January 2022 Transfer Thread

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I think you can make an effective case for replacing every position barring Dapo (whose head has dropped), MJ, and John and Jones (assuming he is near fitness). The players in the team at the moment are just not good enough.

I think that's a bit dramatic. I'd say most of our players have shown they're capable of playing at this level on an individual basis, but as a collective we clearly don't have the right mix at present. I'd hazard that it's quite likely that an injection of good players will lift the level of many of those already here.

I can see both sides of the argument. It depends how deep we want the surgery to be, which depends how far or how quickly we want to climb the divisions.

I think an XI of, say, Dixon / Jones-Aimson-Santos-John / Williams-Lee-Sheehan - Kacha-Doyle-Dapo is good enough to finish outside the bottom six, but not inside the top six, not unless a while lot of things go our way – and if it somehow managed to sneak up, we would then require major post-promotion surgery or face getting absolutely filleted at least once a fortnight.

I said a while back that I'd happily clear out 8 or 9 of this squad for replacements. As Pru has noted, you can improve your squad two ways: either get better back-ups or get upgrades and the incumbents become back-ups. The latter is harder, the former leads to slower improvement and, as we're discovering, leaves you very vulnerable to injury and absence. The current shadow XI to the above is something like Gilks / Brocky-Baptiste-Johnston-Gordon / Tutte-Thomason-Darcy / Isgrove-Baka-Delf. That's really really not good enough, and while we can hardly expect two gleaming XIs, nor can we expect substandard players to play above themselves, particularly when thrown in en masse – as The Gun notes.

At the very very least we need to hit February with better stand-ins, but if so, I think we're looking at the bottom end of my preseason 8th-16th prediction. The more we get, the quicker we can go higher. But we haven't got an open chequebook so we're at the mercy of others. It needs a savvy window from Evatt and Markham.

[dave the minion]

Can I just check: whilst not necessarily disagreeing with most of these posts, where on God's green earth do people think we are going to get these players from? I mean, even if there were a First XI standard of players actually available in January, what makes you think we've got enough cash to tempt any/some/all of them here?

Clearly something needs to be done with the suqad, but I think a lot of people need to take a dose of reality pills - yes, I'm sure we'll get reinforcements, but they will be few and not necessarily of the quality people want. In all eventuality we'll hover around mid-table and finish the league around the top of the bottom 3rd, and to be honest, given where we've come from, I'd settle for that!

I'm not sure people fully realise that we are where we are in the table and we have the squad we have, for a reason - its because we're not very good, have no spare cash, have only recently emerged from embargo and are currently just pleased that we didn't go pop 2 years ago.....

Do I like it? No. Do I accept it? Well, yes, I think I do...

[officer_dibble]

I don’t think it will be easy finding players but we absolutely have to - we are getting dicked, to nil, at every away game and in some home games. If we find no one to improve us we run a serious risk of relegation IMO.

[Worthy4England]

Can I just check: whilst not necessarily disagreeing with most of these posts, where on God's green earth do people think we are going to get these players from? I mean, even if there were a First XI standard of players actually available in January, what makes you think we've got enough cash to tempt any/some/all of them here?

Clearly something needs to be done with the suqad, but I think a lot of people need to take a dose of reality pills - yes, I'm sure we'll get reinforcements, but they will be few and not necessarily of the quality people want. In all eventuality we'll hover around mid-table and finish the league around the top of the bottom 3rd, and to be honest, given where we've come from, I'd settle for that!

I'm not sure people fully realise that we are where we are in the table and we have the squad we have, for a reason - its because we're not very good, have no spare cash, have only recently emerged from embargo and are currently just pleased that we didn't go pop 2 years ago.....

Do I like it? No. Do I accept it? Well, yes, I think I do...

About right, DTM....I think there's a lot of faith being put into "we'll just do what we did last January"....because of course that's the way January's normally work...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Can I just check: whilst not necessarily disagreeing with most of these posts, where on God's green earth do people think we are going to get these players from? I mean, even if there were a First XI standard of players actually available in January, what makes you think we've got enough cash to tempt any/some/all of them here?

There are dozens of players around who could improve us, either on the edge of squads at clubs above us or possibly shining at clubs they'd leave us for – although that's true for almost every other club on the planet. Whether they would come, whether their clubs would let them, whether we could afford them - these are questions we can't answer, and you're clearly right that we can't expect to unwrap a brand-new XI from Santa Markham, even if expectations were raised by an unusually good January last time. The discussion right now seems to be about how many additions we want or need. Nowt wrong with that. I imagine Evatt, Markham and Brittan will be having the same ongoing discussions.


