Tooling up: The summer 2024 transfer thread

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Can we make space if needed? If we stay down I don't think that'll be a problem, as some will have offers and want out.

Who are you expecting to walk if we stay down? I must admit I'm not expecting a stampede. Still questions over Santos. Sheehan's 29. Maaaaybe interest in Dion (again) but we've had that before. Thomason's turned down the chance before and has really blossomed - seems very happy. Johnston was the big 'worry' last summer but he's lost a year, he's 26 in September and he's not kicked a ball for a full season, so it'd be a brave club that took that gamble.

Obviously we'd lose all chance of Paris, but that's a different thing.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

The way I look at it is if (touch wood) an injury happened to someone from the top group would you be reasonably happy with the replacement from the 2nd group playing week in week out for 3 months.

On that basis in the Championship:

..........Charles Collins.........
Williams Thomason Dempsey JDC
................Sheehan..............
.......Johnston Santos Jones......
................Baxter................

........Adeboyejo Nlundulu.......
????........CMG........????........????
................Morley................
........Iredale Toal Forrester......
...............Coleman..............

The ones in red I have real concerns at Championship level. The blue I have some doubts . I also would be putting Dempsey in blue, along with Jones.

[GhostoftheBok]

Who are you expecting to walk if we stay down? I must admit I'm not expecting a stampede.

Similar list to the one you mentioned.

Santos with a year left. Charles and Vic with known interest. Thomason with a firm Championship offer last summer and being a much better player this time around.

I'm also not sure Evatt will stay if we don't go up.

[GhostoftheBok]

Strikers has the capability to "evolve" depending what happens to Bod/Cam. I'd prefer to have an alternative 70 minute option to Dan, unless he's kicked on a bit, post injury.

Anyone got a spare £50k a week to land Jamie Vardy on a free?

[Worthy4England]

Strikers has the capability to "evolve" depending what happens to Bod/Cam. I'd prefer to have an alternative 70 minute option to Dan, unless he's kicked on a bit, post injury.

Anyone got a spare £50k a week to land Jamie Vardy on a free?

I mean maybe add whatever Bod and Cam are on, combined together, and get thee to t'Queen's Ead. You shouldn't need Vardy numbers.

That gives us 5, which we'd likely need to cover injuries, anyhow. If Dion/Collins/Vic are our main 3, then we can take our chances on #5 and whether they have a better route map than #4...

Or do you think we'll retain Bod and/or Cam (I think the plan was for Cam to head coachside?)

[GhostoftheBok]

I mean maybe add whatever Bod and Cam are on, combined together, and get thee to t'Queen's Ead. You shouldn't need Vardy numbers.

That gives us 5, which we'd likely need to cover injuries, anyhow. If Dion/Collins/Vic are our main 3, then we can take our chances on #5 and whether they have a better route map than #4...

Or do you think we'll retain Bod and/or Cam (I think the plan was for Cam to head coachside?)

I think Evatt will want a striker who knows the division. It's something he always talks about.

I've no idea if Bod's extra year has been triggered, but that'd obviously impact things. I don't think we'll offer him fresh terms, but if he's here I think we'll stick with what we have.

There are a good number of strikers in the free market and I think Evatt would really fancy working with some of them.

[plymouth wanderer]

I mean maybe add whatever Bod and Cam are on, combined together, and get thee to t'Queen's Ead. You shouldn't need Vardy numbers.

That gives us 5, which we'd likely need to cover injuries, anyhow. If Dion/Collins/Vic are our main 3, then we can take our chances on #5 and whether they have a better route map than #4...

Or do you think we'll retain Bod and/or Cam (I think the plan was for Cam to head coachside?)

I think Evatt will want a striker who knows the division. It's something he always talks about.

I've no idea if Bod's extra year has been triggered, but that'd obviously impact things. I don't think we'll offer him fresh terms, but if he's here I think we'll stick with what we have.

There are a good number of strikers in the free market and I think Evatt would really fancy working with some of them.

I agree. I don't think I'd lose much sleep over losing JBD, Dan, Victor and Jerome if we did go up. But it's all about who we replace them with

[GhostoftheBok]

I agree. I don't think I'd lose much sleep over losing JBD, Dan, Victor and Jerome if we did go up. But it's all about who we replace them with

Evatt loves Vic and he called Dan "one of the most talented players at the club", so I think you may find they stay unless there's a big bid for Vic.

[plymouth wanderer]

I agree. I don't think I'd lose much sleep over losing JBD, Dan, Victor and Jerome if we did go up. But it's all about who we replace them with

Evatt loves Vic and he called Dan "one of the most talented players at the club", so I think you may find they stay unless there's a big bid for Vic.

They may well do. I said I would not lose sleep over them leaving. Imo, we can do better. Dan has potential but his touch is so poor. We will have to see.

[GhostoftheBok]

They may well do. I said I would not lose sleep over them leaving. Imo, we can do better. Dan has potential but his touch is so poor. We will have to see.

