It seems no more additions will happen, but even so watching Pozzo and Duxbury try to shift the utter garbage they have assembled in the first team squad will be some entertainment in the next 2 days I suppose. Player trading maestros that they are, 6 months after getting Success/Gray/Deeney out the door, here they are forced to do the same thing again. Unless poor old Udinese get them, Sema, Gosling, Fletcher, Rose and any of our hopeless centre backs will be challenging to shift whether than be on loan or permanently. I’m assuming we are stuck with Tufan and Kucka due to the nature of the agreements.
Well the squad is swelling, they either have to pay players that don't make the squad or shift them very fast. Going to be interesting couple of days I hope.
There'll be movements on outgoing players for sure. As thing stand we need to shift three players out, and at least one being a NHG player. For my money, that will be Rose released from contract, Nkoulou released from contract and Sema loaned to Udinese. All can be done very last minute. If that's it for, then I don't think we'd have done enough. In effect we'd have swapped Nkoulou for Samir and done nothing else at CB. Leaving us with 5 CB's who are largely inadequate. Hodgson has already stated he doesn't have a magic wand, but maybe Gino doesn't believe him. The LB position has improved though, and maybe midfield has had a slight uplift, but overall, not enough has yet been done to give us a really good chance of staying up, IMO.
It's certainly looking that way. Wouldn't be shocked if Gozzer and Tufan go too. Well I hope. Sema is perfect for Udinese and was utilised well in their squad. It's gone quiet on GD leaving Udi but surely if they have some movement we will also see some. Hopefully it's already in place.
Would love to know the cost to fire two managers and release 3+ players from their contracts. It would probably easily cover the cost of a decent centre back. And that’s just this season, it happens every other season as well.
It's hilarious that we're going to be stuck with Tufan because Fenerbahce won't take him back. I'm hoping it's that because the other option is that we're happy to keep him.
With Tufan, I get the feeling we're locked in with him and can't send him back. I think Gosling might stay as I'm sure he'd have gone by now, or at least been linked somewhere. Seeing as it's so late in the day now, I think any movement out will be to Udinese or paying off contracts as it's the easiest thing to do.
Rose was a massive gamble but I did have a little hope especially after Norwich away. But it's just blown up in ours and his face. But mental health issues are difficult and I'm certainly not qualified to comment on this. But you have got me wondering now too. Would of been enough for a player of quality.
So if it stays as it is, which it appears it will (and even if it doesn't you'd have to be asking why it took so long given we'd have thrown away potential weeks of bedding in and training), we are genuinely relying on Roy fundamentally changing the entire nature of the defence via the training pitch, added to the hopeful upgrade of Kamara (and yes, how much of an upgrade is yet to be determined, but I think it's fairly impossible he isn't some kind of improvement given what was there before). Given our calamitous centre back line up, there have been two or three of us here who've vocally made the argument that we needed two centre backs to come in this window (and many more who agreed, I'm sure) and to do what amounts to no improvement of their ranks numbers-wise, if Nkoulou is indeed one of the ones let go, seems on-paper astonishingly profligate. Relying on him would be a concern given his prognosis, but if we don't have him to come back in, then Cathcart is genuinely one of our first-choice centre backs in the Premier League in 2022, and that is just unforgivable. I like everything that Roy has said so far here, and I like the realism of the way he talks, but when he says that if we don't make it it will be because the players fundamentally aren't good enough, you have to ask if there is any chance at all that they actually will be. Maybe this post will be proven irrelevant and look very stupid in 36 hours time, but as it stands, with no rumours even of incomings and tier-1's reporting a likely shutting up shop, it's hard to say Gino has left us any stronger than he found us at the start of the window (except for, to some degree, at left back) or, indeed, intended to. If Foster gets another injury or gets the sudden urge to run away and join the circus/become an NFT dealer, we're done for. Fingers crossed for a desperate goalie loan signing tomorrow lunchtime.
If it doesn't stay at is, it will be because we only just appointed a new manager a few days ago and maybe the club wanted to check if he had any preferences before using up our final domestic loan spot? We might still not sign anyone, but it's not yet impossible.
No, as I literally said in my post, it may become irrelevant by tomorrow afternoon, and I obviously hope it does, but based on all indications and evidence we have so far, the balance of probability is leaning far more towards 'not' than 'will'. Not to mention the fact that that new manager has already publicly stated he won't be going to the owner asking for players/signings. That being said, the talk at the start was that Spurs would only let Rodon go at the end of the window if they did, and he still basically hasn't played for them this season. Tomorrow would be the perfect time for that to change, although I haven't read up on anything recently that indicates Conte's thinking on letting him go or keeping him around as backup.
So says Alan Nixon... https://twitter.com/reluctantnicko/status/1487852950697529345 Isn't he from the Sun?
To be honest, Gosling should only have been contracted until the end of last season. He was a decent option last year, but there is no way he could ever be competent in the Prem.
Can't help but think today will be the day that sinks Watford. Newcastle splashing the cash, as we knew they would. Leeds likely to keep their key players. Brentford fine-tuning. Everton adding to the squad. We have to be better than three others. We're left with a squad that does not put us in that position, so we're hoping that some form of discipline and organisation can do it. I don't see where 20ish more points come from.
Newcastle have had a big accepted for Ekitike. Interestingly, according to fbref, the statistically most similar player to him is Josh King.
Whether they're aware or not, the club have decided to accept relegation. That might be down to funds or the deluded people running the club thinking that this squad is good enough. Either way there's absolutely nothing we can do about it now.
I think given our position and the activities/spending power of those around us we are in a very bleak position. I think the club have accepted relegation and don’t want to put us in a worse spot financially for next year. I respect that position. However I would rather have invested in another centre back than use available funds to buy another two midfielder/winger types from Mogi Bayet. The fact we seemingly prioritise this agent over all other considerations is ridiculous and it stinks.
Don’t worry everyone - Scott tells us that Gino ‘comes alive’ on Deadline Day. He’s currently coming alive in waiting for the deal of the century to land in his lap according to Leventhal. They’ve got this.
I think this post sets out the two sides of the coin really well. There's no harm or scandal in deciding right now we probably can't buy our way of this hole without huge financial risk. The gamble was back in the summer and had we been 8-10pts better off I think the equation would be different and we might be spending more. But we didn't draw enough games and the gap between us and safety is too large now to go all out on staying up. I also agree the use of the limited funds we do have this window has been odd.
If they get an offer for Dan and he he's happy to go he's off, doesn't matter if it's to a relegation rival.
