[Archived] The January 2018 transfer thread

[philipl]

Surely the Wharton loan is about him getting first team football regularly thinking to the future? 

[donnermeat]

4 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

A strange move loaning out Wharton. He must be starting to think what he has to do to be given a chance here. Mulgrew gets injured, Ward leaves and he's still down the pecking order enough to leave the club.

Who does Mulgrew have more confidence in? Putting Nyambe there and playing Caddis? I'd hardly be inspired with a Williams/Nyambe centre half partnership if the worst happened.

I really hope it doesn't come to having to play Nyambe at centre half, that would not end well for us or him for that matter I suspect.

[Dreams of 1995]

9 minutes ago, philipl said:

Surely the Wharton loan is about him getting first team football regularly thinking to the future? 

I have no doubt it is phillipl but you'd think now is as good a time as any to start giving him some time at Rovers. I've seen Wharton a handful of times, admittedly, but I can say hand on heart I would have more confidence in him at CB as I have in Williams. If Mulgrew's injury keeps him out for a month and Downing gets crocked on Sat we are left with barely a natural centre back with any first team experience.

[tugayislegend]

Your forgetting lenihan is ready to come back any time now!

[Parsonblue]

7 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

I have no doubt it is phillipl but you'd think now is as good a time as any to start giving him some time at Rovers. I've seen Wharton a handful of times, admittedly, but I can say hand on heart I would have more confidence in him at CB as I have in Williams. If Mulgrew's injury keeps him out for a month and Downing gets crocked on Sat we are left with barely a natural centre back with any first team experience.

Scott needs first team football at the moment as his form has dipped this season.  At the moment I'd rather play Williams at CB than Scott looking at Scott's performances over the past few weeks.  Experience in League Two will only benefit him for the future.  On his present form I can understand why Mowbray would be reluctant to throw him into the first team.

[Bigdoggsteel]

12 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

I have no doubt it is phillipl but you'd think now is as good a time as any to start giving him some time at Rovers. I've seen Wharton a handful of times, admittedly, but I can say hand on heart I would have more confidence in him at CB as I have in Williams. If Mulgrew's injury keeps him out for a month and Downing gets crocked on Sat we are left with barely a natural centre back with any first team experience.

I would imagine there is a recall option 

[philipl]

15 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

I have no doubt it is phillipl but you'd think now is as good a time as any to start giving him some time at Rovers. I've seen Wharton a handful of times, admittedly, but I can say hand on heart I would have more confidence in him at CB as I have in Williams. If Mulgrew's injury keeps him out for a month and Downing gets crocked on Sat we are left with barely a natural centre back with any first team experience.

I am a great believer in having five first team ready centre halves on the books at any time.

But we are not in the Premier League any longer.

At a guess, both Wharton and Ward have pretty robust recall provisions in their loan agreements.

 

[arbitro]

15 minutes ago, Dreams of 1995 said:

I have no doubt it is phillipl but you'd think now is as good a time as any to start giving him some time at Rovers. I've seen Wharton a handful of times, admittedly, but I can say hand on heart I would have more confidence in him at CB as I have in Williams. If Mulgrew's injury keeps him out for a month and Downing gets crocked on Sat we are left with barely a natural centre back with any first team experience.

It's an area where I would have liked to strengthen. There were/are several players for that position but I don't believe there is too much quality. I think we are still really vulnerable there and an injury, loss of form or suspension or two could kill us. 

Maybe there has been a recall clause in the loan deals for Ward and Wharton.

[G Somerset Rover]

Chapman should be back playing by mid-March:

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/15911142.Middlesbrough_loanee_Harry_Chapman_puts_timeframe_on_his_Rovers_return/

[Glosrover]

9 minutes ago, philipl said:

At a guess, both Wharton and Ward have pretty robust recall provisions in their loan agreements.

 

In the case of Ward stating that it is guaranteed not to be invoked until either the expiry of the contract, or the freezing over of Hell

[Bigdoggsteel]

27 minutes ago, philipl said:

I am a great believer in having five first team ready centre halves on the books at any time.

But we are not in the Premier League any longer.

At a guess, both Wharton and Ward have pretty robust recall provisions in their loan agreements.

