Who opened the door? My money is on Janus! 2024 January transfer thread.

[GhostoftheBok]

On the other side of things from "We need to improve to go up" chat, there are some excellent young talents knocking about in the lower leagues (and non-league) who we could develop and flip. We've just taken Eidur's nephew on trial, so we're clearly still keeping a weather eye on the horizon.

Josh Stokes at Aldershot is looking impressive in his first professional season. Vale's youngest ever player, Jack Shorrock, is physically and technically at a Premier League elite development level for his age group. There are others.

Brentford swooped in for Ethan Brierley in the summer and it's those deals that those kinds of clubs are always looking for. Low risk and high reward, repeated often enough to make the failures statistical noise and give you a constant supply of talent (or income).

[GhostoftheBok]

Swindon Town have been charged by the EFL with serious breaches of financial disclosure rules. Their manager has resigned.

That's them not signing Jake Young on a permanent. Anyone else we can shift out of the way?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Swindon Town have been charged by the EFL with serious breaches of financial disclosure rules. Their manager has resigned.

That's them not signing Jake Young on a permanent. Anyone else we can shift out of the way?

You think Young could make it at tier two? (I’m not saying I don’t.)

[GhostoftheBok]

You think Young could make it at tier two? (I’m not saying I don’t.)

I think he's coachable. He's not precisely the type I'd want, but the stuff that's "League Two" about his game is stuff you can work on. Someone will get a Championship striker out of him, if he makes smart career choices. If he doesn't...well, just look at Ty Simpson at the minute.

What I don't think he is is a Premier League striker in the making and that's ideally what I'd like to see.

Anyone got one of those down the back of the couch?

[officer_dibble]

Sign no-one, I would guess we will be play offs, assuming no major injuries. Same as last season, wouldn’t fancy us over two legs.

For me a striker and probably RWB now essential signings. A midfielder (sell Morley) better than what we have is also now looking more important.

Teams that get promoted don’t lose the games we have by Christmas. They might lose a couple of them over the season on off days, but 4 really poor defeats in the first half of the season isn’t good enough.

[GhostoftheBok]

For me a striker and probably RWB now essential signings. A midfielder (sell Morley) better than what we have is also now looking more important.

Sell Morley?

He's on 70+ starts in a white shirt and has been excellent in most of them. He's only 23 and is learning his trade at a decent rate. He's in poor form just now, but you don't bin a player off because he's had a couple of bad games.

People wanted rid of Thommo last season. Look at him now.

[BWFC_Insane]

For me a striker and probably RWB now essential signings. A midfielder (sell Morley) better than what we have is also now looking more important.

Sell Morley?

He's on 70+ starts in a white shirt and has been excellent in most of them. He's only 23 and is learning his trade at a decent rate. He's in poor form just now, but you don't bin a player off because he's had a couple of bad games.

People wanted rid of Thommo last season. Look at him now.

He’s not had a good game for a long time. He is slow. Lacks awareness and anticipation off the ball. Struggles when pressed and bar the switch of play at which he excels and a shot I’m not really sure what he has in his game.

He’s stagnated and I think the things he lacks are why he’s mid table league one and I don’t really believe he can add those to his game. Upping his running and speed at his age is no mean feat. Thomason had to bulk up without losing his engine. He’s done that. It’s a superb achievement but he’s leagues ahead of Morley now. I doubt we’d get much for Morley if we did sell him. But I’d absolute be looking to bring better than him in.

[GhostoftheBok]

He’s not had a good game for a long time. He is slow. Lacks awareness and anticipation off the ball. Struggles when pressed and bar the switch of play at which he excels and a shot I’m not really sure what he has in his game.

He’s stagnated and I think the things he lacks are why he’s mid table league one and I don’t really believe he can add those to his game. Upping his running and speed at his age is no mean feat. Thomason had to bulk up without losing his engine. He’s done that. It’s a superb achievement but he’s leagues ahead of Morley now. I doubt we’d get much for Morley if we did sell him. But I’d absolute be looking to bring better than him in.

