The Promotion Commotion Transfer Thread 2017

[BWFC_Insane]

Aye, we're missing that, too.

Karacan and Derik can do a job DM. Also the young lad we are meant to be getting from West Ham.

[Worthy4England]

Not been that convinced by Derik tbh. And not seen enough of Karacan.. Maybe...

[BWFC_Insane]

Not been that convinced by Derik tbh. And not seen enough of Karacan.. Maybe...

Me neither, but it's a body. Going forward we are still miles off championship standard imho.

[Bruce Rioja]

Aye, we're missing that, too.

Karacan and Derik can do a job DM. Also the young lad we are meant to be getting from West Ham.

Karacan as DM? Not seen a great deal of him either but I think he looks at his best getting forward. He certainly wouldn't be my first choice as a DM, but maybe I've not seen enough of him.

[Nicko58]

Aye, we're missing that, too.

Karacan and Derik can do a job DM. Also the young lad we are meant to be getting from West Ham.

Is Cullen actually a defensive midfielder?

[Worthy4England]

Aye, we're missing that, too.

Karacan and Derik can do a job DM. Also the young lad we are meant to be getting from West Ham.

Karacan as DM? Not seen a great deal of him either but I think he looks at his best getting forward. He certainly wouldn't be my first choice as a DM, but maybe I've not seen enough of him.

Yeah I had Karacan as more of a forward mid too...

[BWFC_Insane]

Aye, we're missing that, too.

Karacan and Derik can do a job DM. Also the young lad we are meant to be getting from West Ham.

Karacan as DM? Not seen a great deal of him either but I think he looks at his best getting forward. He certainly wouldn't be my first choice as a DM, but maybe I've not seen enough of him.

Yeah I had Karacan as more of a forward mid too...

We played him further forward but think in his career he's been similar to Spearing postionally. Certainly when he came his history was of a tough tackling type. Better than Spearing on the ball. But I'm sure he would play there well.

[Worthy4England]

I guess time will tell.

[TANGODANCER]

Not been that convinced by Derik tbh. And not seen enough of Karacan.. Maybe...

Me neither, but it's a body. Going forward we are still miles off championship standard imho.

Wouldn't have it any other way. Not played a game except a pre-season against Chorley cakes and already the doom weeds are on view. Go Insaney....

[BWFC_Insane]

Not been that convinced by Derik tbh. And not seen enough of Karacan.. Maybe...

Me neither, but it's a body. Going forward we are still miles off championship standard imho.

Wouldn't have it any other way. Not played a game except a pre-season against Chorley cakes and already the doom weeds are on view. Go Insaney....

We are. Does anyone really doubt it? Do you think Parky isn't trying to bolster our attack?

[LeverEnd]

Not been that convinced by Derik tbh. And not seen enough of Karacan.. Maybe...

Me neither, but it's a body. Going forward we are still miles off championship standard imho.

Wouldn't have it any other way. Not played a game except a pre-season against Chorley cakes and already the doom weeds are on view. Go Insaney....

We are. Does anyone really doubt it? Do you think Parky isn't trying to bolster our attack?

Of course he is, and the squad will grow, but miles off is pushing it. Miles off top half yes, miles off 4th bottom? I doubt it, because clearly been won't start the season with this few players. Other teams will similarly be nowhere near full strength. Recruitment is a strength, it's point deductions that worry me most.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

Not been that convinced by Derik tbh. And not seen enough of Karacan.. Maybe...

Me neither, but it's a body. Going forward we are still miles off championship standard imho.

Interesting comment this. To me, from what I have seen of the Championship last season, and of course the seasons when we were in it, a lot of teams in the Championship don't have great players in forward positions. Some do, Leeds have Chris Wood, Oliviera looks good at Norwich, Dwight Gayle, Glenn Murray, Tammy Araham scored 20+ goals, but play off finalists Reading and Huddersfield were imo lacking in the forward positions and their strengths came from top managers who perfected a particular style of play to overcome their deficiencies, as well as really good midfielders and full backs. Rotherham and Blackburn had reasonable strikers in Danny Ward, and Sam Gallagher/Danny Graham, ones we couldn't get near to affording right now, but still got relegated.

