January 2020 Transfer Window | Page 33 | Vital Football

January 2020 Transfer Window

The reality is that we spent all the money in the summer, so we were never likely to spash the cash unless we sold players which we didn't manage to do in the end. I think as much as we hoped there would be a nice surpise it was unrealistic to think we had a chance of getting Rhodes, Wells or anyone else in due to the finances being way out of our budget.

Also with relegation looking more likely than not getting players in becomes even harder as the club can't afford to risk paying big money on top of the loses we are already going to be racking up against FFP and no player with alternative options is going to want to come here and risk getting relegated.

I can understand struggling to get players in but the worst part was losing Mulgrew and Windass who for me were 2 of our better players, to what seems like off field reasons rather than on field.

I dont want to write off these lads before they've kicked a ball for us, but it's not being unfair to say they haven't really shone prior to arriving - so are they really a better prospect than our own young lads ripping up trees in the U23's? I don't know maybe they are, but we keep hearing Obi, Weir, Cranksaw, Jolley, etc as well as Joffy are doing so well and at this point surely they are worth considering. We could've even recalled Lang to replace Windass.

I'm glad we've at least got some players in as it gives you a chance some of them could add something rather than not bother with anyone at all. But if we are going to take a gamble with largely inexperienced young players from other clubs we've got some of our own who so far haven't had a look in.
one of them is 31 hardly young
 
These signings are great. It's the 'unknown quantity' that is in our favour. None of the opposition know what they are up against. Remember Hugo ..... no one had heard of him ..... and that goal of the decade at Villa! Beluga is a great signing - he has the mass and strength of his name sake the whale. We all know that in Polish Dobre means GOOD. Dowell, we are already seeing is fitting in very nicely and Mr Laker will fly around the pitch, jet powered, but not finishing off in the same manner as his namesake 40 years ago. Yup they all bode well for the future.

09:50 - Omar Bogle [Cardiff - ADO Den Haag] Loan
Gaetan Bong [Brighton - Nottingham Forest] Undisclosed - pushed out by Dan Burn
Conor McAleny [Fleetwood - Shrewsbury] Loan gone to join a few other Wiganners
James Vaughan [Bradford - Tranmere] Loan
Devante Cole [Wigan - Doncaster] Undisclosed - 1 less striker
Glenn Whelan [Hearts - Fleetwood] Free - Glenn Whelan - I thought he was about 67.
Victor Moses [Chelsea - Inter Milan] Loan - should have come back to us .... he'll hate it in Milano.
Owen Evans [Wigan - Cheltenham] Loan
Callum Connolly [Everton - Fleetwood] Loan
Kieran Dowell [Everton - Wigan] Loan - slipping in well.


Must be quite rough being an AC Milan fan who is old enough to remember the late 80s and early 90s. Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, Maldini, Donadoni, Rijkaard.
Now they can't get a deal for Wigan's left-back over the line. And I say that with all due respect to Wigan.
Wigan Athletic defender Antonee Robinson will remain at the DW Stadium after his move to AC Milan could not be completed.
Robinson, 22, travelled to Milan this morning after the two clubs agreed a fee for the permanent transfer on Thursday evening.
The USA international underwent a medical examination with AC Milan, though further medical tests with the Italian authorities were required, which were subject to a 72-hour deadline.
As such, the deal could not be formally ratified before the 8pm Italian Transfer Deadline on Friday. fair play to them for not being bullied. Milan tried to change the terms. Wigan said no, apparently.

Do you remember when Van Gaal signed Andy Kellett at Man U.
 
New signings aren't really inspiring to me. Balogun a possible exception, since he's played at a higher level and done well there when fit, but the fear is that he's another sicknote, given his injury record. B if he stays fit, he'll definitely be an asset though.

The two younger players though... Of course they could be amazing and prove me completely wrong and I hope they do... But honestly, why are other clubs' youngsters somehow seen as being better than our own?

Our academy is flying at the moment. Callum Lang is doing great in L1 (he looked superb against Liverpool in the cup). Why are we loaning youngsters from the Premier League when we have youngsters of our own who are just as likely to have the desired effect? I'd much rather see Lang recalled, Jenson Weir get a game, Joffy play more regularly, and any of a host of other talent on our own books than us giving first team experience to young players who will then go back to other clubs with the benefit of first team games at our own kids' expense.

