I was happy with signing Johnson. Of course but I would specifically be wary of signing a kid on loan to go in net. Thats my point. Phillips has just come off a season in which he was player of the season for his club at this level and any development would be to our benefit if it was permanent. Different ball game.

I accepted that there are exceptions to my opinion, indeed there would be positive and negative historical examples of all routes, older goalkeepers, goalkeepers signed from abroad, young loanees. I also have acknowledged that these goalkeepers have talent and it is not a lack of talent but more a potential lack of consistency at the age. The fact that these goalkeepers have potential is fairly immaterial to us if we are only loaning them. If we sign a keeper in his early 20s he is likely to be years and years away from his peak and any delevopment will benefit the parent club. For example with Raya, he made mistakes but once he became more consistent with age we would have benefitted. If we signed a younger goalkeeper but permanently the same would apply. If we loan a keeper it only really matters how good they are now in the immediate future, not what potential keeper they could eventually become. If you can not understand my reservations about loaning in a young, raw goalkeeper from a Premier League club then fair enough.

Exactly, not consistent with a club sure that a player isnt good enough. Maybe a season gaining plaudits might be the platform he needs here to push at least past a young lad who appeared out of his depth at this stage when thrown in.

Is he crap? He comes back every year and is farmed out again on loan, where he keeps getting promotions. This season, he has got another promotion, his club desperate to sign him up again in League 1 and has really impressed from the sound of it. I dont necessarily know either way whether he will be good enough or not, but as 3rd or 4th choice centre back, considering that we have Williams, who is League 1 standard, and Carter, who looks nowhere near up to it, at this point in his career. Seems incredibly premature to suggest that hes crap and they have written him off. Why do they keep loaning him out rather than just letting him go permanently if "they" have decided already that he isnt up to scratch. Even if they have previously decided that he isnt good enough, surely his performances this season are in his favour?

The problem is that goalkeeper is the most precarious position in the team. Sign an inconsistent and raw but talented young striker, winger or attacking midfielder that doesnt hit the ground running, its in an area if the pitch where you dont need to play him every week, you are likely to have many options in those areas so you can dip him in and out and even if he isnt good enough to even contribute occasionally, it isnt the end of the word. The further back you go, the more risky it can be. Get a centre back like Adarabioyo or White, then brilliant. Sign one that is nervy and making mistakes, you likely have 3 or 4 centre backs so you can take him out of the side. Less scope for rotation granted, so more likely to be a wasted loan, but still not awful. If its a keeper, the likelihood is that its under some sort of guarantee that he will be number 1. And even if not, its rare to have a competent and quality number 2 waiting in the wings. From the examples that I gave that didnt work out that you havent really acknowledged, Forest and Reading went out and signed goalkeepers from abroad that are amongst the top keepers in the division after getting Muric and Virginia, meaning that whilst any loan fee and wages were a waste of money, they didnt have to persist with keepers that obviously have talent but were not ready for Championship football. Huddersfield had to persist with Grabara until January, obviously not to their benefit, until they could desperately bring back Lossl. We saw ourselves what happens when we brought in and thus relied on a young goalkeeper who turned out not to be up to it. With no competent back up, we had to stick with him making mistakes. I dont know where this sudden obsession with Iversen has come from, he isnt a name that I have seen elsewhere, but ultimately he was playing in League 1 which is as we know not of the same standard. And I have never doubted that Iversen or indeed any of these young goalkeepers have ability, of course they do. I dont know how much of Rotherham you get to see but I cant say that I have seen much of him, so I am not rubbishing him individually. My point is more that in terms of the different cycles of different positions, goalkeepers mature and peak later than any other position. Goalkeepers with minimal first team experience will likely be most error prone at the start of their career, and these players have years and years before they peak. We could do without a raw keeper making mistakes that ultimately form part of a learning process to the benefit of the players parent club. I also do acknowledge that there are a few exceptions to the rule despite the point I am trying and perhaps failing to get across. Woodman is one example, Henderson was another. Do you not agree at all with my sentiments? That goalkeeper is possibly the worst position to sign an untested kid on loan? Would you prefer more experience in a goalkeeping position ideally if at all possible, or at least if it is a younger goalkeeper, one on a long term deal that we can develop to our benefit, as was the case with Raya? Or would you actively prefer a young loanee? Same logic to your post about the Liverpool keeper @WacoRover

