That *was* the January Window

[TheRevAshton]

Well, JDT asked for "experience" and he's got it...

Kyle McFadz has played hundreds of senior games, was in the stands when England lifted the World Cup, and saw the Beatles live before they got big. This fella is the epitome of experience.

[ageoftherover]

A lot of talk about his age, but he has over 1200 minutes in the championship this season. How has he actually played on the pitch? There should be plenty of tape/opinions from Cov fans.

[Bohinen1983]

Quite happy with the older head coming in. 

Now we're just lacking 'QUALITY' replacements for:  Rothwell, Brereton, Dack Travis, Wharton, Buckley...

Pears (Replace)

Wharton (Happy)
Hyam (Happy)
Carter (Happy)

Pickering (content)
Brittain (Happy)

Garrett (Not ready)
Trondstadt (Happy)

Szmodic (Happy)

Dolan (Happy)
Gallagher (Content)
Siggy (Content)

Need a keeper, two centre midfielders, two strikers and then at least one wide player with pace.

Midfield's been absolutely decimated.   We surely can't be happy with only Garrett and Trondstadt as permanent first team centre mids.  Garrett looks a prospect but isn't ready yet..

We've holes all over the squad.  We've an alarming lack of pace and creativity too!

[BankEnd Rover]

8 minutes ago, Neal said:

So is the plan now to replace Wharton with Buckley? How far is he off fitness? 

He's on the grass so i'd say mid-end of feb he'll be ready.

[B16Rover]

37?! There's a chance inadvertently got a marauding centre back here all be it with early onset rather at that age rather than any tactical nouse.  

 

Beyond the jokes, provided the salary is ok - I don't mind this outside of the Adam context.  If we do want to play a 3 a lack of legs can be accommodated and a steady hand with a link to Hyam could sure us up.  Especially with Scott seemingly playing well.  

 

With the Adam context though it looks like we've sold one of England's brightest young talents and brought in the opposite end of a spectrum 

[Adam C]

1 hour ago, CambridgeRover said:

 

There is it in plain English. Money in Venky's back pocket. 

Edit ** Can Elliot Jackson proof read some of this shite

🤔 

[Atko's Engine]

15 minutes ago, Bohinen1983 said:

Quite happy with the older head coming in. 

Now we're just lacking 'QUALITY' replacements for:  Rothwell, Brereton, Dack Travis, Wharton, Buckley...

Pears (Replace)

Wharton (Happy)
Hyam (Happy)
Carter (Happy)

Pickering (content)
Brittain (Happy)

Garrett (Not ready)
Trondstadt (Happy)

Szmodic (Happy)

Dolan (Happy)
Gallagher (Content)
Siggy (Content)

Need a keeper, two centre midfielders, two strikers and then at least one wide player with pace.

Midfield's been absolutely decimated.   We surely can't be happy with only Garrett and Trondstadt as permanent first team centre mids.  Garrett looks a prospect but isn't ready yet..

We've holes all over the squad.  We've an alarming lack of pace and creativity too!

Missed quite a few names - perms & loans - off that list (Hedges, JRC, O'Riordan, Ayeri, Chrisene, Buckley, Moran, Leonard, Markanday), all of whom deserve to be mentioned & are clearly in 1st team squad (albeit some v new in, and still doesn't include Ennis or Telalovic)

Edited January 31 by Atko's Engine
Missed a couple myself!!

[ben_the_beast]

From the LT

"Another central midfielder isn't out of the question but depends on finances" 

Bloody hell, we'll have generated a guaranteed £28m by the summer with the Raya fee included. That statement alone tells us where the money is going. 

[Roverthechimp]

I expect us to switch to 5 at the back for the rest of the season - simply aim for survival and find out just how fucked the Vs are in summer. 
As of now it seems that the flow of money may not resume…

Strangely nothing to indicate a sale of the club which is frankly unfathomable and really does point to skeletons or sheer bloody mindedness 

 

[Miller11]

So this is looking the likely outcome of our window…

Ins:
O’Riordan
McFadzean
Chrisene
Ayari
McGuire (?)

