Transfer News 2024 January Window Preview

[Nadi-]

We also need a RB

I’ve mentioned Farrugia four times now, and so really disappointed I didn’t mention it on the turd occasion.
Realistically we need 2 for every position, so whether we play 3/4 at the back, can only see Long and Stevens fighting over it

 

[Foley]

We also need a RB

I can't see us getting another right back unless Stevens leaves ( on the basis that Long is not out Ling term)

 

[bazzer9461]

I can't see us getting another right back unless Stevens leaves ( on the basis that Long is not out Ling term)

Hang on you’re talking a bit like me

 

[Jaboysmith]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1733480771313095076

 

[Dilla]

How realistic is getting our January signings done in time for the Carlisle game on the 13th Jan?

Just seems obvious if we want to keep up the promotion push to get any signings in as soon as possible. Especially a striker or two!

 

[Joey]

How realistic is getting our January signings done in time for the Carlisle game on the 13th Jan?

Just seems obvious if we want to keep up the promotion push to get any signings in as soon as possible. Especially a striker or two!

Plymouth signed 3 players by the 4th January last year with another on the 9th, which was their last of the window.

It might be we need more than that but I'd be very disappointed if we didn't have at the very least a striker in the door before Carlisle and no reason that we can't have the majority of our business done by then.

 

[Archieyellow]

Plymouth signed 3 players by the 4th January last year with another on the 9th, which was their last of the window.

It might be we need more than that but I'd be very disappointed if we didn't have at the very least a striker in the door before Carlisle and no reason that we can't have the majority of our business done by then.

Would hope that a striker and a winger will be in by then

 

[Osei Yaw]

I trust Ed will have started January window planning at the start of September.

Prove me right Waldron.

 

[oufc1991]

I hope we have found a striker we need one in the first week of the window then we can start filling the other positions that either need cover or a player to improve what we already have

 

[greatunclekip]

Ah January. The month where we get told to F off by more strikers than South Yorkshire Police

 

[Nadi-]

Well Charles’s value has just dropped

 

[oufc1991]

Well Charles’s value has just dropped

How did he miss that surely it was easier to score

 

[Coffin dodger]

How did he miss that surely it was easier to score

He's just read Mark Harris' autobiography.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

F**king mental that Pompey can suffer the loss of their 20 goal a season talisman to injury, yet have a centre-forward with the goal scoring ability and all-round quality of Yengi come in as back-up.

How the other half live.

Meanwhile we still need the equivalent of both.

 

[greatunclekip]

F**king mental that Pompey can suffer the loss of their 20 goal a season talisman to injury, yet have a centre-forward with the goal scoring ability and all-round quality of Yengi come in as back-up.

How the other half live.

Meanwhile we still need the equivalent of both.

And for both of them to not cost the 400k combined......

 

[Osei Yaw]

F**king mental that Pompey can suffer the loss of their 20 goal a season talisman to injury, yet have a centre-forward with the goal scoring ability and all-round quality of Yengi come in as back-up.

How the other half live.

Meanwhile we still need the equivalent of both.

Is it f*****g mental? I don't think it is. Portsmouth have been pretty well run for a while now, haven't they?

They signed Bishop on 21 July 2022. For comparison, that was the date we signed Ed McGinty (who absolutely could be a 20 goal a season striker for all we know). 2 days prior to that, we signed Stuart Findlay. Of course we had to wait for that one because he had to stay and help his existing club, or something. Either way it was the height of professionalism from us - waiting around to give an expensive 4 year contract to someone who had barely played on the other side of the Atlantic for the best part of 2 years. And one day after Portsmouth signed Bishop, we announced Yanic. So they were making moves like Bishop, whilst we were pinning our hopes on players with question marks all over them.

Despite that disaster of a summer window, we still (somehow) had Robinson in charge 12 months ago. He was overdue the sack by at least 3 months, but we had invested a lot of time in a leopard changing his spots and Tim was also getting along fine with his bodyguards, so it was deemed that there was no need to try and change anything for a further 2 and a half months.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure of the club had slowly been ripped out, until it started collapsing. Our then Head of Recruitment had been getting ignored for ages and was being lined up by Derby. As a result, with an outgoing Head of Recruitment, Robinson phoning it in and some fairly clueless senior leadership, I don't think it's that much of a coincidence that our January window consisted of the likes of Tyler Smith and Konate.

I think the only serious transfer window we've had, where grown ups were running the show and actually had something to work with, was the most recent summer window. Karl Robinson told a room of people (many from this forum) that it was really hard to sign strikers because 'Matty Taylor is the number 9 here so others are unlikely to come'. He said this whilst Ipswich were on their way to scoring 101 league goals through the rotation of Chaplin, Ladapo, Hirst, Broadhead and others. So that was the sort of attitude we had, and unfortunately it had assumed control of our recruitment for quite some time. So as far as I'm concerned, it's not worth getting too hung up on who we haven't signed in all but the most recent transfer window.

In terms of the summer just gone, it was widely reported we missed out on Marriott there, but we did pick up both Harris and Perkins. Granted, we missed the elusive fox-in-the-box, but we were at least fishing it the right waters. It's a shame that Perkins clearly hasn't worked out and the 'could Harris be a goalscorer at this level?' gamble doesn't look to have paid off, although at least he does offer the team something. We also had a considerable amount of work to do elsewhere other than just up front. That's not to say 'oh well, that's fine then'. I know Portsmouth signed Yengi on 2 July 2023 but at that point, we were still almost 2 months away from getting an actual left back in, after god knows how many seasons without one. Portsmouth ended the season unbeaten in 11, so I daresay their squad didn't require quite the same level as fixing over the summer as ours did, considering we ended ours scrabbling around for points against Cheltenham and FGR.