 

Ward won't be coming back. Mowbray said he let him go to try and win a contract as it was the fairest thing to do at his age 

[rog of the rovers]

Good January all told in my opinion, kept Mulgrew, Dack and have a deep enough squad to challenge for promotion.

 

Ins

Adam Armstrong (loan)

Amari'i Bell (£300k)

Paul Downing (loan to permanent deal)

Jack Payne (loan)

 

Outs

Liam Feeney (loan extension) *End of contract in Summer 2018*

Rekeem Harper (loan return)

Sam Hart (loan)

Connor Thomson (released)

Elliott Ward (loan) *End of contract in Summer 2018*

Scott Wharton (loan)

Callum Wright (tribunal - youth player)

 

[Bigdoggsteel]

11 minutes ago, rog of the rovers said:

Good January all told in my opinion, kept Mulgrew, Dack and have a deep enough squad to challenge for promotion.

 

Ins

Adam Armstrong (loan)

Amari'i Bell (£300k)

Paul Downing (loan to permanent deal)

Jack Payne (loan)

 

Outs

Liam Feeney (loan extension) *End of contract in Summer 2018*

Rekeem Harper (loan return)

Sam Hart (loan)

Connor Thomson (released)

Elliott Ward (loan) *End of contract in Summer 2018*

Scott Wharton (loan)

Callum Wright (tribunal - youth player)

Jason Lowe

Jason Lowe (stayed at Birmingham) Please let him stay 

 

 

Updated slightly with an additional positive

[JHRover]

The main focus of a January window in our position is to maintain squad stability, add some quality and depth, and ensure your best players remain for the run in. We've done all 3 so whilst Mowbray gets credit for presiding over another sensible and in theory decent window he now has no excuse for not delivering on his remit of promotion.

Last thing we needed to do was start flogging assets or upsetting the apple cart with loads of big name signings. Armstrong, Payne and Bell should be very good acquisitions for this level.

I've been more relaxed about this window than in previous years when fighting relegation. The squad was good enough to begin with and 3 strong additions make it more so.

[TBTF]

Just now, JHRover said:

to do was start flogging assets or upsetting the apple cart with loads of big name signings. Armstrong, Payne and Bell should be very good acquisitions for this level.

I've been more relaxed about this window than in previous years when fighting relegation. The squad was good enough to begin with and 3 strong additions make it more so.

Totally agree JHR.

Whilst we are clearly still shopping at B&M Bargains and Venkys have not exactly bankrolled us to put '' promotion beyond doubt'', this squad I would say is the strongest in the League assuming all available and I include Wigan in that. If we don't get automatic from here its a total disaster and the effects could be pretty demoralising if we don't .

And as many have said on here, it will be more than interesting to see how the chicken pluckers approach life in the Championship. Good though we are in this league I remain to be convinced we will be much more than lower end battlers without major investment 

[JacknOry]

Just now, TBTF said:

Totally agree JHR.

Whilst we are clearly still shopping at B&M Bargains and Venkys have not exactly bankrolled us to put '' promotion beyond doubt'', this squad I would say is the strongest in the League assuming all available and I include Wigan in that. If we don't get automatic from here its a total disaster and the effects could be pretty demoralising if we don't .

And as many have said on here, it will be more than interesting to see how the chicken pluckers approach life in the Championship. Good though we are in this league I remain to be convinced we will be much more than lower end battlers without major investment 

Turn some of these loans into permanents in the summer and sort out the CB area and I think we could be good enough for midtable. Throw in a bit more investment and who knows.

[Bigdoggsteel]

29 minutes ago, TBTF said:

Totally agree JHR.

Whilst we are clearly still shopping at B&M Bargains and Venkys have not exactly bankrolled us to put '' promotion beyond doubt'', this squad I would say is the strongest in the League assuming all available and I include Wigan in that. If we don't get automatic from here its a total disaster and the effects could be pretty demoralising if we don't .

And as many have said on here, it will be more than interesting to see how the chicken pluckers approach life in the Championship. Good though we are in this league I remain to be convinced we will be much more than lower end battlers without major investment 

 

25 minutes ago, JacknOry said:

Turn some of these loans into permanents in the summer and sort out the CB area and I think we could be good enough for midtable. Throw in a bit more investment and who knows.

