The Promotion Commotion Transfer Thread 2017

[Billbob]

Does anyone know if j.spearing is still on holiday?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Does anyone know if j.spearing is still on holiday?

Judging by his Instagram account he came back a couple of days ago and immediately went playing golf. Not that I'm criticising him; I'm sure his agent will be in contact with the club.

https://www.instagram.com/jayspeo8/

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Wonder if a loan for (Reece Burke) might also pave the way for a similar deal over Josh Cullen, two months Burke's senior.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... loan_deal/

[Gudnisson Trotter]

Wonder if a loan for (Reece Burke) might also pave the way for a similar deal over Josh Cullen, two months Burke's senior.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... loan_deal/

Good call. We are undoubtedly relying on a couple of very shrewd loan deals for success this season.

[Peter Thompson]

Does anyone know if j.spearing is still on holiday?

Judging by his Instagram account he came back a couple of days ago and immediately went playing golf. Not that I'm criticising him; I'm sure his agent will be in contact with the club.

https://www.instagram.com/jayspeo8/

I'm not that bothered about Spearing - if he's not willing to re sign on reduced wages then I for one don't want him back, there will be players as good if not better than Spearing out there on more affordable salaries

[Bruce Rioja]

Well, I mean come on. How can anybody be expected to survive on half a million per year? He'll be off down the foodbank next!

[officer_dibble]

Will Buckley on a free according to the bastion of truth and honesty that is the sun. Would assume that is instead of Ameobi.

[Nicko58]

Will Buckley on a free according to the bastion of truth and honesty that is the sun. Would assume that is instead of Ameobi.

My instincts are telling me that this should be good news as he was hot property just a few short years ago, however I note that recently he's had three spells out on loan at this level and hasn't really managed to force himself into the first team picture in any of them. As we're almost certainly going to be fighting a relegation battle though, and assuming that does still have something about him, he should find it much easier to do so here and I think that if it happens it might just be an inspired move.

He played in the same Rochdale team as Le Fondre as well, which I imagine would help things.

[malcd1]

Surely if we are after wingers then we are not going to be playing 5-3-2. With five at the back the width is normally provided by the wing backs. Can Buckley play as a wing back or will we be changing the formation to suit?

[officer_dibble]

Perhaps the aim is to have enough first team players to do 352 and 4231?

[Dr Hotdog]

Buckley's main issues have been injuries. Good signing if he can keep off the treatment table.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Surely if we are after wingers then we are not going to be playing 5-3-2. With five at the back the width is normally provided by the wing backs. Can Buckley play as a wing back or will we be changing the formation to suit?

Perhaps the aim is to have enough first team players to do 352 and 4231?

Seems sensible. It could be argued that given our straitened finances and small squad size we should go for one or the other, but that would be precisely the kind of tactical inflexibility that can often capsize a campaign. Parkinson, despite derision here and elsewhere for alleged tactical rigidity, has shown impressive ability to adjust – not necessarily on a match-by-match basis, but we put together decent runs with two or three different formations last season. In the same way, I'd never have put Morais down as a wing-back, but the management made it work; whether it would do so in the second tier is yet to be seen, but the fact that we're in that tier is testament to PP&Co's adaptable coaching and organisation.

As for Buckley: Oldham-born, six foot tall and should be hungry to prove something, thus ticking three classic Parky boxes. Whether it happens or not remains to be seen, 'cos I've seen a lot of stuff reported in The Sun that didn't happen, and not just in the back pages, but the rather less fanciful Marc Iles has just published that "The 27-year-old will sign at the Macron Stadium, subject to a medical."

Elsewhere on the BN, Iles says Aberdeen's NI striker Niall McGinn "is an option" while we're favourites for Mark Milligan but we're trying to judge how much of an unholy faff the international red tape might become.

[Prufrock]

352 only happened because all our right backs died. Well worked as a stop gap, but I'd be surprised if we saw much of it next year.

[Nicko58]

352 only happened because all our right backs died. Well worked as a stop gap, but I'd be surprised if we saw much of it next year.

I agree with you. We played 3-5-2 out of necessity and then Parky was pragmatic enough to stick with it when it started to get results. We're still probably going to play it when he sees fit, but throughout his career his teams have played with four at the back and I think that that's what he'll go for. Personally, and I base this purely on that and the players that we have and who we've been linked with, I've got a sneaking suspicion that he might be trying to set us up in a 4-4-2.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

4-4-2 would leave us awfully light in central midfield. So might 4-2-3-1 if it means playing ALF behind the striker, which might be fairly indistinguishable from 4-4-2 anyway. One of the ways we succeeded last season was having bodies in the middle, whether Vela was the "No.10" in a 4-2-3-1 or one of three central midfielders in the flatter 3-5-2.

Buckley notwithstanding, a back three fits better with Burke, and allows a practical solidity that Parkinson might find attractive as we try to establish ourselves. I have a sneaking suspicion we will see the 3-5-2, although not necessarily as the default, and that this season we won't have our main creative force as one of the wingbacks. In other words, something looking a lot more like five at the back. Again - not all the time, but I can see us using it as need be against the better teams. One thing I'd like to see this season is good transition between formations during games; we've proved we have more than one Plan A, but we didn't often profit from a mid-match switch to any given Plan B.

[Nicko58]

4-4-2 would leave us awfully light in central midfield.

Right now it would, yes, but judging by the players that we've signed, are being linked with, and how previous Parky teams have set up, it just seems to me to be the most likely option. Presumably neither Morais nor Buckley are being brought in to warm the bench, and Buckley seems to be more of an old-fashioned, English style 'proper' winger who wouldn't be comfortable slotting in at wing-back. Madine is sure to start and we probably aren't going to drop Le Fondre so I imagine that they'll be partnering each other.

We went with bodies in the middle in the season just gone, but that appeared to be due to a lack of capable central midfielders more than anything, and if it's right that we're after Mark Milligan and, crucially, Josh Cullen, then I interpret that as Parky attempting to rectify the problem. We also have Karacan and, whilst I haven't seen much of him, I understand that he can play the type of ground-covering, spoiler role that the system requires.

In short, I don't see Buckley, if he signs, being played as anything but an out-and-out winger, and I can only think that we'll at least start out with Madine and Le Fondre up front together. Combine that with Parky's historical inclination to play a back four and I get a 4-4-2 by default. I might be wrong, and agree that we'll probably play a 3-5-2 (or something similarly solid) every now and then against the better teams, but it's just a hunch.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I'll be even more surprised if Parky plays a 4-4-2 with Josh Cullen in the middle.

[boltonboris]

Wonder if a loan for (Reece Burke) might also pave the way for a similar deal over Josh Cullen, two months Burke's senior.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wa ... loan_deal/

"German Giants Borussia.......... Mönchengladbach

[Nicko58]

I'll be even more surprised if Parky plays a 4-4-2 with Josh Cullen in the middle.

Fair enough. He's done it plenty of times before though.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I'll be even more surprised if Parky plays a 4-4-2 with Josh Cullen in the middle.

Fair enough. He's done it plenty of times before though.

In a second-tier campaign for a team third-favourite to go down?

4-4-2 with two wingers and a kid in midfield, it's all getting a bit Coyleish, innit?