Outs:
Hill
Travis
Wharton
Ennis

There is absolutely no way anybody can argue it’s been a success. If anyone had posted this as a prediction on the 1st of January they’d have been laughed off the forum or lynched. Anyone who claims we haven’t massively weakened our squad this month is either deluded or dishonest. Even if we generously add Buckley to the ins list, it’s appalling. The players returning from injury have been replaced on the treatment table by others. Considering we’ve been in free-fall for a couple of months our Championship status is very much being put at risk.
 

[Inferi]

I remember some on here previously wanting us to sign norwegian striker Erik Botheim. I haven't watched him play much. According to swedish media he  will sign for Malmö FF after completing his medical today.

[SuperBrfc]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

We’ll get to Friday - ‘very clever by the club to keep our power dry, this season is over anyway, we can now properly invest in the summer’.

1st September comes around - ‘Err you do know we can’t spend money, we’re skint, we’ve shit fans and there’s FFP. Thank god for Venky’s is what I say’.

 

Yep. Part one is already underway, you only need to look at the last few pages of this thread. That's before getting to the dream world of twitter. The fee for Wharton has just guaranteed six months of "the summer, we are going to spend in the summer, be patient!" type comments and six months of PR for the hierarchy, not necessarily on here, but among the wider fan base.

The summer window will be billed as the big one on Friday morning, as we didn't have enough time to do what we would have liked in January. Like we haven't heard that before. Just like Broughton didn't have enough time in his first window. Just like the recruitment team didn't have enough time last summer.

It feels like I've been watching this movie on loop for a decade plus. Gets to January, "no point rushing, don't want to overpay for dross, we'll make a proper go of it in the summer".

Summer goes in typical fashion...

"What do you expect?, you don't understand FFP, it's not his fault, if our 'fans' actually turned up to games we would..., we were priced out, he failed a medical, we were after x, y and z which shows we were ambitious, we've got the January window to come to fix things".

January comes and goes and the script repeats itself.

We are currently one Tronstad injury away from disaster in the centre of the park. If Garrett is the answer, then what is the question? He is not it and the remaining meagre options leave a lot to be desired too.

This is beginning to resemble the Coyle days again for me. MacFadzean, a Brown/Greer type desperation move. The Villa lad not much different to the Stephen Hendrie signing from back then, where you're left wondering what's the point.

It's desperate stuff all round, where the squad is only getting weaker. Unless something drastically changes in how this lot operate, a return to League One isn't far away.

[wilsdenrover]

GB has made a big point about having ‘different lists for different scenarios’

Well if his walk is as good as his talk (what do you think Rev?? 😄) now is the perfect time to prove it…

[Paul Mani]

11 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

So this is looking the likely outcome of our window…

Ins:
O’Riordan
McFadzean
Chrisene
Ayari
McGuire (?)

Outs:
Hill
Travis
Wharton
Ennis

There is absolutely no way anybody can argue it’s been a success. If anyone had posted this as a prediction on the 1st of January they’d have been laughed off the forum or lynched. Anyone who claims we haven’t massively weakened our squad this month is either deluded or dishonest. Even if we generously add Buckley to the ins list, it’s appalling. The players returning from injury have been replaced on the treatment table by others. Considering we’ve been in free-fall for a couple of months our Championship status is very much being put at risk.
 

I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as you suggest.

The only ‘loss’ to the team there is Wharton. I’ll come back to him.

Travis hasn’t been playing regularly for a while and hadn’t figured at all really this season. Hill started well but tailed off and I’m confident that O’riordan and McFadzean can cover off any potential drop off from him. I’d go as far to say most fans would’ve gladly sent him back in favour of us signing O’riordan, a highly rated player on a permanent deal.

Chrisene and Ayari look like decent squad fillers and if we keep Gally then the signing of McGuire, on paper at least, strengthens us considerably!

