Snog, Marry, Avoid: Summer 2023 Transfer Window

[GhostoftheBok]

I thought that we were waiting for these quality championship players to become available, hence the delays i.e. players of the quality to get us top 2 and then good enough to keep us in the championship. Evatt even said that they are that good that they won't suffer from missing a few weeks of pre-season - “We are hoping the ones we are targeting will be of a high enough quality and stature to take on board what we are trying to do and fit in quickly,”

I'm already looking forward to the new RWB Charlie dribbling past defenders at ease.

I'm enjoying the snark, do keep it up.

I'm not really sure how that's incompatible with what I just said. Camara is a good player and of the type we need, but his injury profile might but him in the red in terms of our criteria for cash deals. Were he on a free we might go for him.

Evatt says he has his targets, so we'll see what those look like.

Are you under the impression Evatt is just bullshitting and has nobody lined up?

[Bertie Wooster]

Are you under the impression Evatt is just bullshitting and has nobody lined up?

Not at all however I'm certainly not in the 'In Evatt we Trust' camp.

I'm just curious to see who these better quality players are that he's been waiting weeks for the domino's to fall - “For now, to get the best players, we still need to be patient.”.

With all the talk from within the club about top 2 etc, the bond being predominantly to recruit players to get us up, not chasing the players some of the other clubs Derby, Pompey, Charlton etc have signed. I'm expecting a couple of these 'better' players to be players who we have all heard of and who will be automatic starters & not young players from Walsall, Crewe or Mansfield (or other League 2 sides).

[Worthy4England]

^^ I'm less worried about where they're from and more worried about whether they're better players - but yes to people who may be automatic starters (rotation and situational team selections aside)..He did say he hoped there'd be some movement this week, in his Chester post-match.

Had Wilson, Baccus and Alfie May turned up, I probably wouldn't be grumbling at this juncture (not knowing shedloads about them). I don't expect he's going to sign James Maddison from Champo Leicester....

[GhostoftheBok]

Not at all however I'm certainly not in the 'In Evatt we Trust' camp.

I'm just curious to see who these better quality players are that he's been waiting weeks for the domino's to fall - “For now, to get the best players, we still need to be patient.”.

With all the talk from within the club about top 2 etc, the bond being predominantly to recruit players to get us up, not chasing the players some of the other clubs Derby, Pompey, Charlton etc have signed. I'm expecting a couple of these 'better' players to be players who we have all heard of and who will be automatic starters & not young players from Walsall, Crewe or Mansfield (or other League 2 sides).

I distrust the whole bond scheme, especially now with basic capital investments like the pitch replacement not being made (which they said would get done regardless of the bond money).

Trusting anyone in football isn't in my nature. I've worked in the game too long to take anything said at face value and clubs/managers/etc will usually lie to fans if they think it serves their purposes.

The thing with the players though is that waiting and the signing dross doesn't serve anyone's purpose. Evatt is trying to build a career based on a reputation for continual improvement. FV want to get to the Championship without spending too much of their own money, so they can start to take small amounts out and possibly sell their asset on. If we don't go up this season they're both much worse off, so they need exactly the sort of players Evatt is describing.

Some of what Evatt is saying may be bullshit. It could be for the consumption of agents in the hope it makes them think "We'd better get this done before they sign someone else", but generally it's in his best interests to get the best possible squad together as early as he can. The fact we are waiting this long should indicate these are good players.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Parsing Evatt's quotes, Iles thinks the manager "means Bolton are trying to sign a player from a higher level than they managed in January, and that IE hopes they won't need the same setting period as some of those signings did."

Now, not to parse the parser, but "level" could mean two things here. In January we signed a player, Randell Williams, from the (lower) Champo. Could we now be targeting players from upper Champo or Premier teams?

Or could he mean "level" in terms of playing experience? In January, buoyed by the success of borrowing Traf and Brad, we borrowed two (more) relatively untried players in Shoretire and Mbete. Could we now be looking to borrow big-club academy prospects much nearer to adulthood, who would therefore be on those moneymaking worldwide tours? In other words, less of a Luke Mbete than a Taylor Harwood-Bellis, a James McAtee, a Tommy Doyle?

[The_Gun]

DSB, I assume you were using those City players as examples, rather than actual targets? They’d all be well beyond our reach.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

DSB, I assume you were using those City players as examples, rather than actual targets? They’d all be well beyond our reach.