Loans for me are used ideally to attain players that are of a quality that you couldnt afford. For us, Adarabioyo and Reed would have been had he been used right. You look at Brewster and Gallagher at Swansea, Ben White and Harrison at Leeds, they can just give you that push. Its when you start padding out your squad with them or plugging gaps that it can sometimes go a bit wrong. Mentioned it the other day but goalkeeper is a position where reliability and consistency is critical. If its a young keeper you at least want to know that the mistakes they are making, they will learn from. If they are not staying long anyway, it doesnt make a difference. You look this season, a few teams went down the road of loaning younger, "highly rated" goalkeepers: - Huddersfield got Grabara on loan from Liverpool. He made too many mistakes and when I saw them play with him in goal he looked a bag of nerves. They then signed Lossl on loan in January, a player they had before, and dropped him. - Forest signed Muric, a very highly rated young keeper from City. Had a shaky start, before you know it, they sign Samba who takes over and Muric is never seen again. - We had a talented young goalkeeper. He made mistakes, but the consolation was that at least, assuming he learnt from them, he was ours to develop. We sold him for cheap where he has progressed, got in an inferior keeper of the same age who has made mistake after mistake and we have never had anyone to even compete with him so he had to play every game and it cost us. - Reading siged Virgina, a highly rated keeper from Everton with no senior experience. Had a shocking start, they had to act, they dropped him and signed Rafael before sending Virginia back in January. In the interest of fairness, its not a totally fruitless avenue. Swansea signed Woodman who was very good. But I am certainly dead against the idea of loaning in a kid to be in net.

Ive seen us linked with Keiran OHara a few times on here. Some of his finest work here 50 seconds in plus for the last goal. Hes also amidst a 6 match ban for biting someone! Obviously amidst plenty of agent and supposed ITK driven rumours, I wonder when we will hear about 1 player we definitely are interested in, Stewart Downing?

Hes anything but steady.

You seem to be using the data for select things as matter of fact that Wharton is a better player at the moment as Goode. Ive not seen either player this season (I presume you are the same) so to just use data is incredibly flawed. The fact that Goode is out on his own in terms of Northamptons player of the season suggests that the fans who watch him every week think that he was their best player. My basis for potentially having Wharton around is not with any certainty on his ability. I just think we have one competent centre back, then we have an injury prone and not very good Derrick Williams, and an out of favour and past it Mulgrew. We also have Carter who lookee well off at this moment. The main difference is that any centre back coming in will need to slot into the first team, the potential expectation of Wharton would be to be a squad player. Ultimately his advantage is that he is already ours as you say. Im not doing it to be contrarion either. I share your opinion that signing a League 2 player to fill the void that we need as a partner for Lenihan is a big risk. Also the fee will be beyond us. But you are using these stats as total fact of the matter im absence of watching them regularly. Its not a fact, underlined and in bold that Wharton is better. I also think that Ben Heneghan didnt really pull up trees at Blackpool.

Totally agree that stats like this are of limited us and to totally dismiss him out of hand as "no better than" Wharton is an unfair conclusion to come to without seeing him play, https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/hes-not-just-goode-hes-great-skipper-charlie-your-cobblers-player-year-2917874 He seems to have easily won player of the season there and you have to think, what is more valid, the opinion of fans who have seen him all season or just statistics? Obviously when you start analysing them across divisions it makes them even less of a barometer. That being said, I dont think we will spend a 7 figure sum on anyone, it seems like an agent driven story with every club in the league almost linked with him.

