That's the thing, when everybody was praising the recruitment team after a few games, I felt it was premature. But at the same time inevitable we got carried away with it a bit. Likewise inevitable we feel deflated about Ohashi and Gueye lately, when they've been poor. We won't be able to render a full judgement until they've been here far longer, but of course we're going to form opinions along the way.

He cost considerably more than Telalovic, so unless he improves he is a much worse signing.

🤣 Spring chickens to me and thee, but coming into their later years as professional footballers. They won't handle 15 month seasons like a 21 year old was my point.

I see Batty got subbed after 12 minutes in a 2-1 win so must have been injured. Garrett played the full match in a 3-2 defeat to Exeter. Macclesfield won 3-2 away to Matlock to go 10 points clear at the top (12 wins, 2 draws, 0 losses, great start for them) but I can't find any proper match details to know how much Edmondson played.

Whilst I agree there may be something lined up, I don't believe he was actually announced as a signing. There were reports it was done, but no announcement from the club, which is what would make it 'announced as a signing'. At the time, I got the impression everything was in place but we didn't pull the trigger. I suspect this was either the budget didn't allow it, someone else was signed that fit the bill (can't remember who we signed after that point), or we decided we might as well have him for absolutely nothing in January instead. I notice he's not top scorer in the J League anymore, down to 3rd on 17 goals. He has just scored 2 goals in his last game (or the last one on transfermarkt anyway) after going 6 games without scoring. Looks a bit like he scores in flurries. Of his 17 goals, 4 came in one game, and he's scored 2 goals on 4 occasions. Meaning 12 of his 17 goals came in 5 games. I wonder if that suggests inconsistency. Looks like he either destroys teams or doesn't do much, purely looking at those stats of course which is incomplete. He has zero assists this season. Of course, his team are struggling as you said, 3rd from bottom which would see them relegated, and that could be a factor in the inconsistency of end product. Looks like the J League finishes on 8th December, so signing him in January would be the equivalent of signing someone very early in our summer transfer window, but expecting them to play immediately without a preseason (though we'd perhaps bring him in slowly if he'd rested first). Mind you, we'll be expecting Ohashi to have essentially played nearly 15 straight months without a break by the end of the season (J League started in Feb), when the usual is 9 months. For a club known for going into the final third of a season poorly, signing both these lads is a risk in that sense. He's also 29 (30 by end of our season), and Ohashi 28, you have to wonder how their bodies will hold up.

I think we would struggle to have a net spend of minus 5 mill at the moment. That would probably have to be about 3 players sold, maybe more. At the moment, no single player could be sold for 5 mill or more. Our most valuable asset on paper is Carter and he's just been injured for 2-3 months, so nobody will be taking big money gambits on him in January. It would take someone else setting the league on fire pretty much from Saturday onwards to warrant anything like that kind of money.

'Very' good? Surely you've got to accept that seems a stretch at present. He hasn't scored a single goal, or looked particularly like scoring one, in 11 Championship games.

I wouldn't be outraged on behalf of these rich lads even if it were true. Footballers earning thousands per week shouldn't get any sort of allowance on the coach trip regardless of the club's funds.

How many of those players have actually been playing in our u21s/u18s since their loans?

That is awfully far away from where he should be, tbf.

It's called deliberate handball last I heard, so yeh it's about purposely handballing it. I've explained why his position is natural. If you watch a match and look for it, you'll see players raise their hands like that dozens of times a match, most of them just don't have the misfortune of the ball striking them from a yard away. It's a bollocks decision. Even the Watford commentators weren't convinced.

Fair enough, realised just after I posted you might mean something in the first half, which I missed as I didn't realise it was an early kickoff 😅 The commentators only mentioned 'a chance in the first half' when summarising the game so I'd thought it wasn't one of much note. Apologies.

Bizarre take. His hand was up before the ball even reached their player so how can he be considered to be attempting to handle it before he even knew where it was going? For me his hands were up because he was trying to balance and perhaps to indicate he wasn't pushing the player in order to avoid...well, giving a penalty! It was a joke of a decision as there is zero possibility he handled it on purpose, which is the entire point of the rules.