Add to that the psychology based on our current situation: a Latics youngster is, in my view, more likely to care about how they do. I'd expect them to fight that bit harder for their own club than a player who's on loan and knows that if/when we go down, they go back to their Premiership parent club anyway.

Regardless, though, they're here now and of course I hope they make an impact and prove me wrong. No-one will be happier to eat humble pie than me if one of those lads is the revelation that saves our season.
 
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Tried to find out a bit more on new signings:

Dobre, despite a lack of goals and assists in a team relegated to the confrence last season he apeared to be rated highly by Yeovil fans. Bournemouth fans also seem to think he deserved a chance in their first team in the Prem. So that sounds encouraging.

Mlakar, Brighton fans don't seem to have seen enough of him to form an opinion, he didn't play much at QPR but none of them seem to think he showed enough to deserved more of a chance and concensus is he was a waste of a loan so he's not coming with good reviews but you could argue the lack of starts meant he never got a proper chance. Previously scored 16 goals in 38 for Slovenian team Maribor who we once played in the Europa cup. He seemed quite prolific at Slovenian international youth level but hasn't transitioned to full international.

Balogun, he apparently started well but faded away quickly and badly in the Prem for Brighton and he's been injured loads since. Their fans seem to think he wasn't up to much in the Prem but some think he could be good at this level. We've seen plenty of good championship players struggle after the step up so if he can stay fit he may be a sly one.

Obviously you never know as players can drastically perform differently at different clubs but generally the reaction of the fans of the parent club to the loan gives us a decent insight.
 
Hope all three prove me wrong but at best they will be bench warmers. Cant see Cook playing them, instead the likes of Jacobs, Massey and Roberts will all get more game time. The striker from Brighton will take over from Gelhart in the cameo role late on in the game with Cook moaning as usual about the lack of quality.
 
Listen the squad is lacking enormously in quality. Check the league table. A couple of Loans with no championship experience does not wash with me.

Baloguns a decent defender. I'm sorry but letting windass go without a quality replacement when we are so poor is such a poor decision. We needed a striker who can cut it at this level, qpr sent ours back for the sheer fact he couldn't! And a Bournemouth kid who scores once in league 2.......hold me Back.

Bright enobakhare has a better record and was sent packing by PC after not being given enough of a chance. Unless Moore and Lowe come good immediately this club is relegated. Comprehensively
I am pretty sure if Lowe started to at least look like a Championship winger then we would get the best out of Moore. Lowe just looks so poor and lightweight plus he is miles out of his depth. How he has been picked ahead of Windass or Pilkington is bewildering. Surely we have players in our under twenty threes who would have contributed more than Lowe.
 
Interesting question is who gets pushed down the pecking order to make room in match day squads. Surely in the mess we are in they will get a chance and not end up another Bennie Bingame like last season - signed, played once, then didnt even makr the bench for rest of the season.

If it's Massey, Jacobs or Roberts making way then that's no issue but wont be impressed if Garner and Joffy stop making the bench while they stay on it. I would say Pilkington too but he never gets on the bench anyway unfortunately.
 
I think that people are being harsh on Jamal Lowe. We aren't playing to our strengths as a team and we saw flashes of it vs Weds which is why we won.
 
I think that people are being harsh on Jamal Lowe. We aren't playing to our strengths as a team and we saw flashes of it vs Weds which is why we won.

I agree he's shown lots of flashes over his time with us, plenty to suggest there is a good player in there who can do something at this level. But that is also the problem it's largely been flashes and mostly flattering to decieve.

I think overall he reminds me of Massey in L1 - you knew the lad had it in him, he showed us he had the ability but for whatever reason he rarely performed like he could.

So i guess it depends how you look at it, if people are saying he's never shown anything I'd say that is harsh, but if they are saying he's not shown enough i think that is fair.