Now ,now fellas, don't be getting ahead of yourselves  

[RoverKyle]

If we were to sign up a couple of the loan players permanently (i.e. Chapman & Payne), I think the team would be good enough to finish mid table in the Championship, should we go up this season.

Our squad is arguably better than last season.

We've lost no first team players that we'd want to keep.

Mowbray's record in our relegation season was actually strong and we weren't losing many games. The damage was done by Coyle before that.

Saying that, should we go up we would need to sign a winger to replace Conway, potentially a RB if Nyambe doesn't continue to improve with regular gametime this season, an all rounder CM and a new number 9 (although Graham is on fire atm, it would be crazy to expect him to spearhead a whole Championship season as our main striker).

[RoverCanada]

1 hour ago, Parsonblue said:

Scott needs first team football at the moment as his form has dipped this season.  At the moment I'd rather play Williams at CB than Scott looking at Scott's performances over the past few weeks.  Experience in League Two will only benefit him for the future.  On his present form I can understand why Mowbray would be reluctant to throw him into the first team.

It's interesting you say his form for the u23s has dipped this year (understandably so given he's had injury issues), as it seems this is just ignored by some. I think it's even been suggested that Platt might have surpassed him on the depth chart (not sure if you've said that yourself...)

He did look solid in a couple appearances during the Coyle circus, though it's easy to look like a world beater compared to the likes of Greer and Brown back there... He was briefly benched during his loan with Cambridge, and then returned to their lineup with praise - I'm not saying this to knock the lad, and good on him for recovering well at Cambridge, I'm just suggesting he's still a work in progress, and he's had some injury issues to overcome, and there's nothing wrong with that.

(I'll admit I might be subconsciously biased against Wharton as I remember seeing a highlights video from an u23 game where he looked awful in a couple snippets, but that's hardly fair to him!)

I imagine the calculation is the risk of having to rely on some combination of Williams, Nyambe, or Platt at CB if two of Mulgrew, Downing, and Lenihan get injured (not sure what recall agreements on Ward and Wharton's loan deals are allowed) has been judged as lower than the benefit of Wharton getting some consistent 1st-team action rather than waiting on the bench for injuries to happen. Seems sensible to me.

[Bigdoggsteel]

5 minutes ago, RoverKyle said:

If we were to sign up a couple of the loan players permanently (i.e. Chapman & Payne), I think the team would be good enough to finish mid table in the Championship, should we go up this season.

Our squad is arguably better than last season.

We've lost no first team players that we'd want to keep.

Mowbray's record in our relegation season was actually strong and we weren't losing many games. The damage was done by Coyle before that.

Saying that, should we go up we would need to sign a winger to replace Conway, potentially a RB if Nyambe doesn't continue to improve with regular gametime this season, an all rounder CM and a new number 9 (although Graham is on fire atm, it would be crazy to expect him to spearhead a whole Championship season as our main striker).

If graham stays fit, I think he could lead the line in the Championship. Look at Glenn Murray. Is he much better than Graham? 

[FGS5635]

Not sure this window could have gone much better really. Very impressed.

I think snapping chapman up long term would have been the icing on the cake, but thats me being greedy.

 

[arbitro]

One thing in general that surprises me is that clubs are allowed to loan players to clubs in the same league thus strengthening other teams for games against their relegation or promotion rivals. Rochdale have to play Wigan twice so what if we had loaned them two or three players who played an integral part in denying Wigan some points. I didn't keep up with all the deadline day deals but at one time Swansea were linked with three loans from other PL clubs.

I just don't see it as fair.

[Bigdoggsteel]

23 minutes ago, arbitro said:

One thing in general that surprises me is that clubs are allowed to loan players to clubs in the same league thus strengthening other teams for games against their relegation or promotion rivals. Rochdale have to play Wigan twice so what if we had loaned them two or three players who played an integral part in denying Wigan some points. I didn't keep up with all the deadline day deals but at one time Swansea were linked with three loans from other PL clubs.

I just don't see it as fair.

Swings and roundabouts to be fair

Plus smaller clubs need to build their squads. Not every team can spend stupid money like the top 4-6 

[jim mk2]

 

What was the name of the centre half we had on loan from Watford last season ? 

[Bigdoggsteel]

Just now, jim mk2 said:

 

What was the name of the centre half we had on loan from Watford last season ? 

Tommie Hoban

 

Had forgotten about him