Reply With QuoteI should imagine that said agent received a good old blast of Yorkshire advice!
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Plus DA says an agent who isn't Charlie's is messing about with this, so it may not even be true.
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I should imagine that said agent received a good old blast of Yorkshire advice!
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Nothing about Wintle, then?
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Nathan Wood, an 18 year-old centre-half from Middlesbrough, the 5th loan player. Do we need him? Says a lot to Eddie Nolan and Sass-Davies.
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Well Eddie has gone off to Motherwell so I guess we’ve seen the last of him in Alex red. A fine defender in League 2 who, rather like his manager before him, has probably lost that little bit of pace for League 1 - good luck to him. As for BSD I guess it’s back on loan to the conference for him.
The rules say we can name up to 5 loan players on any team sheet so Dave has a full squad to pick from, when fit (Daniels played for the Under 23s today as well). Best club to ask is Swindon, who have been surviving on loan players as the spine of their side for years!! At least they only supplement our own players - OK, bit different now that Pixie is on loan!
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I don't think that having so many loans in is a good thing. I understand that the teams needs to be freshened up and that we may be weak in particular positons, but do we really need 5 loanees.
Who is Wood going to replace, Beckles or Lancashire or is he just back up, instead of Nolan.
Walker replaces Ainley until he is fit again, then what?
Billy gives us needed cover at RB and helps the development of Travis- I get that.
Evans gives comp for a number of players. Is that needed? with the players we already have.
Pixie is a strange one to me. I know his presence is a bonus to the team, but will he miss games to give Rio more oppurtunity, or will Rio have to wait until next season and hope that nobody else is brought in. Will Pixie be as dedicated to the cause (probably will) or will he be thinking of next season.
Generally I don't agree with loans except in emergency, or as a way of giving young lads an oppurtunity and I think That Crewe have enough young lads of their own (most of the time).
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We wait to hear from DA about Wood, but surely at his age he must be backup not expected to play regularly, but having him in allows Eddie Nolan to get game time in the SPL (what a standard that must be!) and seek a contract for next year, and Billy Sass to get game time on loan rather than sit on our bench. Sadly for steady eddie the 2019 injury, when he was an automatic pick, seems to have ended his Alex career.
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Would Middlesborough be happy for Wood to sit on the bench for 4months with maybe the odd U23 game thrown in. What happens when Offord is back- or is he out for the rest of the season?
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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.
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So, how are the loanees fitting in? In his first game, I thought Jones was an excellent acquisition but his two subsequent appearances have not impressed, particularly. Walker, well I was not too sure that we needed him anyway and he hasn't shown anything yet. Evans I'm not sure about as I haven't seen enough. As for Wood, TM is right to believe that his employers wouldn't really expect him to warm the bench for three months, he can do that at Middlesbrough. What we need at the moment is a bit of guile (and solid smooth pitches) in midfield as we are not carving out the chances. Mandron must be knackered with the amount of work he has to do with very little reward.
The one thing now is no midweek games for two weeks so maybe the two forward players can be integrated a bit more.
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