As a side-issue, say we do finish sixth-bottom, how many fans would be content with that?

[dave the minion]

As a side-issue, say we do finish sixth-bottom, how many fans would be content with that?

I'd take that in a heartbeat. All too recently I genuinely didn't think I'd have a club to support. A couple of seasons later I will more than happily snatch your hand off for being in a reasonably robust financial state, being out of embargo, and settling into obscurity in a league a division above where we were at the time.....

[dave the minion]

I'd take that in a heartbeat.

Sorry for quoting myself, but I should add to the end of the above "and so should every other fan". However, the reality will be far from this.....

[nicholaldo]

As a side-issue, say we do finish sixth-bottom, how many fans would be content with that?

I'd take that in a heartbeat. All too recently I genuinely didn't think I'd have a club to support. A couple of seasons later I will more than happily snatch your hand off for being in a reasonably robust financial state, being out of embargo, and settling into obscurity in a league a division above where we were at the time.....

I apologise for my pedantry but we're currently a league below where we were at the time we thought the club was on the verge of folding.

[nicholaldo]

Or the same league, depending on timescale.

[dave the minion]

Quite. I was on the "same league" timescale, but for some reason thought we were in league 2.

However, doesn't change my point one bit....

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

As a side-issue, say we do finish sixth-bottom, how many fans would be content with that?

I'd take that in a heartbeat. All too recently I genuinely didn't think I'd have a club to support. A couple of seasons later I will more than happily snatch your hand off for being in a reasonably robust financial state, being out of embargo, and settling into obscurity in a league a division above where we were at the time.....

For clarity, it was an open question rather than a shirty challenge just to you , because I genuinely wonder. You're entirely right (IMO) and sensible that staying up, and relatively comfortably, while squad-building etc could be seen in future as a great stepping stone, depending what happens next. Perhaps worth noting, as a grand parallel, that we finished 14th (out of 24) in Rioch's second season, while assimilating several key players – although of course we had a very exciting FA Cup run which is now... not possible.

I just wonder whether finishing (say) 18th would be enough for some fans, the sort who seem to pop up more after losses than victories, because voluble dissatisfaction is always louder than quiet acknowledgement. Not many managers get a fallow season these days, especially divisive managers with expectant fanbases.

The team that finished 18th in this division last season won 14 games but lost 21; after 21 games out of 46 we're on W7 L9 so we'd have to track *worse* from here to May to match that. They scored 53 but conceded 80 - we're F29 A32 so, again, we'd have to score at a lower rate (hard to contemplate, but possible) and concede at a higher rate (quite easy to imagine after last night). And were that to happen, I can only imagine the pearl-clutching and garment-rending round here.

The team who finished 18th last season? Plymouth Argyle...

[dave the minion]

For clarity, it was an open question rather than a shirty challenge just to you , because I genuinely wonder. You're entirely right (IMO) and sensible that staying up, and relatively comfortably, while squad-building etc could be seen in future as a great stepping stone, depending what happens next. Perhaps worth noting, as a grand parallel, that we finished 14th (out of 24) in Rioch's second season, while assimilating several key players – although of course we had a very exciting FA Cup run which is now... not possible.

I just wonder whether finishing (say) 18th would be enough for some fans, the sort who seem to pop up more after losses than victories, because voluble dissatisfaction is always louder than quiet acknowledgement. Not many managers get a fallow season these days, especially divisive managers with expectant fanbases.

Ha - got that - didn't take it as a shirty challenge, but then thought I'd respond to the non-challenge anyway!

I suspect in reality a large minority (or god-forbid, a majority) would be bitterly disappointed with 18th! Purely in my opinion, they are all deluded. The cr@p I hear at the Unibol, even on the rare occasion we are not behind (!), never ceases to amaze me. People either have incredibly short memories about our recent history, or incredibly select memories that cut out the last 15 years or so - and still think we should be playing in the Premier League and in Europe on a weekly basis, and think we have access to unlimited resources to improve our position.

I'm not going to turn this into a pro or anti Evatt debate, but for me the buck certainly doesn't stop with him and it all comes back to the same point I've said on many occasions before: we are no longer a big club. We are a basket case that thankfully is a bit less "basket" than it was. As financial institutions are always keen to remind us "past performance is no guarantee of future returns". Same applies to us. What we are is a slightly struggling but actually over-achieving club based on the very recent past. We're actually doing OK aren't we? Not brilliant, but (just about) holding our own in League 1?

