January Transfer Window 2021

Ighalo has confirmed on Instagram he’s not staying at United....

 

I want West Ham to sign Dawson this week just so we can use the money to come to some sort of settlement with Gray. Sod the replacement, get that useless tosser out of the club asap.

 

Newcastle fans convinced they are signing Chalobah on loan, Tele confirmed shortly after they are about to announce a loan signing. Would be a weird one.

 

Well, we did just sign that Kenyan international midfielder from the reserve team of a prestigious League of Ireland club.

 

This is most odd.
I could never get the hang of Thursdays before.
It seems I must add Wednesdays to that. I'm not overly good at Mondays and Fridays either and my Sundays are usually spoiled if we've lost on Saturdays.

 

It all makes sense now. Gino you sly dog, he's pulled off another Pozzo masterstroke.

 

Perhaps we can convince West Ham to take him on Loan - They need a striker

 

West Ham no longer have to sign Dawson this window to be allowed to make a loan signing, as they’ve officially signed Benrahma now.

 

Yeah and given Brentford £20mil in the meantime to strengthen this window.

 

While we underprice most of our departures since summer.

 

Phew. They can afford to ‘bring Gray home’ now then.

 

Someone posted a thread about still having faith in Gino. I said I'd give him this window to show what he's really about and rectify obvious mistakes made over numerous other windows.
I was very excited about the Zinckernagel signing having seen him loads last season. Ok he's not set the place alight but has shown flashes. I honestly thought after that signing and the supposed movement of Murray that he was going to be bold and really go for it. Four weeks later and three days left of the window we still have no improvement to the squad.
Murray and Garner who are both wasting away. Garner I thought could be a shrewd signing but it hasn't worked. Murray was just a complete waste of time and money.
Clocks a ticking Gino get something sorted ASAP.
Elliott was needed though so credit for that.

 

This has been the first window when I let that ‘expectation’ go. I’ve spent this month not believing we will sign what’s glaringly obviously needed. Everything about the football club is ‘occasionally reactive’ rather ‘extremely pro-active’.

It’s much easier when you can finally accept the owner lost control 18 months ago. And has floundered ever since. You can approach every transfer window knowing it’ll be a disappointment well in advance that way.

The way we are run is a shambles now. PZ has been sat on the bench all month and overlooked for uncreative CM’s on the wing.

We could sign a 30 goal striker and I’m convinced we wouldn’t start him for a month and even then he’d bloody rotate in and out of the side.

Rotten.

 

Point taken and I really shouldn't have any expectations! But I'm an optimist at heart and always believe it can get turned around.

But I can honestly say that over the last few seasons the love for the club is fading. Something that I never thought I'd ever say.

But you say Rotten, it's the perfect one word response atm and that's what hurts the most.

 

I'd be furious with the club if they ignore the glaring deficiencies up front. The evidence is clear. We do not score enough goals. This was a problem in the Premier League, but has surprisingly continued into the Championship. This must be a disappointment to the owner how poor Gray, Deeney & Perica have been in constantly missing good chances. Obviously the biggest culprit is Gray but something does need doing in order to rectify the problem. There are many out of contract central strikers available, there are fringe players who could be taken on loan. We do have options open to us that would not cost a fortune.

I do have sympathy to a degree over the financial climate, but that sympathy wears thin when we all know last season was such a ridiculous relegation that never should have happened. Purely down to arrogance and complacency of the ownership.

We were told that everything would be done to provide the coach with the tools to gain promotion. I believe a lot has been done, but not everything. We need a competent striker in place. If we do not get it then we cannot complain about not getting promoted. There's no excuse for not signing someone and I refuse to believe we cannot find a player for the remainder of the season who would not be an upgrade on Gray.

We've played out 26 matches. We have 20 left. Our conversion of chances has not improved from day one and that's purely down to personnel. If we fail to take action in this window then we say goodbye to the automatics, and that's on Gino. Playoffs should still be well within our grasp though, but I wouldn't really back us in the playoffs. It's far too big a risk. If we mess up again (by not getting promoted) then this team we have now will be sold off. We'll be going backwards as a club for sure, and I very much doubt we'll be in the running for promotion next season if we sell the remaining assets we have.

