Snog, Marry, Avoid: Summer 2023 Transfer Window

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

If you missed it, it was about criticism, Evatt sympathising with Thatcher's quote that if she walked on water her critics would say it because she couldn't swim.

He got that from Quarterback last week!!

Heh, quite possibly, although it wouldn't surprise me if he read biographies of... strong-minded leaders.

Not the wrongest Thatch quote either, for which the award still goes to...
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Matheson confirmed as a B team signing.

Very happy about that. Surprised he's gone to the Bs and I think that's a statement for them, but delighted he's not a first team signing.

Loads of talent, but not the level we need right now.

The B-Team have sometimes featured for the senior squad. Makes sense that Matheson is a B-Teamer as it will allow him to focus on those matches rather than perennially sitting out the squad. I'd suspect given his ability he'll be one of those on the fringes of the squad and more likely to be given a chance, but it seems like a good deal for him and the club.

Clearly he's been sold the Bs as a Path to Redemption. He might also only be a JDC muscle twinge from our first team, although Sadlier or Gethin are other RWB options, dependent on oppo. He's still underage (for this season) so he wouldn't need to be registered in an EFL squad place.

Hopefully the lad will prove a notch above the Bs. Could get loaned in January to a fourth-tier team – there's plenty locally: Accy, Salford, Stockport, Crewe, Wrexham, Tranmere - or, if not quite that ready, he could help Rochdale in the fifth tier. Plenty options.

[BWFC_Insane]

So whilst there is still time in this transfer window it sounds like we are only in for excellent players now. And likely not ones we actively have on the radar more ones that crop up out of the blue sorts of deals. Reading between the lines. Doesn’t mean we won’t sign another one or two just that it’s possible this is ‘it’.

So how do we feel thus far?

For me it’s been ok. I worry about the real quality we have up top. And I think to an extent it’s clear Evatt does too. The ‘we have Dion Charles and then 4 good players to support him’ screams we don’t think we have much up front beyond Charles and are hoping one or two come good. It’s not easy signing 20 goal a season strikers. I feel we probably shouldn’t have signed JDB and Nlundulu and think both are a risk too far. One or the other. JDB for me. But it is what it is.

Other than that we’ve added an attacking mid option in CMG who if it comes off definitely adds a new dimension. And similarly Maghoma if he works out gives us that extra midfield up and down type it seems.

Feels like we are definitely in the boat of needing one of those two at least to fire.

Forrester looks sound business.

Unconvinced as yet by Ashworth as I’m just not sure where he will excel in this system. Looks uncomfortable at centre half and not a natural wing back. Might do the ‘away at Burton’ wing back job. I guess.


Overall we’ve got a Trafford replacement improved midfield (hopefully) and added that bit of pace and quality in the last two through the door.

Only positional concern for me bar up front and this one is more significant is wing back. I feel like we are light on numbers and quality there. If Williams does the business we might be ok on the left but feels very risky to go with only JDC. When that is a position for me we needed to go and recruit real quality in.

Maybe we will still.

Id give the window a 7/10. We have the possibility to be better than last season. Equally it wouldn’t take a lot to not be quite as good if the last two signings in particular struggle to make an impact.

[jmjhb]

A fair assessment but also important to remember we've kept everyone we wanted to so far.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Yeah, good "overall question".

I'd say CMG and Maghoma have tipped me from hopeful to excited, if slightly warily so.

I broadly agree with your reservations about our strikers (would love to be wrong) and wingbacks. Evatt's bad patches have often been down to one or other area of the team underperforming - LWB in the first season, defence in the second, attack for parts of last season. We have better players, and not just an XI, but we still feel only an injury away from worry in the CF/WB zones.

It's also sub-optimal that our best two players of last season need replacing. I think we've probably done as well as we could in goal – I was eyeing Nathan Bishop, but he looks set to join Sunderland who were Champo playoffs last term, which shows the waters in which we fish. Less confident that we've replaced Bradley, and losing Kane Wilson was a blow, although it may actually be a bullet dodged.

At the start of summer, anyone being told we'd sign players from Tranmere, Port Vale and West Brom's U21s wouldn't have cracked the champagne, and that's fair. Same with the rather less unknown Nlundulu. Evatt and Markham have made their calls, and will back them. We'll back them too, for now. They're in the shirt we love.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Flick signs permanently for Nuremberg, where he was on loan. Methinks our name has been used as bargaining chip.

