Summer 2021 Transfer Thread.

[officer_dibble]

To be fair to Dapo his career path suggests he will be looking for first team football. He’s a bright lad. I think he will sign here unless he gets a better off closer to home, say Charlton or summat. I think he needs to work hard to be a championship player, even on Saturday there were moments when he got in a great position only to dribble the ball across the box into the keepers path tamely. Needs to work on that end product.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

A couple of possible season long loan options;

The young lad who Rochdale sold to Wolves last year. Obviously not prem ready. A year in L1 with a more high profile club might tempt them?

The striker at Cardiff who McCarthy doesn't fancy. Scored umpteen in L2 for Crawley I think.

I realise this is like a conversation with your granddad but if you want names then im sure DSB or Brommers will help

Memory's not so great myself – I'm now of a researcher than a rememberer – but Brommers has already mentioned Max Watters (ex Crawley) in his list of potential strikers. https://bwfcanalysis.wordpress.com/2021 ... e-forward/

The Dale kid is Luke Matheson, still only 18 - Wolves loaned him to (third-tier) Ipswich on winter deadline day, he made two appearances. Not saying that means he's washed up at 18. 5ft 6 so we'd have to compensate with more height elsewhere...

[BWFC_Insane]

To be fair to Dapo his career path suggests he will be looking for first team football. He’s a bright lad. I think he will sign here unless he gets a better off closer to home, say Charlton or summat. I think he needs to work hard to be a championship player, even on Saturday there were moments when he got in a great position only to dribble the ball across the box into the keepers path tamely. Needs to work on that end product.

For me he's got to work quite hard for a year or two to really prove himself in league 2 let alone anything else.

Certainly think he's got a lot of development before he'd be close to championship squad player standard. If he's bright and knuckles down and really wants it he may get there. Premiership? Not a chance IMO unless he's one of the 1% where it literally just all clicks out of nowhere. But he's already pushing 24....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

To be fair to Dapo his career path suggests he will be looking for first team football. He’s a bright lad. I think he will sign here unless he gets a better off closer to home, say Charlton or summat. I think he needs to work hard to be a championship player, even on Saturday there were moments when he got in a great position only to dribble the ball across the box into the keepers path tamely. Needs to work on that end product.

This brings to mind another important potential signing: do we boost the coaching staff?

When we were losing and all was woe, the talk was that we needed an extra tracksuit on the training pitch. Obviously that quietened with improving results, and Evatt has less of a recruitment burden now Chris Markham's in place, but it's not beyond consideration that we might get another coach in – could be a position-specific coach (eg defensive, striker) or set-piece worker, but could just be another generalist.

At the moment, post-Phoenix, we only have the manager and assistant, whereas many clubs have those two positions plus a "first-team coach"; what they do day-to-day alters, but in generally it boosts the brains trust and gives another trusted leader who can work on small-group specifics.

[Prufrock]

There's a relatively recent new rule that limits the number of over-23s Prem clubs can send out on loan at any one time. He turns 24 in sept. I'm sure he'll speak to Moyes but absolutely no chance is he getting in West ham's team, and he's not shown enough that they might think another year out on loan and we can get £5m for him..


I think there's a proper player in there, but he's nowhere near that level yet.

[officer_dibble]

Yes to a coach - attacking / set pieces specialist you would think...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Potential first-team coaches might include Steve Thompson – yes, our old midfielder, but more importantly the bloke who was Ian Holloway's assistant in the Blackpool glory days Evatt liked so much; he's also been No2 at Huddersfield and Leeds, moving to Preston to rejoin Simon Grayson and staying on under Alex Neil. He stayed in spring when Neil left but it might depend whether Preston's next gaffer wants his own sidekick.

Obviously Evatt would have to consider Pete Atherton, his current Assistant Manager who wouldn't want to feel he was being demoted, before getting an experienced head in as first-team coach – but the Hooky lookalike seems an affable type and if Evatt reassures him his own place is safe, they might decide we could use someone with 15 years' coaching experience a bit further up the league ladders. Thompson's also evidently got a decent enough reputation for incoming managers to retain him – besides Neil, he has also been retained as assistant by incoming No.1 replacements Holloway and Chris Powell. Maybe the new PNE gaffer will think similarly, but if not, it's a possibility.

