January 2023 Transfer Window

[nicholaldo]

I think we do need more defensive cover now this month. We are light with only Jones and Beck realistically as wing back cover and Beck is not exactly looking like someone Evatt trusts and one assumes John is done here.

And centre back cover is only Jones and A.another.

Which means that an injury to say Bradley would leave us very light. We need another versatile option. Unless there is someone in the B team ready to step up?

I note from DSB's B-team thread that Senior hasn't had his National League loan extended. Could be that he's our CB cover.

Could be. That would be quite the step up. But be nice if the management team thought he was capable.

It'd be a huge show of faith considering he comes of age - in a footballing sense - this month and is yet to establish himself even at a level two leagues below our current one.

[truewhite15]

Evatt doing everything but confirm Nlundulu:

We have completed one signing and another, if everything goes according to plan, will be with us on Monday following the expiry of his loan agreement. Things are moving nicely. I think the identity of the player is well documented now but we are looking forward to having him here.

After that, there are one or two more bubbling away in the background and waiting for some progress. In terms of outs, there is nothing happening as yet, but there have been lots and lots of enquiries.

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... nham-town/

On Williams:

Randell has blistering speed and will give us a real attacking threat down that left side. He is multi-dimensional and can play left, right, as a forward in a 4-3-3 or as a wing-back in our system, but predominantly he has been brought in to mirror on the left hand side what we are getting from Conor Bradley on the right.

Iles: Evatt insists the deal to sign Williams has not been accelerated because of Iredale’s injury but added that his new signing may need to be “brought up to speed” because of his lack of recent games.
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... hull-city/

Minor thought: That might be the first rumour Football League World have ever got right. F*cked clocks and all that.

Another thought: We now have two Williamses. I think I'll keep calling MJ MJ, and refer to this lad as Randell. Or maybe "RANDY WILLIAMS!?!" in the manner of Nelson Muntz on The Simpsons...
.

Love it. He should be Randy forever more here now!

Referring back to our chat pre-season, and somewhat adjacent to it, it's going to mean a change to MJ's kit as well. Randy will show as "R WILLIAMS". Wonder whether MJ will literally show as "MJ WILLIAMS" on his kit now?

Strange, the things one thinks about while trying to persuade a sprog to sleep...

[GhostoftheBok]

Delighted to be wrong about how far we'd go to fix the left hand side this window, but gutted for Iredale. Williams and Nlundulu are both the sort of player we were banging on about needing in the summer, but seemingly couldn't get at that stage.

Dunno if the Iredale injury has hastened the Williams signing, but I'd like to imagine it was planned regardless and we're just more willing to push things this month than I expected.

I agree with Insane that Iredale's injury (and a history niggles to other players) means we would *ideally* look at the defence, but if we are being genuinely proactive then the midfield will surely be on the list of needed fixes.

Williams is the kind of signing I'd have welcomed in the summer, so getting him now is great.

[The_Gun]

Is there an injury to a centre back that I’m not aware of? Santos, Toal, Aimson, Johnston and Jones should be sufficient, no?

[Prufrock]

Delighted to be wrong about how far we'd go to fix the left hand side this window, but gutted for Iredale. Williams and Nlundulu are both the sort of player we were banging on about needing in the summer, but seemingly couldn't get at that stage.

Dunno if the Iredale injury has hastened the Williams signing, but I'd like to imagine it was planned regardless and we're just more willing to push things this month than I expected.

I agree with Insane that Iredale's injury (and a history niggles to other players) means we would *ideally* look at the defence, but if we are being genuinely proactive then the midfield will surely be on the list of needed fixes.

Williams is the kind of signing I'd have welcomed in the summer, so getting him now is great.

Randy was at the Barnsley game so must have been pretty much done by then.

[BWFC_Insane]

Is there an injury to a centre back that I’m not aware of? Santos, Toal, Aimson, Johnston and Jones should be sufficient, no?

Jones is effectively our main wing back cover for both sides if he’s playing LWB this weekend as has been suggested. If we need say a more solid setup he might play instead of Williams. Which leaves us one centre half as cover for three spots. That’s far from ideal and given where we are an injury or two there could be problematic second half of the season. Especially the left side.

[The_Gun]

Is there an injury to a centre back that I’m not aware of? Santos, Toal, Aimson, Johnston and Jones should be sufficient, no?

Jones is effectively our main wing back cover for both sides if he’s playing LWB this weekend as has been suggested. If we need say a more solid setup he might play instead of Williams. Which leaves us one centre half as cover for three spots. That’s far from ideal and given where we are an injury or two there could be problematic second half of the season. Especially the left side.

Isn’t Isgrove fit again now? Presumably he’d be cover, at least on the right.

[BWFC_Insane]

Is there an injury to a centre back that I’m not aware of? Santos, Toal, Aimson, Johnston and Jones should be sufficient, no?

Jones is effectively our main wing back cover for both sides if he’s playing LWB this weekend as has been suggested. If we need say a more solid setup he might play instead of Williams. Which leaves us one centre half as cover for three spots. That’s far from ideal and given where we are an injury or two there could be problematic second half of the season. Especially the left side.

Isn’t Isgrove fit again now? Presumably he’d be cover, at least on the right.

At this stage I’d say Isgrove ain’t playing this season if we’ve any hope of seriously making the play offs. Been out too long. Too risky. Probably miles off standard too.