Hopefully we get to find out what a Championship window looks like for us

[Mar]

Positional flexibility means it's not always this simple, but one basic way to look at squad depth is XI vs XI. Without descending into "he's better than him" arguments, next season we have these players under contract:

.............Charles Collins.........
Williams Thomason Dempsey JDC
................Sheehan..............
.......Johnston Santos Jones......
................Baxter................

........Adeboyejo Nlundulu.......
????........CMG........????........????
................Morley................
........Iredale Toal Forrester......
...............Coleman..............

That shows clearly that it's the 4 of our 3142 that needs boosting - purely in numbers to start with. Ogbeta or Ashworth could be the LWB, and most will hope Maghoma returns. If we sign the modern Ashley Cole on one side and Cafu on the other, then Williams and JDC move down a notch. We also have Gethin/Iredale as nominally more 'defensive' wingbacks, if such a thing be needed, but they can't play two positions at once.

After making up the numbers, you're into subjective decision-making, and a huge swathe of that is decision-dependent. If we do manage to go up, which of those players, especially in the bottom XI, could play in the Champo? If you think someone couldn't, do we loan them out, or attempt to sell ("Hello, Stockport! Hello, Wrexham!") while they've got contract length?

This style of picking players has a tendency to put players into the first team and players into backup, rather than both players being able to offer things and do different jobs. For instance, a high performing N'lundulu might be better at stretching teams than an underperforming Charles, but that would be highly dependent on how they are performing, and whilst performance levels at the minute has Charles clearly at a higher level than N'lundulu, I wouldn't put it past N'lundulu having a decent run of form and working his way into contention in either the Championship or League One next season.

In no particular order:

GK: Baxter, Coleman
CB: Toal, Iredale, Santos, Jones, Johnston, Forrester
WB: Williams, JDC
CM: Morley, Sheehan, Thomason, Dempsey
FW: Collins, Charles, CMG, Adeboyejo, N'lundulu


Iredale, Jones and CMG can both cover the wing back roles, so their usefulness doesn't seem restricted to a particular position.

There are a number of players looking like weak links in that line up, Morley, Jones, Forrester, but that may be more down to lack of selection and the expectation placed upon them (heck Jones got a good assist in the last match). Personally i'd love to see Jones take us all the way to the Prem, but that's asking a lot of player that wasn't standing out in League Two, feels like he's a consistent steady eddie and underappreciated.

Forrester looked decent until he didn't, so I suspect their is a player there. Whether thats an indication of him going down the Aimson route is another story.

What's clear though is we'll need to sign some wingers. It's pivotal to how we play and its seems we've just been tinkering with the likes of Calvin Ramsey, Nat Ogbeta and Zac Ashworth. I'd be happy to see Ogbeta back next season, he's a northern lad so knows the area well, probably has family up here. Ashworth was born in Kings Lynn, so there'll be less likelihood of him being able to settle as well. Ashworth's performed admirably when he's been here and terrible penalties aside, i'm happy with his contribution so i'd be happy to see him back next season, but i'd suspect we'd be leaning towards improving that position.

As for the backup players. Khumbeni hasn't exactly had the best of time at Morecambe, they've been shipping goals for fun and whilst I suspect its not entirely his fault, I wouldn't exactly consider it a marker for him performing well. Matheson is another one who seems to be getting plenty of game time, so its hard to judge. I like what i've seen from both players, but i'd be very surprised if they would be able to step up to Championship / Top of League One level.

I'd be tempted to try and find the next best thing in terms of goalkeeper. I'm happy Coleman did well towards the tail end of his spell. If we could keep that going then great, but if we end up with early Coleman, we're back to having problems. So a decent third choice should be of interest to us. Maybe Hutchinson is already that?

I'd be happy with JDB getting an extension. Seemed like he didn't deserve his current deal early in the season, but since he got up and running he certainly seemed to make it worth our while, so happy if we go down that route again. Providing he can stay fit. Jerome's done great, but I think we'd benefit from him coaching and someone we can look to use as a long term prospect.

All in all,

Better competition for wingbacks (resign Ogbeta), another goalkeeper (hutch?), happy with defenders with Johnston coming back, happy with our strikers (JDB or a replacement target man). Midfield, hopefully get Maghoma back, but we'd definitely need a replacement there otherwise.

Depends on the league we're in, but I think we're decently placed for the most part.

[Prufrock]

The ones I'm confident are good enough to play champo are:

Bax, Toal, Rico, Sheehan, Tomo, Collins, Charles (plus Paris) - that's not a bad spine.

The ones I think might be, or at least good enough to be squad players are:

Johnston (injury dependent, if he's back fit he's in the list above), Ade, Randy, JDC (plus Ogbeta who I like), CMG (I think he's good enough but I don't know what he is for us).

Ones I don't think are good enough but think you can carry a few as squad players:

Geth, Morley, Dempsey, Iredale, Forrester (there's a player in there but if he can't force it in in L1 then...)