My point being is that, whilst we can obviously compare the current state of our squad to others, it's a little pointless as ours only started to get properly assembled within the last 6 months. There was years of complacency before then, but I don't think anyone (in the right places of the club) is being complacent now. I think McEachran, Thorniley and Rodrigues all got announced the day the summer window opened, so hopefully we will see something similar in January. We're considerably more organised now, so hopefully that mythical £400k is aimed at a more realistic target than the likes of Evan Ferguson.

 

[holdsteady]

Is it f*****g mental? I don't think it is. Portsmouth have been pretty well run for a while now, haven't they?

They signed Bishop on 21 July 2022. For comparison, that was the date we signed Ed McGinty (who absolutely could be a 20 goal a season striker for all we know). 2 days prior to that, we signed Stuart Findlay. Of course we had to wait for that one because he had to stay and help his existing club, or something. Either way it was the height of professionalism from us - waiting around to give an expensive 4 year contract to someone who had barely played on the other side of the Atlantic for the best part of 2 years. And one day after Portsmouth signed Bishop, we announced Yanic. So they were making moves like Bishop, whilst we were pinning our hopes on players with question marks all over them.

Despite that disaster of a summer window, we still (somehow) had Robinson in charge 12 months ago. He was overdue the sack by at least 3 months, but we had invested a lot of time in a leopard changing his spots and Tim was also getting along fine with his bodyguards, so it was deemed that there was no need to try and change anything for a further 2 and a half months.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure of the club had slowly been ripped out, until it started collapsing. Our then Head of Recruitment had been getting ignored for ages and was being lined up by Derby. As a result, with an outgoing Head of Recruitment, Robinson phoning it in and some fairly clueless senior leadership, I don't think it's that much of a coincidence that our January window consisted of the likes of Tyler Smith and Konate.

I think the only serious transfer window we've had, where grown ups were running the show and actually had something to work with, was the most recent summer window. Karl Robinson told a room of people (many from this forum) that it was really hard to sign strikers because 'Matty Taylor is the number 9 here so others are unlikely to come'. He said this whilst Ipswich were on their way to scoring 101 league goals through the rotation of Chaplin, Ladapo, Hirst, Broadhead and others. So that was the sort of attitude we had, and unfortunately it had assumed control of our recruitment for quite some time. So as far as I'm concerned, it's not worth getting too hung up on who we haven't signed in all but the most recent transfer window.

In terms of the summer just gone, it was widely reported we missed out on Marriott there, but we did pick up both Harris and Perkins. Granted, we missed the elusive fox-in-the-box, but we were at least fishing it the right waters. It's a shame that Perkins clearly hasn't worked out and the 'could Harris be a goalscorer at this level?' gamble doesn't look to have paid off, although at least he does offer the team something. We also had a considerable amount of work to do elsewhere other than just up front. That's not to say 'oh well, that's fine then'. I know Portsmouth signed Yengi on 2 July 2023 but at that point, we were still almost 2 months away from getting an actual left back in, after god knows how many seasons without one. Portsmouth ended the season unbeaten in 11, so I daresay their squad didn't require quite the same level as fixing over the summer as ours did, considering we ended ours scrabbling around for points against Cheltenham and FGR.

My point being is that, whilst we can obviously compare the current state of our squad to others, it's a little pointless as ours only started to get properly assembled within the last 6 months. There was years of complacency before then, but I don't think anyone (in the right places of the club) is being complacent now. I think McEachran, Thorniley and Rodrigues all got announced the day the summer window opened, so hopefully we will see something similar in January. We're considerably more organised now, so hopefully that mythical £400k is aimed at a more realistic target than the likes of Evan Ferguson.

When he said the thing about Taylor (who was well into his 30s, had started to pick up injuries and his legs had virtually gone anyway) he then sent him on loan very soon after for the rest of his contract, it was just more Robinson B*****s. Other than Taylor our forward signings under him were the odd loanee like the Smiths or the crocks Mackie, Baldock and Winnall. We got Taylor because he was a local lad, no hard work involved.

Basically Robinson was phoning in being a manager for a fair bit of his time here, forwards maybe harder to sign but not as hard as he made it seem, he just never fancied putting the work in.

 

[Nadi-]

Cogs have always turned slowly in recruitment here.

 

[Shosho]

I’m intrigued if we decide to put Harris out wide and therefore free up a regular starting position for a Ladapo type. If Ipswich, for example, or Luton were to loan us a striker they want to be assured of minutes.

Possibly moving Harris and opening up the #9 will ensure that rather than ‘yeah, we will play him…in rotation so will either get 60 or 40mins a match’ we will become an attractive place to loan to.

Who knows, we may even be looking to sign permanently from abroad if we feel the options here are limited/don’t represent value.

 

[yellowbow]

I’m intrigued if we decide to put Harris out wide and therefore free up a regular starting position for a Ladapo type. If Ipswich, for example, or Luton were to loan us a striker they want to be assured of minutes.

Possibly moving Harris and opening up the #9 will ensure that rather than ‘yeah, we will play him…in rotation so will either get 60 or 40mins a match’ we will become an attractive place to loan to.

Who knows, we may even be looking to sign permanently from abroad if we feel the options here are limited/don’t represent value.

Fred Onyedinma is a player I’ve always rated, despite the ‘shoutgate’ incident at Wembley. Think he’s on loan at Rotherham at the moment