Transfers in?

A1bertz

Well-Known Member
Are we working on anything? Anyone know?
I know there have been several names thrown around but curious if those who know are aware on us actually working on anything in the way of a January boost to our squad.
 
I'm sure we'll bring in some quality, this windows about getting rid of a load of fringe players and keeping our best
 
Wages freed up from King, Murphy & Docherty should allow us to go & bring someone in, whether that’s permanent or on loan.

Grezda too. Forgot about him.
 
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With King and Docherty going, Polster a possibility and Aribo moved forwards, I would say a midfielder has to be the main target. After that I would say a striker, someone like Campbell. Being greedy I would like cover at left back as well.
 
I don’t think we will see anyone coming in at all, unless it’s a ‘project’ player for next season. I certainly don't see a ‘starter’ coming in; January is not the time to be spending big as fees are vastly inflated.

For me, this month is mainly about hanging on to our first team regulars and shifting out some fringe players and deadwood. No major outgoings and I will be content.
 
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I can assure you Bournemouth will not be allowing Solanke to leave.
The only player I could see us getting from them would be Jordan ibe. Gerrard knows him from liverpool he's a right side attacker which I think that's what we're after. He's not been playing regularly this season very talented player who's career has stalled a bit.
 
With potentially up to 5/6/7 squad players having left or leaving before this window shuts we definitely need to bring in two (probably loan deals).

Morelos being a marked man by the bigots and refs in this country is also a worry, if he was missing for a considerable period of time we'd be asking Defoe at 37 to play potentially 3 high intensity games a week at some point.

The potential financial rewards are also massive in the next 6 months winning the league and getting past another couple of rounds in Europe could be worth over £30m and for that reason we need to at least bring in 2 players minimum to strengthen the squad in key positions.
 
In order of priority:

With the outgoings, we badly need a midfielder either just as cover or, preferably, who can step in to challenge the incumbents. If the right player were available then we could go for a right sided forward so that Aribo becomes the additional midfielder.

If Tav’s time out is at all uncertain then we need a bit more cover at right back.

A back up striker has been needed for a while and the names being mentioned sound the right profile but it will be hard to find someone good enough willing to sit third in line.

A back up left back who can actually join the attack would be nice.

I think we’ll get one or - at most - two.
 
I don’t think we will see anyone coming in at all, unless it’s a ‘project’ player for next season. I certainly don't see a ‘starter’ coming in; January is not the time to be spending big as fees are vastly inflated.

For me, this month is mainly about hanging on to our first team regulars and shifting out some fringe players and deadwood. No major outgoings and I will be content.
Agree with this, unless we lose someone then I expect at most we may get another option off the bench. To be honest that is all we would need imo if anything at all. On performances so far this season I think all have earned their right to head into the second half of the season full of belief that they are the men to win us 55.
 
In order of priority:

With the outgoings, we badly need a midfielder either just as cover or, preferably, who can step in to challenge the incumbents. If the right player were available then we could go for a right sided forward so that Aribo becomes the additional midfielder.

If Tav’s time out is at all uncertain then we need a bit more cover at right back.

A back up striker has been needed for a while and the names being mentioned sound the right profile but it will be hard to find someone good enough willing to sit third in line.

A back up left back who can actually join the attack would be nice.

I think we’ll get one or - at most - two.

I reckon in terms of capable of playing in each position you mention, we now have (assuming Doc, Polster and Murphy are leaving):

Midfielder: Jack, Davis, Kamara, Arfield, Aribo, Halliday, Edmunson

Striker: Morelos, Defoe, Stewart

Right back: Tav, Flanagan, Patterson

Left back: Borna, Flanagan, Halliday

you’re correct in the sense that if we suffer injuries to multiple players or areas of the team we could short of cover, but we are reasonably well covered due to the ability of a number of players to play more than one position.

I don’t think there’s any point signing players to fill the squad, they have to be capable of challenging for a first team place now or in the near future.
 
Might make a late move for Campbell. Offer Stoke £200k-£400k and see what they say.

If not then we try and tie him in a pre contract and let the tribunal set the fee.

That's if we are even interested in Tyrese Campbell?
 
I reckon in terms of capable of playing in each position you mention, we now have (assuming Doc, Polster and Murphy are leaving):

Midfielder: Jack, Davis, Kamara, Arfield, Aribo, Halliday, Edmunson

Striker: Morelos, Defoe, Stewart

Right back: Tav, Flanagan, Patterson

Left back: Borna, Flanagan, Halliday

you’re correct in the sense that if we suffer injuries to multiple players or areas of the team we could short of cover, but we are reasonably well covered due to the ability of a number of players to play more than one position.

I don’t think there’s any point signing players to fill the squad, they have to be capable of challenging for a first team place now or in the near future.

Agree with you on the strikers but a better third option would be ideal. Stewart is very good as a second striker but not that great up by himself.

At left back, Flanagan and Halliday do not replace Barisic. They are completely incapable of playing in the same way, Flanagan more than Halliday. They simply cannot support the attack or be an outball. Playing them changes our shape completely and that is not ideal.