 

Quality post.

The optimistic me says we will but after @Burnsy had posted his thoughts I'm very much coming around to what he wrote. We're nothing but rotten to the core. It will be nothing but luck to see us promoted with the current squad who lack goals.

But if nobody comes in Pedro needs backing in a central role and unfortunately Troy needs to be the one pulling the strings behind him. His experience will help out Pedro in the future matches.

 

I hope everyone is geared up for the Leventhal piece that’s currently being drafted to be published the morning after the day before...

‘The club instructed their scouts to find players with certain characteristics late in the January window - but with a lack of available options and an upturn in results, it was decided that recruitment wasn’t a pressing need and the club are happy to see if the partnership that Gray and Deeney are developing beats fruit over the coming months. The general belief is that both are capable of scoring 10+ over the second half of the season and just need a spark over the next few games.’

 

We're not signing a striker despite what all the teenagers on Twitter keep telling the club. I'll also be amazed if the Lea Siliki talk isn't just agent nonsense to get him a move as he's barely getting any minutes. The club were cheap in the summer, cheap with the head coach and will certainly be cheap this window.

 

People say this too often and it annoys me a lot, but having said that: this is frighteningly realistic.

 

Dwight Gayle on loan wouldn't be a bad move.

 

They're not leaks then? I feel like, if anything, we don't hear very much, and there certainly haven't been many inward links this time around.

 

I campaigned for this a lot a few weeks ago, but looking at his injury record and minutes played recently I'm doubtful he could come in and hit the ground running, playing full games immediately, in the way that we would require.

 

Spot on. The club had it's best season in recent memory and we could have gone one of two ways. Either attempt to build something with Javi or get complacent and unfortunately it was the latter. The summer 2019 transfer window was an absolute disgrace bringing in Craig Dawson and blowing the whole budget on a winger when the head coach didn't even play with wingers!

 

Fair enough

 

The other possibility is Pozzo has left us in severe financial trouble. If he won't swallow a loss on Sarr (understandable) then there may be literally zero room for signings given how much we have to pay Deeney and Gray each week.

 

If we were a long way off being a promotion side then maybe we’d all understand the lack of serious recruitment and investment in the current climate, but I think most of us feel that actually we are literally one good signing (a striker) away from being able to give Top 2 a really good go. And that’s what is so so frustrating. One decent addition between now and Deadline Day could really make all the difference, not only to this season but to the next few as well.

 

Could also be an issue with having to pay players the balances on their wage deferrals from last season. Not sure when that would be due.

 

Good shout. He'd be excellent. Obviously Vydra as well, but there are others. Plenty of players out of contract. Could be a lot money in terms of contract, and maybe they wouldn't want to play in the Championship, maybe issues with brining them over in terms of Covid restrictions or work permits, but here is a list of out of contract strikers, and there are loads.

From the top of my head I can think of these players , who are out of contract, and would be an upgrade to Andre Gray.