[GhostoftheBok]

The position with Matheson seems to be that he's been advised to get into the best facilities he can for a year to get fit.

I sincerely hope he smashes it and earns a deal here.

[GhostoftheBok]

On the window review, I think people are making valid points.

Evatt wants to play an intense, highly energetic, running game. Counter-press, constant rotation, etc.

For me, the players we have brought in are vastly better suited to Evatt's style of play.

We still need another couple in to get us where we need to be, but it's coming together.

[BWFC_Insane]

Interesting that in a question about our goal struggles last season Evatt said ‘we created a lot of chances we were the only side to have lower goals than xG so it’s about finishing them off’.

So he’s suggesting he believes our issue with goal scoring was down to finishing. Which I agree with mainly. Finishing isn’t just about a clear chance from 8 yards. It’s when strikers get ball around the box in decent areas and making a yard of space and getting the shot away. Or clean through twenty yards out and miscontrolling. Or the two half chances we had against Barnsley where we’d have scored with more composure and quality. Evatt said the work with strikers is mainly positioning based which worries me cos you can’t reach a goalscorers instinct. You either have that or you do not.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Evatt said the work with strikers is mainly positioning based which worries me cos you can’t reach a goalscorers instinct. You either have that or you do not.

This is a line that gets repeated a lot, often by goalscorers, and it's certainly evident that some people have a happier knack for positioning than others. But that's not to say that you can't teach positioning, and football's full of examples. Evatt spent six months coaching Afolayan to get himself in at the back post and then Dapo scored a bucketful in his next half-season. Bobby Robson, at Newcastle, bollocked the ageing Alan Shearer for tracking defenders out wide, telling him he wanted his No.9 to only operate in the 18-yard box and the imaginary 18-yard box behind behind that, and the balding creosoter responded the the goal burst that keeps him top of the table still. Speaking of boxes that don't exist, many is the manager who has told his strikers that the majority of goals are snaffled in a zone demarcated by the posts and the penalty spot.

Course, just cos you can train positioning, doesn't mean people will still finish well. I speak from bitter recent experience, having last night made a superbly-timed blindside run to collect a pass in the six-yard box bang in front of goal, at which I promptly whacked the ball into my own hand. But I'd hope that our strikers have a bit more about them than a 49-year-old who's still not fully got his breath back from the second bout of Covid and had thus spent the first 20 minutes in his own goal.

[TonyDomingos]

I don't know about the quality of the signings, but this is certainly the best transfer thread we've had in years!

[GhostoftheBok]

It's be interesting to see if the second of the "one or two" things to look out for today was GJ's deal, or if we're announcing a player in the next 15 minutes.

[BWFC_Insane]

^^Yeah Dapo is a good example I guess though he could finish he just needed that positional help from the left wing area. Shearer being told to stay betwixt the posts I’m not sure counts the same. If it were only that simple.

When you watch good strikers and their goals two things always strike me. One is movement. It’s less about positioning and more that they are always on the balls of the feet and always moving. Instinct is one thing but they are always ready. Second thing is first touch. The combo of movement and first touch is why they always seem to have the time others don’t. Then they are obviously usually calm finishers with that little bit of extra time.

I’m just not sure how much of this you can coach into a lad who at 24 has scored 6 goals in adult football and JDB/Jerome who now are very much what they are.

[Worthy4England]

I viewed the transfer window as "whoever we signed" + 4 Jan who added little to the run in but were hoping to get working, so for me, there was a bit more to go at. The main objective was to retain our solidity in terms of keeping it out of our bag and improve our chances of putting it in theirs. I'm a little worried about both, but happy to give it a chance.

I've seen little up front to make me think the Jan crew are suddenly going to join Dion on 20 (or tbf that Dion will get 20). This has been offset somewhat by goals from MF which has been welcome and with the additions in the last week, this may have gone from largest worry to smallest, albeit we've seen little of CMG and Maghoma to see how they'll fit, which as we saw with Vic, can be a tad problematic. Quite happy with CMG signing.

Defensively, in the middle, we're probably OK.

WBs - seems like "everyone we're not 100% sure about "could play there,"" which for me us a stop short of what we need. JDC shown flashes as has Randy. Less sure that their subs have shown much. So still a worry area for me, not unhappy with JDC and Randy, just less sure as to whether they can dominate those flanks, week in week out for enough games to push top 2.

