January 2023 Transfer Window

[BWFC_Insane]

Evatt:

“It is important to get it right – but it isn’t easy, either,” he told The Bolton News.

“The market is the market. Everyone is looking for the same things.

“I spoke to Paul Warne after the game on Saturday and they are trying to sign centre-forwards, and their spending power is a lot greater than ours, but even they are finding it difficult at the moment.

“We will do our best to get it right. I do think we need an experienced head, someone that knows how to play the position, someone that has a history of goalscoring and someone who I think can help some of our younger players.”

Right and this is what I’m not understanding. We sold two strikers in January knowing we’d need to sign some in a market we know is difficult with nothing lined up.

I can’t square that as being good planning.

When we did that with Anelka because we had a fee that honestly we couldn’t turn down people went absolutely crazy. We ended up with Raziak as a consequence.

Why is it ‘fine now’ for a few that even given our circumstances is far less ‘significant’ in the overall scheme of things.

Surely we should have had someone lined up and ready and have waited to do business until we did?

Surely when we sold Bakayoko and Dapo we were expecting to have JDB available for the rest of the season. I think his injury has come at a bad time. Selling Baka was fine as he was low in the pecking order and would demand a small fee.

Dapo was replaced quickly with Shoretire presumably, so that seems a like for like and with N'lundulu coming in it would seem we'd accounted for the gap left by the departure of Baka.

Trouble we have is these are tough replacements and getting everyone up to speed is problematic and sometimes takes a while. We're seeing this with Randell at the minute in terms of fitness levels but he seems a tidy player.

We just need a top quality replacement for JDB in order to have replaced what we had previously. Easier said than done.

We knew JDB was out for the season on the Monday. Dapo was sold on the Thursday. And we also know Evatt was intending to sign a striker regardless as he's said this numerous times.

So my issue is we've supposedly got this super duper planned approach to signings where we are ahead of the game and know who we want, who will go and everything windows ahead. And all our targets are lined up. The Dapo move has been in the works a long while. And I repeat Evatt had said we needed a striker anyway regardless of JDB.

Which leaves us with a timeline of - Baka goes replaced by Big Dan. Evatt makes it known we still need another striker. We know Dapo is attracting interest and sounds like he could go so makes sense.

JDB is injured out for the season. Club sit on this news for a few days.

Dapo is sold. Shortire comes in as number 10.

Evatt says he knows we are light up and agrees with fans assessment.

Few days later - he's saying 'we're doing our best in a difficult market'.

I'm not sure this shows transfer planning. It shows we've sold a player and are now just scrabbling round for a player in a tricky market- no different to previous eras. Just the same - we're window to window. No issue with that but we just need to be realistic. We've no grand plan. Just surviving best we can.

[Worthy4England]

I doubt anyone disagrees that we'd like more firepower up top. I've not heard anyone say "nah just leave it, it's not a problem."

You have put Dapo firmly in the forwards/striker box to make your argument, whereas I suspect most people think that Shortire has come in for Dapo in a different role than you've put Dapo (No10 for a LW) - which again most folks said we need a number 10.

Evatt has signed a striker - Big Dan - to replace Baka, presumably because he thinks he offers us more than Baka was doing.

You've added the bit about "targets being all lined up" as in they're something you nail on, three windows in advance for effect, as until you get down to the nitty gritty, we probably don't know all the ins and outs. Sure we might have them in our sights etc. But what happens when the release clause we thought might have been £400k is actually £800k? What happens if the dude we had lined up bagged 8 in his last 10? Surely the figure they're looking to get, goes up. We might have lined up someone who's rolled their ankle and is out for the rest of the season.

And you're using all of this to say "of course there's no plan" - the two don't mesh, the way you're portraying, for me.

[GhostoftheBok]

You're looking at this ass-backwards (as my wife would say), Insane.

We needed the players who have gone out because they weren't doing it.

We needed the lads we got in regardless, again because the lads we had were no longer doing it.

If we don't sign a goal scorer we're in a mess, but then we'd have been in a mess even if those two stayed - because they weren't cutting the mustard.

If we did sign the players we need and the deals for Baka and Dapo fell through we'd be in a worse situation than we are currently, because we'd be flooded with too many wages and unhappy players.

Keeping Dapo and Baka didn't solve problems, it created different (worse) ones.