He's started 7 this season. He was very poor in 2 and very good in others.

If you think he's not had a good game "for a long time" you've got a very short memory. He played 80 minutes in the two early 3-0s for a start.

There's a lot for him to improve on, but that's true of most midfielders at 23 and it's also true of Thommo who is only a year younger. It's not a kid vs a senior pro we're talking about here.

Absolutely ridiculous to write him off at this stage. I know you love doing it and you're bound to get one right eventually - but seriously.

[BWFC_Insane]

He’s not had a good game for a long time. He is slow. Lacks awareness and anticipation off the ball. Struggles when pressed and bar the switch of play at which he excels and a shot I’m not really sure what he has in his game.

He’s stagnated and I think the things he lacks are why he’s mid table league one and I don’t really believe he can add those to his game. Upping his running and speed at his age is no mean feat. Thomason had to bulk up without losing his engine. He’s done that. It’s a superb achievement but he’s leagues ahead of Morley now. I doubt we’d get much for Morley if we did sell him. But I’d absolute be looking to bring better than him in.

He's started 7 this season. He was very poor in 2 and very good in others.

If you think he's not had a good game "for a long time" you've got a very short memory. He played 80 minutes in the two early 3-0s for a start.

There's a lot for him to improve on, but that's true of most midfielders at 23 and it's also true of Thommo who is only a year younger. It's not a kid vs a senior pro we're talking about here.

Absolutely ridiculous to write him off at this stage. I know you love doing it and you're bound to get one right eventually - but seriously.

If he showed some appetite then maybe….

As it stands he’s gone backwards since we signed him imo and I think as others note he’s eminently replaceable and not on the basis of one game.

[officer_dibble]

Yeah I’m just thinking we have to be ruthless. I like Morley but he’s not in the team right now nor making the most of the opportunities he is getting. If we can upgrade to go up he’s the one I’d pick. They can all be upgraded for me though to be fair, so if we got an offer for say Dempsey that facilitated a better player I would take it.

[GhostoftheBok]

If he showed some appetite then maybe….

As it stands he’s gone backwards since we signed him imo and I think as others note he’s eminently replaceable and not on the basis of one game.

He's a much better player now than when we signed him.

Gone backwards?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

If he's not gone forwards as fast as the team has...

IDK - I like Mozzer. But I see why those who want a new midfielder would sacrifice him if that's what it took. Perhaps that's partly because Sheehan has somewhat surprised many of us (me included) by going from last spring's "should we bother re-signing him?" to the creative fulcrum of what was, until Monday, a title-chasing team.... Morley has now become his understudy and hasn't always taken the chances when they come up.

[GhostoftheBok]

If he's not gone forwards as fast as the team has...

IDK - I like Mozzer. But I see why those who want a new midfielder would sacrifice him if that's what it took. Perhaps that's partly because Sheehan has somewhat surprised many of us (me included) by going from last spring's "should we bother re-signing him?" to the creative fulcrum of what was, until Monday, a title-chasing team.... Morley has now become his understudy and hasn't always taken the chances when they come up.

Surely people having written off Sheehan...and Thomason...and Dempsey...should mean they'd take a minute before writing off Morley.

I mean, obviously it won't mean that, but it should.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

At some point we need to upgrade the midfield. We've mostly been in agreement that 3 from the 4 we had last season isn't good enough. I don't think Thomason improvement changes that. Morley and Dempsey I would argue are the 2 least consistent and whilst Morley has improved from when we signed him, I'm not sure we've seen much of that in the last 12 months. Assuming we might need to lose one to make a long term improvement in midfield then Morley for me has the least impact and I'm not convinced he's making it a division above. I'm not convinced Dempsey does either, but right now I feel he'll impact more games than Morley. If we can keep Morley as a longer term project and make the midfield improvement then fine, but then when will he get the game time to improve?

