There’s zero chance of us getting Cook, O’Brien and a striker today. We couldn’t even afford to compete for Porteous’ wages, never mind three new additions, two of which are on PL wages.

Judging by the amount of time Benson spends stood at the edge of the technical area, he’s preparing to take the reins. Never, ever seen a GK coach so involve with outfield decisions, it’s bizarre.

Given the players he has available JDT has performed miracles. Our squad is a bottom half Championship squad and we’re in the playoffs.

I do wonder what it was about the previous 3 transfer windows that made everyone think this one would be any different. Hyam Szmodics Morton Hirst Mola Brittain Markanday Hedges Zeefuik Brown Edun Van Hecke Giles Poveda Khadra Clarkson 16 players signed - about 4 of them have been decent. By that reckoning we need to sign another 3 before Tuesday for one of them to be any good this window.

Have you seen the screenshots though of him chatting up a 14 year or girl? Not sure he’s the type of character we want!

Add in that we wouldn’t have anywhere to train as Venkys own that separately, not the club.

There is no chance at all that the club will get in the required players with 3 days to go until the deadline. We can kiss goodbye to the playoffs now, so let’s just not get our hopes up. If the club could actually manage player’s contracts we might have some actual money to spend. We need to implement a policy of players with 18 months on their deals have 6 months to agree a deal or go on the transfer list, whoever they are. Time to stick players like Ayala and BBD on the bench who aren’t going to be here next season and give the likes of Markanday, Dolan, Phillips more games and get them ready for next year.

BBD, more like BB. Been crap since the January window was in the horizon.

Ike Ugbo from Troyes is the latest miscreant to be linked.

Really don’t rate this move. Loan without an option to make permanent. Where does this signing fit into the project then? It’s a pointless move that will just block Dolan/Markanday’s progress. Either sign him permanently or on loan with a buy option. Straight loan from a Championship rival is ridiculous.

Middlesbrough trying to sign Van Hecke and now they’ve joined the race to sign Gelhardt too. It’s like they’ll have the transfer window we’re dreaming of.

I’d argue we do. Let’s stop pretending Wharton and Carter are actually top 6 quality players. Ayala is made of straw and can’t be relied upon. Phillips is 17 so needs to be eased in. Hyam is our only genuine top 6 quality centre back.

Nobody has got Venkys to do anything they didn’t want to since a certain agency. Time to judge Greg is in 2 years and we see whether the club is in a better state than it was when he came in.

‘Money issue’

Don’t mind the new GK on a free. Sell Pears for a ‘six figure fee’ (the latest buzz words) and replace him for nothing? Sounds like a decent deal for us.

Apart from that’s not where Ben lives…

Outskirts of Burnley or Spain to bring up his child? Hmm…

Latest reports from Football Insider suggest Villarreal may move to bring BBD in this January if they sell Danjuma this month.

Just spoken to a Brighton supporting pal of mine about Undav.. He said he’s not cut it in the PL but could be great at our level. Also said the new manager isn’t a fan, he’s been playing a 19 year old kid ahead of him and he was a Potter signing. He thinks the club would try to recoup as much of the reported £4.5m they paid for him and get shut. Would be a wise move for us to include a buy option for the summer. Loan fee now plus an option to buy of say £3.5m+ add ons. If he bangs them in he’ll be worth a lot more than that.

☑️

James Brown off to Doncaster on loan.

Surely he’ll get a loan to a bottom 3 PL contender. He’s too good for the Championship.

I do think some people’s expectations in here are a little unrealistic. When all is said and done we’re a small town club. We get 13k fans in the ground on a good day, and the only reason we ever got into the top flight was a dedicated owner who pumped his own money into the club before there was any kind of regulations. Currently we’re spending what we can, the owners can’t put any more money in than they are doing, so the only possible way we can push forward is by using our academy. Do we need experienced players? Yes of course. Is the stubbornness of the owners to not sell nearly out of contract players hurting us? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, what sets us apart from other mediocre clubs in the Championship or League 1? Not a lot, other than a history that was bought for us by Uncle Jack. Sometimes we need to think about how lucky we are.

Mola’s anticipation and reading of the game is far too poor to play CDM.