Summary of January business (2 Viewers)

robbiekeane

Well-Known Member
Arrivals

Conor Chaplin (Permanent)

Part of the loan deal from the summer loan window, made the permanent move from Portsmouth. Everyone was absolutely screaming and frothing at the mouth to “ANNOUNCE CHAPLIN” and absolutely no one else would do at all. Baka got nothing but shit from day one for simply not being Conor Chaplin. Rumoured to be around £500k. Jury still out clearly but all the raving lunatics were losing their shit over the prospect of not securing him because big bad SISU were tight.

Bright Enobakhare (Loan - end of season)

Centre forward/AM from Wolves on loan. So far so good. Good addition to bolster attacking options which we seem to have been screaming for (despite having about 10 strikers).

David
Meyler (Loan - end of season).
29 year old centre mid from a championship club with over 100 Premier league appearances in his career. Hopefully that bit of bite/aggression we have been lacking unless we played Doyle and sacrificed a space for a more competent player at this level. This really does look to be a decent bit of business on paper!

Charlie Wakefield (permanent 18 month deal)
Right back/right mid Signed from Chelsea’s U23s. Looks to be one for the development squad but I think to be honest we heard that about Hyam and others who have turned out to get a chance in the first team but I guess it takes the pressure off. Solely going on videos alone (I know I know) he looks to be able to beat his man and get the ball into dangerous areas. Happy with this signing on paper.

Declan Drysdale (Perm from Tranmere rovers)
Defender. Agreed compensation and signed from Tranmere, with a view to joining the U23s. Seems to be one from the future and I for one am happy to see us strengthening the U23s to give us future options.

Michael Rose (Perm from Ayr United, joins in summer)
Defender. As above he joins in the summer. 23 years old and the Ayr fans seem to be pretty sad to see him go. Has played a lot of senior games in Scottish football albeit Scottish Championship level. Looks to be a good prospect another option next year. Nice to get those things done in advance.


Departures

Jonson Clarke-Harris (Perm to Bristol Rovers)
Not bothered about this one really. For a big bad bloke who was supposed to have a bit of a gangster attitude and was covered in tattoos, he fell over and got bitched about quite a lot. Missed a couple of sitters and was never prolific in front of goal. I am not sure Robins would have signed him if it wasn’t part of the deal from season before. Good to get him off the wage bill as he’s clearly not part of robins plans.

Michael Doyle (Perm to Notts County)
Bit gutted about this from a sentimental point of view but Doyle clearly wanted to play week in week out whether that was here or somewhere else if not. Obviously a leader and would have been good to have around the dressing room but we got Meyler who can hopefully fill that same role and it’s no question if it’s a choice between the two. Looks like he’ll be back anyway and would have been on a fair whack so good to free up the funds to facilitate some of the arrivals.

Abu Ogogo (perm Bristol rovers)
But if a bizarre signing really cause he was apparently class last year then dog shit when he got here. He obviously wasn’t playing and rumours of a bad attitude so see ya.

Tony Andreu (Loan to Hamilton)
Didn’t fit into our system and couldn’t really back playing deeper in midfield. Never really lived up to the hype and was supposed to be our marquee signing last year so probably a pretty costly fringe player. Right move.


All in all I am pretty happy with that. Shame we couldn’t get another decent winger over the line but not sure what happened there with that other bloke from West Brom. Think Meyler will be an important signing for us and I’m glad we got rid of the players who weren’t playing and clearly weren’t happy to warm the bench. Not good for morale banging into players who aren’t playing.
 

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shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Just catching up after I passed out early last night. Seems a decent bit of business.

Do we think this Chelsea lad might slot in with Sterling this year?
 

lord_garrincha

Well-Known Member
The only negative was that they couldn't sell the 'WELCOME KYLE' banners, they have had up in Ryton since Monday, before the deadline.

Joking aside, it seems the window target was to balance the books. Which they have done without weakening the 1st 11.
 

Nick

Administrator
The only negative was that they couldn't sell the 'WELCOME KYLE' banners, they have had up in Ryton since Monday, before the deadline.

Joking aside, it seems the window target was to balance the books. Which they have done without weakening the 1st 11.
The 11 has been strengthened.

Is getting rid of players who weren't going to play a bad thing?
 

Philosoraptor

Well-Known Member
The 11 has been strengthened.

Is getting rid of players who weren't going to play a bad thing?

It will be interesting to see how the form moves after these changes.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Squad as it stands:

GK: Burge/LOB/Addai
RB: Sterling/Grimmer
LB: Brown/Mason/McCallum
CB: Willis/Hyam/Davies/Thompson/Those kids we signed whose name I forget
CM: Meyler/Kelly/Westbrooke/Bayliss
RW: Thomas/Wakefield
LW: Shipley/Allassani
ST: Chaplin/Hiwula/Bakayoko/Ponticelli/Enobakhare

Have I missed anyone? (Edited: I think it needs to be set out as a 4231 not a 442 really but I’ve not had enough coffee to work that out)

Seems OK for the rest of the season, seems light up front though, which is a worry for a team with scoring problems.
 
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lord_garrincha

Well-Known Member
The 11 has been strengthened.

Is getting rid of players who weren't going to play a bad thing?

Yes... so not weakened then.

I don't see balancing the books as a target being a bad thing either, therefore it's good they have left. Otherwise, I would have joined in with twitter and just said 'ANNOUNCE RELEGATION' instead.
 

AFCCOVENTRY

Well-Known Member
We can sign out of contract players. So maybe a striker.