Seems to be linked with every team at this level. Would perhaps be a little strange considering his defensive partner from last year is already ours and with plenty of scope for improvement.

What makes you say they should out of interest? For me, no matter how highly rated he is. That is a huge risk to bring in a goalkeeper with no senior experience from another club. We would be reliant on it working out and if it didnt, wed likely only have a semi capable number 2 (like this seaso having to stick with Walton) as an alternative. Goalkeeper is the worst place to get a kid on loan because obviously he will be more prone to mistakes, which of course cost us and then give back his parent club a better player. With Raya we had a goalkeeper who made mistakes but he was ours at least to develop. With attacking players its a bit less risky because whilst it is of course not good if they dont work out. You have a series of attacking options at the club and even if they arent the best they probably arent directly costing you goals against like a rookie goalkeeper would.

I really hope not.

Andy Lonergan would be an unusual case because it is rare that a player as a free agent would have the options at the bottom of the football league or for the European Champions, obviously as a tick box exercise to fill a quota. Loans can obviously be expensive and require a level of compromise with the parent club which is why, whilst I think that 1 or 2 shrewd loan signings can really push a team over the line, I was not comfortable with Mowbray mentioning "5 or 6 loans" recently because I think its very difficult to do, especially successfully. Gallagher will be right at the top of our wage structure because he even said in his interview that he took a pay cut to join. But the 12 million spent in fees would be the equivalent of 60k a week over a 4 year period before you consider their wages. As you pointed out with Adarabioyo, if we ever get players on loans, they wouldnt be being paid wage structure breaking wages by us, much would be made up by the parent club. @K-Hod is totally correct, blowing so much money on poor players does definitely then restrict us by removing such a large proportion of our budget. I think that at times our supporters can make out that we are a little less financially competitive than we probably are too, ie there is a bit of an inferiority complex going on.

I would say that the main problem is even assuming transfer fees are out of the question, the free agent and even loan market will be overpopulated with many teams swimming in the same pond. The delays will only mean we miss out. They cant have the virus as an excuse. It wouldnt take much of their time to assure the manager of his budget. But they do the same every year so I dont have any sympathy at all. Regarding season tickets, its a perfect way to claw back some cash flow and get some income in. Thats too logical. See below a couple of examples of fans who are willing and able to buy season tickets even with the uncertainty and also offering alternatives.

Imagine getting your kicks from amending footballers wikipedia pages to change their team on it.

Chester has a dodgy knee or knees, might be a risky one. Seems more of a recommendation than a link anyway. Phillips would be a good keeper to bring in but I am skeptical about him being affordable and also us being first in any queue. But would be a good signing.

I think you are looking for an agenda or bias that isnt there to correlate your own personal opinions. If anything, as a regular goer of the Under 23 games, maybe you have a bit more of soft spot towards Rankin Costello who ultimately has been playing kids football whilst Wharton has been playing League 2 football, which you are dismissive of. He is an attacking player but he hasnt shown that for the first team, with mitigating circumstances. Just trying to figure him out, not the paciest, crossing has been a bit wayward, on the ball he is ok. Travis came into the first team and stood out straight away. Carter and Magloire looked a bit off, especially the former. Rankin Costello has been in the middle, even considering he is playing out of position, he has not stood out like a sore thumb as a weakness either. Also, for the third goal v Reading he was sliding all over the place diving in, but I just wrote that off owed to playing out of position. If a senior full back had done that, it would have been correctly picked apart as was the mistake earlier by Travis. Who has written them off? How could they be as harsh on Wharton, hes not been at the club for years! Nothing to judge on really. And who is being harsh on Rankin Costello? I dont think I have seen one person suggest that he isnt worth persevering with, or that he doesnt deserve another chance. My personal opinion on Wharton is, very impressive feedback from the loan spells, of course question marks regarding the standard hes been at, but worth having as 3rd or 4th choice potentially, certainly over Carter who I thought looked quite a bit away at the moment and probably needs a loan spell similar. My personal opinion on Rankin Costello is, has not really stood out much, but has played almost all of his football out of position in the first team. Again, like Wharton, wouldnt be in my starting 11 on the opening day next season I dont think, but adds an option in the wider roles.

