In, Out, Shake It All About: January 2025 Transfer Window

[GhostoftheBok]

Schumacher won't be happy hanging around for an extra year at this level if he thinks he can avoid it.

So we'll either attempt to do business tomorrow, or Schumacher REALLY rates this lot.

I'd expect a new coach to want one or two in, if only to change the atmosphere and underline the threat to places.

What he's unlikely to want to do is alienate anyone early doors, so we will need to make space if he wants senior players in.

[BWFC_Insane]

Schumacher won't be happy hanging around for an extra year at this level if he thinks he can avoid it.

So we'll either attempt to do business tomorrow, or Schumacher REALLY rates this lot.

I'd expect a new coach to want one or two in, if only to change the atmosphere and underline the threat to places.

What he's unlikely to want to do is alienate anyone early doors, so we will need to make space if he wants senior players in.

Come on. There is a lot in between those scenarios. A very large gap. Primarily the first being that we have one day left to do business. The second being we might not have much left in the kitty. The third being well about 100 different variables.

The reality once Evatt went with a week of the window to go was that the squad either goes up or faces a summer of major surgery.

There simply isn’t the time to do a lot now. If someone goes for some money tomorrow then maybe we can do something but all feels very sub optimal at this stage.

[GhostoftheBok]

Schumacher won't be happy hanging around for an extra year at this level if he thinks he can avoid it.

So we'll either attempt to do business tomorrow, or Schumacher REALLY rates this lot.

I'd expect a new coach to want one or two in, if only to change the atmosphere and underline the threat to places.

What he's unlikely to want to do is alienate anyone early doors, so we will need to make space if he wants senior players in.

Come on. There is a lot in between those scenarios. A very large gap. Primarily the first being that we have one day left to do business. The second being we might not have much left in the kitty. The third being well about 100 different variables.

The reality once Evatt went with a week of the window to go was that the squad either goes up or faces a summer of major surgery.

There simply isn’t the time to do a lot now. If someone goes for some money tomorrow then maybe we can do something but all feels very sub optimal at this stage.

"attempt to do business"...ATTEMPT.

If Schumacher comes out tomorrow morning and says "Nobody is coming in" then that will be a statement about his view of the squad.

Like I say, I'd expect him to try and get a couple in even if he does rate the group.

You absolutely can do business on deadline day. This is an active market. Plenty of lads are moving. Clubs will be shopping their players around - Posh certainly are.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

the squad either goes up or faces a summer of major surgery.

Or presumably both, if it's as bad as is sometimes said.

[Bijou Bob]

I can foresee a very long day, ending with the phrase “Going with what we’ve got”. Get more than one in and it looks like we’re going to be having a go. If it’s a damp squib with a couple going out and no one of any note coming in, then the season is effectively over and it’s rebuild time in the summer.

Schuey took his time signing and there were clearly ongoing discussions about something before he did. Whether that was around the squad, only time will tell.

[GhostoftheBok]

I can foresee a very long day, ending with the phrase “Going with what we’ve got”.

I mean, yeah, that's always on a possibility. We've seen it enough over the years, as have most clubs.

We have a bit of pace and some goals in the group. We can probably keep the ball out if the new staff do their jobs. Even if we don't get any business done we have half a chance of some fun until the end of the season. Let's see how we get on.

If it's a disaster...at least we can moan on here about it.

[BWFC_Insane]

Schumacher won't be happy hanging around for an extra year at this level if he thinks he can avoid it.

So we'll either attempt to do business tomorrow, or Schumacher REALLY rates this lot.

I'd expect a new coach to want one or two in, if only to change the atmosphere and underline the threat to places.

What he's unlikely to want to do is alienate anyone early doors, so we will need to make space if he wants senior players in.

Come on. There is a lot in between those scenarios. A very large gap. Primarily the first being that we have one day left to do business. The second being we might not have much left in the kitty. The third being well about 100 different variables.

The reality once Evatt went with a week of the window to go was that the squad either goes up or faces a summer of major surgery.

There simply isn’t the time to do a lot now. If someone goes for some money tomorrow then maybe we can do something but all feels very sub optimal at this stage.

"attempt to do business"...ATTEMPT.

If Schumacher comes out tomorrow morning and says "Nobody is coming in" then that will be a statement about his view of the squad.

Like I say, I'd expect him to try and get a couple in even if he does rate the group.

You absolutely can do business on deadline day. This is an active market. Plenty of lads are moving. Clubs will be shopping their players around - Posh certainly are.

We don’t even know if Schumacher has any control over transfers at this stage. We don’t know if he was told that what has been put in place already happens and he has to deal with it. Or whether reversion to head coach means he has to do so permanently.