Did Ben Turner find a club after being released yesterday?
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
We can sign out of contract players. So maybe a striker.

Did Ben Turner find a club after being released yesterday?

Doesn’t look like it. Got a calf injury apparently so might be waiting until that’s resolved before he signs for someone.

I’d take him back.
 

better days

Well-Known Member
Yes... so not weakened then.

I don't see balancing the books as a target being a bad thing either, therefore it's good they have left. Otherwise, I would have joined in with twitter and just said 'ANNOUNCE RELEGATION' instead.
It's not just balancing the books, we have to keep the wage bill within the FFP rules so people had to go out for new guys to come in
Thinking about it that is balancing the books too......
 

TheDube

Active Member
Not sure, but there could be a bigger picture to the January business, especially deadline day. With Ogogo, Doyle and JCH, I'm assuming they're some of our top earners - this may allow us to sit down with the three that are out of contract at the end of the season with a bit of extra cash and hopefully keep one or two of them.
 

lord_garrincha

Well-Known Member
Not sure, but there could be a bigger picture to the January business, especially deadline day. With Ogogo, Doyle and JCH, I'm assuming they're some of our top earners - this may allow us to sit down with the three that are out of contract at the end of the season with a bit of extra cash and hopefully keep one or two of them.

It depends on how much Robins wants to keep them... he may be looking at players in similar situations at other clubs. If that is the case, lets hope they will be better than the 'Shrewsbury Two'!
 

Somerset Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Squad as it stands:

GK: Burge/LOB/Addai
RB: Sterling/Grimmer
LB: Brown/Mason/McCallum
CB: Willis/Hyam/Davies/Thompson/Those kids we signed whose name I forget
CM: Meyler/Kelly/Westbrooke/Bayliss
RW: Thomas/Wakefield
LW: Enobakhare/Shipley
ST: Chaplin/Hiwula/Bakayoko

Have I missed anyone?

Seems OK for the rest of the season, seems light up front though, which is a worry for a team with scoring problems.
Add ponti to the strikers.
 

TheDube

Active Member
It depends on how much Robins wants to keep them... he may be looking at players in similar situations at other clubs. If that is the case, lets hope they will be better than the 'Shrewsbury Two'!
Agreed, but you'd have thought he may look at selling one of them to get some money if it wasn't realistic we could keep them, from a business point anyway
 

Gibbo

Well-Known Member
Will Wakefield play if Sterling and Thomas are fit?
As Doyle and Ogogo were not 1st choice, it really means all we lost was a striker in JCH (who was appearing as a sub every game so almost counts as a regular) and gained a strong midfielder. We needed the beef in midfield so that is a plus. All the rest are trimmings.
Will the midfield be Meyler and Westbrooke?
 

Nick

Administrator
Will Wakefield play if Sterling and Thomas are fit?
As Doyle and Ogogo were not 1st choice, it really means all we lost was a striker in JCH (who was appearing as a sub every game so almost counts as a regular) and gained a strong midfielder. We needed the beef in midfield so that is a plus. All the rest are trimmings.
Will the midfield be Meyler and Westbrooke?

Guess it depends how close bayliss is to fitness. Also him and Kelly.
 

TheDube

Active Member
Don't think we lost anything in the centre of midfield other than Doyle's dressing room presence, I enjoyed the style of football at the start of the season with him in it and we were more patient, but Kelly and Bayliss made the two positions their own and i'd expect it to continue too
 

covcity4life

Well-Known Member
Squad as it stands:

GK: Burge/LOB/Addai
RB: Sterling/Grimmer
LB: Brown/Mason/McCallum
CB: Willis/Hyam/Davies/Thompson/Those kids we signed whose name I forget
CM: Meyler/Kelly/Westbrooke/Bayliss
RW: Thomas/Wakefield
LW: Enobakhare/Shipley
ST: Chaplin/Hiwula/Bakayoko

Have I missed anyone?

Seems OK for the rest of the season, seems light up front though, which is a worry for a team with scoring problems.
bright needs to be number 10 not wing and shipley shouldnt be left wing either now we are league 1. looks like not getting a winger may haunt us for rest of season as he will have to play hiwulla out there i guess
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
Pretty underwhelming really.
 

Old Warwickshire lad

Well-Known Member
Looks like we have put height and bite in centre midfield. We have two pacey wide men, and any two from Bakayoko, Hiwula , Chaplin and possibly Pontichelli up front.
Think most of us will be happy with that.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
Looks like we have put height and bite in centre midfield. We have two pacey wide men, and any two from Bakayoko, Hiwula , Chaplin and possibly Pontichelli up front.
Think most of us will be happy with that.

So we have the same failed forward line and a player whose career clearly in sharp decline
 

smileycov

Facebook User
Will Wakefield play if Sterling and Thomas are fit?
As Doyle and Ogogo were not 1st choice, it really means all we lost was a striker in JCH (who was appearing as a sub every game so almost counts as a regular) and gained a strong midfielder. We needed the beef in midfield so that is a plus. All the rest are trimmings.
Will the midfield be Meyler and Westbrooke?
would thomas and wakefield not play either side and switch wings during game. That may be decent. Hopefully we play 2 up top, and chaplin gets to sit on Baka or Brights shoulder and we can see if he really is the striker we all believed he was. With Meyler in the middle doing what Doyle did last year (but hopefully better!) and either kelly (away) westbrooke or bayliss alongside that be a cracking midfield.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
I forgot Enobakhare as well,let’s give them a chance before we write them off Grendel.

I’m not writing anyone off but just because players played in the premier league two years ago means nothing
 

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