Departures in January very much depend on incomings. But I’d like to think January transfer window policy will be quality over quantity. So I expect us to sign 3-5 players in January. I would also expect 5-7 departures, possibly the four mentioned either permanently or on loan.
Alan Swann has this pinned to his dartboard
2 Likes
Im not sure we will do much if anything in January other than perhaps the following:
Skura I think there is a decent L1 player in there with more experience/playing time so would definitely offer him the chance of a loan in Jan.
Same with Lowry who needs to get more game time, but has real potential.
I would look to return Huggins as he isnt better than anything we have in the positions he can play.
Westergard has shown he has something in patches, like today, but clearly isn’t doing enough to force his way in ahead of the other choices especially once Josh is back to fitness, so probably needs moving on one way or another.
1 Like
Duff’s press comments would suggest otherwise. I don’t though think this window will be too dramatic though.
Can’t see us loaning our Lowry. He’s a valuable option to have on the bench and he is playing some part in the majority of games. He’s been gradually improving in my opinion. Likely to start on Tuesday, big game for him.
5 Likes
I’d completely forgotten about Huggins. Weird one, highly rated in the championship with Sunderland but unable to get anywhere near the team now.
I’m still confused by Skura, he looks excellent when he gets a chance, there must be something the coaching staff are concerned about that I can’t see.
5 Likes
You are normally the King of two things can exist alongside each other even if logic sometimes suggest they might not.
We didn’t sign Morley permanently in January because Dan Rice told Bloomfield he wouldn’t do it because the data was not good enough.
It is suggested we then made a bid to sign him on a permanent deal over the summer.
Both of those things can be true.
4 Likes
This now feels like a team where I expect a result on match days. And even if it goes against us you know they will have given it a go
1 Like
This game was all set to be a real test for the Mike Duff era and in the end we looked in control for the vast majority of it.
Orient had severe lapses in concentration in defence but we punished them clinically. Under Dodds I don’t think we’d have drawn, nevermind beaten them.
We look a confident and settled side of players who know their roles and have the freedom to play with a bit of improvisation and unpredictability that was sorely lacking under the cataclysmiccally prescriptive tactics Dodds imposed on the same players.
Was it a case of us being excellent or Orient being poor? Certainly more the former than the latter for me. We made them look very ordinary.
On another note, great credit should go to those involved with the remembrance ceremony. In a climate of politicisation of the poppy emblem by some, it struck the right tone paying respect to the sacrifices made by so many.
17 Likes
But only one of them is
1 Like
First time I’ve heard that we bid 800k over the summer for him, I’m not sure that’s true.
It is definitely true that Dan Rice told Bloomfield the data was not good enough and wouldn’t sign Aaron Morley in December last year. Whether he changed his mind later in the window I don’t know but he wouldn’t sign him on a permanent deal when MB was still at the club as the data said he wasn’t good enough.
1 Like
Agreed that I think Skura definitely has something, but who is he coming in for? We’ve seen now with a decent manager, generally decent and improved defensive performances for all so not sure he gets in ahead of the likes of Anders, Taylor, Allen, Casey.
The problem with this phrase is that it could cover such a wide scope that without context and understanding what data is being used and looked at, it means absolutely nothing.
It also gives people just enough ammunition to fire at Rice when an apparently easy and obvious signing wasn’t made, yet other big signings were.
I’ll just give you a list of numbers as an expirement.
0,
100,000
500,000
800,000
1,000,000
1,250,000
1,500,000
2,000,000
3,000,000
5,000,000
10,000,000
Using the Data we have available - Morley’s first half of last season directly but the rest of his career as a whole too - which one of those numbers would have been too big a number because the Data (his abilities) wasn’t good enough. Factor in £800k last summer was rejected.
No, it doesn’t matter what the data points were that were being used. It was the reason MB was given for not signing him by Rice, despite what had happened in the loan period up to that point.
The manager wanted to sign him, the person who had the final decision said no at the time and used data as the reason (not price). End of story.
If that subsequently changed to a yes, I’m ok with that but MB was not here when that happened.
1 Like
Wasn’t it widely reported that they did try to sign him? In that transfer window and in the most recent.
If they did try to sign him, then that statement cannot be true.
He’s played a part in most recent games, started not long back.
He’s also our only real number 10. And can play on the left cutting in.
Can’t see any reason he goes.
Same with Magnus, especially with Abbott out for a while.
A loan deal was reported in that window for a loan fee of £100k. A permanent deal was not tried whilst MB was still here. There was around two and half weeks left in the window after he left.
1 Like
And both can be conjecture.
1 Like
I’m only basing on what I’ve seen reported. But, if we were in negotiations with Bolton, we were looking to sign him. Therefore, it can’t have been data says mo kind of situation.
We can only presume, unless anyone involved in negotiations is present, that it just came down to what Bolton wanted for him. We know they signed a midfielder for a reported 1.2m in that transfer window, so its probably fair to think that’s the minimum they were wanting.
1 Like
Fair play for trying, but you have to remember that Ricicle conjecture is fact and any contrary view is made up to undermine the glorious leader.
1 Like