Well we don’t know the extent or prognosis of the injuries to Offord, Ainley and Lundstram, and Daniels has spent more time injured than not since his arrival.

Signing loan players is fine for me if you know that you’re going to be without several first team (plus bench) players for 2 or 3 months, especially with 2 games a week most weeks. We should also anticipate more players picking up knocks, like Pixie did, which keeps them out for 3 or 4 matches. I agree that Jones (and Pixie) are likely to be the only ones to start regularly, without further injuries. But in the short term we have 2 fit CBs, hence Wood to bolster alongside BSD. We have Ainley and Lundstram out, Finney and Lowery not satisfying at least some fans’ expectations and Powell not satisfying any! Griffiths and others have no first team experience, unlike Walker and Evans, so I think that makes sense too.

If DA and KL believe that the likes of TJ, Rio, BSD, Griffiths and Lundstram have a realistic chance of being first team regulars in time then they should get their chance when appropriate (Rio not quite up to it yet I feel) and it therefore makes no sense to bring in permanent signings to restrict those chances in the longer term. Plus, they will be cheaper in the summer! We know that to our own cost of course.