January 2023 Transfer Window

[TANGODANCER]

Just a slight deviation, but what's happened to Beck? He was supposedly in the Bradley area, yet he seems to have disappeared? Has he gone back home?

[Worthy4England]

Just a slight deviation, but what's happened to Beck? He was supposedly in the Bradley area, yet he seems to have disappeared? Has he gone back home?

Yes mate, in Jan, went back to Liverpool.

[TANGODANCER]

Just a slight deviation, but what's happened to Beck? He was supposedly in the Bradley area, yet he seems to have disappeared? Has he gone back home?

Yes mate, in Jan, went back to Liverpool.

Ah, cheers Worthy. Must have missed that bit.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

It was a busy time – we sent him back the day before we signed Adebojeyo and Jerome, sold Aimson and loaned out Sadlier. Four days later we borrowed Mbete so I think it's entirely possible we'd realised we needed a loanee centre-back and Beck was taking a space we needed, what with Nlundulu and Shoretire being added to the two huge success stories (Trafford and Bradley).

Meanwhile - summer transfer plans on hold till we find out where we are next season. Reasonable, surely. I'm sure there's some we'd like to sign (and one or two to release) regardless of division, but different divisions might require different upgrades. You might offer, say, MJ/Sheehan/Lee a year's extension if we're in the third division; if we go up, we'll need to raise the bar – and whether they make it is a different question.

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... fer-plans/

It's really hard and it's impossible, in fact, to firm anything up at the moment. There are a lot of things up in the air. We don’t know what division we are going to be in, and people may say that is slightly ambitious, but we are in a good position.

You have to plan as best you can and for next season, if we don’t get promoted, then expectations will rise. We will want to be stronger again and we should be in a better position to be more competitive towards the top end of the table.

Every window we go into we look at how we can improve the squad. There are always anomalies, there are always players who might want to leave, offers for those players, so we have to think again and adjust. We're doing whatever we can within reason. At the moment that isn’t easy because the Championship boundaries are up there and the League One boundaries are down here.

The Championship even changes things with regard to not just recruiting from the UK – we can recruit from Europe, it opens up a whole new pond of talent. Buying from abroad is something that will take time to get right I will say we try and limit risk as best we can. The owners’ money is always at risk to some extent when you sign a player but we try and reduce it as best we can.

I would rather keep and save the money than rush into something. We don’t make instant decisions that come back to bite us on the backside but the variables at play here, not knowing 100 per cent what we are aiming at yet, make it a complicated job.

I have never met any club that get recruitment 100 per cent right but I would like to think that over the course of the last three years we have got more right than we have got wrong, and I’d hope that would continue.

We’ll do our best, we always do, but my focus even with those out of contract players is to win the next two games. That’s goal one, then we go for goal two.

[Mar]

Had a quick look at Fossey and Kioso, knowing full well we need a RB next season. Ideally we'd get Bradley back in the Championship, but I suspect we'll not come close. Fossey is doing well in Standard Liege, whereas Kioso has barely got a sniff.

Perhaps Kioso would be worth a sniff in terms of getting a backup right back. Knows the system, worked well for him.

[BWFC_Insane]

Had a quick look at Fossey and Kioso, knowing full well we need a RB next season. Ideally we'd get Bradley back in the Championship, but I suspect we'll not come close. Fossey is doing well in Standard Liege, whereas Kioso has barely got a sniff.

Perhaps Kioso would be worth a sniff in terms of getting a backup right back. Knows the system, worked well for him.

Kioso is more a hybrid full back or centre half than flying wing back we need. Yes he was good going forwards but I don’t think he’s the player we need as a replacement (though I’d have him if available because I think he’s good and covers a few places).

Fossey is playing at a high level and we have no chance sadly.

[sonicthewhite]

Thing is, if we don't get promoted some might say Gethen/Randy can play RWB. Maybe they can but would they be able to do it effectively for us to improve as a team?

I would imagine at LWB it's Iredale/Randy because I can honestly see John being shown the door this summer regardless.

Whichever division we're in we need to improve and to improve significantly.

[Worthy4England]

Thing is, if we don't get promoted some might say Gethen/Randy can play RWB. Maybe they can but would they be able to do it effectively for us to improve as a team?

I would imagine at LWB it's Iredale/Randy because I can honestly see John being shown the door this summer regardless.

Whichever division we're in we need to improve and to improve significantly.

Agree Sonic. Mentioned on another thread, but probably better on this one, if we lose Traff/Bradley and that then becomes two key targets, do we think there's another 10-15 points of improvement in this squad?

I can see a case for places we dropped points where we didn't acquit ourselves well, but there are also a few where you think we were lucky to take the points.

Still feels like 3-5 class signings to me...

[BWFC_Insane]

Thing is, if we don't get promoted some might say Gethen/Randy can play RWB. Maybe they can but would they be able to do it effectively for us to improve as a team?

I would imagine at LWB it's Iredale/Randy because I can honestly see John being shown the door this summer regardless.

Whichever division we're in we need to improve and to improve significantly.

