Snog, Marry, Avoid: Summer 2023 Transfer Window

[Worthy4England]

whilst this might be unfair the sentiment from our fans seems to be ‘slightly underwhelmed’.

I can understand that to an extent.

The thing is Evatt said he wanted "Players who can play my football" and we're seeing him make tactical signings, rather than exciting ones.

I'm not doing cartwheels around the lounge over Forrester, Nlundulu, Cogley, Coleman or Baxter (mostly over injuries for the latter), but I do think they are all good for Evatt in terms of his ability to execute the game plan.

We still need that one-on-one dribbler down the right, a second-ball-winner, a midfield final third threat and (the obviously definitely signing) Josh Maja; but we're unlikely to get all that done.

How much of that we get done will decide our season. Some of it will likely have to wait for January.

I think a Baccus type and a Wilson type are essentials. You can’t leave that till January if you are serious on winning promotion. That would be just like last season. That midfield all action ball winner and a flying excellent attacking wing back. Absolutely needed now.

I think beyond that it’s whether an attacking mid or a striker who adds the quality fall into place or not and it might be if they don’t we wait till January.

But yeah the first two cannot be left. The latter two maybe could be.

Is the Wilson type going to be playing RWB with Cogley as his back-up? Just trying to keep up....

[GhostoftheBok]

That Maja thing may have legs, btw.

From a very mild bit of digging:

Maja's agent as of the other day was not entertaining offers from north of the border, though a concrete offer from Rangers would probably turn that on its head.
A report out of Ghana named us specifically. Though Maja himself is Nigerian (via Lewisham), Ghana's sports reporting is strong for most of African football.
Maja's wages last season were around £9k a week. He took a voluntary cut after Bordeaux were relegated.
Having just bugged some lads over in France, this actually makes some sense.

That's not to say this is a thing that is happening, but the Ghanian thing does seem to make it a real "link" as opposed to total fabrication.

[The_Gun]

Aye Worthy, I was just typing out a post asking Ghost whether he thought Cogley is good enough to be our starting RWB. Without knowing much about him, I'd be slightly concerned if our RWB options are him and Geth.

[GhostoftheBok]

Aye Worthy, I was just typing out a post asking Ghost whether he thought Cogley is good enough to be our starting RWB. Without knowing much about him, I'd be slightly concerned if our RWB options and him and Geth.

If we'd just signed Cogley and said "This is the guy" I'd have seen him as a very sensible replacement for Bradley, were we on the same budget as last summer.

With the increased budget I wanted us to go for Wilson, but if not getting him means we hang on until January and explore other markets I'm not as down on that as Insane is. I'd rather get the right player in Jan than the wrong player now. A promotion bid isn't scuppered by a few months of Cogley at RWB and if it were then squad depth would be meaningless. If you imagine Wilson getting injured (instead of not signing) and that turns you from a top 2 team to nowhere near good enough then you either have a false view of the squad game or Kane Wilson is a world class player.

That said, we still need to do the work *somewhere* and if it's not RWB it'll need to be midfield and/or attack. One transfer miss might not stop you going up, but a few will.

[The_Gun]

Much appreciated, sir.

On a related note, the word is that Wilson is going to sign for Brum.

[GhostoftheBok]

On a related note, the word is that Wilson is going to sign for Brum.

Saw that, yes. He's their type. It was Brum that tried to use Placheta as a LWB last season, but he got hurt. They, like us, want to have that option to play an almost-winger at wing back.

I'd hate it though, I'm not going to lie. I really wanted him here and I think he'd have made a massive impact.

[boltonboris]

Birmingham are a strange outfit. Saw them a few times last season and they don't have any playing identity, constant negativity surrounding them from supporters and always seem like they're right on the edge of some form of catastrophe.

Even being in league 1, I think we're as attractive a proposition, but maybe they have some deep pockets

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Ilesy's done some research on Forrester. Another six-figure signing....

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... forrester/

[Worthy4England]

Yeah, thanks Ghost. In Bradley's case and Dacre-Cogley (might shorten this to DaCo ) is their lack of variety in balls into the box down to them and their confidence or our "prepared cunning plans?" It feels like 80% of our "got to the byline" result in a pull back...

[BWFC_Insane]

Aye Worthy, I was just typing out a post asking Ghost whether he thought Cogley is good enough to be our starting RWB. Without knowing much about him, I'd be slightly concerned if our RWB options and him and Geth.

If we'd just signed Cogley and said "This is the guy" I'd have seen him as a very sensible replacement for Bradley, were we on the same budget as last summer.

