January 2023 Transfer Window

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I really do LOVE January...

I see that chancer's taken off his Fossey wig. #ITK #WalterMitty
.

[Prufrock]

Going to review this in May.

There's that balkans joke about Hungarians, isn't there. In the Balkans Hungary is famous as being home to earthquakes and lazy people - so the joke goes "How does a Hungarian masturbate? He finds a little hole in the ground, sticks his manhood in it and waits."

The Balkans is great, nuts fun. Went on holiday to Macedonia a few years ago. Out the airport, into a taxi. Taxi driver is keen to welcome us. "Whatever you have heard about the Balkans is not true. We are all friends now, everyone is lovely, you will have a great time, there are no tensions".

As he's giving his spiel, we pull up behind a car in front which is struggling to open the barrier to leave the car park. "Look at these f*cking Albanian IDIOTS!" *horn* *horn* *horn*.

He also told us a long story about an American supplier he had in a previous business who kept sending things to the "Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia". No matter what he said they kept doing it so he started sending invoices to their address in "The former British Colony of the US".

Later on that trip we stayed a night across the border in Albania. We were getting a taxi back a couple of miles into Macedonia. At the checkpoint the driver handed our passports across with a couple of sachets of instant coffee inside. The world's smallest bribe to get him across. As he dropped us off, he popped into a nearby corner shop as the border guard had requested some milk as his bribe for the way back across!

Also went out to a club on a "Serbian Turbo Folk" night which was...wild.

[BWFC_Insane]

We'll be fine. Let's see what happens today and Monday. Might even be a football game at some point, if you like that sort of thing.

The judgement will be outcomes at the end of the season. We went into January 5th and in a semi final. The second half of the season has to match up to that. And injuries as Evatt has already said are an expected part of football and something to factor in. Changing the squad round in January also raises increased risk of injury due to players coming in with less than ideal preparation.

We will be able to judge the decision making come May. If we’ve slipped then it will be on Evatt and his decisions.

We went into January 5th, having made the case that we were unlikely to finish 5th, with the players we had and for a good few to be "got rid of" for the three months prior, some to local pub leagues. I'm fairly sure we saw the "we're in a false position" drum getting a thump too.

The semi-final thing for me would be stretching the bounds (should we lose it), to say "We have been nailed on to win had we only kept players X/Y," as they've adequately shown their ability to be 2 goals down at Accrington once, already this season.

It would not surprise me if behind some of this was "balancing the wage bill" - rather than assuming we can just retain some of the higher earners and add in additional higher earners...

We started the season and play offs was the target and for me achievable with what we had. We went into December found a run of form with the new back three and were 5th. And in my view had we changed nothing going to get a play off place.

We are instead changing a lot. Which is risky. And whether we are stronger or not will not be judged by hypotheticals. But simply by results. Evatt proclaims we will be stronger so we shall see at the end. PPG is a pretty neat measure.

Are we? Really? Currently going "out", we have...

One 4th choice striker. Played well last season, but hasn't hit the heights this time out.
One winger we've tried to convert, unsuccessfully, into either a striker or an attacking mid. One you yourself said might as well have been invisible so far this season.
One loan LWB from Liverpool. Barely played.
And (possibly) one CB who has been 4th choice most of his time here, was pushed to 5th choice by the emergence of one outstanding Irish bloke, who admittedly experienced a late renaissance by performing excellently during an injury crisis, but now that the crisis is over is back to 5th choice again.

Coming in, we have:

One striker on loan, likely 3rd or 4th choice, unfortunately injured
One attacking midfielder, who can also play wide or up front, wet behind the ears but rated very highly by a club towards the top of the English pyramid, who has already had a promising debut.
One LWB, permanent, who has already started, what, three games? Again, looks promising, and offers that attacking edge you yourself have been decrying the previous incumbent in that position for not offering.

On possible ins, we appear to have two strikers, a midfielder and a defender. Evatt himself has said that additional ins beyond the aforementioned two strikers will be to replace anyone going out.

We're only currently weaker because of three injuries, which the club couldn't have done anything about. Our "ins" have matched our "outs" so far. We certainly haven't intentionally made ourselves weaker in some act of ridiculous transfer window masochism.

But go ahead, you go and set up your "told you so"s for the rest of the season

I’d say your massive paragraph is indeed indicative of ‘changing a lot’. For a January window.

And it’s easy to argue…

We sold what many consider to be our best player (many do). For a small amount and replaced him with a kid from United playing a different role.

We are selling our defender who has been central to our best defensive run of the season. Who is the only central defensive cover we have. 4th choice centre half sounds fine when you realise he’s at worst first change.

Baka for Nlundulu made sense. But a normal January might be that and one or two other changes.

We are looking at potentially two of four strikers leaving 2 of four centre halves leaving and our main cover for rwb also going.

That’s a lot of change for January for a team doing well.

[GhostoftheBok]

For what it's worth Jerome looks done. Will probably be living over my way and commuting. Not planning on leaving again, so dunno if that means we're his last gig or it's an 18 month deal (which would still mean his last gig).

*edit* this is second hand, by the way. I don't know him.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We sold what many consider to be our best player (many do)

...but others said was invisible for three months
#PickWhichHillToDieOn

[BWFC_Insane]

We sold what many consider to be our best player (many do)

...but others said was invisible for three months
#PickWhichHillToDieOn

My issue is that I don’t think anyone was saying what we need to do is sell these players.

And if someone had in December suggested that the same people saying this all makes sense would have claimed something very different then.

