Is the magic carpet about to soar again. I'm excited with this bunch of players,the manager and KLD & KS.
Totally agree mate,this window thread has run its' course. I'm a little surprised we let Nectar go....he's versatile at the back...but we don't look too bad.....RLB has to get a goal threat from these players,one way or another,which I'm confident he will. He mentioned it several times in his PC about his disappointment we didn't add to the goal against Burnley when we were on top. As for your last sentence, I'm hoping that we're doing very well come January,and we have no real need to be involved,save for knocking back bids for our outstanding young players! Hoping the January thread lasts for about 20 posts!
Agreed. Just to add to the Mayenda positivity (and expand on something I said earlier) worth noting that Simms got three goals in total before the January window opened last season. Latte lath got 5 (but only got his third in December) and Wright was the pick with 7 (getting his third in November). All had cracking second halves to the season after being given time and all are lauded by many of our fans as the sort of player that speakman failed to sign for us. Mayenda might get his third league goal before August is out! If EM is around that 7 goal mark by Christmas - which he is capable of doing imo - then he’s doing his job nicely.
Honestly the window was a very good one, people will ignore that due to not getting another striker with senior games behind them and only having Isidor but apart from that we’ve added some serious quality. Mepham, Samed, Browne, Poveda all got experience and are good. This Aleksic looks very promising too. Excited for Isidor aswell Let’s hope for their sakes this Abdullahi is a serious CF in the making. Isidor is still a great option to have up top too, 24, many games behind him and a good amount of goals, from what I’ve heard and seen his attributes will fit perfectly up top in our system. He could start banging them in and then we are no longer talking about strikers
I’m more excited than I was before the window. An experienced striker could easily have flopped. We seem to have a better balanced squad with options everywhere. Very optimistic about top two now.
Isidor definitely does, pretty certain Samed does too. Mepham is out of contract in summer so we could just sign him as a free agent in theory.
Saudi and Turkey are still open, not sure on others. I could see Aouchiche in either of them leagues.
Yeah. It’s a tough fit for some of them and for me they’re all beyond a non-league loan. Part of me thinks that a year with RLB may be of benefit even without minutes though. What can he do with someone like Ba if he works with him for a year?
Solid 7/10 window for me. Brought in more experience in to the squad and extended contracts on players with massive potential. I think the fabled championship ready striker we've longed for would have had me certain we're going up with maximum points but I suppose I'm happy to draw a game or 2 instead
Cracking post mate. Sums things up very succinctly. No point in dressing it up around the 9. The club very clearly pursued an additional first team ready striker having already signed Isidor and rightly so. That they ended up with a kid from Belgium last minute rather than a main man is an outright failure and that's on the club and its fine to say so. The other signings made appear to be very solid and address a lot of what was needed. Lingering concerns remain at FB particularly now that it seems as Alese could be out for a while. Cirkin remaining fit and in form is critical for us until January as is also the case for our striking options. RLB has made a superb start and seems to be very calm and measured. Onwards and upwards.
Went to bed last night and this thread has 35 more pages, apologies for not reading them but here's my morning thoughts on all of this: Mayenda will surprise many and start most of the games in the striker position this season, I predict he will reach double figures, keep in mind our combined strikeforce last season scored 3 and he already has 2. Wilson Isidore has a task on his hand dislodging Mayenda, his saving grace might be that he can function on the wings as a secondary position should we have injuries or suspensions to Mundle and Paddy, I suspect we will see a little of that. Rusyn, for his lack of goals so far and impressed many of us with his endeavour and workrate, I think he will prove himself to be worthy competition for the other two lads this season. Chris Mepham, I've not heard of him before despite playing 60 times in the Premiership and winning a load of international caps, shows how out of touch with anything else but Sunderland I am in the football world. Looking at his profile and data in recent seasons tells me he will be a top Championship centre back, but probably a questionable Premiership one. He made 10 appearances for Bournemouth last season, a season where he missed a big chunk due to injury and illness. he did get a mini run in the team in March, 4 games where the team won 3 and drew 1 before illness struck. I'm not sure how he gets into the team at this moment in time but the season is long and he is an accomplished defender. Ahmed Abdullahi is a bit of a question mark, you'd be forgiven he has signed for the u21s but we'll just wait and see. The two centre mids, Samed and Aleksic, will also have a tough time cracking the starting line up considering what we've seen so far from Browne and Rigg but again, it's a long season. Overall I would rate the window a 7/10, we did some good business, not perfect by any means but still good, I always try and remember when we bought Super Kev for £350k and people were not impressed, sometimes the gift is wrapped in newspaper and my guess is the gift this season is Mayenda.
I'm not going to pretend I didn't want to see us sign a starting calibre forward yesterday, it's the key piece that is missing. The club clearly wanted one too, hence the bids for Bamba, Orban, Fofana, Simic etc. and given that we did have the funds from the Clarke sale, I feel like Speakman has failed on this front. I think Speakman holds himself to the highest standard and will be disappointed with this himself. That being said, I'm happy with what we have signed. Mepham has plenty of experience and could slot straight into defence which makes me much less worried about Alese. Samed feels like a massive upgrade for us and I'm a little confused how we managed to get him given he seemed to feature a lot for Lens in the league and Champions League last year. He provides something we don't have in midfield and can do the defensive side. Aleksic could be the real star signing, though I don't expect to see anything but cameo's immediately. We've reportedly spent £3.1m on him, he's been in the Serbian national squad already, Benfica were after him and he's just 18. I think once he acclimatises, he'll be every bit the prospect that Rigg and Jobe are. He seems versatile too which will help his minutes. Abdullahi is a nice pick up (if you take him on his merits rather than what we didn't get). The few clips available of him show he's quick and strong with good movement. He looks to have been prolific at youth level and clubs like Gent have a history of finding African talent. Once he gets used to the levels of professionalism and physicality needed at a Championship club, he could explode onto the scene. I'm not expecting to see much of him at all for the first few months, but we paid £1.7m for him and that's not just a random gamble in my view (it's more than we were prepared to pay for Mendy). I'll throw Isidor in here too, even though he wasn't deadline day. I'm really happy with this signing, he seems to have power and pace and is clearly motivated to be here. I think he can contribute immediately, and whilst I thought he looks more like a left sided forward, he's going to be our number 9. Hopefully he starts brightly today and gets some confidence (though I don't think he's short on it). I think we've got a lot of players on the fringes now who aren't going to see much time at all and I hope it doesn't unbalance the dressing room. Aouichiche, Ba and Bennette all look like they could have moved with little detriment to our squad. All in all, I do think we're stronger than last season. We're absolutely stacked in midfield in particular with so many options. Full back doesn't have any direct cover, but I'm confident we have the flexibility to manage through the season. Hopefully what we're seeing from Mundle and Mayenda at the moment is their consistent level and not just good form. That would assuage my slight doubts on the goal front. Transfers are done now though. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the new lads in action and a good performance today will keep the positivity flowing!
I still can’t shake my disappointment at yesterday. As I’ve already said, it was one striker away from a brilliant window. Which almost makes it more disappointing. The signings of Mepham and Samed feel like signings of a club that are really going for promotion. But the lack of that “main” number 9 I fear will cost us. As an entire package we are better than last season for sure. It just feels like a missed opportunity.
