Deal or no deal? - Summer 2022 Transfer gossip!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I wonder whether we’re still in the mix for Anthony Hartigan? He’s walked away from Wimbledon, but doesn’t appear to have his next club lined up yet and I can’t see any strong recent rumours.

Whoever he joins will owe Dons a fee, as he’s still young enough to cost. That doesn’t necessarily rule us out but Preston, Blackpool and Rotherham were all linked in January, and unlike us are in a higher division than the one Hartigan has played in for the last five seasons. He’s 23 next year so he needs to choose carefully, and if I were him I’d look to be at a Champo club.

Evatt was asked in late December about Hartigan and said “He’s not on our radar at the moment. We’ve got lots of options, lots of targets and we’re working our way through. Some are achievable, some aren’t – we’re just doing the best we can. We have some strong players on the list, some good options, and we’ll do our best to make sure we get them in.”

We then spent fees on Morley and Dempsey, but before we played them in February Evatt was asked again about Hartigan and said: “I am aware of him, definitely. The three we think are really talented players are Hartigan, Ayoub Assal and Jack Rudoni, we reckon they’ve got a really bright future.”

[The_Gun]

Yeah, Hartigan was an old link and it would be reasonable to assume that Morley was signed as a direct alternative to him.

Rudoni definitely appears to be headed to the Championship, but Assal rumours look to have died down, with Dons probably reluctant to lose all three in one window.

Everything is very quiet on the Bolton front at present, although the current regime have proved to be relatively good at keeping targets under their collective hats. I’m sure we’ve got a few things cooking, as I can’t see us going into the season with three open slots.

[TonyDomingos]

Wrexham are after Declan John?

[The_Gun]

Wrexham are after Declan John?

Seems pretty unlikely to be true, but if it is then I’m sure we’d be asking for a fair chunk of change for him.

[LeverEnd]

After laughing about the Sarcevic rumours, I'm dismissing nothing.

[TANGODANCER]

Wrexham are after Declan John?

Well, he is from Merthyr Tydfil, so understandable they want him back in the valleys, but I hope it's just a rumour.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Wrexham are after Declan John?

Well, he is from Merthyr Tydfil, so understandable they want him back in the valleys

Wrexham’s a three-hour slog from Merthyr or indeed the rest of the valleys - he’d be better off commuting from Bolton…

As noted, stranger things have happened - and some are saying take the money - but we’ve regularly seen that a lack of wingbacks can choke Evatt’s gameplan. Also worth noting he was our top assister in the league last season. Would blow a big late hole in our squad. So I’m with you, Tango - keep him.

[BWFC_Insane]

Wrexham are after Declan John?

Well, he is from Merthyr Tydfil, so understandable they want him back in the valleys

Wrexham’s a three-hour slog from Merthyr or indeed the rest of the valleys - he’d be better off commuting from Bolton…

As noted, stranger things have happened - and some are saying take the money - but we’ve regularly seen that a lack of wingbacks can choke Evatt’s gameplan. Also worth noting he was our top assister in the league last season. Would blow a big late hole in our squad. So I’m with you, Tango - keep him.

I’ve no idea why we’d want to sell him or he’d want to drop down to non league.

We seem to be struggling to recruit and do not have another left wing back in the squad. We have people who can cover there but certainly not an actual out and out one.

So I’d be concerned if this rumour turned out to be something we were entertaining.

[officer_dibble]

Can we replace him with better for the same money? Nope…unlike Sarcevic who was struggling with the league Dec John was one of the best full/wing backs in the league last season. He’s worth twice that.

[TANGODANCER]

Looks like a cover illustration from "Lives of the Saints"..

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Barring financials, the only way selling Dec would make sense for us is if we have a replacement set up - say Nicky Cadden, who AFAIK still hasn’t got a new club since leaving FGR (last I looked, Nixon thought Barnsley would beat Champo clubs to his signature). Then it’s player trading: sell one, get free replacement. But Cadden is arguably more winger than wingback, certainly more of either than full-back, so it would somewhat diminish our ability to switch formations mid-match.

[BWFC_Insane]

Barring financials, the only way selling Dec would make sense for us is if we have a replacement set up - say Nicky Cadden, who AFAIK still hasn’t got a new club since leaving FGR (last I looked, Nixon thought Barnsley would beat Champo clubs to his signature). Then it’s player trading: sell one, get free replacement. But Cadden is arguably more winger than wingback, certainly more of either than full-back, so it would somewhat diminish our ability to switch formations mid-match.

More winger than wing back isn’t an issue to me as I feel that’s what we need.

If we had someone who had good delivery and real pace it would be an upgrade. I don’t know enough about Cadden to say if he is that or not. But I’d say that it would still be an odd one to change John at this point.

[The_Gun]

Iles has debunked the rumour.

Whilst this one doesn’t seem likely to happen, everyone has a price, and I think if we were getting offered £750k+ for John he’d be gone.

[The_Gun]

Barring financials, the only way selling Dec would make sense for us is if we have a replacement set up - say Nicky Cadden, who AFAIK still hasn’t got a new club since leaving FGR (last I looked, Nixon thought Barnsley would beat Champo clubs to his signature). Then it’s player trading: sell one, get free replacement. But Cadden is arguably more winger than wingback, certainly more of either than full-back, so it would somewhat diminish our ability to switch formations mid-match.

Cadden signed for Barnsley this morning.

[BWFC_Insane]

Wonder if this summer is turning into a bit of a cock up for Fosseys agent? Bolton priced out as they encouraged championship bids. Didn’t fancy Rotherham. Wanted Wigan. And now Wigan look increasingly like they might be in financial trouble of some sort.

Sometimes I think these players and agents get ahead of themselves.

[sonicthewhite]

Thing is........would you still want Fossey back if the opportunity came calling?

[BWFC_Insane]

Thing is........would you still want Fossey back if the opportunity came calling?

Of course because he’s a good player who would make us better. Assuming medics gave all clear. To me we haven’t come close to signing that sort of player this summer and Bradley might be great but he’s young and probably not as physically developed yet. I also think you want two proper wing backs each side.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Apparently Fossey’s rejected a contract extension offer from Fulham, so he and his agent must be confident of something. Wouldn’t stun me if he turned up at Preston.

I like him but I suspect Fulham will be asking for more than we want to pay, even if he isn’t doing that for his personal terms.

[brommers95]

Seems to me as if the DJ rumour was a Twitter thing that just blew up in a few hours.

Re Fossey, I would definitely take him back but seems to me as if he's wanting too much in wages for a lot of teams to make a move on him yet.

He's just rejected a new contract with Fulham, from the outside looking in it seems to be a slightly odd situation. Is he being poorly advised by his agent?

[The_Gun]

Thing is........would you still want Fossey back if the opportunity came calling?

It very much seems as though we’ve moved on from Fossey, and Bradley was a direct alternative to him. That position wouldn’t be a priority now, so I think that ship has sailed.