People need to remember that at one point not long ago we were in the exact position Bury were, and I'm fairly sure everyone involved with them would happily swap places with us right now.....

[Bertie Wooster]

As a side-issue, say we do finish sixth-bottom, how many fans would be content with that?

DSB, I'd be absolutely delighted with a sixth bottom finish, and to be fair with this shower of choirboys it would be something of an achievement to manage 6th bottom. As a management team & group of players they are all over the place, as Evatt said last night he doesn't know which team will turn up & that they are very inconsistent (which for me says more about the manager's motivational & tactical ability than anything else)

We have a management team who are predominantly defenders, yet we can't defend and concede 1st in almost every game (really shit soft goals defendable goals), so what the hell are they doing in training ?, why are we not improving defensively, we lack any fight, bottle or competitiveness in midfield - we get bullied in every game, I can't think of a weaker, softer midfield in recent BWFC history, in attack we miss easy chance after easy chance (well Doyle does) and fail to score in many games.

How Evatt can't see how much Politic would improve us is so blinkered IMO, I would have him starting in our team now regardless of not being a regular for PV, perhaps PV have better players than us which wouldn't surprise me at all.

Does anyone really think that Evatt will bring in 2 or 3 tough players with steel, aggression & leadership qualities to make us tougher (which we certainly urgently need), because I don't I think that he'll target more of the same weak as piss tippy tappy mard arses who will play well 4 or 5 games a season when teams let us play. Dixon needs to be replaced IMO because he's league 2 level at best, and as a minimum Gordon, Baptiste, Tutte, Thomason, Doyle, Delfouneso, Brockbank need to be replaced with better quality players if we are to improve - but I can't see us adding more than 4 or 5 in January.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

As a side-issue, say we do finish sixth-bottom, how many fans would be content with that?

DSB, I'd be absolutely delighted with a sixth bottom finish, and to be fair with this shower of choirboys it would be something of an achievement to manage 6th bottom.

Good to know, Bertie – if somewhat undermined by your subsequent dismissal of just about every football employee at the club. We're currently ninth-bottom, so credit to the clueless wazzocks, right?

[Bertie Wooster]

As a side-issue, say we do finish sixth-bottom, how many fans would be content with that?

DSB, I'd be absolutely delighted with a sixth bottom finish, and to be fair with this shower of choirboys it would be something of an achievement to manage 6th bottom.

Good to know, Bertie – if somewhat undermined by your subsequent dismissal of just about every football employee at the club. We're currently ninth-bottom, so credit to the clueless wazzocks, right?

I thought that was quite reserved & a little generous if I'm honest, I actually toned it down a little !

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

As a side-issue, say we do finish sixth-bottom, how many fans would be content with that?

DSB, I'd be absolutely delighted with a sixth bottom finish, and to be fair with this shower of choirboys it would be something of an achievement to manage 6th bottom.

Good to know, Bertie – if somewhat undermined by your subsequent dismissal of just about every football employee at the club. We're currently ninth-bottom, so credit to the clueless wazzocks, right?

I thought that was quite reserved & a little generous if I'm honest, I actually toned it down a little !

[Worthy4England]

Of course, quiet acknowledgement often manages a plethora of posts too, generally pointing out to voluble dissatisfaction that they're a) wrong and b) noisy! These don't get counted in the same way, because they're often as long as a short book, rather than "that was shit" where it's easy to get the message understood!

I agree with some (not all) of DTM's view - I had us mid-table (or thereabouts) at the start of the season. 18th would be an underachievement for me, pushing play-offs would be better than I expected. But I'm no longer weighing 18th in League 1 against "not existing" - we've moved on from that. It was right last year initially to compare results against "nothing" - we shouldn't be doing so this year, because we've had nothing + three lots of investment - so fcuk all isn't still an appropriate baseline.

[LeverEnd]

I think expectations of what we can do in January have been raised to unrealistic levels by what happened last year. That was a 'Carlsberg' window, and the chances of repeating it are very slim to none a division higher.
There are definitely bits we could improve but evatt needs to start coaching basic defending and set pieces better, for example, rather than just relying on a January wand. The other end is harder to sort out. Doyle and Bakayoko are both seriously lacking in this league, and I think we can improve without breaking the bank. We're unlikely to get a goal machine on the cheap though.

[Bertie Wooster]

That's a fair point Worthy, we have moved on from "not existing" and people shouldn't be using that as an acceptable excuse for these regular poor performances.

