Official January Window Including Speculation And Rumour Thread

[animallittle3]

Mixed feelings for me, summarised like this.

Goalkeeper - glad he’s still with us but we lose him in June providing he’s not recalled sooner.

Defence - looks stronger and more experienced on paper but we haven’t seen them play yet.

Midfield - weaker after Styles departure, cover is virtually non existent. Glad we retained Kane and Connell

Striker - still the same, we rely on Cole (probably having the best season of his career) and McAtee. The ones who are on the bench look like duds to me. Don’t see any improvement from them. Think we needed to bring another one in.

Someone said earlier there would be a we tried but we failed statement, well they were right. Byers preferred Blackpool and the interest in Ennis didnt come to fruition.

So we end up arguably better in defence, weaker in midfield with less cover and the same up front.

I have to say that this window owes much to previous ones when you look at who has gone out. Almost all of them hopeful summer punts that haven’t come off.

When will this ownership ever learn? Fans have been telling them their model is flawed but they still plod onwards making the same mistakes.

I think this window could end up being an opportunity lost as this league is there for the taking and a little bit of investment might have seen us over the line.

My thoughts entirely Ethel

[pass_and_move]

When is this club gonna show any ambition? We are in a very decent position in the league 1 table and surely the club is now in the black financially after the Mads and Kitching transfers last summer. Why couldn't we re-invest some of that cash into properly strengthening
this team in order to seriously challenge for automatic promotion? It's there for the taking isn't it. Even Stevie Wonder can see it. I've never known such a poor division in my time as a Red.

I'm just lost with the way this club operates. My interest is waning. How can the supporters get behind this nonsense? We'll get what we deserve in my opinion- another season in league 1

[animallittle3]

When is this club gonna show any ambition? We are in a very decent position in the league 1 table and surely the club is now in the black financially after the Mads and Kitching transfers last summer. Why couldn't we re-invest some of that cash into properly strengthening
this team in order to seriously challenge for automatic promotion? It's there for the taking isn't it. Even Stevie Wonder can see it. I've never known such a poor division in my time as a Red.

I'm just lost with the way this club operates. My interest is waning. How can the supporters get behind this nonsense? We'll get what we deserve in my opinion- another season in league 1

Not to mention who the club have to replace in the summer who will now depart for nowt .

[pass_and_move]

Not to mention who the club have to replace in the summer who will now depart for nowt .

Aye good point Animal. Crikey, that's a sobering thought judging by our transfer activity in the last 12 months.

Ni mind though, we are tennants at Oakwell for the next 30 years. Yippee!

[Shadrack the Red]

Not to mention who the club have to replace in the summer who will now depart for nowt .

Very true but who ever left this january for money would have cost us money to replace & there will be a lot of players at other clubs who will also leave for nowt & surely we will try to tap into the same market , swings & roundabouts for me but at least by hanging on to your better players in january you are giving yourself half a chance , sell your better players & the replacements have to hit the ground running instantly , where do you get a striker who can continue to score at the same rate as Cole for the money we would have got for him ?

[SBRed48]

(Posted on "wrong thread" again.)

My summary of this window--

Last summer--Buy Cheap

This January--Buy Twice

[SBRed48]

If we go up we will need seven or eight players of Championship standard on somewhere near Championship wages to have a chance of staying up.
The likes of Cole and Connell would need to be tempted to stay with much better contracts than the ones they have now.

[Young_Nudger]

If we go up we will need seven or eight players of Championship standard on somewhere near Championship wages to have a chance of staying up.
The likes of Cole and Connell would need to be tempted to stay with much better contracts than the ones they have now.

If we go up - which I doubt - but if we do, we wont be signing players on Championship wages that’s for sure.
But we have no need to.
That’s been proved.

But if we try to out compete the opposition by playing tippy tappy football like we are playing right now then we will come straight back down.
Which has also been proven.

[SBRed48]

If we go up - which I doubt - but if we do, we wont be signing players on Championship wages that’s for sure.
But we have no need to.
That’s been proved.

But if we try to out compete the opposition by playing tippy tappy football like we are playing right now then we will come straight back down.
Which has also been proven.

I did say "somewhere near Championship wages", meaning not quite the level paid by other clubs, maybe one or two of our top earners would get in the bottom end of the Championship range.

[SBRed48]

The club seemed to have learnt from the Genius James summer recruitment window that you cannot get away with recruiting for nothing from non league/ lower leagues and putting them straight in the first team. The clubs original attempt at this strategy has fallen apart with the players being sent out on loan-

Lopata--Port vale
Shepherd--Cheltenham
Lofthouse--MK Dons
Dallas--Oldham
Shaw--out to Motherwell, now recalled

Fishing in a slightly different pool hopefully Pines (free) and Earl (undisclosed) will prove more experience having played at a higher level.

We have lost on loan Styles, whose heart wasn't in it, and failed in the attempted replacement with Byers.

Upfront no changes. I would have like to have seen an "old pro" in the Norwood/ Scotland mould.

I'm fairly neutral on this window but pleased to see no extension of the fishing in the lower league/ non league pond for freebies.