Winter News

Talk of Calum Dyson going out to Stevenage ?

 

Looks likely that Surridge could be going to Sunderland now......

 

Been talk that Sunderland & Portsmouth have had offers for Freddie Ladapo rejected and there is concern that Charlton might be looking for a replacement striker for Huddersfield bound Karlan Grant.

 

Lloyd Jones signed on loan until the end of the season....probably will not be allowed to play against Luton on March 9th.

 

Confirmed....loan.

 

A quiet window all round really-not really sure of the point of it?

 

a 400k bid for Freddie, turned down. If he does goes we wont have time to buy anyone as its closing time at 11, hurry up 11.00

 

Interesting that Ladapo is only worth £400,000 to Sunderland....Yet Karlan Grant ex-Charlton goes to Huddersfield for a possible £2 million....ok a little younger....my son who is a Charlton season ticket holder...reckons on the grapevine that is what he went for.....Charlton surely wouldn't have let him go for less seeing that they're in a promotion situation. Both players have roughly the same scoring record this season.

 

A very quiet window for Plymouth but then again when is it not. Totally underwhelmed yet again and to be honest it isn't any surprise anymore. Why do supporters say about lack of ambition all the time? Because of precisely this.

 

And as the window slams shut there is nothing heard from a deserted Home Park. Sunderland signed a forward for £4m tonight. Yep that's 4 millions squids. But, even the freebie brigade signed more than we did.

 

I'm not convinced that price tag is right. I'd imagine its more along the lines of about 1.5m going up to about 3m with add-ons. Can't say I'm convinced by Grigg, either. Our MD used to work for Spurs so has pulled a few strings and got us Sterling from under West Broms noses, he's got a cracking reputation. The signing for us this window is Grant Leadbitter coming home. He's one of us and still a very decent player.

 

To be honest CBD whether it's £4m or £1.5 it's the fact that you can come up with sums like that and there is no way teams like Argyle could get remotely close. If you look at the transfers done there are very very few that command any sort of fee. It's just another example of the money in some of the game compared to other parts. I'm not jealous in any way although I'd guess it kind of sounds like that. There is such a gulf between the layers now that it's almost nailed on who will be going for what each season. Kind of takes the fun out of it but at least there is normally one somewhere who bucks the trend and shocks the soccer world. Perhaps it's the hope it's your team that keeps us going. Because there is such a gulf I think football is in danger of strangling itself where people will lose interest and find something else to occupy their affection. That funny shaped ball game starts tomorrow...............

 

Yeah, I get it. The thing is, though. If we are to get promoted we will no longer be a big fish in a small pond. It's just years of badly run business has seen us crash down into this league. All our years in the premier league was largely just trying not to be relegated, it wasn't any fun, or enjoyable. I like the lower leagues, it's a lot more passionate and on an even keel. If this deal does go through for Grigg, its the first time we've spent big money on a player. The rest are mainly loans and freebies. I know we never spent more than a million in the first window, although I also appreciate some teams in this league need to solely rely on free transfers. A lot of clubs have had us down as huge spenders this season when the reality is we've scrimped and saved until this Grigg transfer come along.

 

Thing is given your league position it would be strange if you didn't push the boat out a bit at least to try to return to the Championship at the first attempt. I think everyone would expect that. The fact you can do that is the point of it. Most clubs would have to go into debt to do it and risk their existence. If you stayed down for a few seasons it's surprising how quickly you become one of the herd rather than the big fish. You only have to look at clubs like Coventry as an example. Nobody looks on them as big anymore yet their top league pedigree is there in their history book. Luton were considered a big fish a long while ago and it is only now that they have an owner prepared to spend his cash to buy his way up the pile. Portsmouth have a billionaire owner again who can at least spend every penny the club makes even if he doesn't splash his own. The wages you can offer are well above the rest and that makes a big difference to class of player you get.

I did tell people on your board at the start that this was not a push over league and others had found it harder to get out of than they might think. I also pointed out it was at least more competitive and therefore interesting than the upper leagues which can be so predictable. I read your board often as I do others and I see that enthusiasm for the league in a lot of posts. It ain't so bad down here after all. I still think you will go up though but maybe at Wembley rather than automatic.

 

A little disappointed at the outcome of the transfer window.

Oscar Threlkeld and Lloyd Jones in and Peter Grant, Gregg Wylde and Calum Dyson out.

I'm not sure that Jones will be a great improvement on Peter Grant...... I feel that Grant never got a good chance at cementing a place in the first team, more experienced than Jones who has a very patchy career plus a long term injury.

I do wonder why Adams brought Calum Dyson into the squad in the first place.....I don't think he ever got a start, did he ?

Adams did jump in early for Threlkeld....played one second team game and did quite well and scored....other than that he hasn't been given even 5 minutes as a sub....so what's going on there.....he did well for us in defence last year....but Adams has pencilled him in for mid-field and although Jamie Ness is out injured he doesn't get a start.

We do seem to take a long time to get players fit after sometimes quite common injuries....do we need more experience in this field ?

 

Just popped on the Posh board to check-out the weather....but it seems that it's rather dead over there....I can only assume they have other sights that they post on.

 

I see on the Home Park cams that there is just a little covering of snow on the pitch.....BBC weather suggests that Peterborough has more sleet than snow.

Here in NW Kent we had a little snow overnight..... now turning to a fine drizzle and the snow slowly melting.

So over to BC to hear how many feet of snow they've got and how many bears have snuggled down in his wood shed.....or something similar.

 

Certainly an underwhelming transfer window but I'm glad Threlkeld is back, my kind of player, and if Jones has some pace then he could give us some balance in the CB positions.

It's noted this morning that Joe Mason has left Wolves as a free agent.

Sent from my mobile phone - E&OE

 

Yes it has been a difficult window and I am sure that we would all have wanted another 'incoming'. There appears to be a huge amount of money floating around in the Championship and L1 but it isn't just about the transfer fee. The loan market is equally difficult -For non cross border loans , the parent club continues to pay the Player's wage and the 'borrowing' club has to make a contribution to the wage of between 1% and 100%. The problem is that the wages in the Championship are so inflated that although a Champ club might be willing to send someone out on loan, they are demanding wage contributions which in some cases might be considerably more than we pay our best paid permanent players. Yes, I know other clubs seem to manage it, but at the moment we simply cant afford it.
The most pleasing part of the window is that we managed to keep hold of our better players and didn't let them go for 'Argyle' prices. I had to laugh though, we really cant win as certain people in other places are suggesting that it would have been okay to sell for the figures being bandied about in the local press- just imagine the outcry if we had..

 

Didn't let them go for Argyle prices otherwise known as nobody made a serious offer. Not so sure other clubs rate our "best" quite as highly as perhaps we do locally. When looking at transfer windows and what Argyle normally do I am drawn to that welll known Naval expression of NAAFI. For those who don't know what it stands for it isn't just the place where sailors get their pints. No Ambition And F***all Interest. That for me sums up a lot of our boards over the years.