Artell January Transfer Window (merged)

Usual cryarsing from some about Kirk - a player nobody on here had heard of 6 weeks back and who was so good that Charlton just paid him off to get rid.

I would’ve sooner kept Wilson, a striker, than brought in another winger when we’ve got Eisa, Vernam, Gnahoua, Wood and even Glennon at a push who could play out wide.

He would have to be some player if a winger saved your season.

Quoted from ska face

Usual cryarsing from some about Kirk - a player nobody on here had heard of 6 weeks back and who was so good that Charlton just paid him off to get rid.

I would’ve sooner kept Wilson, a striker, than brought in another winger when we’ve got Eisa, Vernam, Gnahoua, Wood and even Glennon at a push who could play out wide.

He would have to be some player if a winger saved your season.

Thing is Kirk has been a free agent for a few weeks, he obviously spoke with Artell some time ago as confirmed by DA, so he clearly doesn’t want to come here and we move on. Would have much preferred a target man be brought in as an alternative option and to reduce the workload on Danny Rose.

Quoted from ska face

Usual cryarsing from some about Kirk - a player nobody on here had heard of 6 weeks back and who was so good that Charlton just paid him off to get rid.

I would’ve sooner kept Wilson, a striker, than brought in another winger when we’ve got Eisa, Vernam, Gnahoua, Wood and even Glennon at a push who could play out wide.

And Clifton. Agree Kirk was far from essential. I'd have rather brought another CM than a winger if we were getting one more.

Quoted from ska face

Usual cryarsing from some about Kirk - a player nobody on here had heard of 6 weeks back and who was so good that Charlton just paid him off to get rid.

I would’ve sooner kept Wilson, a striker, than brought in another winger when we’ve got Eisa, Vernam, Gnahoua, Wood and even Glennon at a push who could play out wide.

He would have to be some player if a winger saved your season.

I don't know if somebody has just made it up, but Wikipedia seems to thin that Gnahoua has played centre-forward in the past. He's certainly not going to be leading the line in the way that Rose can, but he's good at shielding the ball and linking up play. Might need to play him up front in an emergency situation!

Quoted from Maringer

I don't know if somebody has just made it up, but Wikipedia seems to thin that Gnahoua has played centre-forward in the past. He's certainly not going to be leading the line in the way that Rose can, but he's good at shielding the ball and linking up play. Might need to play him up front in an emergency situation!

Dunno, but says here from when he signed for Paul Hurst at Shrewsbury, Gnahoua, of French and Ivory Coast descent, can play as a left-sided winger, a central striker or as a deeper attacker.
Source: https://www.shropshirestar.com.....m-in-arthur-gnahoua/

Quoted from Marinerdan

I may be wrong but I don’t think the transfer window shuts for a few months outside the EFL so he could still move onto non league if he wanted to.

You're dead on with that. I still expect him to go out to a national league club in the coming weeks.

By all accounts, the lad from Coventry is going to be a good player. We need to give him a proper go up front rather than 5 or 10 minutes at the end of the game. Otherwise it is a worthless signing.

Pyke is in rehab, so not fit, so was never going to leave


PS What happened to the Egyptian King???? that's what i want to know!

Can see Danny Amos to York announced imminently then. Admire his confidence in holding out for a league club but I think it was slightly ambitious. Still he's not lost anything biding his time and York will be a good move for him, decent sized club and still local. Wish him all the best.

I compiled some thoughts about what we really needed to address by the end of the window, a couple of days ago. My thoughts were as follows:

Quoted Text

1. We’re getting routinely skullfúcked down both flanks.

2. Having lost Conteh, we’ve now lost what little solidity we had in the midfield, and remain incredibly limited there in terms of distribution, leadership and experience.

3. Our level defensive of organisation is currently akin to Poland’s in 1939.

4. We have a steady yet inexperienced goalkeeper whose confidence can’t have been helped by our form and sheer number of goals conceded in recent weeks.

5. We appear to have no adequate replacement for Rose should he, god forbid, get injured (the only reason this isn’t higher up the list is because he isn’t currently injured, I say whilst touching every inch of wood currently within my peripheral vision).

My assertions were essentially that addressing points 1 and 2 were non-negotiable; we needed two new full backs and an experienced, robust central midfielder that can play a bit - and all needed to be of a markedly better pedigree than what we already had. I felt that if we could solve those glaring, fundamental issues, that it would go a long way to solving point #3. I don't deny what we've all been watching in recent weeks, but I believe there's enough on the CVs of Rodgers, Maher and Tharme to suggest that they are capable League Two players provided those around them are doing their job and they can regain a bit of confidence.

In terms of the essential part of the brief, I think we've done a pretty good job. For me, it's a solid 8/10. On paper at least all three deadline day acquisitions appear to be of a much better standard of what we had in the squad, the major question mark being one of fitness / injury proneness over a couple of them. But if we had to take a risk in terms of experience or historic injury record, I feel like we've made the right call. Only time will tell.

Realistically, we were never likely to bring in another goalkeeper, and we were never going to find a striker close to Rose's ability at this moment in time. Another body in that area would have been nice to have, but injury to Rose would have remained a major risk regardless. We just have to hope and pray he stays fit and well between now and May.

On the whole, I certainly feel more confident about avoiding relegation than I did a few days ago. The squad we now have at our disposal should, imo, absolutely keep us clear, and the maths are still favourable. We're currently ticking over at a win and a draw every 6 games, which is poor, but should be maintainable at the very least between now and the end of the season. If we can do that, it takes us to 40 points which is, again, a poor tally over 46 games, however one of Sutton or Forest Green would need to almost double their current PPG run rate over their remaining games to get past us.

I would hope that we can at least do marginally better than that, which would should keep us safe with some degree of comfort, but we really do need to pick up at least 4 points from our forthcoming games against Colchester and Donny.