Most on here felt Slater did not add anything to what we have so no great loss for me. Interesting that no one came in for any of our squad which based on performances so far is not surprising. Sadly we still have Eaves and I doubt anyone will be chasing him in January
Performances have been OK but for a bit of cutting edge going forward - which given those unavailable it's not a huge surprise. Always going to be difficult moving on those who aren't really featuring. Let's face it, Slater would just have been another number in midfield this season but I would have liked to see him develop here over time at this higher level. Cant understand why, with space to make signings we weren't looking to strengthen with experience at either end of the pitch though - maybe just that kind of player wasn't available on our budget. Not grumbling overall about the business this summer. 9 incomings, all of which add something is more than I expected.
Experienced CB should have been priority, ideally with same at other end although they’re harder to come by. TWT whether it was a good window I suppose
Just think you're going to develop the young defenders more, thereby adding greater to their value by having someone with the knowhow in this league alongside them. Maybe that's Huddlestone as he's played centrehalf at this level before. As you say. TWT.
I think I'll reserve judgement and keep my powder dry until I establish the facts of what has went on here.At this point in time I'm not sure the erm 'Sheffield Star' will have the full facts?? As DBT says,let's hope we haven't ****ed up the chance of strengthening our defence by making a hash of the Slater move at the 11th hour(that's 23.00 to others,we've been here before). If the Club,Ehab,whoever, have genuinely screwed up here then criticism is forthcoming and just.If it's not our fault at all then it(criticism)most certainly is not.
I'm sure that if the club saw a defender as a priority then we wouldn't be pissing Slater about on deadline night. Clearly they don't - unless of course they see Thudd as a centreback option as well as holding midfield - and he did drop in between Greaves and Mustard quite frequently last week.
In terms of pure profit and loss, he might be right. Same with Newcastle who are another bunch sick of their owners and showing little ambition other than to balance the books.
Then why borrow, sorry, receive a gift of £500,000 from the football league if the accounts are so good?
Maybe that's what balanced the books or limited losses at a time where there was next to no income from the turnstiles. I don't agree that we're the 'best run club' mind you. Though owners tend to define 'well run' differently to supporters who by their nature thrive on ambition. Reducing a football club to a balance sheet somewhat misses the point. I accept that. And there's also the glaring fact that we got absolutely no value on the pitch from the aftermath of the Premier league, despite handing out some very lucrative contracts for some very average players when we still had parachute payments. That's incompetent recruitment. Nothing less.
Because they weren't going to spend any money anyway and all their targets were free transfers, so to them it was £500,000 for free for an embargo that places rules on us that we would have otherwise done anyway.
Some good news though, Festus Arthur scored his first goal for Barrow last night against Accrington in the Papa John's Trophy.
They weren't going to pay transfer fees anyway. Obviously they've spent a bit on contracts and loans , but otherwise your post is accurate. They were never going to spend beyond the constraints of the embargo, so the 500k was effectively free money - and focusing on the embargo is a bit of a red herring. We've finished the window with 2 free spots and ultimately decided not to fill them. It gives some wiggle room for January, but if we're adrift by then it's totally on Enob and Darno. We now know McCann hasn't got one of his primary summer targets - but maybe he has a couple he wasn't necessarily expecting in Tom and Tyler. We know there'll be no 'gimmies' or 'home bankers' in this league. Just gonna have to back the boys on the pitch and see how it pans out. One thing I do know is it's not the fault of the lads in the shirt. And they earned the opportunity to keep us up this year. So we really need to support as opposed to booing our own, like that 'fans' ****show on the final whistle against Derby.
I suspect with the protracted situation with the Slater deal, the situation changed over time, i.e. Tom H coming in probably was not foreseen when the original bid was put in for Slater, so it got to the point whereby the club thought well if we can get him in on a free then we'll take him, but if not then we have enough cover in midfield so we pass. I think under the circumstances, it seems the right thing to do. If Smallwood had gone, then things would have been different, but as he is still with us, then I think we would have too many midfielders not getting games, which can create unrest. In a sense, the Blunts delaying the decision have created the situation. I just feel sorry for Regan, as he seems to have been the pawn in the game. On the whole good recruitment in the window, and quite a number of youngsters have gone out of loan which is a big plus.
I'd say it was an asute window - if perhaps a little lacking in proven championship experience, but that's clearly the market were in. Don't often agree with DBT, but time will tell whether it's been good or not, but I have at least some confidence we're not going to be absolute whipping boys time out, unlike the season we spunked a whole load more in wages for an embarrassing bunch of overpaid ****e who surrendered their own self respect and frankly shafted the supporters, the club and the city.
I feel the same, I think we have shown in the last 2 games Fulham & Bournemouth we can compete at this level, we just need to perform against the lesser lights and get the 3 points.
You say that John but in the 2 games you mention we took 1 point from 6, scored 0 goals and didn’t manage a shot on target in the home game. Is that competing ?