[boltonboris]

Don't want players filling squad places just for a bum on a seat. GOTB is right. If they're not up to it, discard them, regardless of numbers.

Free up resources.

[BWFC_Insane]

You're looking at this ass-backwards (as my wife would say), Insane.

We needed the players who have gone out because they weren't doing it.

We needed the lads we got in regardless, again because the lads we had were no longer doing it.

If we don't sign a goal scorer we're in a mess, but then wed have been in a mess even if those two stayed - because they weren't cutting the mustard.

If we did sign the players we need and the deals for Baka and Dapo fell through we'd be in a worse situation than we are currently, because we'd be flooded with too many wages and unhappy players.

Keeping Dapo and Baka didn't solve problems, it created different (worse) ones.

I think the argument that we were needing to gamble is a fair shout.

But its a gamble on whether we can sign a player who will be in demand in a constrained window.

So we've taken a gamble. Lets hope we don't come up bust.

[GhostoftheBok]

I think the argument that we were needing to gamble is a fair shout.

But its a gamble on whether we can sign a player who will be in demand in a constrained window.

So we've taken a gamble. Lets hope we don't come up bust.

Keeping or selling were both gambles. The deals for Dapo and Baka will have been weeks in the making and neither club would have waited long to sign them, given their league positions.

I think we've taken the least risky gamble of the two.

Either way, we'd have been a tad screwed if we didn't get this goal scorer (or scorers, maybe?) we're after.

Bad window if we don't get a proper striker in regardless.

[Worthy4England]

You're looking at this ass-backwards (as my wife would say), Insane.

We needed the players who have gone out because they weren't doing it.

We needed the lads we got in regardless, again because the lads we had were no longer doing it.

If we don't sign a goal scorer we're in a mess, but then wed have been in a mess even if those two stayed - because they weren't cutting the mustard.

If we did sign the players we need and the deals for Baka and Dapo fell through we'd be in a worse situation than we are currently, because we'd be flooded with too many wages and unhappy players.

Keeping Dapo and Baka didn't solve problems, it created different (worse) ones.

I think the argument that we were needing to gamble is a fair shout.

But its a gamble on whether we can sign a player who will be in demand in a constrained window.

So we've taken a gamble. Lets hope we don't come up bust.

I'm not sure the argument was "we're taking a gamble" - You posted not very long ago about how we weren't missing Dapo and I think most would agree, Baka hasn't fired at all this season (I liked last season's Baka and might be a bit more miffed if he was on last season's tally)...So narratively, we were going to come up bust keeping the two anyhow.

So we've cashed in on two assets, that weren't doing for us what we were looking for. We've replaced them with two, we think will work better - so yes, there's always a "gamble" in any transfer, but whether this is a significant one, remains to be seen.

We could use more firepower up front. Nowt much has changed there.

[BWFC_Insane]

You're looking at this ass-backwards (as my wife would say), Insane.

We needed the players who have gone out because they weren't doing it.

We needed the lads we got in regardless, again because the lads we had were no longer doing it.

If we don't sign a goal scorer we're in a mess, but then wed have been in a mess even if those two stayed - because they weren't cutting the mustard.

If we did sign the players we need and the deals for Baka and Dapo fell through we'd be in a worse situation than we are currently, because we'd be flooded with too many wages and unhappy players.

Keeping Dapo and Baka didn't solve problems, it created different (worse) ones.

I think the argument that we were needing to gamble is a fair shout.

But its a gamble on whether we can sign a player who will be in demand in a constrained window.

So we've taken a gamble. Lets hope we don't come up bust.

I'm not sure the argument was "we're taking a gamble" - You posted not very long ago about how we weren't missing Dapo and I think most would agree, Baka hasn't fired at all this season (I liked last season's Baka and might be a bit more miffed if he was on last season's tally)...So narratively, we were going to come up bust keeping the two anyhow.

So we've cashed in on two assets, that weren't doing for us what we were looking for. We've replaced them with two, we think will work better - so yes, there's always a "gamble" in any transfer, but whether this is a significant one, remains to be seen.

We could use more firepower up front. Nowt much has changed there.

Don't see it like that. We were 5th and in a semi final with 4 strikers. Not all were firing - but potentially could have. JDB had a poor start but was slowly starting to see form.

The same might have happened with Baka and Dapo. It might not have also.

