Loans are fine as long as the nucleus of your team is your own and that the loans are a class above what is available at this level already. Looking forward the financial fair play rules may mean we can not sign everybody we need to in a single transfer window and a loan is better than going without but for this season I only want one if it is an outstanding talent. The guy from Spurs may be a decent prospect but he doesnt fit into the model I would want to get on loan. The likes of Bellamy, Bridge & Lansbury were all players loaned to the championship who have got that extra 'something' that can make the difference. With all respect to Wabara you may aswell take a gamble on your own youth or a promising league 2 prospect for the season. The only other loan I would consider would be one with a view to a full transfer. Possibly from a foreign club or a league 2 player who has been exceptional at a lower level but may not be able to adapt and therefore lowers our risk by loaning first.
Totally agree with tractorbhoy, loans should be giving us a little bit extra like a bellendamy and lansbury not just to give game time to an untried youngster. If we are looking at 19 year old midfielders, id much rather stick Hyam and Lawrence in to develop our youngsters not some other ****ers. As for the goalie situation, its looks as though Heaton is a no go. Does anybody know if Steve Simonsen is still available? experienced decent keeper on a freebie and i personally think he would do a good job for us for a season. much better than getting a loan in for a season!
I see Leicester has taken the ex Dundee Utd keeper Pernis on trial, who done a decent job in Scotland. At Celtic there is another Pole in Zaluska who hardly gets a game. With Rangers problems, I would personally try to get Neil Alexander back here asap!. Scandanavia always used to have a hotbed of cheap talent and with our proximity to the coast, Holland & Belgium are well worth a spying mission. Off course we dont know what is happening behind the scenes but I do find it amazing how shallow our scouting network seems to be cast these days. Who was the last player from a european club (excluding ireland) that we signed? It seems amazing that we picked up Civelli from south america but cant/ dont find anyone closer to home to boost what is without doubt an average side. in addition, Almunia @ arsenal, Cerny @ QPR, Alnwick @ spurs, Taylor @ Man City and my favourite Hahnemann at Everton all released and available on frees.
Tractorbhoy, i actually think our scouting network has got better!!!!!!!!!!!! we are looking at guys from abroad and getting them over for trials, plus we are looking lower down in the leagues here to find the little gems. Remember the budgies rose up the leagues with a squad made up basically of homegrown talent from the lower leagues, so we need to start from here and work outwards. On the keeper front, call me old fashioned but i feel much more at ease with a UK keeper than one from mainland europe, i just never feel safe with a ball crossed in when i know a keeper is only going to punch rather than take an relevently easy catch!
Guru, agree on the keeper situation and in general I dont deny it is getting better in some ways but I cant see why all the foreigners are unattached or on trial. Its promising, along with signing players from lower leagues but its seems strange that we no longer seem to actively take an interest in european players and clubs. We can quite easily still attract talent from alot of areas in europe and Holland especially is somewhere which has always produced decent players and we have a good name there but dont appear to take advantage of it. Take Cardiff as an example who have signed Slovenians, Slovakians and have admitted an interest in a Japanese player this week. Scottish clubs seem very clever at finding cheap imports and the likes of Dundee United have had success over the last few seasons and our reputation has to be bigger than alot of scottish clubs with all due respect. Im not sure if Town have managed to keep their rumours quiet of late but football is truly global and if we cant chuck cash around then we have to work hard to find talent.
Good discussion going on here. I'm not 100% against loans but would prefer if we didn't use them, although I think last season they were necessary. We have had some very good loans in the past. This 19yo we are rumoured with could well be a very good player but may prevent Hyam from developing, as many of you point out I don't think Jewell has ever been convinced by him. I'd prefer us to try and get permanent signings in first before we try loans but I geuss as a manager if you know you've got a chance with a quality player on loan you're going to go for it. I would quite like to see Alexander back here, for me he could've been the best keeper we've had for years in the small snipped we saw of him I thought he was the best all round GK I've seen at the club. Perhaps bring in Alexander or someone like Hahnemann who are in the twilight of their careers and look to bring in a young (risk) GK with a view to slowly putting him in the first team. Someone like Johannes Hopf, who from his youtube clip looks very good (I know they make most players look decent) or Paulo Gazzaniga from Gillingham. But the player I think I'd like us to bid for would be Westwood at Sunderland, he's a good keeper with Championship experience and a good age!! Whatever happened to Stuart Taylor, I thought he looked like an outstanding prospect when he was younger!! I agree with the Holland stuff, it's about time we had some dutch stars over here again!!