So, back to Wharton. The truth is, he’s that good that selling him in any window would weaken us. The ACID test for this lot is that we MUST sign a CM this window, for cash. There’s zero excuse because they’re not ‘blocking’ anyone’s progress and they very obviously have cash. 2-3m on a good, young CM with some valuable experience, like Max Bird or Sibley, or the lad from Oxford that PNE fancy will keep most fans content come Friday morning.

To bumble past the window without getting a decent midfielder in is unthinkable. Imo.

[alex l]

Apologies if already posted, Telegraph journo stating fee agreed and an Orlando fan account indicate the team is in turn spending the cash (albeit a player in a different position)

[roversfan99]

The thing is, even if we run with this naive theory that we are saving for the summer. Why are we writing off the season completely? Why are we even bothering signing a third loan of the window if the season has been written off? Even if we loaned a midfielder, which would still not suffice considering the Wharton fee, there would at least be an admission that we are massively short in midfield having lost our best and third best midfielder, leaving only one good CM, a young lad who isnt ready to play week in week out, and injured underperformer and nothing else.

[ruggles1995]

im reading a lot people saying this 37 year old can only play in back 3.... Well we have no full backs to play 352... Guess we will be playing the same old vey open football we've played all season. Would like to think JDT would learn from 1st half season mistakes by getting in what's needed. 

We have 1 fit left back, and nobody else apart from square pegs in round holes for full back.

JRC wasted at right back or wing back if put there.
Sigurdson is lost at full back or wide in a 352. 

I do hope we get a right back in. not linked with any so guess we prob wont be. 

Would love to be proved wrong, but if we go 3 at the back going forwards, I think we will be conceding a far lot more, just simply due to only having wingers to play at wing backs. Will be more a 3-2-5. 

[G Somerset Rover]

34 minutes ago, ben_the_beast said:

From the LT

"Another central midfielder isn't out of the question but depends on finances" 

Bloody hell, we'll have generated a guaranteed £28m by the summer with the Raya fee included. That statement alone tells us where the money is going. 

Firstly, why are they not spelling out the obvious to the fans? And second, why are most fans okay with it?!

Infuriating time to be a Rover.

Edited January 31 by G Somerset Rover

[wilsdenrover]

3 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as you suggest.

The only ‘loss’ to the team there is Wharton. I’ll come back to him.

Travis hasn’t been playing regularly for a while and hadn’t figured at all really this season. Hill started well but tailed off and I’m confident that O’riordan and McFadzean can cover off any potential drop off from him. I’d go as far to say most fans would’ve gladly sent him back in favour of us signing O’riordan, a highly rated player on a permanent deal.

Chrisene and Ayari look like decent squad fillers and if we keep Gally then the signing of McGuire, on paper at least, strengthens us considerably!

So, back to Wharton. The truth is, he’s that good that selling him in any window would weaken us. The ACID test for this lot is that we MUST sign a CM this window, for cash. There’s zero excuse because they’re not ‘blocking’ anyone’s progress and they very obviously have cash. 2-3m on a good, young CM with some valuable experience, like Max Bird or Sibley, or the lad from Oxford that PNE fancy will keep most fans content come Friday morning.

To bumble past the window without getting a decent midfielder in is unthinkable. Imo.

The questions for me (to which I fear at least one of the answers will be no) are…

1.  Will we bring in a midfielder with better defensive capabilities than AW?

2. Will we bring in a striker who ‘knows where the net is’?

3. Will the above two ‘offset/outweigh’ the loss of AW’s creativity?

[Covfan87]

Coventry fan here. Just thought I’d pop across and see what you thought of the McFadzean signing. 
 

He’ll be massively missed at Coventry - if you see our run to the play offs last season it coincided with his return from injury in December time. 
 

His pace is going, and won’t suit a 4 man defence, but he thrives in a 5 man defence. The other two CBs will make up for his lack of pace, and he’ll be that leader/rock in the middle. Hyam covers that sort of issue well and will no McFadzean from before 

for us we’ve moved to a 4 man defence, and considering the amount we’ve spent on Kitching and Thomas it’s no surprise he’s dropped out. 
 

