We don't know what any player earns and rightly so.

 

...

Can you guess who earns more, Walker or Pointon, or is it just too difficult?

 

An educated guess and a common sense approach can be adapted though.

 

You are right, we can't, the only saving grace is we can probably send them back in January. If we are honest with their clubs and tell them they are not in our plans then it is in their best interests to recall.

Oyegoke, Tomkinson, Tulloch and Afoka were collectively unnecessary. We could have probably signed 1 and got 1 very decent player in for the cost we are covering their wages and used Rowe and Youmbi to make up the numbers.

 

What's that got to do with them being poor signings?

If we sign a load of cheap options does that mean we can celebrate a great window?

Oh wait ........ We did.

 

You've no idea what we're paying Ofoka. Neither have I.

 

I wish we could send them back but unless another club wants to take them I'm worried we might be stuck with them.

Either way though, it's got to be accepted that the recruitment this summer was, over all, very poor.

 

He's a young lad on loan. I've no idea what his parent club are paying, but it's a fair and safe bet we're not paying his full wages.

I didn't even consider this controversial

 

Im not convinced, they were sent out to develop and if they arent developing they will probably be recalled, shopped around and if no takers then are better placed in their respected reserve/youth teams.

Finances wont come into it - more so with Oyegoke and Afoka.

 

All the poor quality players we have are taking a wage. Those wages add up to a chunk of the budget.
We can't say that it's OK, they are poor, but we're not paying them much.
It all adds up. Quantity over quality this summer, unfortunately.

 

I wish I had your confidence. Either way though I suppose we'll know by February.

 

It's like a kid judging your Christmas day haul on stocking fillers lol

They're just squad players.

They aren't doing any harm.

 

They are doing harm. They're taking up a chunk of the budget that could have been spent on quality players.

 

We shouldn't laugh but that sums up Harry's season so far, lets hope he gets some confidence back and start performing like the old Harry Lewis of last season, and the same for Andy Cook.

 

Very unlikely that we'd have brought in a quality player so late in the transfer window.

Tulloch and Afoka came in on deadline day.