It’s way way too early to make the sort of assumptions you are making. I’d hope Schuey is backed but he’s hardly sounded like thus far he’s in total control of what might happen at this stage. And you can’t blame him for that. He’s not even had a training session yet.

[GhostoftheBok]

We don’t even know if Schumacher has any control over transfers at this stage. We don’t know if he was told that what has been put in place already happens and he has to deal with it. Or whether reversion to head coach means he has to do so permanently.

It’s way way too early to make the sort of assumptions you are making. I’d hope Schuey is backed but he’s hardly sounded like thus far he’s in total control of what might happen at this stage. And you can’t blame him for that. He’s not even had a training session yet.

I've not made any of the assumptions you've assumed I'm making. Nor have I assigned him any blame for anything.

[nicholaldo]

I wonder if the Therkelsen deal could still be on.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I wonder if the Therkelsen deal could still be on.

Might not be the sort we need, but then who knows? And who knows who decides?

Any fringe lads at Plymouth or Stoke he might bag?

I'd say Lawal at Stoke on loan, but would Jon do us or Stevie any favours? Probably not.

I mean i'd take Nathan Lowe if they're lending their jewels, but I actually meant "players they might want shut of". Stoke always have a bunch of them, partly due to changing their manager more often than their kit.

But cheers for the notes (and Brommers) - saved me some sifting!

Interesting that Stoke boss Mark Robins strongly hinted Ennis was loaned out for financial reasons:
"Niall never made any overtures to leave. That is a consequence of where we are at the moment. While I need bodies, need people to be available to play, we’ve got players hopefully who aren’t too far from coming back and to try to make sense financially you have to do certain things that mean players leave if we’re bringing players in. That was the reason behind it.”

Now, obviously I'm not saying we've got the muscle to throw cash at Stoke, but if there's players Robins doesn't want to use taking up wages, there might be a deal to be done.

Andre Vidigal, for instance, was in the vast majority of Schumacher's matchday squads in the Scouser's first (half-)season at Stoke: of the 25 games, he was selected 23 times, starting 9, coming on 7 times. This season, he's barely featured: he had a run of laughably late sub appearances under Pelach – five consecutive examples seeing him come on in the 85th, 88th, 87th, 89th and 88th minutes – and hasn't played a single minute since early December. Last week he scored twice in an under-21s game at Reading. He's 26.

However, Vidigal is primarily a winger, so he'd signal a possible change of system. We've already got a 26-year-old winger we don't use, in Carlos Mendes Gomes – although let's see where he is by this time tomorrow night.

Also scoring for Stoke's U21s at Reading - three times - was Emre Tezgel. Three years ago the Burton-born striker became Stoke's youngest-ever player, at 16. Last January he was loaned to League Two McDons, where the gaffer said "For his age, he has a physicality and a strength, and he manipulates the ball really well. He's got a good footballing brain." And in August this season, Schumacher played him 5 times in his final 7 games, the kid thanking him with two goals.

Narcis Pelach didn't fancy him as much and Mark Robins has barely used him – and with fellow teenage striker Nathan Lowe being recalled from a very successful loan at Walsall, Stoke may think Tezgel needs a loan with a manager he knows. He's 19, so it'd be a free hit in terms of squad space.

Anyway. Just ideas.

[The_Gun]

I think it’s reasonable to assume that Schumacher will have some say on transfers, and that we’re not going to force things through that may already be in motion if he’s not onboard.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I think it’s reasonable to assume that Schumacher will have some say on transfers, and that we’re not going to force things through that may already be in motion if he’s not onboard.

How it works, per Steven Schumacher: (source https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... day-deals/)

The recruitment team here is similar to what we used in my time at Plymouth Argyle. Obviously, there's a lot of data and there's a lot of background, there's a lot of recruitment and scouting, if you like, that all goes on before it comes to the manager or the head coach.

So, my process would be deciding the profile of a player, which is a profile I can play in the system and the style that we want to. And then they would present three, four players, whatever, and it's up to me to decide if they're the right ones. And, obviously, you've got to go into your background checks and all that and see what the character's like before they come and play for this club.

So, I'm really comfortable in the whole process and it was something, again, that attracted me to Bolton. It seems like this club make logical decisions and that's the way I like to work. It’s the sort of environment that I've worked in before and I thrived at. And when you have that relationship where everybody's on the same page, everybody wants to achieve the same objective and you work together in sort of unity, then you'll have a good chance of getting decisions right.

So, I'm really happy with everyone behind the scenes. The training ground staff that I met on Friday were brilliant. It's a real good atmosphere in the training ground. I really liked it. There's something about it. It feels like it's got a good soul. I'm just delighted to be here and hopefully it's the start of a real exciting year.