I've seen enough to not write him off as a dud yet, but i've not seen enough to feel confident he'll come good either. I hope his goal and the couple of results will get his confidence going again and he'll start to show the form that made us want to buy him in the first place.
 
Good signings not amazing but jesus crikey rememeber the worst manager ever january transfers, wow.

People forget when the young chairman gave a youth team manager permision to go and sign 10 players or whatever.

Sanity is back at least
 
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Good signings not amazing but jesus crikey rememeber the worst manager ever january transfers, wow.

People forget when the young chairman gave a youth team manager permision to go and sign 10 players or whatever.

Sanity is back at least

To be fair to Sharpe, in that same season Wagner was a youth team manager at Dortmund and Jaap Stam was youth team manager at Ajax both in their first senior managers job got Huddersfield and Reading to the play off final against each other. Swansea are doing well with Steve Cooper who was effectively a youth team manager all his career and Joyce had a better youth team CV than all of those - he won everything possible at that level for years. So you could see what Sharpe was going for but it didn't work. I personally wouldn't have taken the gamble on someone without much first team coaching experience but other clubs have and enjoyed success from it. Would you say Wagner was just a youth team manager when in 3 seasons he took Championship no marks Huddersfield to the Prem and kept them up?

Also signing so many players on that last day - remember what that happened - he inherited a team that wasn't good enough in the bottom 3, we had no money and he lost his best player the day before the window shut. We were scrambling to use some of the financial wiggle room we had after that sale but it was so late most of the better options had already gone and we were in such a bad league position no one of any note would've wanted to come. You want to give Cook unlimited benefit of the doubt because you like him, but when Joyce was in a tough situation not to disimilar you critasise him because you don't rare him.
 
I'm certainly not giving Cook unlimited benefit of doubt, but I do believe he deserves to be credited for the last few games. I have seen an improvement in performance and a determination from the players to get us out of this situation.

Not long back people were saying that the players were losing confidence in him and yet the last two fixtures have shown the exact opposite. The celebrations at the end of both games between the players and manager/staff have shown to me that there is still the greatest of respect for each other.

I do believe that Cook will not leave the club any time soon and despite the fact that so many on here are already certain that we will go down, I believe we will survive. Performances and results in recent weeks have shown that we have a squad capable of putting together a run of results that should see us safe and I also believe that PC has learned from some of his mistakes and will yet lead us to safety. I am not saying that Cook has suddenly become the perfect manager, but I do believe he is learning, and if he continues to make the right decisions could yet get us safe. What we tend to forget when criticising him is that he is an inexperienced manager at this level, but you only gain that experience from being in the division, and it does take time to learn the ropes.

There are a number of decent managers who failed in their first couple of seasons at higher levels but then went on to smash it at a later attempt. I am not saying that Cook will fall into this category, however if we continue to accumulate the points necessary to survive and Cook continues to get the tactical decision right then it might change my opinions of him.

As I say, I don't believe there are any plans to replace him and therefore to continue to criticise every decision seems pointless to me, perhaps a change of tack is necessary and we concentrate our efforts on supporting the team and the club.
 
To be fair to Sharpe, in that same season Wagner was a youth team manager at Dortmund and Jaap Stam was youth team manager at Ajax both in their first senior managers job got Huddersfield and Reading to the play off final against each other. Swansea are doing well with Steve Cooper who was effectively a youth team manager all his career and Joyce had a better youth team CV than all of those - he won everything possible at that level for years. So you could see what Sharpe was going for but it didn't work. I personally wouldn't have taken the gamble on someone without much first team coaching experience but other clubs have and enjoyed success from it. Would you say Wagner was just a youth team manager when in 3 seasons he took Championship no marks Huddersfield to the Prem and kept them up?

Also signing so many players on that last day - remember what that happened - he inherited a team that wasn't good enough in the bottom 3, we had no money and he lost his best player the day before the window shut. We were scrambling to use some of the financial wiggle room we had after that sale but it was so late most of the better options had already gone and we were in such a bad league position no one of any note would've wanted to come. You want to give Cook unlimited benefit of the doubt because you like him, but when Joyce was in a tough situation not to disimilar you critasise him because you don't rare him.

Joyce made a poor team worse