Making HMS YouKnowWhat ship-shape: Winter 20/21 transfer thread

[The_Gun]

Was occupied with work yesterday so didn't have chance to comment, but fecking hell, we were busy eh?

On the face of it we do appear to have addressed our main areas of weakness, but I am minorly concerned that so much turnover could have a destabilising effect on us for a while, and we weren't exactly very stable anyway. Eight players coming in during January is a lot, and we can't really afford for them to take time bedding in.

[General Mannerheim]

Any chance of an updated graphic showing all the players we have for each position now please?? Bets there’s a few forgotten men in there now...

[BWFC_Insane]

So at the start of the day I had 4 areas we needed and I think we got one for each. So have to say well done to the club. I'm slightly disappointed we've had to sell Riley. Obviously nobody knows whether the lad will make it or not but well, it feels a departure from our supposed moneyball aspirations and for me we're moving down the more traditional short term team building route. We've gone from a summer of 'we can identify top non league talent and young lower league players alongside developing our own' to 'lets get some short term experienced footballers from as high up the pyramid as we can'. Its not a bad thing - it just feels as though we abandoned an idea pretty quickly. FV need to be sure they take advice from good people and consistent advice.

Anyhow, in terms of the signings - for me they all SEEM broadly what we need. We've been edging away from a possession based side into a more direct hard running side and clearly for me these signings seem to fit that. Maddison and the West Ham lad can play across that front line and add something in different areas - both are 6ft or close so adds some height to the attack, definitely some running power and the ability to go past players hopefully. Williams is close to 6ft and should hopefully add presence in midfield. Sounds a tough tackler and we've lacked that real dominant type in there. And of course a keeper was needed. So that's a worry ticked off.

I'm not too sorry re Crawford as I just don't think he fits Evatt's plans - even as we have gone more direct the play is very much about individuals beating players or overlaps and that's not Crawfords game - he did best when he had a target out left and up front and operated in space or on the break. That's just a different way of playing.

I'm glad we seem to be abandoning the aimless tippy tappy boredom stuff for a game built more around direct football, with options across the front line. That to me is far better than 3 at the back knocking it to each other and a congested midfield. I don't think we can make the play offs but lets have a run and see. We've got the squad now undoubtedly to win a lot in this league.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

A good day, even if I’d (greedily) have liked a striker too - maybe young Dapo is the option there, or Delf considering we now have more options wide.

Mannerheim - will attempt to list the players later.

Oh and on Regan Riley - we got £250k plus future clauses for a kid who hadn’t signed a pro contract, had played about 45 minutes (in the EFLT) and - importantly - wanted to leave. I’d say that’s a fairly good Moneyball result, really.

[BWFC_Insane]

A good day, even if I’d (greedily) have liked a striker too - maybe young Dapo is the option there, or Delf considering we now have more options wide.

Mannerheim - will attempt to list the players later.

Oh and on Regan Riley - we got £250k plus future clauses for a kid who hadn’t signed a pro contract, had played about 45 minutes (in the EFLT) and - importantly - wanted to leave. I’d say that’s a fairly good Moneyball result, really.

On the face of it yes its a good deal and we can't necessarily turn down fees. It is just a slight disappointment that we've not seen him play a bit more and already he's gone. I mean the wanting to leave for a big club like Norwich is natural but perhaps if we'd played him a few times? I don't know he'll most likely never be heard of again. But the glimpse I had of him was encouraging.

[Worthy4England]

So in summary. Are we in "just about staying up" territory or has HMS just been launched?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

What I will say, Worthy, is that Evatt now has a squad - or at least an XI with good subs - that should be doing much better, so let’s hope he does. I’m not expecting ten straight wins but we need to move up the league and claw back that dotted line, see how we are in six weeks.

[Worthy4England]

What I will say, Worthy, is that Evatt now has a squad - or at least an XI with good subs - that should be doing much better, so let’s hope he does. I’m not expecting ten straight wins but we need to move up the league and claw back that dotted line, see how we are in six weeks.

Yes, we got 4? Yesterday + Lee, Jackson and Elbo whilst effectively only losing a sub, Crawford, a bloke who hadn't been playing, Taft, and a junior, Riley.

[BWFC_Insane]

What I will say, Worthy, is that Evatt now has a squad - or at least an XI with good subs - that should be doing much better, so let’s hope he does. I’m not expecting ten straight wins but we need to move up the league and claw back that dotted line, see how we are in six weeks.

Evatt said we need to win 15 out of 20 so not far off 10 straight....

