Hanging on, January Transfer Window thread 2017

[BWFC_Insane]

ALF as an addition would be decent business. But his goalscoring record since he left us isn't good. IF he doesn't get chances or isn't the same player goals wise he was here, I feel we'll be in real trouble.

I think he was a patsy signing to appease the fans, not necessarily what Parky would want to have.

As PT says above, we've lost our creativity. Pretty much, Zach and Sammi were the players that produced the moments of magic and sparkle. Without them I fear we will look much more like the side that lost to Charlton than the one that destroyed Gillingham for the rest of the season.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Question for those that go...

It looks like Henry is our hope of creativity and I know on the whole he's been on the wrong side of mediocre. I believe he's been played on the right? Would we get greater benefit by moving him more central and having a couple of minders to do the dirty work?

Seems to me there is a good player and it's a question of either playing more to his strengths or somehow getting more out of him. If Henry doesn't shine then I think we're going to struggle . We need to thread balls in to ALF and the other fella. Strikes me Henry is more than capable given ALF and the new fella might be less static.

[Mar]

Nice to see ALF back at the club. I'm sure he'll get a rousing reception when he comes on. I'm hoping he enjoyed his stint with us so much that it was genuinely a disappointment for him not to sign with us permanently and the likes of Wolves and Wigan were just stop gaps till he felt settled.

Sure losing Zach Clough is a blow and i'm fairly certain thoughts of uncertainty had an impact in the last game but to see some fresh players coming in is a good sign.


I think Clough is another one where we have had to make a potentially smaller sum than if we had money. Funny that really. Those who need money end up getting scraps whereas those with money can hold out for the big bucks.





As for creativity? I'd imagine that Solomon-Otabor is one of those that we are going to be looking at it than regard.

[Bruce Rioja]

Losing Clough for 2 and 6 is a fecking disaster. An absolute unmitigated disaster. Vela will play shit now too if he hasn't got Clough to link up with, as evidenced away at Cov.

[Tombwfc]

Question for those that go...

It looks like Henry is our hope of creativity and I know on the whole he's been on the wrong side of mediocre. I believe he's been played on the right? Would we get greater benefit by moving him more central and having a couple of minders to do the dirty work?

Seems to me there is a good player and it's a question of either playing more to his strengths or somehow getting more out of him. If Henry doesn't shine then I think we're going to struggle . We need to thread balls in to ALF and the other fella. Strikes me Henry is more than capable given ALF and the new fella might be less static.

He played a lot more through the middle, certainly in his first game, and possibly a couple more after that. He wasn't particularly effective in those, but given his scoring record I still think he's worth trying to get involved in and around the box.

At our best this season we were pretty fluid with the three behind Madine, and I expect (at least until VSO and Long bed in) that's how we'll start on Saturday with ALF/Vela/Henry.

[Bijou Bob]

We're still in the top six, have played poorly in January and created very little. In open play Clough has been very poor for me this season. Too many missed final balls and poor one on one finishing. With him, I thought we'd make the play offs but might still have financial issues that could result in a points deduction ( It seems KA may not yet have put ANY money in) . Without him, I still think the play offs are achievable, but financially we can survive. For a club who started the season in crisis, that's not a bad result.

[Dr Hotdog]

Yes Clough scored plenty of Pens and Freekicks - but he was the little feck* who earned those dead ball situations to take advantage of. Hope Clayton and Spearing can step up and knock a few FKs in. No idea who takes the pens. Not that tall fanny who plays upfront each weak (sic).

He had the best first touch of any of our players.

Pressure's on now. So many loanees and very few players of our own to look at beyond this season. Promotion or Wilderness.

[Prufrock]

We'll see how little those pens count for when it's f*cking Nadine stood over the next one.

Gutted. As others have pointed out, he made the others play better. Not a lot happening for Josh when you roll a give-and-go round the corner to that f*cking stump.

I reckon we'll end up back with something like Freedman's wonky diamond. Spearing and Thorpe deep, Vela high and central, Henry high and wide, one striker throught the middle back-to-goal, one freer and having to get back and sit in on the other side to Henry when we lose it.

Asking a lot of the full-backs. Wilson I'm not convinced about, Taylor is cracking, but while tidy, isn't one to go flying on down the overlap.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

This, from Twitterer @Yasin, made me sad.

[TANGODANCER]

Clayton will be the new Clough, Alf hasn't been scoring goals but certainly knows how and will be "born again" here, Long will surprise everybody and it will all turn out right. Nobody died. There, said it. COME ON YOU WHITES.. ....

[Bijou Bob]

This was named 'The hanging on' thread for a reason. We're apparently losing 600 to 800k a month as things stand. For me, pragmatism that ensures the club's financial survival trumps dreams of what might have been. It is what it is. Whining about it won't change things and I'm still hopeful for the season.

[General Mannerheim]

it is a lot of loans but how many of them are still in contract beyond July?

the club were understandably reluctant to make any permanent signings tying themselves to long term contracts. at least this way we can offer the successful loanees a deal at the end of the season - gives them added incentive too?

[BWFC_Insane]

it is a lot of loans but how many of them are still in contract beyond July?

the club were understandably reluctant to make any permanent signings tying themselves to long term contracts. at least this way we can offer the successful loanees a deal at the end of the season - gives them added incentive too?

Reluctant? They weren't able to sign anything other than loans or frees because of the embargo.

