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January window postmortem
Comments
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Oshilaja is a centre back so not sure why he's listed in the same group with the likes of Green and McGeady.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
From the players you've listed, the way i see it is:
Doughty - left back or left wing back
Oshilaja - centre back
Pratley/Davis
Cullen/Smith
Field/JFC
Williams/Oztumer
McGeady & Green as attacking options either wide in a 442 or 433.
Aneke is the only one for me who doesn't fit. Perhaps off Taylor in a 4411 in away games?
Morgan/Dempsey - send out on loan?
Lapslie - no idea when he'll return.2 -
It’s been a good window, we have three very good championship players in Davis, McGeady and Green, flair as well as grit. The signings will enable Bowyer to rotate the team something he hasn’t be able to do since the start of the season.
Yes we would have liked strikers but they come with a premium even if clubs are willing to sell and then the price goes up double.
Good business keeping Taylor.
i expect the new owners to flex their financial muscle in the summer once we have stayed up.
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I’m just glad it’s over and we still have Lyle.5
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Top achievements: Bowyer signed up for 3 years; Lyle not sold. New recruits look sound and should be enough to ensure we climb out of the relegation zone and keep our Championship place. Nothing could be done to avoid Gallagher leaving.4
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I’m happy with it. It’s not the window we were hoping for, but the squad is potentially stronger than the one in August. I won’t say it is because I don’t know enough about our new signings.
Winger/striker Green for Leko
Experienced Championship CM - Davis for Kayal/Ledley (effectively one player)
Young CM - Smith for Gallagher
McGeady gives us an extra player, adds goals, assists and makes 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 a more viable option.
They also had the understanding of the situation to give Bowyer a new contract, promote Gallen and keep Taylor. All obvious things to do, but could so easily turn out differently if you have an ownership who think they know better.
Some had high expectations for a club near the bottom of the Championship going into a January window. Several things contributed to that, and we may see the club reconsider how they deal with future transfer windows.
- Takeover with Middle Eastern money involved, some assuming we were funded by the Sheikh or royal family, with all sorts of net worth figures flying about (£150 billion was mentioned on Twitter at one point).
- Matt Southall’s tweets. I enjoyed it, but then I’m someone who isn’t bothered about Lyle’s tweets or what some see as his huge ego.
- Posh’s chairman revealing the Maddison bid.
- Matt Southall saying there will be marquee signings.
There's a desire to see evidence that ESI are what we hope they are, but this window doesn’t properly answer that question. Some will assume they’ve got no money and it’ll take a good summer window with a few of those marquee signings to change their mind.
I’m confident we can stay up but regardless of what league we’re in next season I can see the focus being on finding good value through free transfers and stand out lower league players. I hope we’ll be less reliant on loans, perhaps only bringing in 1 or 2 to add that extra quality to the squad.
A window like that won’t impress everyone, some would still have doubts, but I’m confident we’ll have a bigger budget than we would under Roland and with Bowyer/Gallen we can start getting stronger overall with each window.This summer needs to be the last big rebuild of the squad. We’ll have six loanees to replace, the likes of Taylor and Williams out of contract, and decisions to make on players like Pearce, Solly etc, some of which may end up moving on.6 -
Mixed.
LB and Taylor staying /signed ------ good
Three loan signings ----- so so
The Twater over statement of intent ----- crap
I'm sure the three loans signed arnt from LBs A list more like C list at best.
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Good sensible window, this season was always about survival, got some decent players in albeit loans, kept our players, stay up and challenge next season + need a win today 👍🤞👍0
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Definitely ok, still very early days for these guys, survival first and then they can start strengthening the whole club,0
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I was fed up last night. I’ve mellowed slightly since I woke up and have realised who David Davis actually is. A shrewd signing I think. McGeady is a sticking plaster till the summer and might give us a few highlights. I don’t get the smith deal at all. Desperation probably although we did actually sign him quite early in the day as we did Davis which probably partly explains Southall’s smug cockiness on twatter. I just wish he hadn’t raised expectations. Anyhoo, the kids can now go back to the under 23s and we have cover for Pratley. With Taylor staying and no evidence that he is in the huff, we have no excuses now. Mid table please chaps or the summer won’t be a pretty place for ESI.As for our surfeit of midfielders, Dempsey, Vennings and the kids apart from Doughty will go back to the under23s for a rest with our thanks. Albie will go back into oblivion. Lapslie won’t be seen again this season as he appears to be proper crocked and isn’t up to this level anyway. I suspect Bowyer also (rightly) has serious doubts about Chuks. I think we’ve missed a trick by not loaning some of these guys out. Oztumer too I think will fade away behind Jonny and McGeady. Deji is a defender who can now concentrate on that. So that pretty much leaves us two players for each position and the option of a 4 or a 5 in the middle which is fair enough. I do wish we had added something at the back though and that Lyle keeps his motivation. But January probably isn’t the place for marquee signings.