Also, specifically today:

I look at it and, to me, I don't see loads of big gaping holes. I don’t think, 'Oh, we need to do this, we need to do that.' I left two really good players out of the travelling squad completely (at Reading). There were two players who travelled that I left out of the 18 as well, so I am not sat here thinking ‘oh God, we need players.’ But obviously, if there's something that becomes available in the next few days that we think that definitely makes us better, then I'm sure there will be scope to do that.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

No direct link to us, but they know what we did with Bradley. (Don't mention Beck or Ramsay)

[BWFC_Insane]

Cheers for posting those DSB. The process is absolutely fine but my worry is becoming a slave to it rather than using the tools it offers well.

Since forever managers have brought players they work well with, gut feel picks and just characters they think enhance squads into clubs. And in many cases good managers do very well with this. I think you still need some of that.

And a focus on building a team to achieve your objective in the here and now. The data seems to bias us towards potential which is great because it does stuff normal people can’t but in doing so I think it often obscures obvious options that deliver in the here and now and are ready to do so.

This system would never have picked out Morais yet without him we’d have not gone up.

[BWFC_Insane]

Saturday's game at Reading highlighted why winning that scrap in the middle of the park is so important. Didn't really happen against Reading.

From Iles and his blog….bingo.

[Bijou Bob]

Let the fun begin! Love a good deadline day. Painting and decorating in the sunshine today; coffee brewed, music ready, keep those alerts coming!

[Worthy4England]

Cheers for posting those DSB. The process is absolutely fine but my worry is becoming a slave to it rather than using the tools it offers well.

Since forever managers have brought players they work well with, gut feel picks and just characters they think enhance squads into clubs. And in many cases good managers do very well with this. I think you still need some of that.

And a focus on building a team to achieve your objective in the here and now. The data seems to bias us towards potential which is great because it does stuff normal people can’t but in doing so I think it often obscures obvious options that deliver in the here and now and are ready to do so.

This system would never have picked out Morais yet without him we’d have not gone up.

I'm a bit happier with what's being said there, to be fair. I think there's a world of difference between wanting a specific player to play a specific role, and I'm sure if that happened, from what he's said, he'd tell the recruitment folks to include them in the search and the pick would be his at the end. Character check, aye. Manager's decision, aye. All good. Towards the end with Evatt, he listed an entire committee of people with the "it's not just my pick" tagline, that feels wrong. DoF's should work into the Manager/Coach.

On the here and now, thing, pretty much all the noise has been around not overpaying our budget and playing a longer game - let's call it a project, shudder - Randall was clearly a here and now target, whether we think he's the right one, time will tell, couple of years back there was a lot of clamour about Clarke-Harris as a maybe obvious option, we could have spent more than we had, but would probably have looked a bit fcuking stupid, now.

[BWFC_Insane]

Cheers for posting those DSB. The process is absolutely fine but my worry is becoming a slave to it rather than using the tools it offers well.

Since forever managers have brought players they work well with, gut feel picks and just characters they think enhance squads into clubs. And in many cases good managers do very well with this. I think you still need some of that.

And a focus on building a team to achieve your objective in the here and now. The data seems to bias us towards potential which is great because it does stuff normal people can’t but in doing so I think it often obscures obvious options that deliver in the here and now and are ready to do so.

This system would never have picked out Morais yet without him we’d have not gone up.

I'm a bit happier with what's being said there, to be fair. I think there's a world of difference between wanting a specific player to play a specific role, and I'm sure if that happened, from what he's said, he'd tell the recruitment folks to include them in the search and the pick would be his at the end. Character check, aye. Manager's decision, aye. All good. Towards the end with Evatt, he listed an entire committee of people with the "it's not just my pick" tagline, that feels wrong. DoF's should work into the Manager/Coach.

On the here and now, thing, pretty much all the noise has been around not overpaying our budget and playing a longer game - let's call it a project, shudder - Randall was clearly a here and now target, whether we think he's the right one, time will tell, couple of years back there was a lot of clamour about Clarke-Harris as a maybe obvious option, we could have spent more than we had, but would probably have looked a bit fcuking stupid, now.

Yep agreed- process feels fine and I suspect over time Schuey will become more vocal with what he needs internally. He’s spent a week negotiating and was - assuming he wanted to come here hardly likely to tell the man appointing him that his transfers or process were wrong.

I think there is a reasonable chance that had he arrived earlier we may have gone for someone other that Etete but the truth is that was more or less done before Schuey was identified as top target.

But the process as described here seems right for the modern game. We just need to keep in mind that there is something beyond this process in terms of building a team. The best player might not always be the option that makes the team the best.

[The_Gun]

Iles posted a video of Williams training away from the club on his deadline day blog. He definitely looks the likeliest departure today.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

And you think we left our decision late....