Post rationalisation.

We are making a lot of changes for a club in January who is going well. It’s bound to be concerning some fans. I’m not very convinced by it.

But we can all judge it by the end results. I don’t see why people are having to post rationalise the decision making. We can see at the end whether our first or second half of the season was better.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

The Balkans is great, nuts fun.

Indeed. Have discovered a lot more about them in recent years thanks to a combination of work coverage and the writings of the excellent linguist Gaston Dorren (also a very nice man to interview).

Seems that all the differing, bickering Balkans hate the Albanians, whom they see as weak and stupid. So it really annoys them that linguistics suggest that Albanians (who don't call themselves Albanians) seem to be the oldest ethnic group to have actually lived in the area....

Anyway, az it bin dun, etc

[Worthy4England]

We sold what many consider to be our best player (many do)

...but others said was invisible for three months
#PickWhichHillToDieOn

Revisionism at it's finest. Bit like "we're doing well" after Christmas, when the match threads indicate how shit we were and how many players need replacing...

[Worthy4England]

The Balkans is great, nuts fun.

Indeed. Have discovered a lot more about them in recent years thanks to a combination of work coverage and the writings of the excellent linguist Gaston Dorren (also a very nice man to interview).

Seems that all the differing, bickering Balkans hate the Albanians, whom they see as weak and stupid. So it really annoys them that linguistics suggest that Albanians (who don't call themselves Albanians) seem to be the oldest ethnic group to have actually lived in the area....

Anyway, az it bin dun, etc

My first experience (when it was still Yugoslavia) - train guard comes into carriage at 06:00 asks if we needed some breakfast. Returns about 10 minutes later with a bottle of sliwowica and 4 cups...

[DJBlu]

We sold what many consider to be our best player (many do)

...but others said was invisible for three months
#PickWhichHillToDieOn

Can I stay on the precipice?

[sonicthewhite]

The Balkans is great, nuts fun.

Indeed. Have discovered a lot more about them in recent years thanks to a combination of work coverage and the writings of the excellent linguist Gaston Dorren (also a very nice man to interview).

Seems that all the differing, bickering Balkans hate the Albanians, whom they see as weak and stupid. So it really annoys them that linguistics suggest that Albanians (who don't call themselves Albanians) seem to be the oldest ethnic group to have actually lived in the area....

Anyway, az it bin dun, etc

My first experience (when it was still Yugoslavia) - train guard comes into carriage at 06:00 asks if we needed some breakfast. Returns about 10 minutes later with a bottle of sliwowica and 4 cups...

Now that's a breakfast

[nicholaldo]

Luton Town have confirmed Jerome has left the club for personal reasons.

[The_Gun]

Luton Town have confirmed Jerome has left the club for personal reasons.

#azitbeendun?

[Worthy4England]

Luton Town have confirmed Jerome has left the club for personal reasons.

#azitbeendun?

#azegotcrabs?

[GhostoftheBok]

Post rationalisation.

I called not only for new players, but exactly these types of players, in the summer.

If this is post rationalisation then it was severely delayed by the postal strikes.

[GhostoftheBok]

Luton Town have confirmed Jerome has left the club for personal reasons.

Importantly for us, mutual agreement. So a free transfer.

[BWFC_Insane]

Post rationalisation.

I called not only for new players, but exactly these types of players, in the summer.

If this is post rationalisation then it was severely delayed by the postal strikes.

You also said there was no sense to selling Dapo unless we got crazy money as we’d need 3 replacement players to offer what he gives us. IIRC.

So I mean sure. You said we needed more. You also weren’t suggesting we should sell players on top of that.

I also don’t think the players you said we missed out on are really ones who we needed in the end. Barky has quality but not in this system.

[The_Gun]

We've likely missed the deadline for Jerome to be involved tomorrow, right?

[GhostoftheBok]

You also said there was no sense to selling Dapo unless we got crazy money as we’d need 3 replacement players to offer what he gives us. IIRC.

So I mean sure. You said we needed more. You also weren’t suggesting we should sell players on top of that.

I also don’t think the players you said we missed out on are really ones who we needed in the end. Barky has quality but not in this system.

The player Dapo has been is not the player we were worried about losing and thus the price-tag changes.

We are replacing what Dapo was giving us with multiple players - oddly enough, 3.

Dapo's work down the left we're hoping will be taken up by Williams and Nlundulu, the latter being statistically more a replacement for Dapo than Baka in the final third. Through the middle we've got Shoretire.

So, again, not sure how the "post" part applies.

Not sure it is "I said" we missed out on Barky. Dunno if I said it first or not, but it's now just a fact isn't it?

I tend to agree on Barky, as it happens. I'm not sad we missed him now we're wedded to the two up top. He'd have been a good addition, but at the time I'd rather have had the players I mentioned and in Adeboyejo we're getting the type we need. Hopefully he works out, but that attacking line-up we had was never going to - as I said at the time. The club clearly knew that as well, because they tried to change it.

I view this as better late than never, but I find it really odd for you to say I'm changing my tune to suit the march.

This isn't an "I was right" thing. I could still be wrong about it all. But I'm certainly not a greased weathercock. An entirely different kind of cock maybe, but that's up to the individual to decide.

[BWFC_Insane]

We've likely missed the deadline for Jerome to be involved tomorrow, right?

When we announce it is not the same as when we signed him. I’m assuming both he and Ade are done and in for tomorrow.

Stoke just signed a defender so one might assume that weakens the Johnston link a bit.