GKs seem pretty solid, not seen enough to say "yeah they're good Traff replacements, and I think they've both had a clanger pre season.

We've had a decent pre-season, and we know at our best we can blow a side away. But I'm certainly not launching the HMS Top 2 right now, it just feels a bit "playoffs"

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I'm certainly not launching the HMS Top 2 right now, it just feels a bit "playoffs"

Which, per Evatt, would be a "disappointment".

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm certainly not launching the HMS Top 2 right now, it just feels a bit "playoffs"

Which, per Evatt, would be a "disappointment".

Evatt sounded like he felt that top 2 was only real way you could call success but at the same time obviously doesn’t want to say that too directly. I like his answers now.

If I was to read between the lines we’ve more or less ended up with a plan B transfer window bar Baxter. It sounds like lots of top targets fell through but equally Evatt sounds positive with where we are.

[GhostoftheBok]

Evatt sounded like he felt that top 2 was only real way you could call success but at the same time obviously doesn’t want to say that too directly. I like his answers now.

If I was to read between the lines we’ve more or less ended up with a plan B transfer window bar Baxter. It sounds like lots of top targets fell through but equally Evatt sounds positive with where we are.

Baxter, Coleman, Cogley, Nlundulu, Forrester and Mendes Gomes all seem to have been top of the list. Port Vale said Forrester discussions had been going on for a while and they'd asked us to speed up the move. CMG was apparently being discussed from the very start of preseason. The rest were all early signings.

Maghoma and Ashworth look very much like reflex moves. I doubt we get Mags if Baccus was completed and Ashworth was related to the Johnston injury, though quite how much that's shifted the general plan we don't know.

Of the two left at least one, the not-Wilson, is from down or off the list; but you'd assume at this stage that both might be.

[BWFC_Insane]

Evatt sounded like he felt that top 2 was only real way you could call success but at the same time obviously doesn’t want to say that too directly. I like his answers now.

If I was to read between the lines we’ve more or less ended up with a plan B transfer window bar Baxter. It sounds like lots of top targets fell through but equally Evatt sounds positive with where we are.

Baxter, Coleman, Cogley, Nlundulu, Forrester and Mendes Gomes all seem to have been top of the list. Port Vale said Forrester discussions had been going on for a while and they'd asked us to speed up the move. CMG was apparently being discussed from the very start of preseason. The rest were all early signings.

Maghoma and Ashworth look very much like reflex moves. I doubt we get Mags if Baccus was completed and Ashworth was related to the Johnston injury, though quite how much that's shifted the general plan we don't know.

Of the two left at least one, the not-Wilson, is from down or off the list; but you'd assume at this stage that both might be.

Evatt suggested that we might need a Johnston replacement still when asked.

[GhostoftheBok]

Evatt suggested that we might need a Johnston replacement still when asked.

Yes, he did. I think that's where the "change of plan" part comes in. Evatt also said, "Unfortunately losing George, we needed to bring in someone capable of playing that role – and potentially others on the left side – and Zac fits the bill" when Ashworth showed up, so there's clearly some kind of influence there.

Obviously I'm guessing, but it seems like the plan may have been Iredale and Williams at LWB, but with Johnston's injury we have reassigned Iredale to LCB and brought in Ashworth who can cover the flank. We only need to keep him if he does well.

I think the plan will be to try and get in someone who is a bit further along than Ashworth and who can play the MJ role and CB.

I'd guess they'd want to get a pretty serious player in, but again it's all just speculation based on our needs and what Evatt has said.

[Bertie Wooster]

Evatt suggested that we might need a Johnston replacement still when asked.

Yes, he did. I think that's where the "change of plan" part comes in. Evatt also said, "Unfortunately losing George, we needed to bring in someone capable of playing that role – and potentially others on the left side – and Zac fits the bill" when Ashworth showed up, so there's clearly some kind of influence there.

Obviously I'm guessing, but it seems like the plan may have been Iredale and Williams at LWB, but with Johnston's injury we have reassigned Iredale to LCB and brought in Ashworth who can cover the flank. We only need to keep him if he does well.

I think the plan will be to try and get in someone who is a bit further along than Ashworth and who can play the MJ role and CB.

I'd guess they'd want to get a pretty serious player in, but again it's all just speculation based on our needs and what Evatt has said.

I'm interested to know what your view / opinion is about what 'a pretty serious player' is ?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Trialist again for the Bs. There was a forward trialist the night Matheson appeared