We don't know if we can trust PW to spend wisely in January, rA. IMO because he's had little to spend thus far and, under the new regime, as I understand it, he doesn't actually spend the money. He gives the recruitment department a wish list consisting of the type of player he wants and some names he'd like. The recruiters then speak to players and their agents and, naturally, their clubs. PW will have contact with a player to talk about tactics, expectations, opportunities, lack of guarantee of starting place etc. Any transfer fee and wages are sorted by Stephen Pearce and the financial staff.

PWs influence goes, IMO, no further than being able to say no to a player recruitment suggests that he doesn't want for whatever reason.

We have signed several players who were either injured or recovering from one. Might it be that those were the only ones DCFC could afford in sufficient numbers to give us the required squad size? We fans don't know.