Ideally we would have better than Madine, and I would like to see us strengthen defensive midfield, left back/left wing back and feel better about the goalkeeping position. We have two months do recruit and improve. Still, I feel it is not impossible to be successful in the Championship with the likes of Buckley, Ameobi, ALF and Madine, if we have the quality in other areas, and Parky gets everything working well defensively.

[BWFC_Insane]

Not been that convinced by Derik tbh. And not seen enough of Karacan.. Maybe...

Me neither, but it's a body. Going forward we are still miles off championship standard imho.

Interesting comment this. To me, from what I have seen of the Championship last season, and of course the seasons when we were in it, a lot of teams in the Championship don't have great players in forward positions. Some do, Leeds have Chris Wood, Oliviera looks good at Norwich, Dwight Gayle, Glenn Murray, Tammy Araham scored 20+ goals, but play off finalists Reading and Huddersfield were imo lacking in the forward positions and their strengths came from top managers who perfected a particular style of play to overcome their deficiencies, as well as really good midfielders and full backs. Rotherham and Blackburn had reasonable strikers in Danny Ward, and Sam Gallagher/Danny Graham, ones we couldn't get near to affording right now, but still got relegated.

Ideally we would have better than Madine, and I would like to see us strengthen defensive midfield, left back/left wing back and feel better about the goalkeeping position. We have two months do recruit and improve. Still, I feel it is not impossible to be successful in the Championship with the likes of Buckley, Ameobi, ALF and Madine, if we have the quality in other areas, and Parky gets everything working well defensively.

Scoring goals was our main weakness last year. In league one. Especially when Clough and Ameobi went.

I think we were probably not top 2 league one material going forwards but defensively we made up for it. We'll have to do similar next year but we simply need to carry more threat than we currently do.

I'm sure everyone knows it. I still feel we're miles off. We don't have any real pace up top, which must be rectified. And we need another target man to play as an alternative or better option than Madine. We need a creative midfield player and a couple of attacking winger types.

Parky was talking Chris Taylor up in the BN today so perhaps he's an option, he played left wing back for Oldham and sort of strikes me as a wing back type so that might help there. I'd give him another go. Sure he has a point to prove.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Aye, we're missing that, too.

Karacan and Derik can do a job DM. Also the young lad we are meant to be getting from West Ham.

Karacan as DM? Not seen a great deal of him either but I think he looks at his best getting forward. He certainly wouldn't be my first choice as a DM, but maybe I've not seen enough of him.

Is Cullen actually a defensive midfielder?

I'm not sure he is: I had him down as more of a Mark Davies than a Jay Spearing. Internet descriptions are irksomely vague and frequently clichéd - "little wizard", "all-action", "terrier", "the best player I've seen in 20 years following Bradford", the usual - but they don't seem to specify whether he's an anchor or enganche, etc etc. Maybe he can be used as a good old-fashioned "central midfielder", and so can Karacan – perhaps best described as a "box-to-boxer" – although I still fear we can't play a straight 4-4-2 against the division's better sides without being horribly overrun in the middle. (It would also pose the question of what we do with Vela and Pratley, "squad depth" notwithstanding.)

Lee Anderson hinting on twitter that our favourite winger from the NE is returning

Wouldn't be bad news, can't help thinking we need a DM as a higher priority...

Not for me. Creativity what we mostly missing.

We need both. Without creativity we'll struggle to score, but without some semblance of control in midfield we'll be pissing in the wind.

As ever, we might not have the option of choosing the order in which players appear (say, for theoretical example, Ameobi wants to decide this week between us and AN Other). All being equal, PP may prefer to build from the back, but we don't live in a hypothesis.

In the real world, or at least the BN, Parky is taking trialist Haris Tabakovic to Scotland, but with a properly lukewarm quote that suggests he's merely making up the numbers: “As things stand at the moment Haris is coming to Scotland with us. We need numbers and we don’t want players playing too many minutes too soon. It puts people at risk of injury. We’ll look at him in training, continue to monitor people and continue to work on getting some new signings in as well.”

Chirpier words for another creative player, though (as BWFCi notes): “Chris [Taylor] came in and his fitness levels are way ahead of where he was last year. He has been in a lot of the summer and he knows he got himself off to a bad start in pre-season last year. This time he’s way ahead. He looks sharper in training, looked sharper against Chorley, and seems to me like a player with a point to prove.”

