In, Out, Shake It All About: January 2025 Transfer Window

[boltonboris]

Not averse to giving this lad a chance at all. Some good players in non-league who'll be crying out for an opportunity. Toby Mullarky was playing non-league in 2023 and he's captain of a League 1 team now.

[Bijou Bob]

Iles now reporting Posh have accepted a bid for Randall from an unknown club. Fingers crossed if he's as good as some seem to think.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Not averse to giving this lad a chance at all. Some good players in non-league who'll be crying out for an opportunity. Toby Mullarky was playing non-league in 2023 and he's captain of a League 1 team now.

I don't mind us trying to find good players wherever they may pop up. Not sure he's a needle-mover, not sure he should have a squad slot, not sure who we'd shift out to make that happen - but then I'd never heard of the bloke before this link.

[GhostoftheBok]

Joel Colwill is the latest "Breaking! Exclusive!" link.

Cardiff midfielder on loan in League Two.

Came through as a kid playing more of a Sheehan role, not operates further forward.

No idea if there's actual interest, or our name got lobbed in for clicks. Good player, but feels like clickbait given that Cardiff had been keen for him to stay local with his loan moves this season. Maybe that changed, though.

[Worthy4England]

Peterborough Telegraph on Randall...


In the case of Randall it’s a bold move as he’s a proven performer at League One level. There are few, if any, number 10s at this level with his ability to sniff out space and link the attacks between midfield and forward players, but many won’t be mourning his departure, especially those who like their players to get stuck in and make the fact they are up for a fight more obvious.

That last bit is a worry, if he's another flat track bully.

[The_Gun]

Paying top dollar for a lightweight luxury player? I can’t see any of our fans having an issue with that.

[boltonboris]

Paying top dollar for a lightweight luxury player? I can’t see any of our fans having an issue with that.

This has been my concern since we were re-linked. He certainly fits our profile.

It is very much hoping to "do Plan A better" as Evatt said to much chagrin. I've no doubt he's talented. But as has been said to death, our problems are not due to a lack of talent (they are to some extent, but as they say, HWBTWTDWH)

[The_Gun]

In fairness, I do think our main need is a player with his footballing attributes. My concern is around paying such a high fee, in January, for another mid-20s player.

[boltonboris]

His footballing attributes mean little if we have nobody of substance to do the dirty work. If we had the latter, we would already have the former on the books

[GhostoftheBok]

Screenshot 2025-01-06 142843.png (242.06 KiB) Viewed 585 times

[GhostoftheBok]

You'd imagine the weather could have an impact on timetables, but we'll see how quickly they've been able to dot all the i's.

[BWFC_Insane]

If we are going to pay a million quid or over then it really is ridiculous imho.

He’s played almost all his career in the lower leagues. He’s 25. He’s not unlike the litany of technically gifted midfield players we already have.

It’s just hope that he happens to rock up on form and fires us up rather than ‘yeah he’s the missing piece’. But even ignoring judgement on what we need, I find us paying million pound fees for players in their mid 20’s who have had a season or two at best of success (at the level we operate at) completely off putting when we have a history of signing players for far far less in relative terms who have done an awful lot more.

Maybe Randall will unlike the long list of other expensive fees we’ve paid tip the balance. Nowt against him. Who wouldn’t want away from that chairman?

But in 1995 we signed Gudni Bergson from premiership Spurs. We paid £60,000 ish for him. In today’s terms that would be spending circa £150,000. One of Rioch’s few cash signings. Also one of the absolute best.

For the money we are spending we shouldn’t be getting good players. They should be absolute instant game changers. Players that drive the team, show the physicality and speed of a league above and make the sort of difference you expect from players of a higher level.

We’ve spent similar amounts on a number and to my mind every single one hasn’t come close - not even a millionth of the way to where a Bergsson or a Farrelly who cost tiny amounts in comparison could take us,


I could go through them but there isn’t a single player we’ve signed in the last two seasons I’d be happy for us to have spent Rioch’s record fee of £400K on let alone over a million quid.

[Bertie Wooster]

Personally I think that Randall would be a good signing, as we need someone creative in midfield - however IMO you couldn't play Randall & Sheehan in the same side.

You are correct however that none of Evatt big money signings (big money by League 1 & recent BWFC standards) have been game changers or even close to it.

Any signings need to be instant starters, not part of his bingo machine approach or be rotated game to game - they need to be players who are certain starters and players to build a team around.

[BWFC_Insane]

I just don’t think we should be paying huge fees for lower league players in their mid twenties. We should be investing in younger end players who could become significant assets or players who have more experience and have played at higher levels.

[boltonboris]

There's one teeny tiny problem signing 25 year old players "that drive the team, show the physicality and speed of a league above and make the sort of difference you expect from players of a higher level."

They're generally playing at a higher level

[GhostoftheBok]

When we do have younger players in the squad people complain about the inevitable development process and want them dropped or sold.

Nobody is allowed a dip or they're useless and have to go.

We had that with Morley. We're getting it now with Thomason.

If the only acceptable signing is a peak-age proven Championship player then the market will be somewhat challenging.

[Bertie Wooster]

There's one teeny tiny problem signing 25 year old players "that drive the team, show the physicality and speed of a league above and make the sort of difference you expect from players of a higher level."

They're generally playing at a higher level

We don't need a big physical midfielder with the physicality & speed of a league above - we need one who can do it at League 1 level to get us promoted at some stage, I'm sure that there are 1 or 2 in League 1 that would improve us significantly and within our price range, the issue however is that Evatt doesn't appear to want a player such as this.

[Bertie Wooster]

When we do have younger players in the squad people complain about the inevitable development process and want them dropped or sold.

Nobody is allowed a dip or they're useless and have to go.

We had that with Morley. We're getting it now with Thomason.

If the only acceptable signing is a peak-age proven Championship player then the market will be somewhat challenging.

Thomason has been struggling for a while now (therefore its a lengthy dip....) & IMO we need better if we are ever to be promoted from League 1 - btw I bet that the club would entertain a £1M bid now !

[boltonboris]

There's one teeny tiny problem signing 25 year old players "that drive the team, show the physicality and speed of a league above and make the sort of difference you expect from players of a higher level."

They're generally playing at a higher level

We don't need a big physical midfielder with the physicality & speed of a league above - we need one who can do it at League 1 level to get us promoted at some stage, I'm sure that there are 1 or 2 in League 1 that would improve us significantly and within our price range, the issue however is that Evatt doesn't appear to want a player such as this.

I was quoting BWFCI mate

[boltonboris]

When we do have younger players in the squad people complain about the inevitable development process and want them dropped or sold.

Nobody is allowed a dip or they're useless and have to go.

We had that with Morley. We're getting it now with Thomason.

If the only acceptable signing is a peak-age proven Championship player then the market will be somewhat challenging.

Thomason has been struggling for a while now (therefore its a lengthy dip....) & IMO we need better if we are ever to be promoted from League 1 - btw I bet that the club would entertain a £1M bid now !

I bet Thomason would, too.

Thomo's is a symptom of our struggles rather than a cause in my opinion. He deserves tremendous credit for going from a bit-part player to club captain in less than 2 years. Because he has a great work ethic, professionalism and has shown such a growth that it was impossible to ignore him.

But it's a lot. Seemingly so soon. To have all that responsibility for such a lack of experience. I don't blame him for this dip and I really do back him to get out of it. When the team starts to improve, so will he. I think we're asking too much for him to be the catalyst for the teams' improvement. Maybe having somebody like Randall will be the making of him. He certainly looked impressive when Maghoma was alongside him taking that lateral pressure away and allowing somebody to have more of the ball than him