[LeverEnd]

He's got to show promotion form between now and the end with that squad. Too far behind to achieve it probably but if he can't at least threaten it for next season he's definitely not good enough.
Looks a good bunch of signings, particularly for midfield, but can he put it together right? I reckon this Williams might be the most influential, since Comley has obviously been written off and Tutte can't play every game. I'm sceptical about a highlights reel player like Maddison - can an inexperienced manager get the best out of a trouble maker who done bugger all for a couple of years? If he can it could be a season changer. Fingers crossed.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

What I will say, Worthy, is that Evatt now has a squad - or at least an XI with good subs - that should be doing much better, so let’s hope he does. I’m not expecting ten straight wins but we need to move up the league and claw back that dotted line, see how we are in six weeks.

Evatt said we need to win 15 out of 20 so not far off 10 straight....

Thought you didn't believe anything he said?

I haven't looked properly at what we might need to actually hit 7th place – BWFC Analysis suggests it's been 72.4pts on average over the last five completed seasons, which suggests 1.95PPG from here – but at least we need to end the season looking like a team that can win games and a club capable of climbing back up.

[BWFC_Insane]

What I will say, Worthy, is that Evatt now has a squad - or at least an XI with good subs - that should be doing much better, so let’s hope he does. I’m not expecting ten straight wins but we need to move up the league and claw back that dotted line, see how we are in six weeks.

Evatt said we need to win 15 out of 20 so not far off 10 straight....

Thought you didn't believe anything he said?

I haven't looked properly at what we might need to actually hit 7th place – BWFC Analysis suggests it's been 72.4pts on average over the last five completed seasons, which suggests 1.95PPG from here – but at least we need to end the season looking like a team that can win games and a club capable of climbing back up.

See that's fine but we've done that before but not kicked on when it mattered. The issue of course is if we have a good run and players do well then its harder to keep squad together in the summer. But of course we win games and see where we get to.

[Worthy4England]

People coming in for our squad because it's been successful is a problem, but better than the current problem where we've cogitated whether what we have is anywhere near good enough to make any sort of impression and some folks have suggested staying in League 2 is a fair target.

Edit: Forgot Declan John in the list of who we've signed, so it's 8 not 7...

Cue - that's a huge change, we can't expect to finish higher than 19th with all those new additions...

[BWFC_Insane]

People coming in for our squad because it's been successful is a problem, but better than the current problem where we've cogitated whether what we have is anywhere near good enough to make any sort of impression and some folks have suggested staying in League 2 is a fair target.

Edit: Forgot Declan John in the list of who we've signed, so it's 8 not 7...

Cue - that's a huge change, we can't expect to finish higher than 19th with all those new additions...

Yep. Assuming we don’t get promotion though all that matters is next season and starting well. And frankly that likely will be without some temporarily here who impress. That’s the short term nature of it but relies on excellent judgement and getting the right pieces in place all the time. Hopefully there has been some learning and we will focus on experience and power and the basic things you need in this league.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Aye, there's a very different feel about the January signings compared to the summer ones.

[Worthy4England]

I doubt losing players to predators is unique to League 2 Bolton, it's pretty much fact of life for most in this Division, so I wouldn't count that as exceptional circumstances. I suspect having players on 1 year contracts, loans and the like is also little different.

[Prufrock]

Easier to attract the summers better players if you finish on a charge as well.

Happy with that Jan. It's easier to be targeted when you already have a squad and aren't throwing together 23 new players at once.

Almost like it takes time! No excuses why we shouldn't see a marked improvement over the second half of the season

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Any chance of an updated graphic showing all the players we have for each position now please?? Bets there’s a few forgotten men in there now...

Not going to put these into an on-pitch formation because (1) Evatt's not now as one-system dogmatic (2) players can play in multiple positions. But in broad "section" terms, here's the squad at the moment.

[Prufrock]

What I will say, Worthy, is that Evatt now has a squad - or at least an XI with good subs - that should be doing much better, so let’s hope he does. I’m not expecting ten straight wins but we need to move up the league and claw back that dotted line, see how we are in six weeks.

Evatt said we need to win 15 out of 20 so not far off 10 straight....

Thought you didn't believe anything he said?

I haven't looked properly at what we might need to actually hit 7th place – BWFC Analysis suggests it's been 72.4pts on average over the last five completed seasons, which suggests 1.95PPG from here – but at least we need to end the season looking like a team that can win games and a club capable of climbing back up.

I think previous seasons are fine as a guide in the early part of a season, but once you're past half way current PPG is a better guide, with some mixed news. The bad news is the top 7 are above average this year, and the 7th best team in PPG (6th place Morecambe) are on track for over 75 points. To get there we need 2.1ppg from now until the end.

The slightly better news is that 3rd place Forest Green are only on track for 77 and we only need 2.2 to make that. If we want a trip to wemberley we're going to have to be pretty accurate with the PPG machine!

The good news is that we can still get to 94 points which would be enough to best 2nd place Carlisle "Kelly Holmes" United's projected 88 points and win the whole damn thing.

[LeverEnd]

White's return to Blackburn confirmed by the club.