Ones I don't think are you to it and I wouldn't want to be part of a champo squad:

Dan (if we could get him a L1 loan to play maybe), Bod, Coleman (plus Ashworth who I think might turn out good but we need better if we go up).

That's where I'm at, suspect Ian disagrees at least on Dan. And no guarantees you can shift everyone you want. But I don't think we're a million miles away on having a core. Which means we can focus on real quality rather than having to do a full makeover. Real priorities for me are the WBs. They make everything tick and we've got away with that a fair bit for me this year. We need team quality there if we go up.

Then it's a really top CM if we can't keep Paris. Then a CF, then a CB. And ideally a better number 2. Coleman did ok in the end, but I worry about Bax's injury record and any length of time with Joel a league up would be a killer.

Assuming the aim if we went up would be consolidation, I think our inconsistency is less of a problem. Obviously the quality of opposition is higher, but you can have off days, just not off months. Also think Collins and Charles would score goals, and that's usually the hardest thing for teams coming up at any level.

[TANGODANCER]

I'm about to become Mr Unpopular 2024 (nothing new I know).

I'm usually/always, a glass half-full chap, but hark, the light's are on RED. Put the happy juice and wacky-backy down and listen to yourselves will you? Oxford United could pop the balloon unless we stop pipe-dreaming and face reality. The Uni will go all out to tear the script up and spike our guns unless we forget all but winning this game, and emphatically.

I know what both losing and winning feel at Wembley feels like, even before any Papa John stuff as I was 14 when we lost the F.A.Cup to Blackpool in 53, and almost 19 when we beat United and won it in 58, so I'm not exactly a Johnny come lately, or band waggon jumper, just a lifetime Bolton lad. All said, I'll be cheering my head off on the day, but that's where it starts. COME ON YOU WHITES,, ....

[Mar]

I'm about to become Mr Unpopular 2024 (nothing new I know).

I'm usually/always, a glass half-full chap, but hark, the light's are on RED. Put the happy juice and wacky-backy down and listen to yourselves will you? Oxford United could pop the balloon unless we stop pipe-dreaming and face reality. The Uni will go all out to tear the script up and spike our guns unless we forget all but winning this game, and emphatically.

I know what both losing and winning feel at Wembley feels like, even before any Papa John stuff as I was 14 when we lost the F.A.Cup to Blackpool in 53, and almost 19 when we beat United and won it in 58, so I'm not exactly a Johnny come lately, or band waggon jumper, just a lifetime Bolton lad. All said, I'll be cheering my head off on the day, but that's where it starts. COME ON YOU WHITES,, ....

I'm not sure people are taking it for granted, but more trying to objectively look at the squad and think what areas would need improvement going forward should we get promoted. Pretty sure Evatt and the backroom staff have considered both possibilities and are budgeting accordingly. It's almost as if we're putting ourselves in Evatt's shoes and hypothesising as per usual.

Win or lose, we'll be fans.

Prior to previous playoffs there's always been speculation as to who stays, who goes and what we need to improve, so this is no different. It seems healthier to think about what we would need a level up rather than concerning ourselves as to what would happen if we didn't go up akin to losing the likes Gudjohnsen, Jensen, Fish, etc.

For me its all about enjoying the moment.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

It's also reacting to events. 64 of the 72 EFL teams have finished their seasons and are announcing their released/retained lists, and among them will be players we might target. Natural to speculate thereupon (and it fills the nervous days).

If we stay down, it's more about who we might lose, but I think most people would expect (and be reasonably content with) a broadly similar squad, so that's not much of a conversation really.

[GhostoftheBok]

It's also reacting to events. 64 of the 72 EFL teams have finished their seasons and are announcing their released/retained lists, and among them will be players we might target. Natural to speculate thereupon (and it fills the nervous days).

If we stay down, it's more about who we might lose, but I think most people would expect (and be reasonably content with) a broadly similar squad, so that's not much of a conversation really.

Yup. The difference between us going up automatically this season and being in the play-offs was a single Derby set piece, so we'd want to keep this group together and just tweak our options if we lost on Saturday.

It's an entirely different world of options in the Championship. That's the stage when you can genuinely say to lads "I can make you a Premier League player" and there's a wealth of talent in Europe (and beyond) that would walk across broken glass to play for this club at that level.

[Worthy4England]

^^ Not quite. Had the Derby game ended as a draw, they'd still be on 90 and we'd have been 89...i mean 5npoints in front is pretty decent on a "fine margins call"...

[GhostoftheBok]

^^ Not quite. Had the Derby game ended as a draw, they'd still be on 90 and we'd have been 89...i mean 5npoints in front is pretty decent on a "fine margins call"...

Fair correction.

[TANGODANCER]

Knew I wouldn't win post of the year, just proceeding with caution..

[BWFC_Insane]

All the conversation does is highly how absolutely essential it is we do go up. But I suppose ‘twas ever thus.