January Transfer Window Rumours

[CoolClaret]

Assist for Whittaker today at home to Bristol C.

Lovely chipped cross to the back post after beating the FB on the outside.

Would be nice to see our wingers do similar instead of continually coming inside.

Yep, I spotted that as well.

He's also a big lad, young, has an eye for goal and has a track record of scoring in this league... If it's a feasible option (Obafemi part-ex or whatever), then it's an absolute no-brainer for me.

[NewClaret]

Yet in the first half today we played a great ball over the top for a central striker to run on to.
And E-R very often plays his long cross field balls into space for our wingers to run on to.

I do often think you are watching a completely different game to me.

Which one was that? I don’t recall it? Jay was running on to it if it was first half, I assume? I’ve just watched the highlights back and it wasn’t featured so you’ll have to jog my memory.

Just to reiterate, as I’m not sure if you’ve followed the thread of my posts or just picked up on one, but the discussion was about having a fast striker that we could play in behind. I said I don’t think it would matter as we never play balls in behind to the striker. They make runs. Lots of them, but they just seem to be dummy runs because we pass it sideways to the fullback every time instead. So my point was, I don’t think a fast striker would help much.

In respect to the wingers, I acknowledged that these are the only players we ever seem to play balls in front of, to run on to. That tends not to come from CJ, rather the midfield when we’ve created an overload on one side, dragged them across, then looked to switch quickly. Incidentally, Stoke stayed in shape today and didn’t allow that to happen.

CJ rarely plays them in front. I’d say 95% are to their feet when they are stood on the touch line, not in behind. They then look to the full back to make a run in behind. CJ plays a lot of balls in to the wingers but count how many are to feet vs in behind.

To be honest I think that’s the whole problem with our attacking play. Everything to feet, all behind the defensive line, pretty much nothing to space that might stretch them. As my son said to me today “every pass is to their back foot”, which was a phrase I’d never heard before but very true.

[NewClaret]

No links but todays game showed that we have to be in the market for a creative number 10, a winger and a striker in this window.

We can’t rely on benson and Ramsey for months yet and Tresor doesn’t exist.

Sarmiento is a player with quality but isn’t ever going to be the main creator

Think this is spot on.

[Vegas Claret]

No links but todays game showed that we have to be in the market for a creative number 10, a winger and a striker in this window.

We can’t rely on benson and Ramsey for months yet and Tresor doesn’t exist.

Sarmiento is a player with quality but isn’t ever going to be the main creator

The consensus with Ipswich fans was he never did enough for them when he started but had lots of really good and high quality moments when he came on as sub - I think we are seeing similar and Ipswich were far more dynamic than we are.

[123EasyasBFC]

The consensus with Ipswich fans was he never did enough for them when he started but had lots of really good and high quality moments when he came on as sub - I think we are seeing similar and Ipswich were far more dynamic than we are.

He does drift in and out of games to much, first 20 minutes he looked like he was going to take the game on himself, then went quiet. Always looks annoyed when he’s subbed. I think he will have some big moments for us but he’s not someone to be resting our attacking threat on.

I think if the club are banking on the current squad and couple of players coming back from injuries to click then we will just miss out on automatic promotion

[Vegas Claret]

I think if the club are banking on the current squad and couple of players coming back from injuries to click then we will just miss out on automatic promotion

100% nail on the head

[Vegas Claret]

I just listened to Chris Wilder's post match interview - they are looking to sign 2-3 at least and he's very confident of getting them.

[BigGaz]

Can someone tell me who this prolific striker might be and how much he will cost in a historically notorious, difficult January window?

The more I watch us the more I come to the conclusion that a new striker is putting the cart before the horse.

Sarmiento, Koleosho, Hannibal, Anthony, Laurent and whoever else has played in behind our striker are not generating enough chances.

How many times this season have we seen no one in the box when we're building up. How many times has a player opted to pass back or go in field when in a crossing position?

In various games this season it's been remarked upon my many that Foster, Flemming, Jay, Hound are on the periphery of a game and have struggled to get involved.

