Who opened the door? My money is on Janus! 2024 January transfer thread.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Neither ruled out for Barnsley yet, though.

I'd suggest that doesn't matter.

If he's carrying a known issue we can't put him through Tues/Sat fixtures and hope reinforcements rock up in the form of returning lads weeks from now. There's no guarantee the injured lads come back 100%, nor that Geth comes back fit.

If you're down to 3 centre backs and "versatility" and one of your actual centre backs has a known injury you need someone in.

I get it, we need a quality striker and there's sod all money to do much else - but we have to figure something out and if we absolutely can't then it's a massive point of failure. We can't pretend otherwise.

I'm not going to piss and moan about it or cry doom from the nearest tower, but we need a centre half in the building.

The budget must be stretched paper thin. We're carrying injured lads who are all still earning. I do understand it. I also understand that we have 6 centre halves contracted past the summer and adding a 7th would really hurt us in the next window. I also also understand that loanees won't come here unless we give them minutes.

It's a major pain in the arse of a puzzle and we have to solve it in 48 hours.

I was accepting of the situation until I found out Toal has a known issue. Now I'm raising an eyebrow. They must know they are playing with fire.

It's very odd. Did you see Evatt's quotes (probably uttered yesterday) acknowledging we'd been risking it with JDC?

“We saw we were light at centre-back but we felt with Cogs, Will Forrester not too far away and Geth due back from the Asian Cup in the not too distant future, that will give us enough cover and we can utilise what I felt was the best player available to us in Calvin [Ramsay]....

"Josh [DC] has done incredibly well. He has probably played too much, being honest, and we have run the gauntlet a bit with him because we haven’t had the opportunity to rotate and change. He has been so consistent and robust, it is great we will be able to utilise Calvin when Josh is feeling a bit tired and low."

I can only imagine the new sports-science guy is also raising an eyebrow.

[GhostoftheBok]

I can only imagine the new sports-science guy is also raising an eyebrow.

I think we all get what they are doing.

I wanted Deji Oshilaja through the door day one of the summer window, but the reality is that that's probably £400k off the ledger, even on a free. You want cover for Cogley until your Wilson replacement is found? Cool...that's maybe another £150k, if you're lucky.

We can criticise, but all these savings start to add up to a Collins fairly rapidly.

We are cutting corners to get every last bit out of the cash we have, but it starts to become a false economy when you break players. Then you have to double up wages and you lose your advantage.

Would people swap Collins (or whoever shows up) for having had cover we didn't need for the period between Summer and January? Probably not.

Would having brought in Deji have meant we weren't in this mess? Yes, but then the loss of Dan would probably have been more catastrophic than it may be having not got Deji in - because Deji would represent a good wedge of the emergency slush fund.

A lot of your decisions can be ether brilliant or catastrophic based on a bit of luck. Over the long term a good strategy smooths out those bumps, as ours has. This is definitely a bump.

Right now, of course, we both don't have a striker and don't have a Deji. So that's, erm, bad.

[officer_dibble]

The Toal injury is absolutely ludicrous if true. On Monday Evatt said we didn’t need to sign a centre half - yet he’s playing one injured?

[BWFC_Insane]

The Toal injury is absolutely ludicrous if true. On Monday Evatt said we didn’t need to sign a centre half - yet he’s playing one injured?

Worse than that. We played santos for a half knowing he was injured too. Madness.

[The_Gun]

I hope this bid for Collins is rejected and we instead bring in loanees up front and at CB.

Otherwise we’d potentially be going into a Championship season committed to four strikers all unproven and far from certain to succeed at the level. I’d also say that at the ages they’d be - Collins (27), Dion (28), Vic (26) and Dan (25), that none would be likely to improve hugely.

[BWFC_Insane]

I hope this bid for Collins is rejected and we instead bring in loanees up front and at CB.

Otherwise we’d potentially be going into a Championship season committed to four strikers all unproven and far from certain to succeed at the level. I’d also say that at the ages they’d be - Collins (27), Dion (28), Vic (26) and Dan (25), that none would be likely to improve hugely.

Other side of that is as we’ve seen loans are expensive these days. And we already have a number of loans - how many do you potentially want to lose come season end?

We need a real deal up front. Not an untested kid. So any loan will be an expensive deal for half the season.

[officer_dibble]

We can only have 4 loans in the matchday squad as well? So one more borrowed centre back and we’re full up. Given Ashworth is out of contract anyway I wonder if we can turn his into an 18 month contract?

[GhostoftheBok]

We can only have 4 loans in the matchday squad as well? So one more borrowed centre back and we’re full up. Given Ashworth is out of contract anyway I wonder if we can turn his into an 18 month contract?

8 max, 5 in the match day squad.

[officer_dibble]

Ta. That’s do-able then if we need a loan striker.

[BWFC_Insane]

Way I see it is ‘loan a kid and spend on centre half’ is wrong way round. Loan a centre half and spend on the striker. We have and own a number of quality centre halves. We are too stretched for the rest of this season so need one maybe two centre backs on loan. But if we are spending money then it should be on a striker we own.

Jerome, Bod - they aren’t going to cut it in the championship for us and there are question marks even for me on Charles and Vic. So a quality striker makes sense. For centre backs we can borrow and then reassess at end of the season.