But I think with the squad as it was we were play off bound - maybe wembley bound (in cup). We might have well come up short in the play offs. So the gamble is selling those two and replacing with someone better able to score goals in our system. And in doing that it might mean we are able to compete better in the play offs. It could also mean if we don't do that we miss out on the play offs and Wembley all together.

So I'd say its a gamble.

[GhostoftheBok]

there's always a "gamble" in any transfer

This is the thing. If you're actively looking for reasons to criticise you always can. So you can rephrase normal transfer business as "risky" and "dangerous" if that suits your purposes, but ultimately it's just normal transfer business.

We need to sign a striker.

We needed to sign one in the summer. We still do now. We still would even if everyone was fit and we'd sold nobody.

The only difference is we'd be less financially sound if those lads had stayed. Neither would have played much with who we've signed and what we are still targeting - they'd just have cost us over a million quid to keep.

[Worthy4England]

Lotta "might's" in there, Insano. Of course there's absolutely a scenario where Dapo and Baka both bagged another 10 from this point forwards, to get them to last season's totals. JDB might have come good.

You've spent weeks pointing out this squad was dropping out of the play-offs. (Which I think we understand as you're maybe not as "cup half full" as some )

"I don’t think we will make the play offs with Evatt. It’s been nagging away for weeks. The players we have could do it. But not without some ." - just one example after Shrewsbury...Now that doesn't suit your argument, you're reinforcing it with something you said more than once was in danger of not happening. It wasn't long ago, we (I count myself in this too) were questioning whether Charles was a good fit...

It's not whether what we've done is a "gamble" as all squad changes could be a gamble, it's that you're now sort of positioning that we would have made it if only we'd kept two players, you don't think we'd miss - and should it occur that we got beat at Accy (a place we've won once, coming from behind) and / or drop out of the play-offs, of course you'll be able to say "told ya!"

For me, Ghosty has it right, in that we've been missing something up front all season, and this has done little to exacerbate that, but might have don't a fair amount to help us try and combat that.

[Mar]

We knew JDB was out for the season on the Monday. Dapo was sold on the Thursday. And we also know Evatt was intending to sign a striker regardless as he's said this numerous times.

So my issue is we've supposedly got this super duper planned approach to signings where we are ahead of the game and know who we want, who will go and everything windows ahead. And all our targets are lined up. The Dapo move has been in the works a long while. And I repeat Evatt had said we needed a striker anyway regardless of JDB.

Which leaves us with a timeline of - Baka goes replaced by Big Dan. Evatt makes it known we still need another striker. We know Dapo is attracting interest and sounds like he could go so makes sense.

JDB is injured out for the season. Club sit on this news for a few days.

Dapo is sold. Shortire comes in as number 10.

Evatt says he knows we are light up and agrees with fans assessment.

Few days later - he's saying 'we're doing our best in a difficult market'.

I'm not sure this shows transfer planning. It shows we've sold a player and are now just scrabbling round for a player in a tricky market- no different to previous eras. Just the same - we're window to window. No issue with that but we just need to be realistic. We've no grand plan. Just surviving best we can.

No grand plan and surviving as best we can? Are you deluded?

Selling players is part of the process. Revenue in, improve squad, rinse and repeat. Having no grand plan would involve losing him and then dealing with it window to window, but there are clear reports showing that we were in for Shoretire over the summer, which clearly shows evidence of longer term planning than you're willing to admit.

As for losing JDB on Monday but the news coming out on Thursday, that's the club's perogative, perhaps they wanted a second opinion as to the best course of treatment before sending him for surgery based on one clinicians reporting. Again, his injury is unfortunate but I wouldn't have expected us to be in for another forward if we had four options up top already in N'lundulu, Charles, JDB, Kachunga. The club's had to pivot to account for this and casually signing someone on a moments notice isn't signs of good planning, so we've not been overly quick to react here in favour of a signing that would better suit us.

To further my point, signing Randell also gives us something we've been missing in a decent attacking outlet on the left hand side. We know Iredale is a competent player on that side but he isn't the attacking outlet that Bradley offers on the right. Signing Randell looks to have given us that left hand alternative. Again, not an instance of us casually signing players to survive, but signing players to progress the squad by giving us options we didnt have previously.