Onwards and hopefully upwards. I’ll give ESI the benefit of the doubt for the time being but I’m in the “suspicious and slightly wary” camp.2 -
Remain unconvinced by new owners.
Hopefully we'll stay up barring more injuries. Not overly impressed by signings.2 - Sponsored links:
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Beds, I'm not convinced by this. IMO, I think given our perilous position, and we are still far from safe, it would be folly to bring people in on big wages / big contracts. I think the loans have been shrewd, if a little lacking in excitement. Reading the following link, I don't think we've missed out too much with Maddison; https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/sport/football/peterborough-united/marcus-maddison-hull-reaction-great-deal-all-round-money-talks-hes-been-disruptive-mix-brilliance-and-embarrassing-diving-relief-hes-gone-and-his-replacement-excellent-1381776Bedsaddick said: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 .
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I'm not 100% on this but i think academy players can be loaned outside of the transfer window.Sillybilly said:I was fed up last night. I’ve mellowed slightly since I woke up and have realised who David Davis actually is. A shrewd signing I think. McGeady is a sticking plaster till the summer and might give us a few highlights. I don’t get the smith deal at all. Desperation probably although we did actually sign him quite early in the day as we did Davis which probably partly explains Southall’s smug cockiness on twatter. I just wish he hadn’t raised expectations. Anyhoo, the kids can now go back to the under 23s and we have cover for Pratley. With Taylor staying and no evidence that he is in the huff, we have no excuses now. Mid table please chaps or the summer won’t be a pretty place for ESI.As for our surfeit of midfielders, Dempsey, Vennings and the kids apart from Doughty will go back to the under23s for a rest with our thanks. Albie will go back into oblivion. Lapslie won’t be seen again this season as he appears to be proper crocked and isn’t up to this level anyway. I suspect Bowyer also (rightly) has serious doubts about Chuks. I think we’ve missed a trick by not loaning some of these guys out. Oztumer too I think will fade away behind Jonny and McGeady. Deji is a defender who can now concentrate on that. So that pretty much leaves us two players for each position and the option of a 4 or a 5 in the middle which is fair enough. I do wish we had added something at the back though and that Lyle keeps his motivation. But January probably isn’t the place for marquee signings.
Onwards and hopefully upwards. I’ll give ESI the benefit of the doubt for the time being but I’m in the “suspicious and slightly wary” camp.
For example, Toby Stevenson went on loan to Dagenham in November.3 -
Im not sure the new owners are as loaded as people think. Time will tell with that. Yesterday was about getting enough reinforcements in to keep us in the division, hopefully we've achieved that. I think Southall went a bit overboard with the Twitter stuff given that we've only bought in a few loans. The way he was carrying on, you would've thought he was spending millions to bring in established stars. I personally think he needs to reign it in a bit, as I don't think he 'walked the walk' as he said in his interview. He's new to the role though and still learning the job so hopefully he learns from it.
I know people keep saying there was no way we could sell Lyle, but there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that had Roland still been in charge, Lyle would've gone yesterday
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@Chris_from_Sidcup
It's not whether they are academy players but that Dagenham are Non-League.
We can loan and recall players outside the window to Non-League clubs as we did with Morgan and Doughty.2 -
We could not have replaced Lyle with any certainty if he had gone, so that made the window a good one right there. I only know McGeady of those we signed yesterday and if, like Pratley, he still has a bit of an engine, I am excited to see him play. Skilful, eye for goal and can assist.
Overall, the transfer window was underwhelming in England over all divisions. We have no right to complain. If I were a Chelsea or Utd fan this AM, I would be sat there stunned and furious 😡
on balance, good!3 -
Mixed feelings really.Firstly, and most importantly, we retained Lyle until the end of the season and that will be massively important to our chances of staying up. Equally, it was good to hear that we rejected an approach for Alfie. If ESI are short of money, then at least they resisted the temptation to cash in.But just hanging onto players does not of itself constitute a successful transfer window. We needed to strengthen in midfield and we certainly did that, although I’m pretty certain that of the three signings yesterday only Davis would have been our first or second choice in that position. I suspect we missed out on several preferred signings although the only one we know about is Maddison. Not surprised at that. We are clearly running on a low budget and a team 4th from bottom of the Championship isn’t the most appealing move. I’m disappointed that we didn’t bolster our defence with a commanding centre back or reinforce our striking options but the January window was about patching the gaps and I think we can say we did that. No issue with loans instead of permanents at this stage.As for Matt Southall’s exuberance on Twitter - clearly all a bit over the top but I’d much rather have that excitement than the dour aloofness of the Duchatelet era.So, ok. But this kind of window certainly wont be good enough come the summer. That’s when we’ll really see what ESI and Matt Southall are made of. We will need a major squad rebuilding, and our best players and young high potentials secured on good contracts. Money will need to be spent, on transfer fees and on wages , to make us more competitive in this league. And it will need more permanent recruits, with fewer but higher quality loans.And critically, by then, ESI also must have secured the freeholds both to the Valley and Sparrows Lane. The separation of the football club from those assets is a major risk.6
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overall happy.
