As usual I'll update as we go... Incomings Karl Darlow - Newcastle (loan until the end of the season) Malcolm Ebiowei - Crystal Palace (loan) Aaron Connolly - Brighton (loan) Yuriel Celi - Carlos A. Mannucci (2 1/2 year deal - undisclosed fee - immediately loaned out again to Club Universitario de Deportes in Peru) Harry Vaughan - Oldham Athletic - Permanent Outgoings Josh Emmanuel - Grimsby Town (undisclosed fee) Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand - Arsenal - Loan cancelled Tyler Smith - Oxford (on loan until the end of the season) Harvey Vale - Chelsea - Loan cancelled Doğukan Sinik - Antalyaspor (on loan until the end of the season). Brandon Fleming - Oxford United (on loan until the end of the season). Andy Cannon - Wrexham (permanent - undisclosed fee) Randell Williams - Bolton (permanent - undisclosed fee) James Scott - Exeter City (undisclosed fee - presumably one we paid them) Harvey Cartwright - Wycombe Wanderers (on loan until the end of the season). David Robson - Crawley loan ended. Billy Chadwick - Boston United (one-month loan deal).
I think it'll be almost certain the outgoings out number the incomings. For me we need a depth up top, midfield enforcer type as a min, plus the palace lad is almost done by all accounts. So I reckon 3/4 incoming tops
Forgive me but I keep seeing mention of 'the Palace lad' .. who is it, what position etc .. I must have missed the great unveiling.
Crystal Palace winger Malcolm Ebiowei, we're trying to get him on loan, but have competition (Swansea are very keen, as are a couple of others). We're hoping that the fact that Rosie worked with him when he was at Derby is going to swing it our way.
I keep seeing people saying we need a holding midfielder, a striker or a defender but hardly anyone seems to mention the area where we really are light on good options which is wingers. The Ebiowei link makes a lot of sense. The holding midfielder thing seems to be an artifact of Shota's reign when it was often said we were overrun in midfield. That's certainly not the case now so I'm not sure why so many people still want a new midfielder.
We definitely still get overrun in midfield, we just notice it less as we control the ball much better. A proper ball winner takes our midfield up a level as Slater, Woods, Docherty cannot do it
I thought against Watford Seri, in the second half, was winning and taking balls higher up the pitch than he usually does. Looked much better.
Watford fans actually say they are weak in midfield now, which reminds me of Cardiff who were definitely even worse in midfield. So if given the space we want in midfield we can definitely do well. But not all teams have a weak midfield. I'm still more worried about our defence when put under pressure. I would like to see a confident mobile keeper because that confidence could spread to the defence, Lo-Tutala definitely has that but he's not has the opportunity to prove himself as a shot stopper. We have capable shot stoppers but the problem has been passing out. Figueiredo didn't help and Mcloughlin coming in may help a bit. But I don't believe it's proven to be solved yet.
Rosie has said that he wants a squad of 24 (HDM), we currently have 30. He's looking at bringing in 3/4, if it's going to be 4, then we need to get rid of 10.
I suspect the 24 may be a number he is aiming towards for next season, I can't see the club being able to shift 10 out the door in January tbh
I also think given the injuries we have, we can’t afford to get rid of too many too early. I appreciate Allahyar and Tetteh etc will be back soon hopefully, but there’s no guarantee how quickly they’ll get up and running.
If we're controlling the ball now but still getting overrun in midfield, then I'm not sure what getting overrun in midfield actually means.
When they have the ball they just bypass them? Woods didn’t complete a tackle against Watford leaving seri to take on that role alongside being our main outlet in possession.
Cannon gone Williams Scott Emmanuel Vale Simons Who else? Pelkas maybe now he’s practically finished for the season That’s 6 arguable definite plus a maybe in Pelkas