Snog, Marry, Avoid: Summer 2023 Transfer Window

[GhostoftheBok]

People are talking about Nlundulu as though anyone has suggested he's a child who might make League One level some day.

As I've said, he's already a decent League One player. He contributed goals and assists, he dominated field position and he dragged Cheltenham up the pitch. He wasn't consistent, but he's inexperienced.

Nobody is talking about his potential in terms of being a League One player, it's in terms of him playing higher. He can contribute at this level now.

What he doesn't need to immediately be is "one of the best players in League One." The idea you can't develop a player during a promotion push is just utter nonsense.

Ipswich brought in a 24 year old Prem "youth" player who did score 1 in 2. He cost them £1.5m up front rising to a potential £2.5m.

To say that we have to expect Nlundulu to have the same kind of impact as Nathan Broadhead because he cost the grand sum of some buttons and half a twix is so utterly ridiculous.

He will contribute. He absolutely does not need to set the league on fire just because there was a fee involved.

[Worthy4England]

I shall henceforth stop tempering any comments about him on the basis that he's a slowly developing youth and instead just measure him against my notion of an average grown up competent L1 player.... It's a higher bar than I saw last season. Did he cost about the same amount as Dion?

[BWFC_Insane]

People are talking about Nlundulu as though anyone has suggested he's a child who might make League One level some day.

As I've said, he's already a decent League One player. He contributed goals and assists, he dominated field position and he dragged Cheltenham up the pitch. He wasn't consistent, but he's inexperienced.

Nobody is talking about his potential in terms of being a League One player, it's in terms of him playing higher. He can contribute at this level now.

What he doesn't need to immediately be is "one of the best players in League One." The idea you can't develop a player during a promotion push is just utter nonsense.

Ipswich brought in a 24 year old Prem "youth" player who did score 1 in 2. He cost them £1.5m up front rising to a potential £2.5m.

To say that we have to expect Nlundulu to have the same kind of impact as Nathan Broadhead because he cost the grand sum of some buttons and half a twix is so utterly ridiculous.

He will contribute. He absolutely does not need to set the league on fire just because there was a fee involved.

He’s 24 and has scored 6 goals in men’s football.

He’s cost a significant amount of money for us.

It’s completely realistic to expect him to deliver next season far far more than he has in his career thus far. And if he doesn’t it’s also fair to say it was a mistake.

Next season is judged solely on whether we are promoted or not. Nlundulu has to be be better than he was last season in terms of outputs. It’s that simple. No excuses.

[TANGODANCER]

Next season is judged solely on whether we are promoted or not. Nlundulu has to be be better than he was last season in terms of outputs. It’s that simple. No excuses.

So, if we finish fourth and have do the play-offs. were failures? I'm betting a few managers would take that. Reading, Blackpool and Wigan might be interested too. I'd love us to be promoted, as we all would, and I'm ever a believer, but many rivers to cross first.

[truewhite15]

Next season is judged solely on whether we are promoted or not. Nlundulu has to be be better than he was last season in terms of outputs. It’s that simple. No excuses.

So, if we finish fourth and have do the play-offs. were failures? I'm betting a few managers would take that. Reading, Blackpool and Wigan might be interested too. I'd love us to be promoted, as we all would, and I'm ever a believer, but many rivers to cross first.

Not failures. But we've certainly missed our target. 2nd is the minimum aim for next season - promoted via the play-offs is a "phew, got away with it" scenario. Missing out on the promotion might not be a result worthy of capital punishment, but it would certainly be the first failure of Evatt's managerial career.

[GhostoftheBok]

He’s cost a significant amount of money for us.

It’s completely realistic to expect him to deliver next season far far more than he has in his career thus far.

Next season is judged solely on whether we are promoted or not.

On point one, this is the issue with your argument. It being a lot of money "for us" (it's actually not, when you look at what we just spent on Vic, but assuming it's true) doesn't matter. Our money doesn't magically count for more than everyone else's. This is a very cheap deal, even by League One standards, for a striker. There's no player in the top 50 scorers in League One that we could have got for less when you look at the whole deal - maybe apart from Brown, for obvious reasons.

Point two I agree with. He should be better than he had been previously. If he doesn't develop at all it'll be a waste,

Next season might be judged on promotion, but Nlundulu isn't. He could do very well and we could still fail to go up. He could do badly and we could still go up.

[GhostoftheBok]

By the way, if anyone wants to talk about outlay vs goal return we have had Bodvarsson as our top earner delivering 10 league goals in 18 months.

I've not heard anyone talk about him being a poor use of money. Only the potential he has if he can stay fit.

If we break costs down annually Dan will be our least expensive striker of the four main guys. Vic first due to his fee, then Bod due to his wages, then Charles and finally Dan.

[BWFC_Insane]

So Evatt is going to make exactly the same mistakes as last summer?

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... pecialist/

We are financially sound and that is great credit to everyone, from the board and Sharon, to the fans, who have had a big impact on that,” he told The Bolton News.

“It does cause nice problems. It doesn’t mean we are going to go and splash huge cash on players and sign them on huge salaries because number one, that isn’t what we want to do, and number two it can ruin the culture we have already created here.

“We have a squad who are hungry and have a point to prove. The minute I start signing X, Y or Z on double or treble the salary my players are currently earning then you are asking for a problem.

