(That long since we've had any, couldn't find the thread)

Alan Nixon: "Top Liverpool starlet Cameron Branagan will Ben allowed out on loan in Jan.

Bolton lead the race for the 20 year old midfielder"

Edited December 11, 20169 yr by Ratwhite

We do not have the basis of a solid Championship team we have lost 6 players from the Stockport final squad plus a further 6 so 12 in total.

We ended 5th in the league and without doubt as it stands have the worst squad in the Championship.

Three of our better players last season Rodrigues, ACD, and Blackett Taylor have all struggled in the Championship. SS/Harkin will rebuild this summer but they have a tough ask and we will need major investment just to consolidate

1 hour ago, Ratwhite said:

I watched the Millwall v Hull City game and TBH, I thought we could beat them both with the team we had last season

It will be good news for Millwall that the team we had last season has lost 5 of its better players (Tutu, ACD, GJ, Dempsey, Burstow) so they'll be glad we're weaker and they might be able to give us a game 😄

4 hours ago, ZiggyStardust said:

Still the most mind boggling transfer of recent years.

Its not as if we didnt know anything about him when he signed.

I was generally supportive of Evatt - at least until Huddersfield walloped us early in the season after the Oxford debacle. But Dan being like Ivan Toney, Etete being like ‘prime Drogba’ and Randall a ‘top player’ is bordering on delusional

26 minutes ago, masi 51 said:

We do not have the basis of a solid Championship team we have lost 6 players from the Stockport final squad plus a further 6 so 12 in total.

We ended 5th in the league and without doubt as it stands have the worst squad in the Championship.

Three of our better players last season Rodrigues, ACD, and Blackett Taylor have all struggled in the Championship. SS/Harkin will rebuild this summer but they have a tough ask and we will need major investment just to consolidate

I really did not make it clear in my post that when I was talking about a ‘decent basis’ I was meaning ‘good enough to stay up’. Which I am sure changes my logic significantly.

I base that on us having a number of players from last year who played very active roles in getting us up. Obviously we need to recruit but given squad size that is pretty obvious. We need to be recruiting ‘starters’ to improve.

We have a recruitment team that in a lower division that was able to bring in Kenny and ACD so presumably now at a higher level can be looking at at least similar if not better players next season.

In the Championship I have mentioned the overall quality will be higher but there is also usually at least one basket case and I think Lincoln losing their manager will impact them massively and they are unlikely to have so many players go injury and/or suspension free as they did last year IMO.

With a summer of recruitment already underway, I will be disappointed if we can not put together a full squad that is capable of staying up. ACD would be top of that list, appreciate he did not shine at Blackburn but at 19 maybe too much of a leap, but he is now easily imo good enough to play in a regular basis for most teams in the Championship. CBT massive risk with his injury record, Kenny depends on the Celtic situation but do not think we can afford to wait till Jan this time. Of the players who have left, Tutu I would have like to stay, George J as a squad player but think we can hopefully recruit better.

4 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I agree on the mythical status thing. But just because we didn't and won't sign any of them, doesn't mean they aren't any good. At the time we were linked with Stockton we signed Vic for half a mil. And followed it up with signing Dan for £300k. If we'd signed Nombe and Stockton instead of those 2 we might have been in the championship earlier, they might not be world beaters but we paid money for worse.

Neither or both of those two would have fired us out of L1 any more than those that have tried since, including Vic, Charles, Collins, McAtee etc. Stockton had one purple patch season in L1 back in 2021-22 and regressed since, Nombe's been solid enough at the level, might well have got more for us than the clubs he's been at, but shown it to be his ceiling.

We overpaid for Vic though at the time he didn't look such a bad signing, no argument at all about Dan, a mind boggling disaster