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January window postmortem
Henry Irving
Posts: 85,222
Good?
Bad?
OK?
Bad?
OK?
0
Comments
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First thoughts...
Ok / Bad, imo
anyone who says good is really straining to accentuate the positive imo14 -
Average but MS dig himself a hole with all the hype. Still think we are light of quality up top. If LT gets injured for any length of time I think we will go down.6
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At present... OK - We needed backup in Midfield and we've got it
The jury should be out on all signings (even had we signed Mbappe) until we've seen them play
We pull away from relegation and get back some form then it becomes a Good window
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January windows are difficult. We have got 4 decent players in to strengthen the squad, Could have been better but good enough I would say. The major rebuild will happen in the summer.23
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I'm in the good camp.
People have to rememeber that before the injuries we were winning difficult games. The only thing that has really changed since then is we have lost Leko and Gallagher.
They are both big losses but I feel like we have signed adequate cover, Davis and MaGeady are not mugs at this level and further more 'unearthed' Bonne and Doughty during that bad period who I look forward to seeing how they fit into a less struggling team.
I think we will stay up pretty easily. And I don't believe that is straining to make any positive points there.
My one negative is that I am still not sure on the Smith signing. Unless LB/SG think he can be a similar player to Cullen if we need to cover him. Feel like it's a wasted loan to me and would have prefered a permanent, but maybe we couldn't get one across the line.6 -
To be fair I enjoyed the hype that Southall built on twitter, made it a bit more excitingCovered_End_Lad said:Average but MS dig himself a hole with all the hype. Still think we are light of quality up top. If LT gets injured for any length of time I think we will go down.
He does need to watch out though and was maybe a bit amateurish from him
I've got a feeling you've got few people like me who couldnt care less about what he posts - A lot more fans will quickly get pissed off with that5 -
It's Charlton innit?1
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Not thrilled, losing Gallagher was really bad IMO but I don’t think that’s necessarily ESI’s fault. The lack of significant incomings is very strange given that ESI apparently didn’t acquire the Valley & training ground so that they could prioritise the January window - this doesn’t feel like a worthwhile payoff for Roland continuing to own our primary assets right now.
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The question mark for me is: the owner clearly has money. Matt was talking the talk.Yet it sounds like we put a low bid in for JCH and couldn’t do a deal with Maddison.
Plus ESI haven’t bought the club in its entirety (Valley etc)
I know January is a precarious time to buy but I’m left wondering what money these guys have got and are willing to part with.
A few question marks for me.8 -
The midfield looks sorted but we are relying very heavily on Lyle and Bonne, when he's fit again, for goals.3
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Ok pretty happy
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Depends if we stay up or not.2
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Good.
Kept Taylor. Made some signings. Didn't lose anyone.
That should be enough to make sure we're able to sign players as a Championship club in the summer.7 -
Perfect summary. Pretty sure we missed out on some first choice targets.redman said:January windows are difficult. We have got 4 decent players in to strengthen the squad, Could have been better but good enough I would say. The major rebuild will happen in the summer.5 -
Not bothered about MS on twitter either way.
It's a bit of fun but no more.
Very happy that we kept Taylor and signed Bowyer.
Individually the four signings all seem positive.
We seem to have a lot of midfielders now.
Bemused by six loans but maybe one will be converted to a permanent. Or one will get injured, unlikely as that seems.
Nothing "sexy" but seems solid.24 -
What were you expecting? Lyle is still here we have experience with little commitment. We stay up and re build, remember the league 1 season... Total rebuild we can do that again in the summer
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I think this transfer window proves we don’t have rich benefactors . It’s a good window because we’ve strengthened and kept Lyle but I have my concerns that we couldn’t afford Maddison’s wages .1
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Not a lot different to the last 7 or 8..which disappoints.
I'd like to know how many of Bowyers list we got anywhere near to?
McGeady maybe?
Southall either completely misjudged the situation which you can sort of understand or the whole thing was a bit of a charade.
I don't think too much work was involved in getting the players we got over the line.
This window was going to be judgement day for ESI. I'm surprised, considering what we've been through over the years, that so many of our support seem to be rolling out the excuses for them.
We are still at the 'talking the talk' stage for me.4 -
The way I see it, is that we’re doing enough to see us through whilst staying in The Championship (hence all the loans), and then we’ll rebuild properly in summer to target the play offs.
Decent window though. As I said in the transfer rumours thread. If you’re saying you wouldn’t have taken Mcgeady, Smith, Green and Davis, as well as Taylor staying and Bowyer on a three year deal, you’re lying8 -
Really not sure on squad balance.
If Taylor gets injured or sulky, we’re in trouble.
If Lockyer gets injured or suspended, we’re in real trouble.
We’ve 6 loans but can only name 5 in a squad, so automatically have someone not even making the squad.
I’m not sure how we are going to manage that midfield in terms of getting players match fit, continuity, understanding and playing in a set formation when it’s going to have to be rotated so much to simply keep them happy? Those three loans wouldn’t have signed today if they weren’t promised a fair crack of game time, would they?.
