Transfer News January Changes

Have heard Celtic have approached us over Parker returning to work under Lennon - not sure if anyone has heard similar?
 
Have heard Celtic have approached us over Parker returning to work under Lennon - not sure if anyone has heard similar?
Never even heard mention of him since joining us mid 2019. We seem to have more backroom staff than players.
 
What about Cooper? Rumour is he is homesick so maybe his contract will be terminated or loaned back to his old club.

Think Eastwood will stay till the summer and be back up. Hall, Hanson, Mous unregistered from the squad. Shodipo sent back.

Bring Osei back in, sign 1 x cb, 1 x rb, 1 x left winger and another centre mid to cover Gorrin.
 
Surprised to see Nathan Holland being suggested. Although he is bound to be available for loan, he hasn't played any football since having his loan spell cut short with us through injury and has taken a while go get back to fitness. Can't find anything to suggest he has even played for West Ham U23s yet this season and they've played 9 league games.

Do we want to sign another player who will take time to get up to full match fitness?

Of the 22:
- Hall and Hanson should definitely be offered out on loan/full transfer.
- If Sykes and KR aren't seeing eye to eye then it wouldn't surprise me if Sykes is offered out for a transfer.
- If there are personal issues for Cooper then letting him leave on loan/full transfer could well be an option.
- New talk of a centre-back might suggest that it's a replacement for Mous and he gets de-registered to concentrate on coaching.

There's 5 slots potentially freed up and that's before evaluating the loanees.

The bigger issues has been mentioned higher up - is anyone going to want to take the likes of Hall/Hanson?
Neither have played much/any football this season, and if the shoe were on the other foot, I wouldn't want them to be coming into the club for that reason.
 
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Surprised to see Nathan Holland being suggested. Although he is bound to be available for loan, he hasn't played any football since having his loan spell cut short with us through injury and has taken a while go get back to fitness. Can't find anything to suggest he has even played for West Ham U23s yet this season and they've played 9 league games.

Do we want to sign another player who will take time to get up to full match fitness?
It's because people want the Holland of then, not the Holland of now....I guess :unsure:
 
Annnnnd there we go - just announced: https://www.premierleague.com/news/1922063
I remember being scalded for suggesting we would have to go back to the bad old days of work permits. If anything is even 1% worse than it was before, it’s a bad decision. Oh well!

EDIT: I wonder how far ahead the recruitment people are actually looking in terms of squad structure for next season. The age and salary caps might be a complete and utter con but they’re here now. You can still build a ‘core’ squad of 23 senior players fairly easily though, even if it’s a stitch up:

2 x GK
2 x RB
2 x LB
4 x CB
6 x CM
2 x RW
2 x LW
3 x ST

Just have the fourth choice CB and the sixth choice CM as 19/20 year olds, plus one of the backup full backs, wingers or the third striker, and you’re good to go. When we got promoted from L2 Lundstram, Ruffels, Kenny and O’Dowda would’ve been outside the cap as they were all 21 or under at the start of the season - ditto the likes of Ledson, Rothwell and Martinez the season after - so it can be done. So long as there’s firm planning, so that recruitment is based on the boxes that are empty and which need names in them. That’s my biggest concern over the current recruitment strategy - we don’t seem to always shop based on where the gaps are. It looks more like we occasionally get sucked into signing players we like the look of in isolation, and worry about how it fits together later. A bit like needing bread and milk and coming back with haribo and a bottle of tango. Only in our case it’s needing a full set of balanced defenders but we keep coming back with wingers and attackers, and half of those are gambles based on highlight videos.

We’ve already got 23 players over the age of 21 let alone those who aren’t, hence why we can’t even fit Osei in, so it’s nothing to do with not being able to afford 22 senior footballers. We just have to be willing to actually fill in the blanks and stop getting distracted by mystery boxes and sexy punts in areas that aren’t necessary. If we could actually move towards a world like this starting in January I would be nearly as delighted as that time we played Notts County at home in August 2015, and our starting lineup was a perfect 1-11 in terms of squad numbers 😍
 
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Have heard Celtic have approached us over Parker returning to work under Lennon - not sure if anyone has heard similar?
Not sure that would be a good move.
Lennon will in all likelihood be fired in the next few weeks.
 
I remember being scalded for suggesting we would have to go back to the bad old days of work permits. If anything is even 1% worse than it was before, it’s a bad decision. Oh well!
From an England perspective I am not sure this is a bad thing?
It also stops lower league clubs bringing in cheap foreign players, again not a bad thing?
 
With regard to Sykes, I believe that his contract ends at the end if the 20/21 season and he wouldn't sign an extension.
I wouldn't be surprised if he leaves in the new year especially if we can get a small transfer fee with add ons
 
I remember there was talk of a possible Sykes move to Stoke (think he knows the manager). Not sure if this is still likely, however.

Trouble with Hanson is he's sitting on a lovely well paid contract and unless we pay that off he's going nowhere. Plenty of people talking about a new DM, we wouldn't need one if he was the N'Golo Kante everyone thought he would be! Shouldn't be in the squad.
 
I remember there was talk of a possible Sykes move to Stoke (think he knows the manager). Not sure if this is still likely, however.

Trouble with Hanson is he's sitting on a lovely well paid contract and unless we pay that off he's going nowhere. Plenty of people talking about a new DM, we wouldn't need one if he was the N'Golo Kante everyone thought he would be! Shouldn't be in the squad.
Has Hanson ever had a proper run in Gorrins position? He’s not a great passer but he can certainly tackle
 
If he stayed fit long enough for a run of games , maybe , but he seems to be made of glass!!!
 
Has Hanson ever had a proper run in Gorrins position? He’s not a great passer but he can certainly tackle
Never had a proper run in any position let alone Gorrin's. And Gorrin is the man for Gorrin's position!
With Hanson it's reaching a point where it must be odds on that he will never be fit enough to play more than the occasional game or two.
He'd be top of my list to ship out, but no club would look at him seriously.

Others for the removal van: Hall, Kelly, Sykes and Shodipo.
 
Never had a proper run in any position let alone Gorrin's. And Gorrin is the man for Gorrin's position!
With Hanson it's reaching a point where it must be odds on that he will never be fit enough to play more than the occasional game or two.
He'd be top of my list to ship out, but no club would look at him seriously.

Others for the removal van: Hall, Kelly, Sykes and Shodipo.
Think sending Kelly out is a bit harsh, although will it be him or McGuane that is the fall guy when Brannagan comes back?
 
Not sure that would be a good move.
Lennon will in all likelihood be fired in the next few weeks.
From what I’ve been told Lennon will be staying (mainly due to the lack of anyone else to take over)...so plan B is to get the old band back together and attempt to make it work
 
Think sending Kelly out is a bit harsh, although will it be him or McGuane that is the fall guy when Brannagan comes back?
Hopefully Cam will replace Kelly, who is a lightweight in every respect, especially stamina.
McGuane is at least beginning to show potential, if only he can stop himself making that extra turn and that extra touch...he looks best when he keeps it relatively simple.
 
Hopefully, once they are all fit and available, Gorrin, Cam, Kelly & McGuane can rotate in that middle three, allowing more recovery time each, without the need to weaken the side after an hour each game...
 
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