We're only light up top at the minute due to injury. I'd rather us get the right player in this window than rush a decision and cause unrest in the squad. There's clearly a plan in place and we've been good at it for a number of successive transfer windows, improving the squad each year. It's a far cry from the over the hill signings like Clayton Donaldson and Heskey.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Can't help Bod's injury. No blame to be attached.

To be very very clear: would you (BWFCi or anyone) have kept Baka and Dapo?

[GhostoftheBok]

As an aside, I'm laughing at the idea that we're currently "gambling" on transfers when we're Bolton fans and Big Sam basically ran a transfer casino - Blessing Kaku, anyone?

This is honestly the least "gambly" period I've ever known as a Bolton fan.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Am just thinking about this Evatt quote reported this morning.

I do think we need an experienced head, someone that knows how to play the position, someone that has a history of goalscoring and someone who I think can help some of our younger players.

I may be staring so hard at the tea-leaves that my eyes are going boggly, but does that sound to me like not so much a 25-year-old as a wiser older head, say 28+?

[GhostoftheBok]

Am just thinking about this Evatt quote reported this morning.

I do think we need an experienced head, someone that knows how to play the position, someone that has a history of goalscoring and someone who I think can help some of our younger players.

I may be staring so hard at the tea-leaves that my eyes are going boggly, but does that sound to me like not so much a 25-year-old as a wiser older head, say 28+?

Yeah, most agree with that. I'd like to think it's both Ade and an experienced one, but players like Marriott and Madden immediately spring to mind as realistic targets in the experienced bracket.

If we're playing guesswork (and lets), does Ade look like a reflex reaction to a Bodvarsson injury, or is he the lost experienced head we need to replace?

[Worthy4England]

Can't help Bod's injury. No blame to be attached.

To be very very clear: would you (BWFCi or anyone) have kept Baka and Dapo?

Too many unknown variables for me! Last years vintage, 24 goals? between them - pretty good return. This year's not so good. Some of that decline seems to be "tactics" in the case of Dapo and just poor misses from Baka (I think I currently have mental images of at least 4 he missed from ~6 yards out, where I was questioning "how?")

So not shedding too many tears for Baka - thanks for some great memories last season.

Dapo - not great this season, looked a bit jaded, out of position wherever we put him, not quite with it. We know (as it's been pretty well advertised) that part of what we're about is building through sales. No idea whether we've done a good or bad deal, but have to trust "they've met our valuation" as being good from where we're sat.

So to the matter in hand. Cup tie - anyone can win or lose them, I'm not sure I'd be sat there thinking Dapo/Baka would deffo swing it for us, top 6 is going to continue to be tough. Lots of decent teams at the top end - could go either way - I'd be thinking that had we still had Dapo/Baka...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

If we're playing guesswork (and lets), does Ade look like a reflex reaction to a Bodvarsson injury, or is he the lost experienced head we need to replace?

Ade feels halfway between Wet-Eared Newcomer and Hardened Veteran.

[GhostoftheBok]

Ade feels halfway between Wet-Eared Newcomer and Hardened Veteran.

I perhaps could have phrased that better.

What I'm wondering is if we get our wish of two more forwards (which I think we'd all like) due to the injury, does Bod get replaced with a physical player like Ade, or is Ade the new Baka and Evatt wants an experienced because he's just lost Bod to injury (older, international, etc).

Does triggering a release clause 3 weeks into a market feel like a reflex move, or is it a case of trying to get a deal worked out and it taking time?

For me, Ade kind of feels like one we've wanted, but didn't think we'd get until his agent started blabbing.

Just as an aside, Ade's agent has potentially played a blinder. Got him to Burton (fees all round), kid plays regularly and 6 months later you engineer a move using that release clause and everyone gets paid again. You have to wonder how long he'll stay at his next club before they try to make a bit more.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Just having a quick scan around for potentials and wondering about that old Danny Ward link. Twas said he was happy to see out his contract but with Huddersfield signing two more strikers (as I noted re Tyreece Simpson) you wonder if he'd fancy the challenge.

[GhostoftheBok]

Just having a quick scan around for potentials and wondering about that old Danny Ward link. Twas said he was happy to see out his contract but with Huddersfield signing two more strikers (as I noted re Tyreece Simpson) you wonder if he'd fancy the challenge.

If we're waiting on his rehab then that'd make sense. Would also fit my pet theory that we wanted experience anyway and might be going for Ade on reflex.

That can be true for the next few hours then, until we get more news that shows its totally wrong.