Tooling up: The summer 2024 transfer thread

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

There was a lad from Huddersfield full back but can't recall his name.

Ben Jackson - that was also in the Fourth. Glad you're enjoying the game though

[knobpolisher]

Yep that's the bounder.

Owen Beck , with no confidence whatsoever?

[jmjhb]

Xav Amaechi. I really hoped he'd be good

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Xav Amaechi. I really hoped he'd be good

The very man. Now at second-tier Magdeburg.

Sorry KP!

[knobpolisher]

I persevered but refused to google to find the answer , not that I'm saying others do.
Not sure what I would have googled

" former wanderers loanees that were never heard of again " perhaps.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I persevered but refused to google to find the answer , not that I'm saying others do.
Not sure what I would have googled

" former wanderers loanees that were never heard of again " perhaps.

That’d be half the internet… I’ll start you with Andy Kennedy…

[BWFC_Insane]

All good with it, as long as I don't hear "we didn't really get content, hamstring recovery etc. into the [X number] of loanees until October"

We might hear that, as it'd be true. Not that it would save Evatt's job.

Not sure what else we do. Sign worse players?

Get the most out of what we have available instead of constantly thinking the answer lies in the market. Obviously we need signings. But we went into a premiership season as a newly promoted side with Henrik Pedersen our only summer signing. Should have been a disaster but instead we won the first three games and then signed some real superstars.

We will have to start the first five or so games with the players we’ve got now. So get them properly fit. Properly fit not Evatt fit. Get them drilled into a simple shape. Build some simple and repeatable patterns of play. And go and win some games. I suspect that we have better players than most of our first few opponents so it’s a case of making sure we are drilled and compact and ready.

[Worthy4England]

All good with it, as long as I don't hear "we didn't really get content, hamstring recovery etc. into the [X number] of loanees until October"

We might hear that, as it'd be true. Not that it would save Evatt's job.

Not sure what else we do. Sign worse players?

You might think it was roughly "same for all teams." If they can get content in quicker and don't break their signings first month in, that's on us, not them...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Depends if other teams have made late signings, I suppose. Some of them are spending seven figures on left-backs again. Must be lovely.

Way I see it, Birmingham and Rotherham are the teams to beat because they’ve either got money to spend or their business done early, or both. Of course it’s easier if you can do that. We got some players early, none of which feel decisive. Guess the flip side is that this is a squad Evatt has built over several windows (which is why anyone wishing for a tactical reset may as well ask for a two-foot boner). Proof of the pudding will, obviously, be in the results. Till then, we wait and speculate. Nowt else to do.

[TANGODANCER]

We will have to start the first five or so games with the players we’ve got now. So get them properly fit. Properly fit not Evatt fit. Get them drilled into a simple shape. Build some simple and repeatable patterns of play. And go and win some games. I suspect that we have better players than most of our first few opponents so it’s a case of making sure we are drilled and compact and ready.

Not being deliberately obtuse, but that's all very fine except that a few hurdles may appear that even Merlin couldn't anticipate or prevent : coughs, colds, flu, stomach upsets, sprains, accidents, long term injuries, family life etc, etc, indeed all the things that happen to the fittest and best outside of physical jerks at the Unibol. Repeatable patterns of play are the last thing we want; we need to be more unpredictable and varied; more shape-changing than direct. If there's a definitive answer, then many more than us will seek and attempt to apply it. Attitude and a desire to fight are better than all the "how to" manuals ever written. Just get out there and do your best.

And then, of course, there are twenty plus other teams all with the same idea.

As ever, Que Sera..

[Worthy4England]

We are the polar opposite of what you (not unresonably) suggest Tango. I don't think IE is a big proponent of "unpredictable." Spreadsheet football at it's most acute. Take out player thinking, double down on system thinking.

For me there needs to be more of a balance and some sort of workable alternative when the spreadsheet returns "#DIV/0!" That tends to be in individual games, rather than across the season.

That's not me advocating ejecting the baby, even though I find it oftentimes mind-numbingly boring, this is his philosophy and plan he wants to play so we need to play it and oft times it works.