Or Evatt could go for a less experienced name, including former colleagues like Kevin Phillips, Stephen Crainey and Brett Ormerod, who have sought coaching careers. They'd have more to prove, obviously, but those without current roles could be brought in ad-hoc at first.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We're now into the season of Retained List releases. Hard to keep across all of them but here's some from the last day or so, in descending league order. One for Brommers to pick through, for sure, but even I've heard of Alex Pritchard (released) and Mo Eisa (listed), while Nicky Maynard might have been a backup option if he wasn't 34. Meanwhile, I note that Toto Nsiala has had his contract extended by Ipswich, so maybe this division isn't all that good...

HUDDERSFIELD
Tommy Elphick – RELEASED
Alex Pritchard – RELEASED
Oumar Niasse – RELEASED
Richard Stearman – RELEASED
Jayson Leutwiler – RELEASED
Demeaco Duhaney – RELEASED
Christopher Schindler – RELEASED
Jaden Brown – RELEASED
Yaya Sanogo – RELEASED
Fraizer Campbell – NEW CONTRACT SIGNED
Álex Vallejo - EXTENSION CLAUSE TRIGGERED
Juninho Bacuna - EXTENSION CLAUSE TRIGGERED
Isaac Mbenza - EXTENSION CLAUSE TRIGGERED
Romoney Crichlow - EXTENSION CLAUSE TRIGGERED
Richard Keogh – IN DISCUSSIONS

READING
Luke Southwood - SIGNED NEW CONTRACT
Michael Morrison - SIGNED NEW CONTRACT
Tom McInTyre - OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Omar Richards - OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Sam Baldock – RELEASED
Sone Aluko – RELEASED
Sam Walker – RELEASED

PETERBOROUGH
Louis Reed – RELEASED
Niall Mason – RELEASED
Frazer Blake-Tracy – RELEASED
Sam Cartwright – RELEASED
Archie Jones – RELEASED
Brad Rolt – RELEASED
Mo Eisa – TRANSFER-LISTED
Daniel Gyollai – TRANSFER-LISTED
Serhat Tasdemir – TRANSFER-LISTED
Ryan Broom – TRANSFER-LISTED

IPSWICH
Luke Chambers – RELEASED
Cole Skuse – RELEASED
Freddie Sears – RELEASED
Alan Judge – RELEASED
Stephen Ward – RELEASED
Emyr Huws – RELEASED
Tristan Nydam – RELEASED
James Wilson – RELEASED
Kayden Jackson - EXTENSION TRIGGERED
Janoi Donacien - EXTENSION TRIGGERED
Toto Nsiala - EXTENSION TRIGGERED
Aaron Drinan - EXTENSION TRIGGERED
Idris El Mizouni - EXTENSION TRIGGERED
Teddy Bishop - EXTENSION TRIGGERED
Gwion Edwards – CONTRACT OFFERED

PLYMOUTH
Will Aimson – RELEASED
Byron Moore – RELEASED
Jarvis Cleal – RELEASED
Rubin Wilson – RELEASED
Scott Wootton – RELEASED
Klaidi Lolos – RELEASED
Frank Nouble – RELEASED
Lewis Macleod – RELEASED
Ben Reeves – RELEASED
Jack Ruddy – RELEASED
Gary Sawyer – RETIRED
Joe Edwards – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Conor Grant – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Ollie Tomlinson – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Danny Mayor – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Ryan Law – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Luke McCormick – OFFERED ALTERNATIVE ROLE

NORTHAMPTON
Steve Arnold – RELEASED
Alan Sheehan – RELEASED
Mark Marshall – RELEASED
Ricky Korboa – RELEASED
Matt Warburton – RELEASED
Ethan Johnston – RELEASED
Lloyd Jones – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Ryan Watson – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Scott Pollock – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Cian Bolger – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT

LEYTON ORIENT
Lee Angol – RELEASED
Josh Coulson – RELEASED
James Dayton – RELEASED
Louis Dennis – RELEASED
Myles Judd – RELEASED
Sam Ling – RELEASED
Jordan Maguire-Drew – RELEASED
Jobi McAnuff – RETIRED
Brendon Shabani – RELEASED
Jamie Turley – RELEASED
Joe Widdowson – RELEASED
James Brophy – OFFERED EXTENSION
Craig Clay – OFFERED EXTENSION
Dan Happe – OFFERED EXTENSION
Danny Johnson – OFFERED EXTENSION
Jayden Sweeney – OFFERED EXTENSION
Lawrence Vigouroux – OFFERED EXTENSION
Conor Wilkinson – OFFERED EXTENSION