If few chances are going into whoever's up there, then what's the point of a new striker, what are they going to do differently? Unless of course we manage to unearth some hidden gem with an absolutely insane chance conversion rate that no one else knows about and is within our budget.

[Murger]

Totally pointless signing a striker when we don’t create anywhere near enough.
We need at least 2 new wingers (for each side) who can actually beat a man and put a decent ball in.
Then Parker has to stop playing Flemming as a number 9 and play as a 10.

[Woodleyclaret]

We had one of the best around in Anass Zaroury but stupidly let him go.When we knew Benny was out long term we never replaced him.
Also signing a box finisher is essential if promotion not just pretending is Paces true aim

[Sapperclaret73]

Totally pointless signing a striker when we don’t create anywhere near enough.
We need at least 2 new wingers (for each side) who can actually beat a man and put a decent ball in.
Then Parker has to stop playing Flemming as a number 9 and play as a 10.

Amen!

[KlyBfc]

The more I watch us the more I come to the conclusion that a new striker is putting the cart before the horse.

Sarmiento, Koleosho, Hannibal, Anthony, Laurent and whoever else has played in behind our striker are not generating enough chances.

How many times this season have we seen no one in the box when we're building up. How many times has a player opted to pass back or go in field when in a crossing position?

In various games this season it's been remarked upon my many that Foster, Flemming, Jay, Hound are on the periphery of a game and have struggled to get involved.

If few chances are going into whoever's up there, then what's the point of a new striker, what are they going to do differently? Unless of course we manage to unearth some hidden gem with an absolutely insane chance conversion rate that no one else knows about and is within our budget.

Absolutely spot on and whative been saying to those around me for months. A striker alone solves nothing. Runners, quick play, bodies in the box, bravery, beating players one v one etc all needs to occur from all our attacking players as we go forward.

[Lakeland Claret]

We had one of the best around in Anass Zaroury but stupidly let him go.When we knew Benny was out long term we never replaced him.
Also signing a box finisher is essential if promotion not just pretending is Paces true aim

Wasn't Benny injured during the Blackburn game ...the day after the window closed ?

Also Anass didn't want to stay by all accounts

[Row x]

Wasn't Benny injured during the Blackburn game ...the day after the window closed ?

Also Anass didn't want to stay by all accounts

Anass certainly wanted away, plus he hadn't really done much after the first 3 or months or so, either here or on loan. Not sure what he's done since he left.

It was the Blackburn game where Benson was injured

[agreenwood]

I don’t think Anass is pulling up any trees at Lens either. Doesn’t appear to always start.

His last consistent run of form was in 2022.

[Hedontplayforyou]

Do you mean interest from us, or in general?

Just in general. Having said that, trying to have a poke about online looking at potential targets for this window is difficult, you always like to have a mess around with the unknown entity from abroad and YouTube scout him

A 5 minute mess around brought me to Daan Rots at FC Twente, left footed right winger with 1 year and a years option left on his contract.

But more in tune suggestions I could think of for the right hand side were

David Brooks from Bournemouth (loan)?
Tom Fellows from WBA ? Possible prem interest in him, maybe too expensive .
Buendia linked with Leeds ?

Difficult to see where this creativity will come from. Hopefully the club have some lined up and surprise us.

[jlup1980]

We've got too many sicknotes and / or poor players in the squad, which will hamper our activity in the window. Financially they must be costing a fortune. We could feasibly lose 6-10 players in January without even noticing.

Would anyone really notice if a number of Ekdal, Benson, Redmond, Ramsey, Beyer, Magic Mike, Massengo, Delcroix, Worrall, Egan, Sambo, Dodgson, Agyei, or Hountondji left the club?

We're overloaded with players who simply haven't brought enough to the club. I've listed 14 players without really having to think about it, but there could be more hidden away at Gawthorpe! We need to ship out a considerable number of players to thin out the squad, and then go back to the old logic of quality over quantity, but that'll be easier said than done.

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

We do need to ship some players out but we should be looking at decent fees for the likes of Redmond and Ekdal should they go.
Two new wingers and a left back should be priority if we aren’t going to see much of Ramsey, Tresor, Benson etc.