At right back, the same is true though Polster may be kept as a much better option than either Flanagan or Halliday on the other side. Patterson is meant to be a fairly direct replacement for Tav and I’ve no problem playing him if he’s ready but that’s on the management team to decide whether he is up to it yet.

At midfield, you can take Halliday and Edmundson off your list. Halliday can do a job if absolutely needed but is not of the quality required for the run in. Edmundson could perhaps play defensive mid but it’s not his position so let’s not go back to the McCoist days if we don’t have to. And you are slightly double counting Arfield and Aribo who tend to play right inside forward. If they are in midfield then we are lacking further up. We could play Ojo or Jones or Barker but all feel a step down from Aribo at present. If you put either of them in the forward line then you are left with 4 senior players of quality to play in 3 positions at a time when card counts are toting up and injuries may become more common.

If there is one area we need more players, it’s centre mid. Especially if we can get one of quality to challenge the incumbents. Or a quality right forward to put Aribo and Arfield definitely into a midfield berth.
 
Agree with you on the strikers but a better third option would be ideal. Stewart is very good as a second striker but not that great up by himself.

At left back, Flanagan and Halliday do not replace Barisic. They are completely incapable of playing in the same way, Flanagan more than Halliday. They simply cannot support the attack or be an outball. Playing them changes our shape completely and that is not ideal.

At right back, the same is true though Polster may be kept as a much better option than either Flanagan or Halliday on the other side. Patterson is meant to be a fairly direct replacement for Tav and I’ve no problem playing him if he’s ready but that’s on the management team to decide whether he is up to it yet.

At midfield, you can take Halliday and Edmundson off your list. Halliday can do a job if absolutely needed but is not of the quality required for the run in. Edmundson could perhaps play defensive mid but it’s not his position so let’s not go back to the McCoist days if we don’t have to. And you are slightly double counting Arfield and Aribo who tend to play right inside forward. If they are in midfield then we are lacking further up. We could play Ojo or Jones or Barker but all feel a step down from Aribo at present. If you put either of them in the forward line then you are left with 4 senior players of quality to play in 3 positions at a time when card counts are toting up and injuries may become more common.

If there is one area we need more players, it’s centre mid. Especially if we can get one of quality to challenge the incumbents. Or a quality right forward to put Aribo and Arfield definitely into a midfield berth.

I think that is the point I am making around double counting though. We have a versatile squad with a number of players capable of playing different positions, you only need 11 on the park at a time.

I think we have 5 strong players capable of playing in 3 central midfield positions, you're right to say that Edmundson and Halliday would be emergency deployments but you'd need to be very unlucky with injuries / suspensions before we ended up with one of them having to play there.

You're also right around the fact that if one of our full backs were to get injured, we'd lose something, however these are two of our best players, there's not a team in the world that doesn't suffer from injury to one of their best players. I with the squad we have we should be able to adapt our style of play to adjust for a short term injury to one of our full backs.

Signings need to be either capable of improving the first 11, or of players that are capable of improving it in the future in my view. Signings like George Edmundson is what we need if we are to be focused on squad improvement.
 
I think that is the point I am making around double counting though. We have a versatile squad with a number of players capable of playing different positions, you only need 11 on the park at a time.

I think we have 5 strong players capable of playing in 3 central midfield positions, you're right to say that Edmundson and Halliday would be emergency deployments but you'd need to be very unlucky with injuries / suspensions before we ended up with one of them having to play there.

You're also right around the fact that if one of our full backs were to get injured, we'd lose something, however these are two of our best players, there's not a team in the world that doesn't suffer from injury to one of their best players. I with the squad we have we should be able to adapt our style of play to adjust for a short term injury to one of our full backs.

Signings need to be either capable of improving the first 11, or of players that are capable of improving it in the future in my view. Signings like George Edmundson is what we need if we are to be focused on squad improvement.

Agree on there being no point in just signing numbers. But the back ups we have for full back, particularly on the left, are just completely incapable of playing in the way that we are set up. If that’s for a game or two then fine but if it was longer it would be a huge blow. I’m not meaning we need to have someone as good as Tav or Barisic (though that would be nice), but just someone who can actually attack effectively.

Before the break, there were several games where we played without a single recognised central midfielder on the bench. The plan seemed to be to put Aribo there and bring on Ojo if there was a problem. But that is far from ideal. We remain light in central mid so any recruitment should be focussed there or right sided forward to free up one of our midfielders.
 
I don't think we need to bring anyone in this month. We have no need to go out and make any panic buys. We might need to spend 70m in the summer though to close that gap between us and the scum (remember that?) :rolleyes:
 
Agree on there being no point in just signing numbers. But the back ups we have for full back, particularly on the left, are just completely incapable of playing in the way that we are set up. If that’s for a game or two then fine but if it was longer it would be a huge blow. I’m not meaning we need to have someone as good as Tav or Barisic (though that would be nice), but just someone who can actually attack effectively.

Before the break, there were several games where we played without a single recognised central midfielder on the bench. The plan seemed to be to put Aribo there and bring on Ojo if there was a problem. But that is far from ideal. We remain light in central mid so any recruitment should be focussed there or right sided forward to free up one of our midfielders.