Of course but we obviously know with senior players that Mowbray likes a player who can play in different positions but especially given our troubles in wide areas, I would like to see him played there next to see how he is capable of impacting games with goals and assists.

But some people seem to genuinely want to "help" the club. It doesnt have to even be marketed as a season ticket but as long as the terms of any purchase are clearly outlined then I dont think it can be considered "exploitative." You mention the prospect of potentially having to pay that money back but that doesnt need to be the case. They have the leverage of ifollow links to be used assuming that only a proportion of the season is behind closed doors. They also have the potential to defer the season ticket until the following season in a worst case scenario which is still beneficial to cash flow.

If I had said these things and concluded that hes no good and has no hope then it would be fair to say that i was being overly critical. I dont think he is that fast but then again i have never seen anyone claim that he is. Technically, competent enough but has he stood out? No. Will playing at left back help? No. And there have been a few occasions where he has dithered when he has had the ball in the final third, in particular v Fulham which might have been a bit of home debut stage fright, and v Luton in the first half when we had them pinned in for a bit. Can only base on what I have seen in the first team. Maybe he was initially a little overawed as he has grown into it a little but hes definitely not a left back. Ive also acknowledged his best performance at Cardiff when he went on a good run at the start and also his pass for the goal at Hillsbrough. Not ruling him out, not dismissing playing out of position, equally not going to exaggerate to make out that hes stood out. Hope to see him on the left wing where Mowbray thinks he is best.

How is he being criticised? Jesus christ. Ability shown in the under 23s is reason to be excited to an extent but also it doesnt always equate to players making the step up. i Look at Nuttall as an example, scoring every week for the u23s, not up to it for the first team. I am not saying that will happen to Rankin Costello. Am I the "resident expert" you mention? If not, apologies but if so you can shove your insults up your arse. If so, I have based my analysis on first team football ie where it matters. I dont think hes stood out, equally he has not looked out of place and I have acknowledged repeatedly that he has not been played in his correct position and indeed asked for him to be played in his correct position where I am hopeful that he would really impress as I am fearful that he will be seen by the manager as a utility player. In his first team games when he approached the penalty box he at times was a little indecisive and his crosses in the main were overhit. Theres no point pretending otherwise just because he is a young lad but equally I repeatedly acknowledge that id like to see him play in his correct position and that he did ok. Is that an unfair witchhunt or indeed constructive criticism. Why would one being local and one being from United matter?! Conspiracy theory. Lowe was local, Travis came from elsewhere, look how they were rated. I dont know if it is because you attend the u23 games but you seem to consider performances for them as more important than League performances. Wharton hasnt from the sound of it been competent at League 2 level, he has stood out. That doesnt seem to mean anything at all. Rankin Costello has impressed playing with and against other kids and done ok in an unfamiliar position so far in the Championship. People at most are asking Wharton to be in an around the squad in a weak area. Exactly where Rankin Costello is.

But you also must appreciate that as any other business they will be struggling for cash flow and have the rare commodity of a fan base some of whom would be willing to pay for a season ticket even without the certainty of a return date. Even if it meant taking a couple of staf back off furlough, the income of season tickets sold would pale those costs into insignificance. They cant pleas poverty if they are just typically sitting on their hands.

Until he does it for the first team it is pretty irrelevant, although as you said playing him at full back wont help. I havent seen much in his appearances to make me excited, seems quite slow, at times fairly hesitant and nothing special technically. But he needs to play out wide more. My fear for him is that Mowbray sees him as a utility player rather than playing him in his natural position. With no one nailing down the wide spot he needs to be played there more often.

Absolutely agree. Shoehorn is the key word. Armstrong and Dack would be our main 2, Gallagher and Brereton pushing them. The only way that 3 of them could play at once would be with Armstrong wide I suspect.