I don't expect Twine to go, can't see Brisol City having the reported 5m to spend on him. I don't think we will try to make the move permanent either, at that price you would want someone setting the league alight, not having a few decent spells and working hard.
I understand some on here saying we dont need 2 wingers or 2 fullbacks as X can play there etc.. but for me thats never been the answer in football. I've only ever heard managers say you need 2 players per position, 3 for a keeper and sometimes 3 elsewhere depending on formation, depth etc. GK - Pandur, Allsop, (3rd Ingram, or one of the youngsters possibly) LB - ?, Jacob (the kid can do a job but a better player infront of him is vital.. Vinagre isnt available enough to be included for me. Furlong is also nowhere near the 1st team) RB - ?, Coyle, Cristie (just my opinion obviously, but Cristie has been terrible this season and will go in the summer, also out injured... Coyle is ok as cover but we need a better player in the starting 11) CB - Greaves, Jones, McCoughlin, Smith (thats 4 CB's that we know can do a job, 2 are better than the other 2 which.. as soon as you start counting Greaves as cover at LB your short a position at CB and creates another problem) CM - Seri, Morton, Slater, Doc (Would be nice to upgrade Doc but thats one for the summer) CAM/10 - Carvalho, Tufan, Traore (Im assuming Twine is leaving) Wingers - Philogene, Lokilo, ?, ? (This is it really, which is why id bring in 2 more wingers. Twine is crap on the wing and is hopefully leaving, and the young Vaughn kid isnt ready for a team aiming for top 6) Strikers - ?, Delap, Connolly, Sharp (This normally would be enough but Delap is out injured, Connolly is having a difficult season with knocks etc and Sharp is no spring chicken.. we need another striker) Again just my opinion but its clear to me where we're short and thats at fullback, wingers and a striker. I dont expect us to address all of that this window but hopefully next season we'll see a proper squad capable of getting through a full season without playing players out of position due to injuries and lack of proper cover.
It sounds like we're looking at a winger, a LB, and possibly a RB if the options line up, so that should be the majority of your question marks sorted out. I just can't see us shelling out for two wingers where one is likely going to end up as depth, unless it's a permanent signing on reasonable money - but then, that's what Lokilo was meant to be. It's why a few weeks back I was expressing concern about spending too much on expensive loans this window in lieu of planning longer term as this season's promotion places are far more closed off than they'll likely be next season.
It’s becoming Stockholm syndrome, we have one fit fullback who isn’t really up to the standard of where we want to be. Maybe not this January but this team needs new starting fullbacks either side. I aren’t completely convinced our centre halves are as good as we thought either, they just seem to get walked through. That could be helped with two first rate full backs though and showing our best CB in at LB, Matty Jacob and the fruit man are not long term solutions to our problems.
jacob is not adequate as of yet come on now, reasonable enough but way too limited to be part of a PL chasing squad needs time to develop
At this stage, anyone we get is a punt. Look at the reputation that Twine came with and most will say they have been underwhelmed. Lokilo was a punt that didn't work out. Connolly was a punt that did. We could get all our targets through the door but they may not necessarily be the solution.
hmm yeah it’s not a pressing issue I’d have him behind Greaves there too. Crying out for two new fullbacks, if Acun signs another floaty 10 after Twine I’m gonna ask him if he’s kept the receipt.
Furlong is 21 not 17 or 18, he’s not a kid or a development signing. If he’s not good enough these last few weeks when there’s been an injury crisis he’s never going to cut it. Another pointless signing like Simons.
Yeah guess that's what I'm trying to get at, if we bring in a good first choice LB then I'm happy having Jacob to come on for the odd brief spell.
If Twine's going, at least we'll know today and we have plenty of time to do something about it. I'm most surprised that we haven't got the left back sorted yet, we went into the window with that position as our most pressing issue and I expected it to be the first signing. Obviously Jacob coming in has relieved the pressure a little, but we still need it sorting.
Not as simple as that. What 'key positions'? Keeper? CM? CF? They are all 'key positions' when you don't have cover in place. It's because our recruitment has been and continues to be highly questionnable. With the numbers that have come in over recent windows we should have 2 decent options for each position (as was 'promised'), and then 2 or 3 useful utility players (like Slater). We haven't. The balance remains wrong, ironically mostly in the positions that were identified as being key areas to fix (LB, width, wingers).
We've lost Philogene, Delap, Seri, Traore from our attacking options with Vinagre missing for the bulk of the season meaning we've had to use Slater at LB or an Academy graduate. Allsop missed a handful of games which impacted our style of play as well. It's a lot for a squad with our resources to handle all at once.
I think we're trying to get Luke Thomas on loan from Leicester. He has been recalled from his loan at Sheff Utd as he wasn't getting regular games and it would make sense for him to get regular games here. Would be a very good signing.