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Parky was talking Chris Taylor up in the BN today so perhaps he's an option, he played left wing back for Oldham and sort of strikes me as a wing back type so that might help there. I'd give him another go. Sure he has a point to prove.

Interesting point, that. Talking to someone last week who played football at a decent level and he noted how much easier it is, when switching to wingbacks, to "convert" a hard-working winger than to make a full-back any use in the attacking half. Morais is a good example, although the bar is much higher this season; Chris Taylor may not be the world's best player but with good fitness he'll certainly fill Parky's work-ethic tickbox. And, harking to a different conversation, I'd rather spend our limited money (and squad slots?) elsewhere than get a bench-sitting spare left-back.

[BWFC_Insane]

Aye, we're missing that, too.

Karacan and Derik can do a job DM. Also the young lad we are meant to be getting from West Ham.

Karacan as DM? Not seen a great deal of him either but I think he looks at his best getting forward. He certainly wouldn't be my first choice as a DM, but maybe I've not seen enough of him.

Is Cullen actually a defensive midfielder?

I'm not sure he is: I had him down as more of a Mark Davies than a Jay Spearing. Internet descriptions are irksomely vague and frequently clichéd - "little wizard", "all-action", "terrier", "the best player I've seen in 20 years following Bradford", the usual - but they don't seem to specify whether he's an anchor or enganche, etc etc. Maybe he can be used as a good old-fashioned "central midfielder", and so can Karacan – perhaps best described as a "box-to-boxer" – although I still fear we can't play a straight 4-4-2 against the division's better sides without being horribly overrun in the middle. (It would also pose the question of what we do with Vela and Pratley, "squad depth" notwithstanding.)

In his early days at Reading Karacan modelled himself on Claude Makelele.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

In his early days at Reading Karacan modelled himself on Claude Makelele.

And in my early days playing guitar I modelled myself on Paul Weller, but I still haven't been invited to play Red Wedge...

[BWFC_Insane]

In his early days at Reading Karacan modelled himself on Claude Makelele.

And in my early days playing guitar I modelled myself on Paul Weller, but I still haven't been invited to play Red Wedge...

Point is, I think he's played the Spearing role mainly in his career. So I see no issue with playing him there.

I would ideally like us to sign a proper screener of the back 4 (Spearing wasn't that). Someone physical and imposing who reads the game well.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Steve Parkin, on us signing Jem:

“Jem looks a fit lad, he’s done well in training, the gaffer knows him better than me but he’s a tenacious midfield player who I think could be good for us. He looks up to speed. Nick (Allamby) says he has come through all the tests so far, so it’s just a matter of getting the clearance. We’re waiting for the thumbs up. A couple of the lads know him, he’s different to Jay – who has got all the attributes you’d want in a midfielder – but he goes after people, he’s hard working… A Jack Russell!”

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

While this doesn't necessarily conflict with the idea of playing him as a holder, one might argue - indeed, you do - that a proper defensive midfielder should read the game rather than chase it. It's good to have an energetic bloke in there, but often you notice that energy when trying to rectify situations that might not have arisen. There's a reason John Terry made more "heroic" "last-ditch" interventions than Paolo Maldini, and it's not because the Englishman was a better defender.

[BWFC_Insane]

Steve Parkin, on us signing Jem:

“Jem looks a fit lad, he’s done well in training, the gaffer knows him better than me but he’s a tenacious midfield player who I think could be good for us. He looks up to speed. Nick (Allamby) says he has come through all the tests so far, so it’s just a matter of getting the clearance. We’re waiting for the thumbs up. A couple of the lads know him, he’s different to Jay – who has got all the attributes you’d want in a midfielder – but he goes after people, he’s hard working… A Jack Russell!”

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

While this doesn't necessarily conflict with the idea of playing him as a holder, one might argue - indeed, you do - that a proper defensive midfielder should read the game rather than chase it. It's good to have an energetic bloke in there, but often you notice that energy when trying to rectify situations that might not have arisen. There's a reason John Terry made more "heroic" "last-ditch" interventions than Paolo Maldini, and it's not because the Englishman was a better defender.

Just to be clear, Jay Spearing wasn't a holding midfield player.

He played there. But I'd argue strongly he was mostly effective as a harrier and chaser. Positioning for me was the weakest aspect of his game.