[Bruce Rioja]

Clayton will be the new Clough

Based on what, exactly?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I don't fear squad churn at the end of the season. The opposite of churn is stasis, and that's when you get folk like Trotter, Amos and Dervite hanging around adding nowt.

If I get time I'll update the Contract Expiry thread later. It'll be top-heavy but there's nothing wrong with that. Zach is gone and we must move on; barring Vela and possibly Beevers, how many of the others would we be absolutely devastated to lose? Keeping them keen might do a lot for performances in the short-term, as opposed to the luxurious long contracts that have f*cked us in the long-term.

[BWFC_Insane]

I don't fear squad churn at the end of the season. The opposite of churn is stasis, and that's when you get folk like Trotter, Amos and Dervite hanging around adding nowt.

If I get time I'll update the Contract Expiry thread later. It'll be top-heavy but there's nothing wrong with that. Zach is gone and we must move on; barring Vela and possibly Beevers, how many of the others would we be absolutely devastated to lose? Keeping them keen might do a lot for performances in the short-term, as opposed to the luxurious long contracts that have f*cked us in the long-term.

The problem is, that if the Blumarble situation rumbles on, presumably we'll sell Vela/Beevers in the summer to allow the club to keep going a few more months.

Essentially we are just going to weaken and weaken until the finance is resolved. I hoped we'd at least be able to give the second half of this season a real crack, and then see what happened. But even that seems unlikely now.

EDIT: Also, A Taylor has probably been our best player this season, Beevers aside. And Spearing not far behind. Both would be huge losses in the summer.

[dave the minion]

Come on fellas. None of us wanted Clough to go - especially for what we see as a "bargain" - but lets get a bit of perspective can we.

At the end of the day I don't think any of us disagree that the club was, and very much still is, up sh1t creek as far as the finances are concerned.

My random thoughts on where we are now are:

- quite a lot of us were gutted to see Holding go in the summer, but we seem to have done alright defensively since then?

- Clough has the potential to be a great player with the right development - we weren't in a position to give him that and we certainly weren't a one man team when he was playing well

- we may or may not like KA and his public comments, but at the end of the day he is running the club and has a financial interest in it. We can't expect him to keep paying the wages out of his own pocket, and whatever his ultimate motives are (promotion, sell on for a profit....) we have to trust that he is trying to sort out the mess that he inherited. I'm sure they didn't want to sell Clough, and if they did it was for a far higher amount, but if this gets us through the season then I can't see he had much of a choice. There hardly seemed to be a bidding war going on did there?

- Getting ALF in was brilliant. None of know how he will play, but I suspect we were in a position that we might have had to sell Clough regardless of who we got in. If thats the case, then at least we've got some hope to cling to that he might be like he was last time

- everyone's getting excited about the accounts being filed and available. Personally I am not sure what we will see from them: if the auditors have signed off on a going concern basis then they must be satisfied that the finances are available for 12 months. Beyond that is anyone's guess, but not sure anyone sensibly thinks everything is going to be magically OK by then do they?

- I'm not sure any of our rivals massively invested in the window, so we'll see how we get on. Yes we are now weaker for no Clough and no Ameobi, but we have unknown quantities of ALF, Long and the Brum chap, who may turn out to be fantastic. They may not be of course, but lets wait and see instead of throwing the towel in now shall we?

[popeyedoyle]

My concern with the kid from Brum is we've tried this umpteen times in the recent past and none of them have worked out, all it does is give them kids some learning on the job. Saidy Janko, Vladimir Weiss, Miyachi and Silva from Arsenal.

[Prufrock]

Tbf, it worked with Wilshere and Sturridge, though those were both clearly outstanding talents (of course we're at a lower level now).

I can't see him being involved (especially given the limit on loanees). (Assuming, as I think I read, that his contract is up in the summer) possibly more for us to have a look in case we try to sign him then. The new Rob Hall. Yay.

Anyway, KA with his "we won't sell Vela or Clough unless there's a mega-offer" can go and boil his head, the cnut.

Josh off for a tenner in the summer.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I don't fear squad churn at the end of the season. The opposite of churn is stasis, and that's when you get folk like Trotter, Amos and Dervite hanging around adding nowt.

If I get time I'll update the Contract Expiry thread later. It'll be top-heavy but there's nothing wrong with that. Zach is gone and we must move on; barring Vela and possibly Beevers, how many of the others would we be absolutely devastated to lose? Keeping them keen might do a lot for performances in the short-term, as opposed to the luxurious long contracts that have f*cked us in the long-term.

The problem is, that if the Blumarble situation rumbles on, presumably we'll sell Vela/Beevers in the summer to allow the club to keep going a few more months.

Essentially we are just going to weaken and weaken until the finance is resolved. I hoped we'd at least be able to give the second half of this season a real crack, and then see what happened. But even that seems unlikely now.

EDIT: Also, A Taylor has probably been our best player this season, Beevers aside. And Spearing not far behind. Both would be huge losses in the summer.

I'm not saying short contracts solve the Blumarble problem. It's a different issue, and an enormous one: that loan is a huge stumbling block to progress.

I'm just saying that short contracts are usually beneficial to struggling clubs. Yes, we may get slightly less for Beevers if his contract's up in 2018 rather than 2019, but it's hardly like Zach's long contract helped us out, is it?

To be clear: selling players is not a healthy way to finance a club if you want it to progress. But making them sing for their supper is a good way to avoid deadwood. The two are largely separate issues. Even if/when we get back on a decent financial basis, I wouldn't want us to be spraying round long-term contracts to anyone who can stand up straight.