This is a carbon copy of last season. Evatt clearly not brave to back himself to make big calls on players.

And no doubt in September we will get the usual bilge about club X ‘have spent a lot of money on good players’.

Ridiculous. I’m all for set piece coaching and analysis but first requirement is someone who can take the things.

We are weaker than last season and 3 or 4 really good players away from challenging. Evatt is bottling it for me.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

You wanna talk to the fella who spent most of yesterday saying we'd spent too much on a striker.

[truewhite15]

F*ck me. It really doesn't take much to push you over the edge, does it? One interview, and it's back to telling people the sky is falling...

[BWFC_Insane]

You wanna talk to the fella who spent most of yesterday saying we'd spent too much on a striker.

A striker who didn’t deliver last season. We need to be better. That means signing better players. Heaven help us if we ever managed to go up with a manager scared of changing a budget ceiling.

[Bertie Wooster]

So Evatt is going to make exactly the same mistakes as last summer?

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/2 ... pecialist/

We are financially sound and that is great credit to everyone, from the board and Sharon, to the fans, who have had a big impact on that,” he told The Bolton News.

“It does cause nice problems. It doesn’t mean we are going to go and splash huge cash on players and sign them on huge salaries because number one, that isn’t what we want to do, and number two it can ruin the culture we have already created here.

“We have a squad who are hungry and have a point to prove. The minute I start signing X, Y or Z on double or treble the salary my players are currently earning then you are asking for a problem.

This is a carbon copy of last season. Evatt clearly not brave to back himself to make big calls on players.

And no doubt in September we will get the usual bilge about club X ‘have spent a lot of money on good players’.

Ridiculous. I’m all for set piece coaching and analysis but first requirement is someone who can take the things.

We are weaker than last season and 3 or 4 really good players away from challenging. Evatt is bottling it for me.

I agree with BWFCI on this, he also goes on about 1% gains in regards to set piece analysis - bringing in a set piece coach etc. nothing about bringing in better quality players. We finished quite some distance behind the top 3 last season, it needs more than a few 1% improvements to get top 2 - we finished 17 points & 30 odd goals behind Ipswich, which is a bit more than a 1% improvement.

I also think that its more than Evatt not backing himself to make big calls on better players, I personally think that he doesn't want better, more high profile players questioning him. But I agree this appears to be the same as last season - he really doesn't seem to understand that we need 2-3 really good players in (better than we we currently have) to have any chance of top 2 and he won't get them without offering better wages.

[Bertie Wooster]

I imagine that some people who invested in the bond thinking that it will help the club bring in better quality players to help us get to the championship will be a little disappointed in these Evatt comments.

[BWFC_Insane]

Sam Allardyce learned very quickly that progression needed better players which meant higher wages and he had to find ways to manage that within his squad.

Nobody is talking about silly spending but those comments worry me. Did we bottle signing Wilson and Baccus for example cos Evatt didn’t want the pressure of managing those players?

[Bertie Wooster]

I still think that Evatt will bring in a few more players, however its looking more like they will be similar to what we already have than players who will improve us significantly (which is what we need). It's probably to early to judge his recent comments and we will need to wait 3-4 weeks, as he may surprise us and bring in a couple of really good players, but I agree that these comments don't really inspire much confidence (IMO)

[Worthy4England]

You wanna talk to the fella who spent most of yesterday saying we'd spent too much on a striker.

A striker who didn’t deliver last season. We need to be better. That means signing better players. Heaven help us if we ever managed to go up with a manager scared of changing a budget ceiling.

We've gone up with a manager apparently scared of changing the budget ceiling....and thus far improved...

[Worthy4England]

On the N'lundulu thing. I can see we're getting our expectations set around "bang average" at best, but that represents value for money. Is that how moneyball works? I thought it was all about putting lipstick on the pig and improving it? That's two things I'm now looking for in him. 1) He can do things I'd expect a grown up to do and 2) he's improving to a level where someone might put in a decent bid (and we'd all probably argue to keep him at that point )

If neither happens, why unload Baka and then pay a fee?

[BWFC_Insane]

You wanna talk to the fella who spent most of yesterday saying we'd spent too much on a striker.

A striker who didn’t deliver last season. We need to be better. That means signing better players. Heaven help us if we ever managed to go up with a manager scared of changing a budget ceiling.

We've gone up with a manager apparently scared of changing the budget ceiling....and thus far improved...

The league two and one gap is not the same as the one up to the next league.

[dave the minion]

You wanna talk to the fella who spent most of yesterday saying we'd spent too much on a striker.

A striker who didn’t deliver last season. We need to be better. That means signing better players. Heaven help us if we ever managed to go up with a manager scared of changing a budget ceiling.

So go on then, who is available that we can sign but he's choosing not to?

[Worthy4England]

You wanna talk to the fella who spent most of yesterday saying we'd spent too much on a striker.

A striker who didn’t deliver last season. We need to be better. That means signing better players. Heaven help us if we ever managed to go up with a manager scared of changing a budget ceiling.

We've gone up with a manager apparently scared of changing the budget ceiling....and thus far improved...

The league two and one gap is not the same as the one up to the next league.

No, it's not. The principle ain't much different though.