positives: taylor staying and mageedy joining
negatives: ms overhyping expectations yesterday morning and no evidence of any big money
can't comment on davis or smith as no idea about either of them but bowyer is a manager who puts big emphasis on the midfield and if he's happy, i'm happy3 -
Didnt have time to get a perm deal over the line is my viewbuckshee said:What I don't understand is we have six loans only five of which can be part of the matchday squad yet we're told Davis is out of contract at the end if the season at Brum.
Why isn't his a permanent short term transfer then so he can be part of the matchday squad along with the other five?
Cant iimagine Birmingham being happy to terminate Davis' contract early so we could get him for nothing
Nope... He was a Birmingham player when the window was closedLargeAddick said:
Can it be turned into a permanent in the next week or two?buckshee said:What I don't understand is we have six loans only five of which can be part of the matchday squad yet we're told Davis is out of contract at the end if the season at Brum.
Why isn't his a permanent short term transfer then so he can be part of the matchday squad along with the other five?
We of course could make it permanent in a week or two but wouldnt be eligible as a perm signing till the summer0 -
We are stronger at the end of January than we were at the beginning.Four loan signings, including proven Championship players - especially McGeady who if fit to play the full 90 minutes at Wembley may have made our situation somewhat more precarious, and we would probably still have Roland. They are LB/SG choices (whether first or second) so that's good enough for me. Plus Cullen, Williams, and Field all now available (not sure precisely the situation with Field) and Bonne close to fitness - and Doughty showing signs of a diamond in the rough. Of course Gallagher is a big miss but nothing we could do. Taylor stays
The January window is a nightmare and as someone has already said it's been problematic across all four divisions. The objective of this window was not to build a team capable of challenging in The Championship next season - it was to steady the ship, add reinforcements and mitigate, wherever possible, the chances of staying up versus relegation. Loan signings also mitigate the profit and loss account next season should the worst happen and we go down, and of course the nature of the team building in the summer will be determined by which division we find ourselves.I'll forgive MS for his twitter naivety - enthusiasm over maturity. He still must be pinching himself that he is the Executive Chairman of the Charlton Athletic!Is it enough? Only time will tell. Good, Bad, OK? I don't know - but sensible? Yes.
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Let’s not forget Pratley is very good CB cover if needed, plenty of midfield options5
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I think I'm whelmed. I've largely been avoiding the transfer gossip threads, was offline for most of yesterday and missed Southall getting overexcited, and haven't been buying into the "we're f*cking rich" hype, so haven't really had any expectations to get deflated. My main worry was we'd lose Lyle at the last minute, and that didn't happen, and it appears we've got the midfield reinforcement we so desperately needed, although we'll have to wait to see how that pans out in practice. Another striker would have been nice, but I'm pretty sure fans of most clubs would say the same. It's not spectacular, but it looks fairly solid, and that'll do me right now.
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That’s the spirit.hoof_it_up_to_benty said:Remain unconvinced by new owners.
Hopefully we'll stay up barring more injuries. Not overly impressed by signings.
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William's, Oztumer and JFC have fitness problems, Cullen and Field are both coming back from injury. Morgan and Dempsey not ready and may well go out on loan.Pratley should not have to play 7 games in February at his age. Green and Aneke(also with fitness issues) play more a withdrawn second striker role. Oshilaja and Pratley both sometimes play as defenders.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
Smith looks unlikely to figure much and may well have been brought in with a longer term view in prospect.
So, we have in reality 3 from Pratley, Cullen, Field, Davis, Doughty as core midfielders, with Oztumer, Williams, McGeady playing for 1 place and the rest bit part.
I think Bowyer will see this window as mainly strengthening the defence and helping to keep some more clean sheets.0 -
We need 20 points from 17 matches to be sure of staying up. I reckon the squad we now have are capable of delivering that, and then some.
Then we can rebuild in the summer.
I'm happy enough with that. Oh, and surely we can't have such wretched luck with injuries again?2 -
Oh gawd, you've just gone and jinxed it...