[123EasyasBFC]

Would really like to know who sanctioned the deals
Sambo
Pires
Hountonji

Sambo was pre contract so kompany and his scouts but Pires and hountonji signed before we announced Parker, that’s nearly 5/6m on two players not at the level required

[CoolClaret]

We've got too many sicknotes and / or poor players in the squad, which will hamper our activity in the window. Financially they must be costing a fortune. We could feasibly lose 6-10 players in January without even noticing.

Would anyone really notice if a number of Ekdal, Benson, Redmond, Ramsey, Beyer, Magic Mike, Massengo, Delcroix, Worrall, Egan, Sambo, Dodgson, Agyei, or Hountondji left the club?

We're overloaded with players who simply haven't brought enough to the club. I've listed 14 players without really having to think about it, but there could be more hidden away at Gawthorpe! We need to ship out a considerable number of players to thin out the squad, and then go back to the old logic of quality over quantity, but that'll be easier said than done.

Yeah we need to get a staggering amount off the books. Even if they're not at the valuations that we'd quite like - we really need to get dependable players in ASAP.

[CoolClaret]

Would really like to know who sanctioned the deals
Sambo
Pires
Hountonji

Sambo was pre contract so kompany and his scouts but Pires and hountonji signed before we announced Parker, that’s nearly 5/6m on two players not at the level required

Some punts are fine like, but yeah, when you look at it like that, you'd prefer just one player who's proven that they can perform in this league. Heck, I'd have preferred to keep Scott Twine for what we sold him for rather than roll the proverbial roulette wheel.

[Stonehouse]

We've got too many sicknotes and / or poor players in the squad, which will hamper our activity in the window. Financially they must be costing a fortune. We could feasibly lose 6-10 players in January without even noticing.

Would anyone really notice if a number of Ekdal, Benson, Redmond, Ramsey, Beyer, Magic Mike, Massengo, Delcroix, Worrall, Egan, Sambo, Dodgson, Agyei, or Hountondji left the club?

We're overloaded with players who simply haven't brought enough to the club. I've listed 14 players without really having to think about it, but there could be more hidden away at Gawthorpe! We need to ship out a considerable number of players to thin out the squad, and then go back to the old logic of quality over quantity, but that'll be easier said than done.

Plus we’d got Obafemi out on loan.

[123EasyasBFC]

Some punts are fine like, but yeah, when you look at it like that, you'd prefer just one player who's proven that they can perform in this league. Heck, I'd have preferred to keep Scott Twine for what we sold him for rather than roll the proverbial roulette wheel.

Or use the money spent on Pires to offer Charlie Taylor a good two year deal.

How we didn’t try and get Conway for twine is beyond me, Conway would of been able to cover 3 positions

[Woodleyclaret]

Obafemi needs to part of the deal bringing in Whittaker asap

[RVclaret]

Whittaker is currently ranked in the bottom 10% of attackers in the division for creativity and getting into goal scoring positions. His work rate is poor (bottom quartile for all defensive stats) so I’m not sure he’s what we need.

[CoolClaret]

Whittaker is currently ranked in the bottom 10% of attackers in the division for creativity and getting into goal scoring positions. His work rate is poor (bottom quartile for all defensive stats) so I’m not sure he’s what we need.

He might be, but he has a track record of success in this division... Plymouth have been managed horribly this year, so I don't particularly care about this year's rankings.

[123EasyasBFC]

Whittaker is currently ranked in the bottom 10% of attackers in the division for creativity and getting into goal scoring positions. His work rate is poor (bottom quartile for all defensive stats) so I’m not sure he’s what we need.

What do you mean, sounds like he will fit right in with our current attacking options

[daveisaclaret]

Signing Whittaker now would feel kinda similar to signing Obafemi at the time we did.

[123EasyasBFC]

Signing Whittaker now would feel kinda similar to signing Obafemi at the time we did.