Agree Sonic. Mentioned on another thread, but probably better on this one, if we lose Traff/Bradley and that then becomes two key targets, do we think there's another 10-15 points of improvement in this squad?

I can see a case for places we dropped points where we didn't acquit ourselves well, but there are also a few where you think we were lucky to take the points.

Still feels like 3-5 class signings to me...

It’s less than we had to do last season. What I’d say is that there are areas we can improve on. Like delivery into the box. If we get that right and keep our defensive solidity in tact that’s the difference. Those tight games we struggle in the issue is mainly we can’t load the box and put quality in there. Fix that and we are golden. Another striker too.

[The_Gun]

The word coming out seems to be that Trafford will not be coming back to Bolton regardless of which division we're in. I'm guessing this means that City will take a look at him in pre-season, and if he is deemed not ready to be a part of their first team squad then he will be loaned out to one of their international affiliates.

Slightly disappointing, because he's been tremendous for us, but at the same time there was clearly never any prospect of us signing him permanently, so finding a longer term solution can now be prioritised.

I look forward to Brommers' goalkeeper scouting report.

[Worthy4England]

The word coming out seems to be that Trafford will not be coming back to Bolton regardless of which division we're in. I'm guessing this means that City will take a look at him in pre-season, and if he is deemed not ready to be a part of their first team squad then he will be loaned out to one of their international affiliates.

Slightly disappointing, because he's been tremendous for us, but at the same time there was clearly never any prospect of us signing him permanently, so finding a longer term solution can now be prioritised.

I look forward to Brommers' goalkeeper scouting report.

Fairly sure I saw an interview with Klopp (might have been linked on here) that said the same about Bradley sort of "see if he's squad ready in pre-season"...

[BWFC_Insane]

The word coming out seems to be that Trafford will not be coming back to Bolton regardless of which division we're in. I'm guessing this means that City will take a look at him in pre-season, and if he is deemed not ready to be a part of their first team squad then he will be loaned out to one of their international affiliates.

Slightly disappointing, because he's been tremendous for us, but at the same time there was clearly never any prospect of us signing him permanently, so finding a longer term solution can now be prioritised.

I look forward to Brommers' goalkeeper scouting report.

Yeah Trafford has flat out said he won't be back here regardless of what happens in terms of promotion.

I agree with Marc Iles that the biggest and most difficult job this summer is a keeper because with Trafford we've probably had the best and most reliable keeper since Jussi. He's really outstanding for the level we've played at and has few if any real flaws.

Its such a key position and critical we get it right but its also the one where arguably, like strikers, options are few and far between.

[The_Gun]

The word coming out seems to be that Trafford will not be coming back to Bolton regardless of which division we're in. I'm guessing this means that City will take a look at him in pre-season, and if he is deemed not ready to be a part of their first team squad then he will be loaned out to one of their international affiliates.

Slightly disappointing, because he's been tremendous for us, but at the same time there was clearly never any prospect of us signing him permanently, so finding a longer term solution can now be prioritised.

I look forward to Brommers' goalkeeper scouting report.

Fairly sure I saw an interview with Klopp (might have been linked on here) that said the same about Bradley sort of "see if he's squad ready in pre-season"...

Yeah, but like Insano says, Trafford himself is saying he won't be coming back to Bolton regardless. I can only think that this is because he's been told he will get a top division loan if he's not staying at City next season.

[Worthy4England]

The word coming out seems to be that Trafford will not be coming back to Bolton regardless of which division we're in. I'm guessing this means that City will take a look at him in pre-season, and if he is deemed not ready to be a part of their first team squad then he will be loaned out to one of their international affiliates.

Slightly disappointing, because he's been tremendous for us, but at the same time there was clearly never any prospect of us signing him permanently, so finding a longer term solution can now be prioritised.

I look forward to Brommers' goalkeeper scouting report.

Fairly sure I saw an interview with Klopp (might have been linked on here) that said the same about Bradley sort of "see if he's squad ready in pre-season"...

Yeah, but like Insano says, Trafford himself is saying he won't be coming back to Bolton regardless. I can only think that this is because he's been told he will get a top division loan if he's not staying at City next season.

Yeah - sounds like he knows something, obvs. He might even go abroad for all we know - the world's a larger place outside of L1. Whichever, it feels like we're going to need to spend some time on both positions, as they're both pretty integral. Feels like there's a fair bit to do in summer, overall...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Let's take it over to the new thread....
viewtopic.php?p=1154857#p1154857

[brommers95]

The word coming out seems to be that Trafford will not be coming back to Bolton regardless of which division we're in. I'm guessing this means that City will take a look at him in pre-season, and if he is deemed not ready to be a part of their first team squad then he will be loaned out to one of their international affiliates.

Slightly disappointing, because he's been tremendous for us, but at the same time there was clearly never any prospect of us signing him permanently, so finding a longer term solution can now be prioritised.

I look forward to Brommers' goalkeeper scouting report.

Got a draft blog post pretty much written already with eight names (a couple of them already mentioned by DSB a few pages back), however I’m waiting to see what division we’re in next season before posting as it might need some amending…