A Johnston injury would be biggest issue as I’d not fancy a back three of Aimson, Toal and Santos with no left footer and two lads who need to play the middle role.

[brommers95]

Wouldn’t mind him bagging a hat trick on Saturday

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Brommers is the king of the squad maps, although he's a busy boy and it seems almost risky to chance starting one with so many signings coming...

Squad still in flux but here's who we have at the minute, excluding Iredale

LWB: Randy, John, Beck (calm down Cambridge fans)
RWB: Bradley, Sadlier, Isgrove
CB: Johnston, Santos, Jones, Toal, Aimson

Don't forget Randy's arrival means Sadlier can switch to the right if need be (and if still here; if not, then it frees up a squad place). Isgrove would be fine as third-choice RWB, but I wouldn't count Senior as a serious contender - as Nicholaldo says, he's been playing in Division Six. It would be a slight risk to elevate someone who'd been loaned to Division Four, so he's unlikely to be used barring the sort of injury pile-up we had 14 months ago. He's also right-footed... the lack of a spare lefty does worry me, but should Johnston go down, I suspect we'd see Geth switch to LCB and Toal at RCB.

[Bruce Rioja]

Randy? fecking Randy? That'll be the name on his shirt, will it?!

[GhostoftheBok]

At this stage I’d say Isgrove ain’t playing this season if we’ve any hope of seriously making the play offs. Been out too long. Too risky. Probably miles off standard too.

A Johnston injury would be biggest issue as I’d not fancy a back three of Aimson, Toal and Santos with no left footer and two lads who need to play the middle role.

Again, agree with this.

If we are tackling all the medium-term issues this window there's a lot who need to move on and Izzy is probably one of them.

The issues with covering Iredale's injury are pretty obvious. He's here long term and he's obviously a good player, so we'd probably look to the loan market for a solution - but we will be nearly at our match day limit when Nlundulu arrives.

Do we think we'd otherwise sign another left-sided centre back in the summer (someone we might bring forward to this month)?

[GhostoftheBok]

Randy was at the Barnsley game so must have been pretty much done by then.

Good.

The initial link was for a loan, to be made permanent in the summer. I'm wondering if we've done to main deal now to free up our ability to loan further cover due to Iredale being out.

Pure speculation, obviously. Could just be that the rumour was partly wrong.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

He's here long term and he's obviously a good player, so we'd probably look to the loan market for a solution - but we will be nearly at our match day limit when Nlundulu arrives.

Do we think we'd otherwise sign another left-sided centre back in the summer (someone we might bring forward to this month)?

If I’ve correctly caught your drift, another way to parse the question - considering Iredale and Johnston will be here next year - would be “do we want a third left-side centre back?”

Stranger things have happened, but it would, as you say, be a loan-slot occupant unlikely to be used. We can have more than five in the building, just five on a matchday, but who fits the profile of “good enough to start but also fine to left in the stands”?

I daresay the Evatt-Markham scouting database has LCBs in it. Whether we could attract/afford them on such a basis is a far longer shot. I strongly suspect we will focus our attention elsewhere - initially centre-mid and 10/9, and then perhaps to replacing the squad members who leave this month.

I can check tomorrow but does anybody know how close we are to the EFL squad limit? That relatively disappointing summer may have left some gaps… although that’s not the same as staying within budget.

[Prufrock]

I wouldn't be surprised if Iredale was part of a Johnston succession plan. *If* we don't go up, wouldn't be a shock to see him go for a good wedge.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Randy was at the Barnsley game so must have been pretty much done by then.

Good.

The initial link was for a loan, to be made permanent in the summer. I'm wondering if we've done to main deal now to free up our ability to loan further cover due to Iredale being out.

Pure speculation, obviously. Could just be that the rumour was partly wrong.

Reasonable speculation. Would make sense to expedite the signing and keep a loan space clear. Equally, we are said to have “beaten off” (fnar) rivals, so maybe ours was the best offer for player (wage?) and selling club (fee). This January’s Morley/Dempsey, if you like.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I wouldn't be surprised if Iredale was part of a Johnston succession plan. *If* we don't go up, wouldn't be a shock to see him go for a good wedge.

Truedat. I still suspect we chased Sadlier in case Dapo left - or indeed didn’t arrive (we wanted Sads in the summer we signed Dapo; we got him in the winter window after Dapo had dazzled for the first half-season).

I also think Toal is Santos’s successor. None of this is unwise.

[GhostoftheBok]

If I’ve correctly caught your drift, another way to parse the question - considering Iredale and Johnston will be here next year - would be “do we want a third left-side centre back?”

For next season, yes.

In terms of the back three as it stands there's only really a question mark over Aimson past the summer (I haven't seen any mention of a contract extension).

So if we were planning to replace Aimson we might bring that deal forward, but is that signing likely to improve options on that left side, would they be available, etc?

These are genuine questions, rather than leading. I don't know.

I don't think we're planning to replace any of Iredale, Johnston, Santos, Toal or Jones (past contingency planning for bids, obviously). I could be wrong, though.

[DJBlu]

Question is do we deregister Iredale to free up the spot?

I suppose they'll want to see how serious and how long he'll be out.

[GhostoftheBok]

Ipswich have signed Massimo Luongo. Dunno if they can keep him fit, but he's a hell of a player for this level.