Artur Sagitov, José López, Beka Kavtaradze, José Rivas Gamboa, Marcelo Olivera, Sebastián La Torre, Yann Kasai, Julian Kristoffersen, Panagiotis Moraitis, Pedro Goulart, Agustín Maziero, Hazem Haj-Hassen, Rashawn Dally, Dzhamal Dibirgadzhiev, Jordan Hamilton, Antony Otero, Fred Friday, Duman Herrera, Matheus Pato, Darío Andrés Rodríguez, Benjamin Kuku, Jean Marie Dongou, Kabongo Kasongo, Brenner, Franco Jominy, Juan Carlos Moreno, Mihai Vodut, Jonathan Rodriguez, Lanre Kehinde, Dominic Vinicius, Giannis Mavrou, Ademilson, Sam Johnson, Arley Rodríguez, Davit Skhirtladze, Luis Loroña, Clemente Palacios, Lovro Bizjak, Miguel Murillo, Boris Tashchy, Nathan Kabasele, Matheus Alves, Sebastián Doldán, Luis Razo, Anthony Jackson-Hamel, Aslanbek Kakimov, Ulises Tavares, Álex Rubio, Jeremías Carabelli, Yaya Sanogo, Richmond Boakye, Welthon, Elguja Lobjanidze, Erick Torres, Kwang-ryong Pak, Roland Ugrai, Mamadou Touré Thiam, Claudio González, Omar Marrufo, Fernando Ortiz, Jerry Mbakogu, Rodrigo Maranhão, Kenny Athiu, Rubén Rojas, Cristhian Gutiérrez, Miguel Bianconi, Hélio Paraíba, Kirill Pogrebnyak, Federico Rasic, Jorge Benítez, Moses Ogbu, Henrique Almeida, Edis Ibarg*en, Franck Ohandza, Ante Vukusic, Evgeniy Pavlov, Esteban Castañeda, Serge Nyuiadzi, Luan Santos, Jens Naessens, Amido Baldé, Ronieli, Pedro Henrique, David Texeira, Marko Obradovic, Sekou Sylla, Uche Nwofor, Santiago García, Oumar Niasse, Adama Diomande, Johnathan, Cristian Palacios, Aron Jóhannsson, Fanendo Adi, Erik Hurtado, Féiver Mercado, Richard Sukuta-Pasu, Darren Mattocks, Mouaad Madri, Aaron Schoenfeld, Sebastián Gularte, Reginaldo, Rodrigo Pastorini, Nabil Ghilas, Índio, Federico Laurito, Manuel Bleda, Marcelinho, Daniel Acosta, Yuriy Kolomoets, Mads Stokkelien, Ju-tae Yun, Maximiliano Callorda, Lino Maldonado, Daniel Sturridge, Alexandre Pato, Diafra Sakho, Ahmed Akaichi, Marcos Riquelme, Junior Kabananga, Jhony Cano, Marcus Vinícius, Otele Mouangue, Lorenzo Frutos, Serges Deblé, Madou Dembele, Sadat Bukari, David Llanos, Danijel Subotic, Slim Jedaied, Derek Gaudet, Dominique Da Sylva, Henry Kisekka, Samir Hadji, Egor Zubovich, Diego Costa, Wilfried Bony, C.J. Sapong, Sergio Romero, Krisztián Németh, Giles Barnes, Fabrice Ondama, Anthony Stokes, Yazalde, Alassane Diallo, Enrique Esqueda, Miguel Murillo, Malick Mané, Emiliano Bonfigli, Danilo Carando, Pedro Manzi, Víctor Villa, Férébory Doré, Alejandro Fiorina, Marvin Emnes, Erton Fejzullahu, Marcos Neves, Gonzalo Malán, Facundo Escalante, Emmanuel Tapia, John Tshibumbu, Jay Simpson, Ángel Orué, Alex, Ramazotti, Manuel Zárate, Jhon, Samir Benmeziane, Masato ***ui, Dhiego Martins, Issouf Ouattara, Davide Lanzafame, Emmanuel Emenike, Kyle Lafferty, Ishmael Miller, Léonard Kweuke, Préjuce Nakoulma, Jeremy Brockie, Willis Plaza, Josimar, Younes Rachid, Henrique, Luiz Jeferson Escher, Paul Batin, Andrija Kaludjerovic, Jesús Padilla, Amine Chermiti, Adilson, Juan Pablo López, Patrick Vouho, Obinna Obiefule, Franklin Ayodele, Enzo Maidana, Ataullah Guerra, Alejandro Castillo, Kaio, Leonel Altobelli, Anderson Aquino, Luciano Cardinali, Wes Thomas, Hernán Peirone, ****son Nwakaeme, Antônio Flávio, Joseph Mawaye, Sebastián Pinto, Javier Grbec, Kévin Dupuis & Fernando Julien.

I'm sure I could think of more if I put my mind to it.

 

You lost me at 'Fred Friday'....

 

I knew you were making this list up once I saw that. Might as well of/have named him Biggus ****us

Edit: stupid swear filter! Biggus Dic kus

 

There's a lot going on on the top of your head!

 

Is it not a probability, rather than a possibility?

 

Been thinking about this and it would probably make good sense if we want to bring in the Siliki guy.? Chabs is OK in deep midfield but we really lack that Capoue-type player to bring the ball out, and Chabs doesn't fill that need.
Plus I think GP is looking for a younger squad now....?