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I’ve reduced your list by 7. 9 fit midfielders for 4 starting spots and maybe 3/4 subs spaces seems reasonable to meads said:
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 - rotate
Cullen - start
Field - injured
Davis - start
Smith - rotate
Williams - start
Oztumer - bench
McGeady - bench
Green - bench
Doughty - bench
Oshilaja - defender
Forster-Caskey - always injured
Morgan - back your 23
Thats not even considering
Lapslie injured
Aneke- has he played in midfield for us?
Dempsey - back to u-23
I agree we are light up top but 16 midfielders in the squad seems right, add injuries, suspension and loss of form into the equation and it’s a good competitive number.0 -
After a good nights rest and a clear mind I can safely say I am not convinced by the new owners. Certainly won't be singing the chants of praise towards them today like I imagine will be. We didn't strengthen, we are a weaker team as far as we know than when Roland was in charge. I'm not going to praise them for keeping Taylor, Roland did that, the same with Bauer. I'm not gonna praise them for keeping Bowyer, Lee wanted to be at Charlton and would have signed terms under Roland again imo so it doesn't say much.
The signings, not bad. McGeady could be useful where we need a bit of quality, imagine he will be fired up as well to stake his place in the Ireland squad, Davis is a find, would have preferred it permanent but no one can deny he is something we needed, obviously know nothing about the Citeh kid so can't comment. That said we need to stop the narrative that we wouldn't have acquired loan signings under Roland, I hated that bloke, I was there for multiple protests, had my circumstances been better I would have gone to Belgium but let's not flip the script and turn the blinkers on, he did pay high wages for some players and none of these strike me as a changing of the hands. This was a Roland window.
Southall himself is my biggest concern, I am not some grumpy old git, I'm 28 but his social media antics wind me up. I appreciate that it's nice for transparency from a chairman and I like that we actually hear from him but there is one thing I can't stand and that's a bullshitter and so far some of his words have stunk up the place. None of those deals would have been hard to make in January football terms, none of them are significant enough to ensure survival, so why all the spin on social media. If he had just said 'a few signings in today, got to back Lee' I would have thought fair enough. It's the fact he has done some ridiculous tweets even done a game of who we are signing next? On what planet would any of us have guessed either? He's either incredibly dense or a WUM, latter isn't preferable after you have a fan base who were mugged off for 7 years or thereabouts.
Again early doors and I've not wrote them off but I just simply don't warm to Southall, same way I didn't Katrien, think there is something off about him like I did her and I hope this time I'm wrong. I'll judge again in the summer but like I said just sharing my thoughts, I don't think they deserve any praise yet.6 -
I think (hope!) this is the key thing. Duchatelet was not a businessman at all: he was an electronics engineer that happened to strike lucky with a concept. And was in the right place at the right time._MrDick said:
With respect, I don't think it proves anything. We don't know how much money they have and as MS said, everyone assumes we have money because when we made enquiries for players, clubs we're adding a zero. I suspect, that Maddison's agent was doing the same and we weren't playing ball. The guys we have in charge are shrewd businessmen and they will have a strategy for taking us forward. We now have a squad capable of seeing off relegation and the summer transfer window will be a whole new kettle of fish, in my opinion. By fending off offers for LT, they've given themselves 6 months breathing space to get him re-signed.Bedsaddick said: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 .
The future's bright. The future is red and white
His Excellency runs businesses as a profession. Duchatelet had to get others to do that for him. The prime example being Françoise Chombar at Melexis. He tried the same with Charlton but his lack of nous meant he choose a catastrophe in Meire and then interfered in things he did not understand.
My hope is that there will be significant revenue streams from sponsorship that will allow us to notch things up a bit in the summer.3 -
Lot's of assumptions there Braziliance mate. How about you forget about that and try and enjoy what's happening on the pitch in the next 17 games.
There's no point in mulling over MS and how he acts on social media. Football is a very fickle game and I can guarantee you if we go on a winning streak and pull away from the relegation zone your minds confirmation bias to make some of the points you just made will change.
All I think we can guarantee is that a Lee Bowyer side will give 100%, and even through these last set of injury hit games where I have moaned about us making silly mistakes, I've still enjoyed watching is compete in every game.2 -
It’s a fairly typical January window to me. Not sure why people expected us to buck the trend of every other club and pull a couple of huge signings off. I think we will pay money for the right player but not pay stupid fees or wages which is what seems to happen in January. Did Southall get a little carried away? Probably, but what a breath of fresh air yesterday was in terms of us being relevant again. Smith fits the ESI model for me. Smith could turn out to be a gem who we sign for a modest fee in the summer. The others are decent acquisitions at this level when all we need to do is survive. The thought of having Dempsey, Morgan and Vennings on the pitch at the same time again is one that couldn’t be considered and we have moved to correct that.
We have a pretty decent squad now that is ready for this mini season we have ahead with some crucial home games coming up.
A good window for me, not spectacular but I never thought it would be.7
