It depends how you judge it. Short term, this team / squad is not going down, imo. We’ve added some steel and experience as well as what appears to be our number 1 striker target. Pears Hyam. McFadz. Wharton JRC. Sondre. Fleck. Pickering Szmodics Gally McGuire Subs - Wahlstedt, Brittain, Chrisene, O’riorden, Billy K, Carter, Dolan, Hedges, Buckley, Garrett, Ayari, Siggy, Leonard etc. It’s the bigger picture and long term plan that worries me. Because 8 of those 24 players are either out of contract or on loan and for as long as we don’t spend any hard cash, the managed decline continues.

In terms of short term, yes. I think the recruitment team have nailed the signings the manager has asked for on the budget they’ve been given. I also think this means we’ll stay up, potentially finish mid table and maybe flutter our eyelashes at the top 6….just my opinion. But I am DREADING the summer. We’ve just made the problem bigger, stuck a plaster on it and booted it down the road in my eyes. God knows what they’re planning but as @Ossydave mentioned…feels like a possible exit? Could get bumpy…

It just all feels off, even for these lot…it wouldn’t surprise me if there were more cuts in the summer. More downgrading. I hope I’m wrong.

Wow!!! I wasn’t expecting that!! So I think the window is tinged by a number of factors: The ins - Fwiw, I have a feeling that we have recruited well. O’Riorden is very highly thought of and in McFadz, Fleck (A technician who I’ve always liked) and McGuire we now have the necessary experience and our number 1 striker target onboard. Outs - I’ve no problems with Trav, he needed to go and in hindsight I’m now kinda glad it wasn’t permanent (we will need him as an option at least in the summer). Selling Ennis for £500k is genius but the sale of Adam is desperately sad. Here lies my biggest concern. I’ve had a strong feeling that there’s been an acceleration in the ‘managed decline’ since the summer. It was happening before, in truth the evidence shows it’s been happening since they turned up. But the last 6 months are giving me massive alarm bells. In short, I’m now happy that we’ll win enough games to stay up. With a fair wind we’ll finish mid table and potentially flirt with the top 6. But I’m dreading the summer when we potentially lose a third of the squad? The manager? With little or no money to spend. Theres a bigger picture at play here…ugh

Me too…he genuinely looks like he could cry!

What if, what if…we actually did just inform them that the Wharton cash hadn’t landed, so they (DM and entourage) holed up waiting for the call and now the money has landed, so it’s back on?

I’ve located the two culprits…don’t worry, they’ve got everything in hand! 😅🤣

The answer is, they must!!

I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as you suggest. The only ‘loss’ to the team there is Wharton. I’ll come back to him. Travis hasn’t been playing regularly for a while and hadn’t figured at all really this season. Hill started well but tailed off and I’m confident that O’riordan and McFadzean can cover off any potential drop off from him. I’d go as far to say most fans would’ve gladly sent him back in favour of us signing O’riordan, a highly rated player on a permanent deal. Chrisene and Ayari look like decent squad fillers and if we keep Gally then the signing of McGuire, on paper at least, strengthens us considerably! So, back to Wharton. The truth is, he’s that good that selling him in any window would weaken us. The ACID test for this lot is that we MUST sign a CM this window, for cash. There’s zero excuse because they’re not ‘blocking’ anyone’s progress and they very obviously have cash. 2-3m on a good, young CM with some valuable experience, like Max Bird or Sibley, or the lad from Oxford that PNE fancy will keep most fans content come Friday morning. To bumble past the window without getting a decent midfielder in is unthinkable. Imo.

I understand the McFadzean thing. Will have had endorsement from Hyam, short term deal to cover Carter and help bed O’riordan in. Awe don’t need another long term contracted cb. We need a short term, steady hand. I also don’t expect us to spend a fortune but after losing our best player for a record fee I do expect something like this.. Mcguire - 2.5m mcfadzean - Loan Yates - Loan CM - PURCHASE lets see…

So that’s McGuire and McFadzean supposedly In the bag…I’ve spotted a cunning plan from Greggo! We’re only signing players with Mc in their name! How we could do with McMahon, McCallister and McAteer now! ps - Mcsheffry anyone?

Tugay. Vibes. Yes, mate…that’s right!

You just won the internet for today pal. Nailed it.

I’d put good money right now that Adam Wharton will go further than David Dunn. AW is raw and inconsistent but there’s elements of his game that are breathtaking. Like, much better than even just ‘Premier League’ standard. There are moments in games where he gives me ‘peak’ Tugay vibes. No higher praise than that..imo Tugay would’ve been running City’s midfield if he were playing in this era.

Give it a rest. EVERY club bar the top 0.1% has to sell their star players. It’s what you do with the cash that separates the men from the boys. Lets hope we’re not the latter…

Great move for Adam, for Rovers and Palace. We get the cash, he gets a PL move to club where he will get games and WHEN he shines bright Palace will benefit, firstly on the pitch and then we’ll all benefit financially when he goes to a CL giant for £50-100m. I genuinely think he is good enough.. Now, PLEASE god, give the best manager we’ve had in god knows how long, the money to bring in 2-4 of the right level of players to bolster this team. 🙏🏽

It won’t fool anyone mate. It’s whether they decide to be ‘blissfully unaware’ that’s I’m worried about…

I think Yates is a loan and the one lined up either way. McGuire is a purchase and ergo more expensive so will only happen if Gally is sold. I think Hedges and Dolan could easily play as wing backs in that team along with Brittain, JRC, Pickering and Chrisene. There’s lots of cover there. I don’t know where Siggy plays tbf. He worked hard last night but I agree was completely ineffective in the wb position. He couldnt do any worse than Moran in that floating 10 position he played last night though…

Could it be that Yates is lined up to replace Ennis as the second striker option and McGuire would replace Gally as the target. With the three at the back, I’d say SS would thrive in that role Moran played (failed at) last night. Pears Phillips. Hyam. Wharton JRC Sondre. Wharton. Hedges Szmodics Yates Gally Still have Dolan, Brittain, Pickering when fit and Siggy for the wing back roles. Carter when fit, ORiordan for CB Buckley when fit, Ayari and Garrett for CM Still missing a striker even if we keep Ennis and Leonard….?

Reading between the lines and JDT’s insistence on experience, I think Yates and Phillips are the ones lined up and McGuire is additional if we sell Gally.

So, based on the last few weeks, the return of JRC, Hedges, Gally and Dolan, I would be happy to add Phillips and Yates on loan and sell no one. Maybe loan out Markanday, Leonard, Batty and Gilsenan. If we sell Gally then do the Maguire deal on top of those above. If we sell Wharton then I’d hope we’d have £5m to reinvest in this window…🤞🏽 So, I reckon it’s 2-4 in and 4-6 out (including young lads going on loan) in the next few days.

A professional performance. We never got out of 3rd gear, nor needed to. Trondstadt, JRC, SS, Dolan and Gally played well. I thought Ayari looked decent when he came on too… Garrett and Moran were really poor. I’m not having Moran, haven’t seen him play well yet. Interesting few days ahead!!

Literally just spat my drink out reading that! 🤣🤣🤣

🤣🤣🤣