[dave the minion]

if you listened to some, we'd be looking at upgrading on all of Santos, Iredale, Toal, JDC, Williams, Morley, Dempsey, Bod, Jerome, Dan & Vic this January, as well as adding more depth up top and cover for both wing-backs.....

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Are we not allowed to discuss upgrading players and areas of relative weakness in the transfer thread?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

If he's not gone forwards as fast as the team has...

IDK - I like Mozzer. But I see why those who want a new midfielder would sacrifice him if that's what it took. Perhaps that's partly because Sheehan has somewhat surprised many of us (me included) by going from last spring's "should we bother re-signing him?" to the creative fulcrum of what was, until Monday, a title-chasing team.... Morley has now become his understudy and hasn't always taken the chances when they come up.

Surely people having written off Sheehan...and Thomason...and Dempsey...should mean they'd take a minute before writing off Morley.

I mean, obviously it won't mean that, but it should.

Oh for sure. And as ever, I understand that anger usually comes from fear, which often comes from love.

[GhostoftheBok]

Are we not allowed to discuss upgrading players and areas of relative weakness in the transfer thread?

Sure, but for people to suggest binning off a player who was widely regarded as one of the league's best prospects last season because he's had a couple of bad games is bizarre, reactionary stuff. Not least when he's been directly involved in 5 goals in about 700 minutes on the pitch in this woeful campaign of his.

He's just very obviously a talented lad and it seems like people are playing "He's shit, 'im" bingo until they get one right.

I agree he needs to kick on, but he's so far from being a liability to the squad it's not even funny.

Players should be able to hit bad form without fans calling for their heads. Loyalty works both ways.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Are we not allowed to discuss upgrading players and areas of relative weakness in the transfer thread?

Sure, but for people to suggest binning off a player who was widely regarded as one of the league's best prospects last season because he's had a couple of bad games is bizarre, reactionary stuff. Not least when he's been directly involved in 5 goals in about 700 minutes on the pitch in this woeful campaign of his.

He's just very obviously a talented lad and it seems like people are playing "He's shit, 'im" bingo until they get one right.

I agree he needs to kick on, but he's so far from being a liability to the squad it's not even funny.

Players should be able to hit bad form without fans calling for their heads. Loyalty works both ways.

I for one didn't see him as one of the leagues best prospects last season, but that isn't the argument. Some of us think we need to improve midfield, both for the division above but so we have some different answers to get us up a division. We know we don't have pots of cash, so assuming we need to make room who would go for you? Or are you happy as is?

I think we're fine at centre back and might need to rethink Toal for the games we anticipate being heavily pressed. But Forrester has been good and hopefully Johnston comes back the same player next season.

Despite some promise with Matheson I think most would like some WB cover and up front we've all done to death, though some of us maybe feel a little warmer to Dan than a few weeks ago

If we're to improve and make a good fist of it up a division, ;et alone get there, we're going to have to upgrade a few players despite them being a good bunch, nay, the best bunch we've had for a long time.

[truewhite15]

Are we not allowed to discuss upgrading players and areas of relative weakness in the transfer thread?

Sure, but for people to suggest binning off a player who was widely regarded as one of the league's best prospects last season because he's had a couple of bad games is bizarre, reactionary stuff. Not least when he's been directly involved in 5 goals in about 700 minutes on the pitch in this woeful campaign of his.

He's just very obviously a talented lad and it seems like people are playing "He's shit, 'im" bingo until they get one right.

I agree he needs to kick on, but he's so far from being a liability to the squad it's not even funny.

Players should be able to hit bad form without fans calling for their heads. Loyalty works both ways.

Agree with this. We should absolutely strengthen in January - but that doesn't mean we should start writing off the players who, until this last week, had us within shouting distance of the top of the table.

Exactly how many babies have some of the usual suspects lost with ejected bathwater in their lifetime?