I've just found the below quote from Evatt on another site in regards to Politic, which appears to me like he's saying that the players he's targeting and who will possibly sign are of a much better quality & if we all knew who he's planning on bringing in no one would be questioning whether we should bring Politic back.

"We offered Dennis a contract and he hasn't signed it," Evatt added.

"I wish I could reveal all to supporters and tell you all of my transfer plans in January, who we are looking at, and who we are trying to sign. I guess then it would be a different conversation.

[BWFC_Insane]

For clarity, it was an open question rather than a shirty challenge just to you , because I genuinely wonder. You're entirely right (IMO) and sensible that staying up, and relatively comfortably, while squad-building etc could be seen in future as a great stepping stone, depending what happens next. Perhaps worth noting, as a grand parallel, that we finished 14th (out of 24) in Rioch's second season, while assimilating several key players – although of course we had a very exciting FA Cup run which is now... not possible.

I just wonder whether finishing (say) 18th would be enough for some fans, the sort who seem to pop up more after losses than victories, because voluble dissatisfaction is always louder than quiet acknowledgement. Not many managers get a fallow season these days, especially divisive managers with expectant fanbases.

Ha - got that - didn't take it as a shirty challenge, but then thought I'd respond to the non-challenge anyway!

I suspect in reality a large minority (or god-forbid, a majority) would be bitterly disappointed with 18th! Purely in my opinion, they are all deluded. The cr@p I hear at the Unibol, even on the rare occasion we are not behind (!), never ceases to amaze me. People either have incredibly short memories about our recent history, or incredibly select memories that cut out the last 15 years or so - and still think we should be playing in the Premier League and in Europe on a weekly basis, and think we have access to unlimited resources to improve our position.

I'm not going to turn this into a pro or anti Evatt debate, but for me the buck certainly doesn't stop with him and it all comes back to the same point I've said on many occasions before: we are no longer a big club. We are a basket case that thankfully is a bit less "basket" than it was. As financial institutions are always keen to remind us "past performance is no guarantee of future returns". Same applies to us. What we are is a slightly struggling but actually over-achieving club based on the very recent past. We're actually doing OK aren't we? Not brilliant, but (just about) holding our own in League 1?

People need to remember that at one point not long ago we were in the exact position Bury were, and I'm fairly sure everyone involved with them would happily swap places with us right now.....

Whilst not entirely disagreeing with your point and I'd be fine with 18th....I'm not sure this lasts. I'm not convinced you can keep saying 'we nearly went out of business' to excuse stuff on the pitch that should be fixed. And I think often people like to completely ignore the context of a manager who started the season telling us he'd got the squad he wanted, all his top targets and that the only target was winning the league. And then in October said we were the best team in the league and should be winning every game 6-0. The problem with all those things (and its months of overegging it) is a) people get carried away and b) when it patently falls apart your judgement is massively open to question.

I think a and b are both in evidence now. Evatt pulled off a miracle in January onwards last year. But right now there is no guarantee that happens and if we slump after what was a good start then more and more questions need asking about him.

Because I could tolerate a struggle far far more if the manager said 'look we've got what we've got and we're going into the season to fight and scrap and make the best of it'. Because firstly it sets everyone up for a season of fight and if we overperform its a massive boost and bonus. But given how he pitched it, he clearly thought we were very very good and massively underestimated this league or overestimated his players. Which for the second season running shows a lack of good judgement.

I don't for one second want Evatt to go and nor do I think he will. But he's nowhere near as good a manager as he thinks he is. He won't be managing in the premiership in 5 years - he's simply not that level. And I fear a couple of early successes went to his head. He needs to stop the dreaming and focus on the details and things you need to compete at this level. Like not being utterly embarrassingly bad at set pieces. Or woeful defensively. Both to an extent reflect failings in the coaching and management that could easily be fixed but we've said that for a long time. And he's not done that.

I could much more accept if he set us up to use our front three to try and win us games with a solid base behind them. I think we'd right now do better in that manner than the sort of game he wants to play that we aren't capable of. Especially away from home. Last night we spent a half knocking the ball long to no avail. But we could have drawn Fleetwood on and then exploited gaps down the channels. But doing that needs an organised and drilled team off the ball.

I'm of the view that Evatt needs to reflect more on his own performance this season - not tactically or that nonsense but in his general management and man management and how he's presented the club - because its fallen below where I'd expect. And coming off last season and a good start this the wheels haven't so much come off as blown out. We're still in a satisfactory position so no need for crisis management but the criticism will get louder if he keeps failing to get these basics right. And if he keeps making ludicrous claims about where we are as a club and a team.