Completely different, when we signed obafemi we had just signed foster and already had Jay Rod and Barnes. If we sign Whittaker he will be our only right winger or winger who prefers to play on the right. Obafemi had played in a front 2 with piroe at Swansea so coming to a team who played 1 up top never made sense. Whittaker would make total sense.

However I don’t think we will sign Whittaker or any winger tbh, we are feeling the affects of a couple of unbalanced over spending windows

[warksclaret]

WE need a goal scorer end of. We are asking the likes of Brownhill, Sarmiento, Laurent , Anthony to get in the box.They are all lightweight and don't have the instincts of a proper striker. Have you not seen the physicality of defenders in the Championship.Even Barnes would have forced the ball in that Laurent headed over the bar in the last minute yesterday. Josh Brownhill has missed 3 good chances in the last 2 games-yes I know he has scored many already, but we are almost expecting him to be our main goal threat. We have too many mis fits in our squad-in striking terms. Jay (would we not all love to have his agent), Hountondji (would he even get a game in the Scottish championship if he went on loan), Obefemi (not even starting for Plymouth). Then we have Foster, fit and ready to go but cant get a start and played about 12 minutes in two games-we are going to seriously wind him up if Jay and Fleming keep getting picked ahead of him.The missed chances we missed against Boro and Stoke could now have us sitting a point above Leeds.

[KRBFC]

Whittaker is currently ranked in the bottom 10% of attackers in the division for creativity and getting into goal scoring positions. His work rate is poor (bottom quartile for all defensive stats) so I’m not sure he’s what we need.

He's had a poor season sure but the lad clearly has ability. The big thing I don't think you're considering when you write him off either is, he's currently playing for the worst side in the league, he'll get considerably more touches of the ball here and more space. There's a huge difference playing for the side bottom compared to playing with a side near the top.

[Newcastleclaret93]

I don’t get why Whittaker is even coming into the equation.

Not what we need at all.

[NewClaret]

He's had a poor season sure but the lad clearly has ability. The big thing I don't think you're considering when you write him off either is, he's currently playing for the worst side in the league, he'll get considerably more touches of the ball here and more space. There's a huge difference playing for the side bottom compared to playing with a side near the top.

Not sure he’d get more space here, likely less.

I agree you can write this lad off based on a poor half season with Plymouth but he’s exactly the opposite of what we need - young, inexperienced and out of form.

I really will despair if we don’t prioritise experience, creative players this window. We cannot keep recruiting young lads and expecting them to get results on nights like last night.

To coin a phrase, we need men.

[NewClaret]

I don’t get why Whittaker is even coming into the equation.

Not what we need at all.

Another winger that cuts inside will actually see me off I think

[CoolClaret]

I don’t get why Whittaker is even coming into the equation.

Not what we need at all.

Look at our squad - who out of them under 30 have ever scored more than 5 goals in a full season?

... That's why we need someone that can find the back of the net from different areas of the pitch.

[burnleymik]

Look at our squad - who out of them under 30 have ever scored more than 5 goals in a full season?

... That's why we need someone that can find the back of the net from different areas of the pitch.

Seems a waste when we only seem to actually want to shoot from inside the box.... We never really have trouble getting to the edge of the opposition box, it's at that point it all starts to fall apart.

[Stonehouse]

Seems a waste when we only seem to actually want to shoot from inside the box.... We never really have trouble getting to the edge of the opposition box, it's at that point it all starts to fall apart.

As I mention yesterday we had 2 free kicks within shooting range when Flemming came on and he didn’t take either after being involved in 2 goals over Christmas,and if he’s allowed to play a little deeper he’s more likely to be running on to the ball.

[123EasyasBFC]

Another winger that cuts inside will actually see me off I think

Because our current right wingers who don’t cut inside are doing good job aren’t they

[KRBFC]

I don’t get why Whittaker is even coming into the equation.

Not what we need at all.

Goals from wide areas is exactly what we need

[Superjohnnyfrancis]

We need someone like Chris Wood funnily enough to lead the line. Once we get that Flemming can drop back and have a field day threading balls through.

The wingers need to get crosses in though they are still incredibly poor at that and beating a man.