With the increased budget I wanted us to go for Wilson, but if not getting him means we hang on until January and explore other markets I'm not as down on that as Insane is. I'd rather get the right player in Jan than the wrong player now. A promotion bid isn't scuppered by a few months of Cogley at RWB and if it were then squad depth would be meaningless. If you imagine Wilson getting injured (instead of not signing) and that turns you from a top 2 team to nowhere near good enough then you either have a false view of the squad game or Kane Wilson is a world class player.

That said, we still need to do the work *somewhere* and if it's not RWB it'll need to be midfield and/or attack. One transfer miss might not stop you going up, but a few will.

This is a mistake in my view. Wing backs as we’ve seen basically are the difference between the system looking very fluid and looking like we can’t score against any reasonably well organised side.

The ability to get beyond and behind defences is critical in a wing back and whilst Cogley sounds fine it’s not the same potential attacking quality as Wilson and for me we will live and die by that in our wing backs. Williams came in January but wasn’t much use as not fully fit. Relying on January for positions that imho make or break us in the system we have chosen is bad. Bad.

Wing back is so specialist it’s not a place you can just mumble on through significant periods without having someone who is exceptional in the role, especially going forward. I think back to all those home games where because we couldn’t get in behind enough we went sideways. That needs fixing if we want to go up and for me we need more in those areas than we have. More significant and obvious quality.

[TonyDomingos]

That Maja thing may have legs, btw.

From a very mild bit of digging:

Maja's agent as of the other day was not entertaining offers from north of the border, though a concrete offer from Rangers would probably turn that on its head.
A report out of Ghana named us specifically. Though Maja himself is Nigerian (via Lewisham), Ghana's sports reporting is strong for most of African football.
Maja's wages last season were around £9k a week. He took a voluntary cut after Bordeaux were relegated.
Having just bugged some lads over in France, this actually makes some sense.

That's not to say this is a thing that is happening, but the Ghanian thing does seem to make it a real "link" as opposed to total fabrication.

Never having heard of him, I looked up Maja. His wiki page was updated this afternoon to say that he's signed for us. However, there are a couple of indications it might be a hoax - eg it says he left Bordeaux at the end of his contract, but then states he's come to us on a free transfer. It can't be both.

But, the giveaway is the now deleted edit claiming that Jay Jay asked him to join us via a personal request on MySpace!

[Harry Genshaw]

it says he left Bordeaux at the end of his contract, but then states he's come to us on a free transfer. It can't be both.

Of course it can! Aren't most 'free transfers' just that scenario?

It's still bollocks though

[sonicthewhite]

In other news it's turning sour at Fleetwood;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-l ... e-66099646

[The_Gun]

Have Fleetwood got anyone worth taking?

[boltonboris]

Probably not, but they do have a bit of a Bolton contingent on their books

Vela has been there a short while and they brought Jay Lynch in last season. Signed by Joe Riley, who's their recruitment director or something.

Vela lives a few doors down from me. I can imagine this is a bit of a concern for him and his young family

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Vela lives a few doors down from me. I can imagine this is a bit of a concern for him and his young family

True, but he can’t make you move.

[Prufrock]

Joe Riley is a full three years younger than me and therefore is obviously still playing.

[GhostoftheBok]

Never having heard of him, I looked up Maja. His wiki page was updated this afternoon to say that he's signed for us. However, there are a couple of indications it might be a hoax - eg it says he left Bordeaux at the end of his contract, but then states he's come to us on a free transfer. It can't be both.

But, the giveaway is the now deleted edit claiming that Jay Jay asked him to join us via a personal request on MySpace!

Oh, any wikipedia edits before deals are announced are always nonsense.

The whole thing is very likely utter nonsense. But it is fun.

[GhostoftheBok]

This is a mistake in my view. Wing backs as we’ve seen basically are the difference between the system looking very fluid and looking like we can’t score against any reasonably well organised side.

The ability to get beyond and behind defences is critical in a wing back and whilst Cogley sounds fine it’s not the same potential attacking quality as Wilson and for me we will live and die by that in our wing backs. Williams came in January but wasn’t much use as not fully fit. Relying on January for positions that imho make or break us in the system we have chosen is bad. Bad.

Wing back is so specialist it’s not a place you can just mumble on through significant periods without having someone who is exceptional in the role, especially going forward. I think back to all those home games where because we couldn’t get in behind enough we went sideways. That needs fixing if we want to go up and for me we need more in those areas than we have. More significant and obvious quality.

The trouble with all that is that you talk about Bradley as having been a poor fit for us, when he was fairly obviously superb all season.

If the rest of the team had worked better then the stuff Bradley wasn't as good at would have mattered a lot less.

[GhostoftheBok]

Vela lives a few doors down from me. I can imagine this is a bit of a concern for him and his young family

True, but he can’t make you move.

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