Our big chance fell to Weimann.

I can't see us doing that tbh. Hoped the international break would freshen up some legs but it isn't looking like it.

We don't have a single attacker who can. Except Cantwell, who has frankly only played a few games.

That Furlong looks a good defender

Ridiculous the ref gave that freekick when we were about to pull the trigger on a goal chance.

Superb run from Dolan that

Not the lad on the right is it? He looks too hench to be 15!

Well, let's do a comparison with Hedges, a much older player who doesn't seem to get as much flak, but is another regular. Just league minutes for simplicity and fairer comparison. In the 22/23 season: Hedges: 4 goals, 4 assists in 2,490 minutes. A goal contribution every 311.25 minutes. Dolan: 4 goals, 6 assists in 1,969 minutes. A goal contribution every 196.9 minutes. In the 23/24 season: Hedges: 2 goals, 3 assists in 987 minutes. A goal contribution every 197.4 minutes. Dolan: 5 goals, 4 assists in 2,339 minutes. A goal contribution every 259.8 minutes. This season: Hedges: 1 goal, 1 assist in 680 minutes. A goal contribution every 340 minutes. Dolan: 2 goals, 2 assists in 748 minutes. A goal contribution every 187 minutes. So Dolan's figures are quite a lot better except for last season (which for Hedges was a pretty small sample size, though it did include that beautiful goal of the season). In the last 3 seasons, Dolan has 2 seasons whereby his figure is better than Hedges has achieved in any of the 3 seasons. Neither is setting the world on fire, but despite them having similar minutes this season, Hedges doesn't get much of a mention I feel when it comes to criticism despite having overall much worse stats. If I'd bothered with 21/22 it would have been even worse, as Hedges got 1 assist in 11 games, Ty got 3 goals and 2 assists in 37. Dolan is more productive than most players in that area of the pitch. Siggy's figures stack up similar, with a contribution every 208 minutes last season (1 in his 37 minutes this season but that's an extremely small sample). But you get a much poorer pressing game from him. The now departed Gally managed just 1 every 286 minutes last season, just for illustrative purposes. Weimann has 1 every 218 minutes so far btw. We've consistently no budget, and nobody else that produces as much overall from those areas of the pitch (thinking of Dolan as a wide player anyway, Cantwell is superior in the hole, though of course you need backups). Of course there are better players out there, but I'd rather not let him go for nothing with nothing to replace him (and Siggy will doubtless be off too). Even if we somehow could afford a better player there he'd be a good squad player with what he chips in. (Not all addressed at you, just my musings, and some is in response to the excessive criticism some posters give him)

I know I've criticised some of these loans, but I forgot to say I think the Charlie Olson one is a good one. 19 years old (well, about to be 20 this week) and despite the occasional positive mention he's certainly not one of our highest rated prospects, so I think the National League is a good level for him to be sent to. Seems to be doing very well too, MOTM in his debut and a goal in the next game (only a defender too). Extending the one month loan would probably make sense, if that can be done. Wonder if Altrincham might be interested in borrowing some of our other youngsters, having seen our U21s in action against them and holding their own. Better level than the National League North loans most seem to have been getting. Markanday has 4 goals and 2 assists in 10 games in League Two. If he continues that sort of form until January surely we'd have to consider recalling him if we can get a League One suitor.

Ah that's triggered some memories, I do remember the rectangle being uncomfortable to wear especially when playing in it. I'm a bit confused by, isn't the designs being finalised way in advance an advantage for manufacturers getting the details in time? I'd also expect modern advances to have made this easier than when the Time shirts were made.

I honestly can't remember what ever became of my McEwans and CIS shirts, I was thinking about this when I posted. I feel like I was determined I was going to keep my shirt from 95 forever though, so I can't imagine I threw it...maybe in some box somewhere. Those sponsors weren't transfers either were they? I honestly just can't recall, haven't seen them in person for many years.

I hope that training is entirely finishing training.