General Jan transfer window

BS32 said:
Fair enough for the most part, however, can everyone please please please stop going on about Mackie "shithousery" as a reason for him being here, the bloke is next to useless in all honestly but leads the line for a supposed promotion contender.
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For the 2nd half of last season, and the first part of this season, Mackie's shithousery, commitment and work rate were very effective in the sense it galvanised the players and fans, and for that, he became a useful and appreciated member of the squad.

However, in the last couple of months, his influence and effectiveness in games do seem to have fallen away, and he's just not really offering much at all now, and it's looking like his role can only be expected to be as a sub, sent on to be a nuisance during the last 15mins of games, when we're protecting a lead, and looking to just see the game out, but not when we're searching for a goal!

With Taylor seemingly incapable of stringing a run of games together, and Agyei obviously being deemed not ready for the first team, not getting a quality striker in during this window was probably the biggest mistake the club made in the entire window.
 
My final thoughts on this.

I think the hand wringing has got a bit much since we have strengthened this transfer window albeit signing loanees rather than permanent signings. There’s been a lot of criticism that we don’t get signings completed quickly enough since Tiger, KR et al have been here and we finally do it this time around. Kelly, Holland and Browne should make us a better team and (if he stays fit) George Thorne will be a useful asset to take us through into May.

We signed them all early and lost two players fairly late. If it has been the other way around, we’d been thrilled so in terms of numbers in the squad not much has changed. We have wing options to replace Fosu and Thorne to replace Baptiste. It may be the case that we only need to get 18 league games out of these players to get to the end of the season and then we can assess again.

If the aforementioned Josh Clarke can come on board now he’s a free agent, that’s the RB we need. I think we’d be fools to not look at him and he’d be a sucker to not consider us bearing in mind he probably wouldn’t have to move.

As for the fees for Fosu and Baptiste, we can only guess at them. We all know what we’d ideally like from them and can hazard a guess at the Fosu fee more than the Baptiste one, but I guess we’ll never really know. I guess someday in the future we will know.
 
greatunclekip said:
I have thrown my season ticket in the bin tonight. After 25 years this board have snapped me. Although it makes zero difference this season, i fully intend to spend my saturdays elsewhere. And i will be persuading friends too.

This club is going nowhere.
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Predictions for the season

So, pre-season done. A slow burner but the last week has certainly brought it to life and showed signs we will at least be competitive. What are peoples predictions for the season? Personally, i reckon around 14th. Think we will have a tough start to the season, though not as bad as last year...
yellowsforum.co.uk yellowsforum.co.uk

And you settled for 14th place before the season started & missed Browne.......
 
Shosho said:
Really can’t stress how important a DoF is to us. No one clearly leading negotiations. If your entire ethos is to trade, as we keep getting told, you need to adequately negotiate those in and out. Would Peterborough have sold Baptiste for the reported numbers? Not a chance.
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Been saying that for an age. Robinson wanted Steve Gallen from Charlton 18 months ago. Regardless of whether or not that was a realistic aim, it shows that even he realised we needed somebody to singularly head that sort of stuff up. I would doubt that he’s changed his mind since then. I think a decent DOF type would be the most important signing we could make as a club.

Surprised to see Josh Clarke released. Could we? We certainly know that the board has seen the frustration of the fan base in the last day or two, to the point where they’re making hasty twitter comments to try to calm things. Could there be a right back yet?
 
greatunclekip said:
I have thrown my season ticket in the bin tonight. After 25 years this board have snapped me. Although it makes zero difference this season, i fully intend to spend my saturdays elsewhere. And i will be persuading friends too.

This club is going nowhere.
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So you won’t be here tomorrow then kip? Go on be a devil go rummage around your bin and find your season ticket..... just remember to wipe the bake beans off.
 
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The thing that concerned me was an interview given by Robinson recently where he said something along the lines of "we're ahead of where we expected to be at this point in the process".

Alarm bells rang immediately because it made it sound that if we missed out on minimum of playoffs this season, then there wouldn't be too much concern across the club.
 
RyanioBirdio said:
Been saying that for an age. Robinson wanted Steve Gallen from Charlton 18 months ago. Regardless of whether or not that was a realistic aim, it shows that even he realised we needed somebody to singularly head that sort of stuff up. I would doubt that he’s changed his mind since then. I think a decent DOF type would be the most important signing we could make as a club.

Surprised to see Josh Clarke released. Could we? We certainly know that the board has seen the frustration of the fan base in the last day or two, to the point where they’re making hasty twitter comments to try to calm things. Could there be a right back yet?
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How much would the wage be? Anywhere between £100k - £200k per year, maybe? And you'd hope if we brought in a good enough negotiator, they would be worth an extra £500k - £2 million a year, depending on what talent was sold.
 