[boltonboris]

Cool heads shall prevail......

[The_Gun]

Way I see it is ‘loan a kid and spend on centre half’ is wrong way round. Loan a centre half and spend on the striker. We have and own a number of quality centre halves. We are too stretched for the rest of this season so need one maybe two centre backs on loan. But if we are spending money then it should be on a striker we own.

Jerome, Bod - they aren’t going to cut it in the championship for us and there are question marks even for me on Charles and Vic. So a quality striker makes sense. For centre backs we can borrow and then reassess at end of the season.

And there aren't question marks about Collins ability to cut it in the Championship?

[GhostoftheBok]

And there aren't question marks about Collins ability to cut it in the Championship?

So is the issue just that you don't think Collins is very good?

[BWFC_Insane]

Way I see it is ‘loan a kid and spend on centre half’ is wrong way round. Loan a centre half and spend on the striker. We have and own a number of quality centre halves. We are too stretched for the rest of this season so need one maybe two centre backs on loan. But if we are spending money then it should be on a striker we own.

Jerome, Bod - they aren’t going to cut it in the championship for us and there are question marks even for me on Charles and Vic. So a quality striker makes sense. For centre backs we can borrow and then reassess at end of the season.

And there aren't question marks about Collins ability to cut it in the Championship?

That wasn’t my point. Let Evatt and Markham decide that. But Toal, Johnston and Santos seems pretty hard to improve on in a January window. Whereas clearly we have work to do up front regardless. Centre half is a short term fix. Up front ideally is not.

It’s also potentially easier to loan a competent centre half much more difficult to loan a striker who will score the goals and create the chances we need.

[BWFC_Insane]

In other news Pompey are about to sign Moxon.

[The_Gun]

And there aren't question marks about Collins ability to cut it in the Championship?

So is the issue just that you don't think Collins is very good?

No, my issue is that signing him for a relatively big fee now reduces our flexibility in the next window and commits us to a group of strikers in whom I think a lot of us would not be confident in a level up.

You, and others on this board, know a lot more about players in the lower leagues, so maybe I am wide of the mark and Collins is a cert to thrive in the Championship, but I'm just laying out my concerns as an uninformed Bolton fan.

[GhostoftheBok]

No, my issue is that signing him for a relatively big fee now reduces our flexibility in the next window and commits us to a group of strikers in whom I think a lot of us would not be confident in a level up.

You, and others on this board, know a lot more about players in the lower leagues, so maybe I am wide of the mark and Collins is a cert to thrive in the Championship, but I'm just laying out my concerns as an uninformed Bolton fan.

I wasn't positioning for critique, I was just wondering. I'm not 100% right now, so I don't want to misunderstand anyone.

I do understand your position, it's been my position - in terms of sensible squad design.

The "Where do we improve?" question strikes me as very reasonable.

I've not checked, but I think if we signed Collins we'd have 2 players per position past the summer everywhere but at wingback and one mid.

Baxter - Coleman
Jones - Forrester
Santos - Toal
Johnston - Iredale
Cogley -
Williams -
Sheehan - Morley
Thommo - Dempsey
CMG -
Vic - Dan
Charles - Collins

Am I right that's where we'd stand? 3 spaces, with us probably hoping one of those is filled by Ogbeta (because that would probably mean he's helped us get promoted). We ma also be hoping to keep Paris, which would make it one spot. How many Bolton fans think we're one player away from a good Championship side? I know a lot of opposition managers are saying we are, but I don't think many fans feel that way.

I think what I'd say is that Collins is very good and we're unlikely to get better for the same sort of financial package even if we go up. Personally I'd do that deal, if it's there; but I do understand the concern.

[Worthy4England]

I think that's a good explanation of where maybe the management team feel we're at. There is an undercurrent, that should we go up, we'd do the Notts Forest unload a squad and buy 18 new players, but I doubt that's where Evatt and Markham's heads at. I doubt we have pretty much everyone signed up for two or three more seasons with the basis that we need to do a mass replacement should we be able to secure a Championship spot. I also think whilst we might spend some money, we're not going to just splash unsustainably, to try and force the issue.

I think, if Collins is on the radar, it's unlikely that it's on the basis that Evatt and Markham don't believe he'd be able to transition into the Champo. That would make zero sense to me.

[boltonboris]

And there aren't question marks about Collins ability to cut it in the Championship?

So is the issue just that you don't think Collins is very good?

No, my issue is that signing him for a relatively big fee now reduces our flexibility in the next window and commits us to a group of strikers in whom I think a lot of us would not be confident in a level up.

You, and others on this board, know a lot more about players in the lower leagues, so maybe I am wide of the mark and Collins is a cert to thrive in the Championship, but I'm just laying out my concerns as an uninformed Bolton fan.

There is nothing to suggest that Collins is coming out of next seasons budget. We have to trust these guys. If they think he's worth the money, then that's because they have data, insight and experience that we don't to make informed decisions.

Always risky signing players, but their whole ethos is that they reduce that risk by doing their due diligence. I'm happy to trust them. We all should

[boltonboris]

In other news Pompey are about to sign Moxon.

They're welcome to him. Freebie or not, he's not for us. From what I've seen of him, he'd be behind every other midfielder in our first team squad