[Row x]

We need someone like Chris Wood funnily enough to lead the line. Once we get that Flemming can drop back and have a field day threading balls through.

The wingers need to get crosses in though they are still incredibly poor at that and beating a man.

We need to get that type of striker before we start putting those crosses in

At present there's nobody in the middle to take advantage of that type of cross the majority of times

[Stacks]

We do need to ship some players out but we should be looking at decent fees for the likes of Redmond and Ekdal should they go.
Two new wingers and a left back should be priority if we aren’t going to see much of Ramsey, Tresor, Benson etc.

A fee for Redmond…lol!!

He cost nothing, aging, hasn’t played in years and is on 35k per week.

Nobody would take him for free!

[Superjohnnyfrancis]

We need to get that type of striker before we start putting those crosses in

At present there's nobody in the middle to take advantage of that type of cross the majority of times

True, i think if the club are canny enough we can come out of this window with a much better team. It will take some good wheeling and dealing though.

Id sell Kolo if the £20m is still on offer.

[CrosspoolClarets]

Chris Wood is who I just mentioned to someone by coincidence. Ashley Barnes too. Not them, but a facsimile. Not sure who that version of them would be. Maybe someone really good but who can’t get many games and may be frozen out by a new signing in their current club - like a Beto or a Onuachu? We need to be looking for a win win, get a player fit and firing, enhance their value and give them back to their club in good shape, OR we loan again next year as a PL side if we go up, or buy. Some of these names may not be unrealistic on that basis.

[Superjohnnyfrancis]

Chris Wood is who I just mentioned to someone by coincidence. Ashley Barnes too. Not them, but a facsimile. Not sure who that version of them would be. Maybe someone really good but who can’t get many games and may be frozen out by a new signing in their current club - like a Beto or a Onuachu? We need to be looking for a win win, get a player fit and firing, enhance their value and give them back to their club in good shape, OR we loan again next year as a PL side if we go up, or buy. Some of these names may not be unrealistic on that basis.

Id have Barnes too just for a cheap solution/ battering ram plus hes got the passion and gets the club.

[Jakubclaret]

A fee for Redmond…lol!!

He cost nothing, aging, hasn’t played in years and is on 35k per week.

Nobody would take him for free!

Injuries aside which are unfortunate & can't be predicted so forgetting that side in isolation. Wasn't it a straight choice around that time between Andros townend & Nathan Redmond. Knowing what we now know andros townend would have been a better bet he seems to have contributed more kept himself fitter & luton even managed to get a fee from antalyaspor & would have likely been on a smaller wage.

[123EasyasBFC]

Injuries aside which are unfortunate & can't be predicted so forgetting that side in isolation. Wasn't it a straight choice around that time between Andros townend & Nathan Redmond. Knowing what we now know andros townend would have been a better bet he seems to have contributed more kept himself fitter & luton even managed to get a fee from antalyaspor & would have likely been on a smaller wage.

That’s the benefit of hindsight, Townsend had just come of a year out bad knee injury and is older, Redmond had just played a full season in turkey and was 29. It was a no brainer to sign Redmond on a free over Townsend

[Jakubclaret]

That’s the benefit of hindsight, Townsend had just come of a year out bad knee injury and is older, Redmond had just played a full season in turkey and was 29. It was a no brainer to sign Redmond on a free over Townsend

As I recall at that time townsend played in a encouraging friendly & was working his way back to full fitness as opposed to NR who was fully fit but had history of recurring injuries back to when he was at Southampton. I can remember some preferring AT & exercising caution over NR but as you say hindsights a wonderful thing & we are where we are it's done.

[Conroysleftfoot]

True, i think if the club are canny enough we can come out of this window with a much better team. It will take some good wheeling and dealing though.

Id sell Kolo if the £20m is still on offer.

Sorry, but can't see anybody paying 20 mill for Koleosho at the moment.

[Aclaret]

Id have Barnes too just for a cheap solution/ battering ram plus hes got the passion and gets the club.

I see Ashley Barnes name was mentioned in the Presser today for the rovers game.
SP obviously not giving anything away !