This transfer window comes down, not to those who have arrived, but those who have left...Fosbapkip!!???
 
Leysboy said:
As far as the RB position goes, we did offer Columbus Crew a good bid for Cadden and they rejected it. We moved on to the next target O’Donnell and he didn’t want to leave Scotland, so it wasn’t for trying. Sam Long has been very good for us this season against massive clubs ie Man City, West Ham, and Newcastle. He hasn’t let the occasions get to him, and he’s slowly maturing into a quality RB. It’s a great opportunity for him to get the number 2 shirt for next season if he can stay consistent for the remainder of this campaign. I also think we are good in the centre of defence. I like Moore a lot, and I think he will only get better. When Mous has played he’s been outstanding, and probably had one of his best seasons for along time. Dickie is well Rob Dickie. Brilliant centre half, and has stepped up even more since Nelson departed in the summer. Ruffels is a solid LB at this level, and chips in with the odd important goal. Yes it’s not is natural position, but he applies himself superbly.

If we slip away from the promotion pack, or the playoff chase, at least we are near enough safe already. Three wins away from the magical 50. So there’s opportunities to play youngsters, just like we did last season giving Nico Jones some game time, and he did well for such a young lad. So there is no need to panic, although I understand some people’s frustration. Yes it would of been nice to bring in a striker too, but we have Taylor who will always score goals, and is a proven predator at this level. Mackie won’t score enough goals, and never has! But I love him for that great goal against Bradford that was so important, and his shithousery is second to none. Agyei is raw, but young and will develop as time goes on, and has shown glimpses of what he can do from time to time. Very pacey and will get better.

Finding strikers that score 20+ a season doesn’t guarantee success. We have players that chip in all over the pitch. Henry being the main one! So let’s not be to down hearted, and see what happens. It could be worse, and has been in the past!
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That’s okay then, but what about the other 2 or 3 RB’s that Karl has earmarked at the start of the window that were virtually done deals, and strikers?
 
We still have a good enough team to make the play offs, although admittedly with weak back up in certain positions. But in a bang average division this season it can still be done. The board seem to have shown their hand that they don't want promotion having had their fingers burnt with a previous team ownership of a Championship side, it would be interesting to hear what they say if we do manage it. Spotlight back on the board again, the goodness on the pitch has diverted the attention away from them in recent months, but at the back of everyone's mind is still what exactly do they want with our club? Having covered this years losses with the Whyte sale the cup run bonuses and now the SB undervalue sale does feel like they are clawing some of their money back which is fine but goes against everything that they have been saying. Maybe the ground development plans aren't going well and they are getting cold feet? We kind of need to know because there isn't much time to go before we actually need to start building a new ground, and there is actually no guarantee that a new lease for the Kassam Stadium will be offered if FK can knock it down instead for mega millions, and we can't rule that out now that he has agreed to do up the Priory and he is looking to get surveys done. The only constant will be fans support, and let's face it we have been in far worse situations than we are at the moment.
 
ECYellow said:
there was an insistence from him and his agent that the release clause was set at £750,000. I think that immediately demonstrates that the 3 year contract was more a security blanket than Oxford were where he saw himself for the next 3 years of his career.
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You’d still think he’d stay a season at least, especially when there’s a chance of promotion.

It concerns me when a club like Brentford e.g. no bigger than us seem to be more ambitious than us, especially when we hear the club has aspirations to get promoted to the Championship and beyond, and potentially move to a new stadium!

Makes me wonder/think that Tiger is living hand to mouth in the hope that the bigger picture (new stadium) will come to fruition as the REAL money men can then come on board?

Really disappointed with the latter end of this window when there was so much hope/belief that we were serious as a club to truly want promotion, but the actions or lack of them at the end seems to suggest otherwise.
 
Well the dust has now settled on another transfer window and I don’t think anyone can really deny it ended in quite a deflating way for all of us. Especially after all the rhetoric coming out of the club only a couple of weeks ago. One of the most concerning things for me was Robinson saying on Thursday night that it might take a few weeks for things to settle down on Thursday’s disappointment. It almost sounded as though he was admitting that challenging for promotion would be a bonus now, rather than aimed for.

I think it’s now very important that Tiger and the board communicate with the fans as soon as possible. What are their aims and ambitions for the club, do they remain the same as they have always been, or have things altered. If so, why? In short, where are they, and the club, at in the grand scheme of things regarding the ‘project’
 
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