I think Aribo has played most of his football at centre mid so he's a perfectly capable backup there. That was at a time when we had Davis out injured and players like King and Docherty in the squad, but they still couldn't get themselves on to the bench. So as you say there's no point adding numbers for the sake of it.

You're right that losing Borna would require a change in style, but for a short absence and against most of what we will come up against we should be able to manage. Hopefully young Maxwell is getting closer, otherwise we should be trying to sign another young player with potential to do what Borna does but who's happy to be backup for now.
 
I think Aribo has played most of his football at centre mid so he's a perfectly capable backup there. That was at a time when we had Davis out injured and players like King and Docherty in the squad, but they still couldn't get themselves on to the bench. So as you say there's no point adding numbers for the sake of it.

You're right that losing Borna would require a change in style, but for a short absence and against most of what we will come up against we should be able to manage. Hopefully young Maxwell is getting closer, otherwise we should be trying to sign another young player with potential to do what Borna does but who's happy to be backup for now.

Agreed. But, if Aribo is stepping into midfield (which I agree he could) then, at present, we would be looking at a significant step down at right forward, unless Ojo or Jones step up or Stewart convinces Gerrard. There are options. But, if we were to buy one player then those areas are the ones where we could most do with improved depth (by a player who can genuinely challenge).

Left back is where we have zero strength in depth but we are unlikely to get someone to challenge Barisic so it would be more of a ‘numbers’ signing which is less appealing though perhaps necessary if we can identify a young prospect.
 
This will most likely be nothing but Rangers called my work looking for a place for a new signing, they enquired about a flat at £800 pcm

I will try find out more as they haven't viewed yet, i think if it was a big signing they would be looking for something a bit more expensive but who knows.
 
Pretty sure another central midfielder will arrive to push Jack, Davis & Kamara. I think the manager is banking on Aribo being the answer on the right side of attack and the only proven quality back up we have for either position is Arfield.
 
1 exciting signing, similar to the pedigree Aribo came with. I’ll wager that’s what we will see :)
 
SG confirms no arrivals unless a player gets sold. Disappointing tbh, with the amount of games ahead, the league within touching distance and a real chance of euro progression, I was hoping for one more push from the board to get a few quality players in. Think this might hurt us in the long run
 
SG confirms no arrivals unless a player gets sold. Disappointing tbh, with the amount of games ahead, the league within touching distance and a real chance of euro progression, I was hoping for one more push from the board to get a few quality players in. Think this might hurt us in the long run
Gerrard always keeps his cards close to his chest, there will be an incoming player but i see no reason why it should hurt us, we have done very well so far with the squad we have.

Nothing to fear for the 2nd half of the season
 
Our DoF has created some room for a new signing with the outgoings. Personally I would like to see a striker coming in. With Tav being out it will be intriguing to see who comes in as a replacement. Is Patterson ready or do we go for experience?
 
Gerrard always keeps his cards close to his chest, there will be an incoming player but i see no reason why it should hurt us, we have done very well so far with the squad we have.

Nothing to fear for the 2nd half of the season
After all the headlines and stuff that's been written about morelos you can guarantee Gerrard will be giving them nothing no info for headlines. I think we'll bring in one and it will be a high wages loan a right side attacker it will be a big one similar to Defoe I reckon
 
What kind of quality are we going to get to come in and be 3rd choice striker?

More than comfortable with Stewart as 3rd choice

In terms of a third striker maybe someone around the 19-21 mark who’s just outside of an EPL squad on loan but has potential.

Not knocking Stewart but he’s only scored 15 goals since August 2016. We saw last season in the league cup semi what happens if you don’t have strength in depth up front with Sadiq the only available striker we has that day and it costing us a place in the final.

If Morelos and Defoe were out at the same time however unlikely that might be we could face a potential scenario of going to old Trafford with Stewart as the only available striker in our squad for a last 16 Europa league tie.

Far too much on the line to just hope that we are lucky with injuries in the business end of the season.
 
Grezda's wage freed up will be a good saving, Docherty going to Sunderland I would imagine they would be picking up his wages but King? I would be surprised if we covered all his wage if any and Murphy going to Burton? No chance a club like Burton will be paying Murphy's wage, Hes on around 10K a week apparently.....
 
Gerrard always keeps his cards close to his chest, there will be an incoming player but i see no reason why it should hurt us, we have done very well so far with the squad we have.

Nothing to fear for the 2nd half of the season
Appreciate your optimism, but just look at the tav scenario. We lose a massive attacking threat for 2 weeks and will need to play either a kid or guys who have hardly kicked a ball. I just dont want us come end of season to be saying "what if"
 
Appreciate your optimism, but just look at the tav scenario. We lose a massive attacking threat for 2 weeks and will need to play either a kid or guys who have hardly kicked a ball. I just dont want us come end of season to be saying "what if"
I understand that but its the same if Barisic gets injured aswell, we can replace like for like in most areas bar the fullback positions, thankfully we have a good run of games at home so hopefully we should be ok.
 
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