[BWFC_Insane]

I’ve never watched a Bolton side win promotion without a clear identity around how they’d score a goal. And Evatt has an identity it’s just that the identity requires a quality of player we can’t and won’t possess to work week in week out. We can beat a side who comes to play and open up 7-0. But a properly organised pressing unit or a low block cause us no end of problems time and again.

And our answer so far is to do what we do better or make minor tweaks. If we were a side that built pressure up and up and were effective from set plays - we’d stop people trying a low block. If we had genuine threat and pace out wide we’d find the press easier to beat.

Football isn’t that hard. Defend well in numbers. Keep clean sheets. Get Collins, Charles, Lolos into positions where their attacking quality can score a goal. Win a lot of games doing that. We don’t need to be able to make a million passes to win a game.

[Worthy4England]

Yeah, we heard lots about our ability to score goals and 86 in the League is an impressive tally. Not our most impressive tally ever, but pretty decent. I'd happily trade 6 v an Exeter side in disarray, for two v Derby and two v Wigan away..

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

“When August starts and coaches have had more time to work with players, I think then the opinions will be more set at clubs and you may see there’s a bit of a hurry to get things done. I would see a quiet July and perhaps a crescendo in August.”

- Richard Hughes, sporting director of Liverpool, who haven't made a single permanent signing this summer. So i guess that's Arne Slot 0, Steve Evans 12 or whatever it is.

Curious summer.

[truewhite15]

“When August starts and coaches have had more time to work with players, I think then the opinions will be more set at clubs and you may see there’s a bit of a hurry to get things done. I would see a quiet July and perhaps a crescendo in August.”

- Richard Hughes, sporting director of Liverpool, who haven't made a single permanent signing this summer. So i guess that's Arne Slot 0, Steve Evans 12 or whatever it is.

Curious summer.

So you're saying... we're not incompetent and/or bollocking things up deliberately to piss off our long-suffering fanbase?

Nope. Don't buy it.

[Worthy4England]

Rotherham didn't recontract at least three players with more than 20 appearances...Heavier lifting to do. I don't question whether Evatt is competent or trying to piss off the fanbase, just whether he's going to get us up.

If everyone's struggling because of the Euro's, that's level playing field for me.

I've not seen owt of the new crew yet, but we must think they're going to make some sort of difference, yet we seem to be discounting that.

I think we all expect it to be a tougher ride than last year, so we have to be better to go up, like last year that could be over 46 games or 3 in the playoffs. I don't mind either way.

We play a particular system that to me feels like it narrows our possibilities in the transfer market and those missing links at WB we've not really solved in 3 years. That's the managers pick.

[Prufrock]

Has anyone seen what the "tweaks to the formation" or whatever the phrase was are? Looking at lineups (albeit in preseason) with injuries, that could be a move to 343 or something "subtler". 343 would take some of the pressure off the wingbacks to be quite so stellar.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Has anyone seen what the "tweaks to the formation" or whatever the phrase was are? Looking at lineups (albeit in preseason) with injuries, that could be a move to 343 or something "subtler". 343 would take some of the pressure off the wingbacks to be quite so stellar.

Ilesy keeps referring to it as 523 and saying the midfield duo have some yards to cover. That said, I assume the wingbacks will still be pushing on to make it more of the 343 sir requested.

Basically sounds like we've swapped a 6 and a 9 for two wide forwards, although I'm not sure if that phrasing will help make it clear. And it will be interesting to see if it stays thus when the single central figure is Dion - not impossible, like.

[truewhite15]

It's sounded to me like it's what England ended up playing in the Euros - 3-4-2-1, where your wing-backs are wide in the four and you've got two attacking mids/deep-lying centre forwards.

Certainly that frees up Collins and (when he's fit) CMG to play in their more familiar positions. It also gives us more options - that position can be played by wingers, by roving attackers, by advanced midfielders, and takes the load off the wing-backs (still need a few of those, though, please!) as they've typically got an option more advanced than them.

Like Iles says, though, you're asking for a lot of defensive discipline from the two remaining midfielders. Hope Arfield, Dempsey, Thomason, Morley and Sheehan are up to the job.

[officer_dibble]

Surely it needs a new type of midfielder - Muamba type who can defend and has the stamina to do the work of two? Kyle Dempsey won’t stay fit long enough…