MANSFIELD
Andy Cook – RELEASED
Nicky Maynard – RELEASED
Joe Riley – RELEASED
Aidan Stone – RELEASED
Ryan Sweeney – RELEASED
Aiden Walker – RELEASED
Jake Wright – RELEASED
Corey O’Keeffe - TRANSFER LISTED
Marek Stech - TRANSFER LISTED
James Clarke – EXTENSION TRIGGERED
Jimmy Knowles – EXTENSION TRIGGERED
Jaden Charles – EXTENSION OFFERED
Keaton Ward – EXTENSION OFFERED

PORT VALE
Dino Visser – RELEASED
Tom Scott – RELEASED
Adam Crookes – RELEASED
Shaun Brisley – RELEASED
Scott Brown – RELEASED
Luke Joyce – RELEASED
Ryan Campbell-Gordon – RELEASED
Zak Mills – RELEASED
David Fitzpatrick – RELEASED
Cristian Montano – RELEASED
Daniel Trickett-Smith – RELEASED
Tom Pope – RELEASED
Mark Cullen – RELEASED
Kurtis Guthrie – RELEASED
Harry McKirdy – RELEASED

WALSALL
Cameron Norman – RELEASED
James Clarke – RELEASED
Stuart Sinclair – RELEASED
Caolan Lavery – RELEASED
Josh Gordon – RELEASED
Callum Cockerill-Mollett – RELEASED
Wes McDonald – RELEASED
Jack Nolan – RELEASED
Tom Leak - CONTRACT EXTENDED BY CLAUSE
Joe Willis - CONTRACT EXTENDED BY CLAUSE
Dan Scarr – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT
Hayden White – OFFERED NEW CONTRACT

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Couple more from the division we're leaving behind:

Bradford release Anthony O’Connor, Billy Clarke, Clayton Donaldson, Connor Shanks, Connor Wood, Harry Pritchard, Lee Novak, Will Huffer, Zeli Ismail

Exeter release Lewis Ward, Jonny Maxted, Tom Parkes, Alex Fisher and Nicky Ajose. Offered contracts to Jake Taylor, Randell Williams, Lewis Page and Pierce Sweeney but Taylor and Williams are believed to have turned them down. 24-year-old Londoner Williams, who scored the equaliser in our last home game, is a right winger who can also play right-back, and came up through the Spurs, Palace and Watford academies; he was one of L2's leading assisters last season and almost moved to an unnamed L1 team in January but couldn't agree terms, and Exeter have been resigned since to losing him.

[Bruce Rioja]

I see that Ipswich have released Freddie Sears; and to think I criticise Isgrove for a lack of end product

Skill to burn, that lad, but not a clue as to how to turn it to his, or his team's advantage.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Poor old Joe Bunney among 10 released by Grimsby

[officer_dibble]

Bet he regrets that 430am drive...not much comeback from that.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Coventry release a couple of forwards - Amadou Bakayoko (25, 6ft4in, 11 goals from 54 L1 games) and Max Biamou (31, 6ft1in, 4 goals from 22 L1 games)

[Bruce Rioja]

Poor old Joe Bunney among 10 released by Grimsby

Has a previously undiagnosed medical condition, apparently. Whether that's owt to do with his crash or not I don't know.

[brommers95]

Coventry release a couple of forwards - Amadou Bakayoko (25, 6ft4in, 11 goals from 54 L1 games) and Max Biamou (31, 6ft1in, 4 goals from 22 L1 games)

While by no means prolific, both of those would add a bit more physicality to our forward line. There's zero chance that we bring in an out and out target man this summer, but I do wonder if Evatt is keen to add bit more height and/or muscle up front to make us more of a threat from aerial crosses.

We're now into the season of Retained List releases. Hard to keep across all of them but here's some from the last day or so, in descending league order. One for Brommers to pick through, for sure, but even I've heard of Alex Pritchard (released) and Mo Eisa (listed), while Nicky Maynard might have been a backup option if he wasn't 34. Meanwhile, I note that Toto Nsiala has had his contract extended by Ipswich, so maybe this division isn't all that good...

My Saturday afternoons are now pretty free so I can dedicate this coming one to doing a bit more digging into the hundreds of players that have been and will be released this week.

A few names that stick out already:

Jayson Leutwiler (GK, Huddersfield - Released) - someone that I remember you mentioning DSB back in Jan after he left Fleetwood. Hasn't played much the past few seasons but has over 70 games L1 experience and is still fairly youthful for a keeper at 32.

