Mantra

Doubt that's a realistic option, Arfield possibly, the rest I can't make a case for anyone unless they get injured like Dempsey for the rest of the season. I think we will sell at least one more, perhaps loan someone out too. I'd welcome any Premier League u21 player for 6 months. Means we don't allow Evatt to cause too much financial damage if he gets it wrong, but we get a raw player who could potentially have a similar effect to Bradley/Trafford/Maghoma.

League One clubs can register a maximum of 22 players per squad. Goalkeepers of any age do not count towards the 22-player squad maximum. Clubs can have as many under-21 players as they want, whether they are on loan or homegrown. Defenders: 1. Gethin Jones 2. Ricardo Santos 3. George Johnston 4. Josh Dacres-Cogley 5. Jordi Osei-Tutu 6. Will Forrester 7. Eoin Toal 8. Chris Forino 9. Szabolcs Schon Midfielders: 10. George Thomason 11. Josh Sheehan 12. Aaron Morley 13. Klaidi Lolos 14. Randell Williams 15. Jay Matete 16. Joel Randall 17. Scott Arfield Forwards: 18. Carlos Mendes Gomes 19. Victor Adeboyejo 20. Aaron Collins 21. John McAtee (These positions are according to the club website btw) So with Dion Charles leaving we only have one spot left to fill. So if we replace him like-for-like then we can't move for anyone other than players who are 21 or under. Or we sell further players.

Imagine he actually signs a couple decent players now and we push up the table and finish 1 point off the playoffs. The board will give him a new 5-year deal and a warchest

If Wycombe still manage to get promoted it will be some going

Don’t mind selling Dion tbh. As much as I love his workrate, he has missed far too many sitters. We might have gone up if he hadn’t bottled that chance v Pompey. Getting older too, may not have reached his ultimate ceiling as he’s still in his “peak years” but I’ll take a fee for him and move on without being too upset.

Don't think all the money is wasted but definitely been designated a bit sketchily recently. Still have plenty of good assets in the team. Any decent manager at this level could come in and get a tune out of them. A couple of sales and a couple of decent loans, play 442 or 433 and just let the team do something different for the second half of the season and see if we can achieve something instead of letting this situation continue to stink out the place and drive down sentiment.

Another midfielder?

*Pass the ball around the defence for 5 mins while losing* 🎵Ponderous, ponderous, ponderous Ponderous, ponderous, ponderuhhhhs ponderus-ponderus-ponderus PON DER OUS! 🎵

I’m sure it has been mentioned about our scouting that we try to recruit players based on data but also identify good professionals who want to play for us and are not just after a cushty financial package. How they assess that and how effective that is we know less of. Maybe there are leaders in the squad but the system is flawed in that it doesn’t allow them to shine or influence games enough. Or maybe they all are just gutless or too injury prone, like Dempsey who was captain of Gillingham when we signed him. And McAtee seemed the exact type of shithouse player we needed to add but haven’t seen much of that from him We have signed too many injury prone players to be fair. Perhaps they offered a better deal financially because of their history but it has come back to bite us at times. I think Fossey had a terrible injury record with his knees but it’s not so bad when it’s a loan player for half a season. Anyway I dislike the injury excuse as other teams also suffer. I’m sure Pompey lost some key men last season and still went up automatically.

As much as it drives me mad, if the board are set on keeping Evatt (I think the time has passed to sack him now the transfer window is open) Realistically with the limited squad space and the amount of money we have spent already I’d like to see us cash in on 2-4 players. I think prime candidates would be: Charles, Vic, Morley, Santos If we can generate £1-2m from all or some of those and use it to bring in a couple of fresh faces: - preferably a wingback (or 2) or transition to a winger system and bring in some talented loanees. - A proper destroyer in midfield. - and a striker with physicality and an eye for goal. Then there’s a chance we can change our fortunes in 2025 and reach the playoffs. Here’s hoping anyway!

True, it feels like wishful thinking that we bring in a saviour. It feels more likely that they’ll succumb to our contagious inconsistency rather than drag the whole team out of a slump but maybe it is the new year giving me hope 😂. Saw someone on twitter before saying Thomason needs the captaincy taken off him to unlock him. Some said the same about Santos. Is there anyone that can bear the weight of the BWFC armband 🙄.

I think one or two players can make a huge difference. I think Dapo on his own made a massive difference in the league 2 promotion. There were others but he was a game changer. I think Trafford and Bradley carried us massively in the season they were here and Maghoma to a lesser extent when he was here. But there’s many examples of one player carrying a team or leaving a gaping hole when they leave. Suarez at Liverpool, Bale at Spurs etc. obviously we ain’t getting players of that calibre but one or two who can come in and offer something different whether that is a destroyer in midfield, a clinical striker, or a wingback who can both defend AND deliver a final ball, could propel us at least into the playoffs. We have a good team and as much as I’ve hated this last few months under Evatt he can be a decent manager at times and has had us challenging before and playing some really slick stuff. If we are sticking with him until the end of the season then I hope he can recruit a couple of exciting new players and make us dream again. At the minute I really cannot be arsed with us, the team feels lifeless and boring and is crying out for an injection of something.