How do you pick 4 / 5 out of:
Pratley
Cullen
Field
Davis
Smith
Williams
Oztumer
McGeady
Green
Doughty
Oshilaja
Forster-Caskey
Morgan
Thats not even considering
Lapslie
Aneke
Dempsey
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It was ok. It would obviously have been better if we hadn't been hammered by Chelsea pulling back Gallagher and Leko exploding his knee, but we had to react to that and we did. Green replaced Leko, we've covered Gallagher and Kayal leaving, which as long as Smith and Davis stay fit can only be a positive given Kayal was never really available, and we've signed a player to deal with our creativity problems in McGeady. Most importantly we kept Lyle and we know Lee Bowyer is going to be our manager going forward. That's huge. I'm sure people are disappointed and some have decided to turn it on Southall for daring to say he was going to be busy today (and then signing three players in one day) but how many new Chairmen out there do you think would honestly give a three year deal to a manager who's just won 1 match in his last 17? That's faith based on appreciation of his abilities and that's a rare thing in club chairmen that we should be grateful for.I would have liked us to have signed another striker though. Bonne is still injured, Hemed is just back from injury and I feel like Green is slightly less suited to the striking role than Leko was, though hopefully he'll adapt quickly. The real test will be seeing what we do in the summer, but right now we just need to stay up. Get a few wins, preferably in a row, ease ourselves away from the teams below us and start looking to the future. There's no room for complacency as the teams below us are starting to stir a bit so it's heads down and grind out some wins. Then we'll really know how good this window was.16
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Do have to wonder if his injury is worse than we think and is another reason for getting a third Midfielder todayAFKABartram said:Really not sure on squad balance.
If Taylor gets injured or sulky, we’re in trouble.
If Lockyer gets injured or suspended, we’re in real trouble.
We’ve 6 loans but can only name 5 in a squad, so automatically have someone not even making the squad.
I’m not sure how we are going to manage that midfield in terms of getting players match fit, continuity, understanding and playing in a set formation when it’s going to have to be rotated so much to simply keep them happy? Those three loans wouldn’t have signed today if they weren’t promised a fair crack of game time, would they?.
How do you pick 4 / 5 out of:
Pratley
Cullen
Field
Davis
Smith
Williams
Oztumer
McGeady
Green
Doughty
Oshilaja
Forster-Caskey
Morgan
Thats not even considering
Lapslie
Aneke
Dempsey0 -
Russian roulette football with the lack of defence options and an abundance of attacking ones.
You score 4. We'll score 5.
Hope some of your tickers are up to it0 -
As far as I can tell, Southall has done what he said he would in his first interview. He said they were not going to spend silly money on a player creating a load of debt. So I don't quite get people getting so up in arms about not signing someone like Toney for 10m.
A sensible approach to the window for me. Gutting too lose Gallagher, but that seemed behind the control of the club.12 -
Look on the brightside, we dont have to play three at the back anymore which was really pissing everyone off!!2
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16 midfielders there, Bowyer's gone a bit nutsAFKABartram said:Really not sure on squad balance.
If Taylor gets injured or sulky, we’re in trouble.
If Lockyer gets injured or suspended, we’re in real trouble.
We’ve 6 loans but can only name 5 in a squad, so automatically have someone not even making the squad.
I’m not sure how we are going to manage that midfield in terms of getting players match fit, continuity, understanding and playing in a set formation when it’s going to have to be rotated so much to simply keep them happy? Those three loans wouldn’t have signed today if they weren’t promised a fair crack of game time, would they?.
How do you pick 4 / 5 out of:
Pratley
Cullen
Field
Davis
Smith
Williams
Oztumer
McGeady
Green
Doughty
Oshilaja
Forster-Caskey
Morgan
Thats not even considering
Lapslie
Aneke
Dempsey0 -
As long as the 2 strikers who have scored most of our goals stay fit then great. Without them we are powder puff up front. Hemed, Davison & Aneke have 3 goals between them.
As windows go......5/10. Could do better.1 -
Do people not see this window in the context of it being claimed that January squad strengthening was prioritised over acquiring the ground and training ground. That was the justification given, have the incomings justified that?
I’m currently very uncertain about what’s happening at our club, I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’m “concerned” and I’m certainly very glad Roland has gone, but it doesn’t all add up to me at the moment.16 -
Good. Bodies in that profess to be professional footballers, helps to resuscitate the injured while work goes on, off-field, to improve the risk of future injuries. This is all about planned sustainability. Want us to rip into Barnsley tomorrow though a 0-1 defeat will not be a surprise, but neither is it the end of the world. Mid-table finish still a possibility.0
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I literally forgot about JFC in my considerations about how strong our squad is post this window. That definitely makes me feel even more positive, but also again does make me more and more baffled by the Smith signing.AFKABartram said:Really not sure on squad balance.
If Taylor gets injured or sulky, we’re in trouble.
If Lockyer gets injured or suspended, we’re in real trouble.
We’ve 6 loans but can only name 5 in a squad, so automatically have someone not even making the squad.
I’m not sure how we are going to manage that midfield in terms of getting players match fit, continuity, understanding and playing in a set formation when it’s going to have to be rotated so much to simply keep them happy? Those three loans wouldn’t have signed today if they weren’t promised a fair crack of game time, would they?.
How do you pick 4 / 5 out of:
Pratley
Cullen
Field
Davis
Smith
Williams
Oztumer
McGeady
Green
Doughty
Oshilaja
Forster-Caskey
Morgan
Thats not even considering
Lapslie
Aneke
Dempsey
I do wonder if the last two years of massive injury lists has meant we have tried to over compensate.
If we are only going one up top now, then I think our striking options will be fine. Ideally I would have liked us to have spent money bringing in a quality CB who would have been with us long term. But maybe that's hard to do in January.2