Certainly not ITK links. And Harwood-Bellis would be daft to come here. But yeah, I'm citing examples of players with plenty league experience whom City were loaning out last season to teams who got promoted from the Champo. I wonder if we've been pitching for that sort of "next-level" player, using Trafford and Bradley as calling cards.

[Worthy4England]

DSB, I assume you were using those City players as examples, rather than actual targets? They’d all be well beyond our reach.

Certainly not ITK links. And Harwood-Bellis would be daft to come here. But yeah, I'm citing examples of players with plenty league experience whom City were loaning out last season to teams who got promoted from the Champo. I wonder if we've been pitching for that sort of "next-level" player, using Trafford and Bradley as calling cards.

This isn't the place for wild speculation, DSB!

[sonicthewhite]

DSB, I assume you were using those City players as examples, rather than actual targets? They’d all be well beyond our reach.

Certainly not ITK links. And Harwood-Bellis would be daft to come here. But yeah, I'm citing examples of players with plenty league experience whom City were loaning out last season to teams who got promoted from the Champo. I wonder if we've been pitching for that sort of "next-level" player, using Trafford and Bradley as calling cards.

This isn't the place for wild speculation, DSB!

Yeah DSB, we don't go for that modern fangled wild speculation in these parts Mister. Have a word with yourself or I'll have to send Worthy round!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

LOL.

It wouldn't take long to compile a list of suitable (next-level) loanees from the big clubs. Sadly I haven't really got "not long" or even "quite short" at the moment but maybe I'll get round to it.

The answer's out there, somewhere.

[Prufrock]

We'd be after the year behind those lads, at best! But see the point.

[GhostoftheBok]

We're not getting older loans on their way up, because there's a progression path worked out seasons in advance and they won't mess that up. If the previous loan has gone wrong, maybe.

What we might get is lads who have fallen off for whatever reason and it's hard to know where along that spectrum we'd aim.

At one end is someone like Jamie Shackleton, who 18 months ago will have thought he was nailed on to be a Premier League player and then found himself on loan at Millwall and struggling a bit last season.

Then you've got Bruno Jordao, who was at Lazio and chased by Barca, but is now heading towards his mid twenties without ever having played regular football.

[BWFC_Insane]

We're not getting older loans on their way up, because there's a progression path worked out seasons in advance and they won't mess that up. If the previous loan has gone wrong, maybe.

What we might get is lads who have fallen off for whatever reason and it's hard to know where along that spectrum we'd aim.

At one end is someone like Jamie Shackleton, who 18 months ago will have thought he was nailed on to be a Premier League player and then found himself on loan at Millwall and struggling a bit last season.

Then you've got Bruno Jordao, who was at Lazio and chased by Barca, but is now heading towards his mid twenties without ever having played regular football.

So that’s my dreams of Rico Lewis and Cole Palmer rocking up the end of this week gone then…

[Worthy4England]

I'm reckoning that's a definite maybe, Insano!

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm reckoning that's a definite maybe, Insano!

Nobody has said no so I’m taking that as done deals.

[Harry Genshaw]

Cole Palmers gone to Leicester. The new Carrs pasty shop on the Middlebrook obviously didn't work its magic.

[BWFC_Insane]

Cole Palmers gone to Leicester. The new Carrs pasty shop on the Middlebrook obviously didn't work its magic.

Really? Shocked by that. Should be in the top flight.

[Prufrock]

Needs games. And can see how he hasn't done enough for a prem team to guarantee that. Like McAtee (who was ahead of him at city and went to the Champ last year) he's got that left foot (off the Foden line) but not raw pace so needs to learn the physical stuff.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Cole Palmers gone to Leicester. The new Carrs pasty shop on the Middlebrook obviously didn't work its magic.

Really? Shocked by that. Should be in the top flight.

On loan. Maybe it was his pathway.

Liam Delap, formerly the Next Big Thing, seems to be drifting outwards. Stoke loan didn’t work. Preston loan didn’t work. Now he’s been sent to Hull. I presume that wasn’t the planned pathway. So yeah, as Ghost says, it might be one who’s just had a dodgy loan - like Traf at Accy or indeed Mbete at Huddersfield.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Needs games. And can see how he hasn't done enough for a prem team to guarantee that. Like McAtee (who was ahead of him at city and went to the Champ last year) he's got that left foot (off the Foden line) but not raw pace so needs to learn the physical stuff.

Aye. One thing looking good in a City team that has a decent shout at being one of the best ever. Another thing scrapping for a struggler.