(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

2 minutes ago, Anderson said:

Disappointingly and annoyingly, I'm not sure he'll pull on on a Bolton shirt again... 

 

Another to add to the Evatt shit list by all accounts, he certainly doesn't seem to have desires to return. 

I suspect not. If we meant it with the lad we'd have not loaned him out without signing a contract.

He's a free agent come January.

8 minutes ago, Anderson said:

Disappointingly and annoyingly, I'm not sure he'll pull on on a Bolton shirt again... 

 

Another to add to the Evatt shit list by all accounts, he certainly doesn't seem to have desires to return. 

We've offered a contract he’s stalling. We did his rehab and sent him out on loan to get ready and play competitive football. Not much more we can do and we might not even have a clause in place 

He probably wants assurances on his playing time before signing the contract and we couldn't give it to him after a long term injury.

If he keeps playing well at Vale then maybe Evatt will give him that game time but if Vale get promoted he might want to stay there where he feels more appreciated.

 

He's obviously still not fully fit 15 games into the season.. Played 63 minutes today.  Too early for him to come back January's fine.

Politic would make a great impact sub for us, he just adds something a bit different.

Why IE can’t see that he offers more than Katchinga or Delf is beyond me.

Must admit it crossed my mind today watching Kachunga that we'd been Ali Dia'd. 

shady shit. crack on.............

Tweeted Iles asking about Politic the other day and it does seem like we have a January recall option. If Amaechi doesn’t work out, I’d definitely be happy to have Dennis back.

He can’t do any worse than Kachunga or Delf. 

Club looked after Politic when he was injured, they've offered him a new deal, he turned it down, they offered him a second improved deal and it's still on the table as far as I know.

Not sure the club can do any more.

51 minutes ago, Traf said:

Club looked after Politic when he was injured, they've offered him a new deal, he turned it down, they offered him a second improved deal and it's still on the table as far as I know.

Not sure the club can do any more.

They could send Big Al round with baseball bats.

8 hours ago, Traf said:

Club looked after Politic when he was injured, they've offered him a new deal, he turned it down, they offered him a second improved deal and it's still on the table as far as I know.

Not sure the club can do any more.

I don't think we've offered him a second improved contract, have we?

Must admit I didn’t know about another contract offer 

Either way, Politic could come back, prove his worth then get an improved contract. 

He's not getting a massive one in league two with port Vale.

Perhaps Stockport will come in for him.

As we all know,  we are in desperate need of goalscorers,   who and where do you think we are looking at ?    League 2 ,league 1 ?    A couple that look to fit the bill are Telford at Newport and scully at Lincoln,   (although they are both dwarfs).    

Could look at Stockton at morecambe to play alongside one of said dwarfs.   

Championship striker -    would they come ?   Cant see it. 

9 minutes ago, W.cramp said:

As we all know,  we are in desperate need of goalscorers,   who and where do you think we are looking at ?    League 2 ,league 1 ?    A couple that look to fit the bill are Telford at Newport and scully at Lincoln,   (although they are both dwarfs).    

Could look at Stockton at morecambe to play alongside one of said dwarfs.   

Championship striker -    would they come ?   Cant see it. 

All premier league clubs will have a Dapo who isn’t going to make it at that level or needs to go out on loan.

I have no idea who they are but if our scouting set up is good, they’ll be aware of who’s available. I reckon this is the route we’ll go down.

Just checked on Sogndal too, their season finishes 27th November so Darcy is only a month away from returning. He’d be a better option than Kachunga 

36 minutes ago, W.cramp said:

As we all know,  we are in desperate need of goalscorers,   who and where do you think we are looking at ?    League 2 ,league 1 ?    A couple that look to fit the bill are Telford at Newport and scully at Lincoln,   (although they are both dwarfs).    

Could look at Stockton at morecambe to play alongside one of said dwarfs.   

Championship striker -    would they come ?   Cant see it. 

Armstrong, ex us and Blackburn's a dwarf, but it didn't stop him scoring for fun at Rovers.

How far does our scouting network stretch? surely there's some talent to be spotted in North Africa and Scandinavia, and all on peanuts salary wise, there must be a Mahrez or an Eider out there, all about widening the net.

23 minutes ago, DomRepWanderer said:

How far does our scouting network stretch? surely there's some talent to be spotted in North Africa and Scandinavia, and all on peanuts salary wise, there must be a Mahrez or an Eider out there, all about widening the net.

Well, that's one way of going about it I suppose. 

1 hour ago, DomRepWanderer said:

How far does our scouting network stretch? surely there's some talent to be spotted in North Africa and Scandinavia, and all on peanuts salary wise, there must be a Mahrez or an Eider out there, all about widening the net.

We’ve got a match in 2 weeks time where good contacts can be made if we use our time wisely

3 hours ago, Biggish Dave said:

Just checked on Sogndal too, their season finishes 27th November so Darcy is only a month away from returning. He’d be a better option than Kachunga 

3rd to 6th place in that league progress into a playoffs that go on for for another month after that, so Darcy may not return until the end of December (if Sogndal make it through all the playoff rounds).

They’re currently 5th, 6 points ahead of the team in 7th with only 4 games to play, so looks likely that they’ll make it to the first round at least.

1 hour ago, DomRepWanderer said:

How far does our scouting network stretch? surely there's some talent to be spotted in North Africa and Scandinavia, and all on peanuts salary wise, there must be a Mahrez or an Eider out there, all about widening the net.

Unfortunately our scouting department doesn’t stretch that far - I’m fairly certain it’s British Isles only.

I understand why fans want us to be scouting far and wide but the added costs far outweigh any marginal benefit you get. Plenty of talent available in the home nations to make a team capable of pushing for promotion in League One.

3 hours ago, Biggish Dave said:

Just checked on Sogndal too, their season finishes 27th November so Darcy is only a month away from returning. He’d be a better option than Kachunga 

Hasn't got on the pitch in their last 3 games and remember Sogndal are playing in the Norwegian 2nd division.  I like Darcy, but don't think he's going to be the answer to our problems this season.

If I had to assess our squad strength on who is capable RIGHT NOW to play at Championship level it would be:

Top Level: Dapo, MJ Williams, Kieran Lee, Gethin Jones

Potential but unclear: Dixon, Santos, Johnston, Declan John, Aimson, Sheehan, Bakayoko.

Underperforming or not good enough: Doyle, Delfouneso, Kachunga, Liam Gordon, Brockbank, Thomason

 

So out of those 17:

4 are good enough to play higher level

7 have shown potential or glimpses of quality but have either been inconsistent, injury prone or had too many off days.

6 are not ready to make the step up

 

Not saying the last group are all shite or can't improve but at the moment they're not at the standard we'd need in our starting 11 to push for Automatic promotion in my opinion. I think Doyle works really hard and helps the team in that respect but he's just not scoring right now, can argue whether that's lack of service or whatever, but for me a centre forward can make their own chances and doesn't need it put on a plate. Gordon has filled in well when needed and I like Thomason too.

If we can replace or upgrade on those 6, then the replacements might get the best out of the 7 in the grey area, or will expose if they really aren't up to scratch.

Best case scenario: Politic, Amaechi and Darcy come back firing and that's already some better attacking options.

But in January definitely need a new fullback, some cover for MJ would be useful, a number 10 and a striker also high up the list.

Gethin Jones as top class raised a chuckle

17 minutes ago, Kane57 said:

Gethin Jones as top class raised a chuckle

Been one of our best players this season and look much worse without him.