Look after him- over the last 5/6 years McFadzean has been a pivotal part in our return and consolidation to the championship 

 

[Galgaterover10]

1 hour ago, Ricky said:

Hull have shown how to play a transfer window when on the edge of the playoffs. Three good signings, each time we’ve been in the playoffs we seem to have weakened our team in the January window. It’s no coincidence that on two consecutive seasons we were well placed in the playoff spots only to miss out completely. 

Ironically they have also signed a 37 year old has been 

[Miller11]

2 minutes ago, Paul Mani said:

I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as you suggest.

The only ‘loss’ to the team there is Wharton. I’ll come back to him.

Travis hasn’t been playing regularly for a while and hadn’t figured at all really this season. Hill started well but tailed off and I’m confident that O’riordan and McFadzean can cover off any potential drop off from him. I’d go as far to say most fans would’ve gladly sent him back in favour of us signing O’riordan, a highly rated player on a permanent deal.

Chrisene and Ayari look like decent squad fillers and if we keep Gally then the signing of McGuire, on paper at least, strengthens us considerably!

So, back to Wharton. The truth is, he’s that good that selling him in any window would weaken us. The ACID test for this lot is that we MUST sign a CM this window, for cash. There’s zero excuse because they’re not ‘blocking’ anyone’s progress and they very obviously have cash. 2-3m on a good, young CM with some valuable experience, like Max Bird or Sibley, or the lad from Oxford that PNE fancy will keep most fans content come Friday morning.

To bumble past the window without getting a decent midfielder in is unthinkable. Imo.

I strongly disagree on Hill. I’m actually pretty happy with the O’Riordan signing, but Hill gave us versatility and was mature beyond his years. Big miss. Hopefully O’Riordan is ready to step up.

I’m not the world’s biggest Travis fan, but you know what you got with him. A good option to help see games out for sure. Another big ask for two youngsters to step in and do a job here and there, and Ayari seems more in the Buckley mould.

I think we will have to wait and see with McGuire. Tronstad took a while to settle and is considerably more experienced. Needs to hit the ground running really considering Telalovic looks miles off it and Ennis was clearly just a terrible fit for us from day one. Big, big expectations.

Agree on Wharton, and if anything I think you’ve understated his importance. If we continue to try and play out from the back as we have we will be watching a lot of football through our fingers. He’s irreplaceable, but we ought to be giving ourselves the best chance of doing so, and 36 hours doesn’t do that. Couldn’t agree more with your last paragraph… unfortunately I feel we’ll see the unthinkable.

[sharpysharps86]

I don't necessarily buy into the idea that Rovers will save most of the Wharton money for the summer, but I also see the logic in not going crazy with just over 24 hours left in the window. Now is not the time to take lots of risks on permanent signings.

Getting McFadzean in on a short term deal till the end of the season is ok for me. Realistically he'll be coming in as cover, not necessarily a first team starter. For those wondering why we didn't just keep Ayala....I'd imagine McFadzean's terms are less.

I'm more concerned that we're going to be very short in central midfield if we don't bring another one in. God help us if Tronstad gets injured.

[LDRover]

34 minutes ago, Miller11 said:

So this is looking the likely outcome of our window…

Ins:
O’Riordan
McFadzean
Chrisene
Ayari
McGuire (?)

Outs:
Hill
Travis
Wharton
Ennis

There is absolutely no way anybody can argue it’s been a success. If anyone had posted this as a prediction on the 1st of January they’d have been laughed off the forum or lynched. Anyone who claims we haven’t massively weakened our squad this month is either deluded or dishonest. Even if we generously add Buckley to the ins list, it’s appalling. The players returning from injury have been replaced on the treatment table by others. Considering we’ve been in free-fall for a couple of months our Championship status is very much being put at risk.
 

Oh I bet there's one particular person on here who does

[pedrob2014]

Skysports reporting Luton interested in Dolan