Louis Reed (CM, Peterborough - Released) - mentioned him in my most recent blog (https://bwfcanalysis.wordpress.com/2021 ... dfielders/) I hear good things about him - the main thing being that he is more than capable of being a starting centre-mid in L1. On the small side at 5'8 but a very effective tackler I believe, then with the ball he likes to play deep with the pitch in front of him to spray passes about.

Mo Eisa - (ST, Peterborough - Transfer Listed) - think Peterborough might be asking a bit more than we can reasonably afford as he joined for a club record fee but the lad has serious talent. Scored 14 goals in 29 apps for the Posh last season.

Lloyd Jones - (CB, Northampton - Offered New Contract) - someone that I thought we could go for last summer, havent looked into his numbers yet but has had a fine season from what I've read. You'd imagine he'd want to stay in L1 and I'm sure we could offer a better deal than relegated Northampton. Only question marks are over his character I guess (https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... n-11087634), which may put us off as Evatt is a manager who's said previously he's very keen on building a squad of the 'right' characters.

James Brophy - (LB/LWB, Leyton Orient - Offered New Contract) - one of the better LBs in L2 this season. Thought he was very bright when they played us at the UniBol. Need to do some more research on him but could do a job for us.

Danny Johnson - (ST, Leyton Orient - Offered New Contract) - joint 6th highest scorer in L2 this season with 17. Apparently wants to move back closer to his native North East. Has never played higher than L2 in England but could be a useful rotation option.


New rumour to add to the list:

Harry Anderson RW, Lincoln City

Has made 204 appearances in all competitions in the past five seasons for the Imps and still only 24.

59 appearances in L1 over the past two seasons during which he's notched up 8 goals and 9 assists which ain't half bad. No longer seems to be part of Michael Appleton's plans so looking likely that he'll be released. Would be a good upgrade on Isgrove.

[Prufrock]

Lot of time for us signing Lou Reed.

Eisa stood out on that list but he's not had the best year, and might be out of our reach. I assume it's a classic Peterborough last year of his contact so resign or list so that'd bring any fee down.

Lloyd Jones is a former football manager favourite.

Don't know the rest.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Cheers Brommers, I'm sure you'll do a good job and I look forward to being educated.

I first mentioned Leutwiler last summer when Blackburn released him, as well as in January when his Fleetwood tenure ended. And while we're passing the subject of goalkeepers, last summer I suggested Aaron Chapman, a 6ft 7in goalkeeper who'd been released by Peterborough and seemed quite good with his feet. We went for Crellin and Chapman signed for Scottish top-flighters Motherwell on a one-year deal as cover; he's played seven games. Not sure I clocked at the time but he was coming through at Chesterfield when Evatt skippered them up to the second tier, so maybe the gaffer will know something about his character.

Speaking of which... on Lloyd Jones, if it's a possibility, Evatt should ask the opinion of MJ Williams - who's only a month younger than Jones and came through the Liverpool academy with him (so there may also be a decent on-pitch understanding there). Williams will also know a bit about newsy notoriety, given that aeroplane emoji; Jones' court date looks like a nasty incident but his defence team assembled some strong character references and the judge let him walk free.

Asked if he would re-sign, Jones sounds to me like a man covering his options:

The honest answer is that I don't know at the moment. That's the god's honest truth. I've spoken with Jon [Brady, newish Northampton boss] and he's been unbelievable since I came to the club and I've really enjoyed working with him. Everything he's done has been brilliant and it's the same with Sammo and with Rico, but I think I need to go away and have some time to think about it. It's obviously been quite a hectic and stressful five months or so but in the coming weeks I'm pretty sure I will know my answer.

Of course there's always a chance [I'll re-sign] because as I said, I'm really loving working with Jon and I love what he's trying to do and he wants to play the right way. That goes with all of the staff here and he's also passionate as well, so there's always a chance! We will see.

[TonyDomingos]

Poor old Joe Bunney among 10 released by Grimsby

Has a previously undiagnosed medical condition, apparently. Whether that's owt to do with his crash or not I don't know.

Myxomatosis?

[LeverEnd]

Poor old Joe Bunney among 10 released by Grimsby

Has a previously undiagnosed medical condition, apparently. Whether that's owt to do with his crash or not I don't know.

Myxomatosis?

[brommers95]

Speaking of which... on Lloyd Jones, if it's a possibility, Evatt should ask the opinion of MJ Williams - who's only a month younger than Jones and came through the Liverpool academy with him (so there may also be a decent on-pitch understanding there).

Interesting, I hadn't clocked that they were at the Liverpool Academy together. For a few years as well so they most know each other fairly well.