The Hotel End

So what do we need to do? What are the priorities?

As things stand, I think (with Waggers gorn) we've got one place available.

I cant see the point in keeping Morton's loan 'live' - need to do a deal of some sorts with Salford to free that place up. He is unlikely to play again so even paying off the full amount wouldn't actually cost us any money as such (on top of what we've got to pay) and that would creative a space.

Eyoma - A very decent player but with Willis's return, Baldwin hopefully coming back, Tyler as well hopefully, MBete...i think we will need to sacrifice this one which would be unfortunate but we need to strengthen further up the pitch.

The Vicar - surely need to end that loan early if we can but I guess that might not be totally straight forward.

James Wilson - get him out on loan to some non league outfit!

That would leave 5 spaces freed up.

Guiness Walker  Surely got to try and extend his contract?

For me, our real priority surely has to be the midfield department which collectively is woeful and offers very little going forward. I think we need two nice and sprightly midfielders; one a ball winner like McCormack, one a good passer of the ball. We also need a big striker that can score goals, our top scoring striker in the league after 20 matches has two goals. Crazy. He doesn't even have to be great! Just someone who can chip in with a few goals, rotate in that role with Eaves and provide us with another outlet.

I don't think we need more than a 3 or 4 out, 3 or 4 in to keep us up. But the ones coming in need to be good upgrades and able to work well with the underperforming 'stars' we have such as Roberts and Fosus who would greatly benefit from better service etc.

There will surely be some wiggle room for the new manager whoever he is to do a bit of trading; we've found out previously when the Chinese came in that wholesale changes in January (even expensive incomings) can have a huge detrimental effect. We are in a similar league position now to what we were at the time when Jimmy came in and spent a load of money early in the New Year which ultimatley caused a two tier dressing room and probably was the main cause of our demise that time round.

Goalkeeper- Prem no2/3
Central midfielder- playmaker- Leonard.
Central midfielder- ball winner who can head it.
Striker with pace.

think if he plays a certain amount of games he gets a deal anyway.

but its further up the pitch we need to sort out - the midfield is terrible and our forwards arent fit (not all their fault) - but we basically only have eaves.

do the board take a punt on the new manager, offload / pay off some of the terrible signings and back him - or do we hope we fudge it, finish 5th bottom by luck and start again in the summer?!

That’s a hell of a gamble, personally I’d recruit the right manager first, then give him a few games to evaluate the sicknotes we’ve got and bin the worst, sign 4-5 and hope for the best, L2 is horrible.

lol.

.

Prem no 4/5.

It'll be very quiet unless current players move on

Who's the vicar?

Dibley Dias

All you need to know about L2 is to look at Carlisle' league position.
Double relegations imminent for them?

Why's that? I thought his nickname was Dwayne.

The lord is my shepherd.

He ain't mine.   Still don't get it though. I thought dias meant day.

The Vicar of Dibley (Dias).

That was hard work  ;D

Doh. :D

🥳

 ;D ;D

Do not forget that many judges were here lauding their recruitment last January and bemoaning our activity.

Guinness-Walker signs an 18 month contract with Eyoma signing an extended deal to the end of the season.

https://www.ntfc.co.uk/news/2024/december/19/nesta-guinness-walker-and-tj-eyoma-sign-new-contracts-to-stay-with-northampton-town/

Happy with both of those...

Good news about Guinness-Walker although his form has dipped a bit recently (along with every other player), not quite as sure about TJ but hopefully he’ll get better the fitter he gets. Does this suggest that Sammo’s going to get it - you’d have thought any new contracts would be decided by the new Manager?

He's been targeted by the opposition the last few games but that maybe because he is tucking in to assist the centre backs.

I agree, but it’s Sammo who decided to play him as a third centre back which doesn’t suit him in the slightest - an example of why I don’t think he’s up to the job full time.

They may well have been offered those extensions when Jon was still here. Delighted with the Guinness Walker to the end of next season. He looks a very accomplished Left Back, often a difficult position to fill.

Two excellent L1 standard signings.👏🏻

Good news about the two extensions, both have been excellent.

 ;D

Love both those signings

Nesta will hopefully be out first choice LB now

Im happy with both, surprised about TJ though given our other options in that area. Perhaps they are not as close to returning as I assumed they were! OR we are looking to play with 3 cb's moving forward.

Like others have said, they are both good league1 players. If only we had their equivalent counterparts further up the pitch!

If we are not offering Koiki or Brough another contract at the end of the season we may as well pay up their contracts to free up 2 places in January, maybe some others too.

Before we even think of signing someone we will want a manager in first

Been led to believe that we have a recruitment strategy in place that won’t change with any manager. There’s a recruitment team who will operate regardless of who comes in to take the job.

The first name from the Twitter rumour mill (Alan Nixon) is Michael Mellon
Currently on loan at Stockport from Burnley, young Scottish striker who scored goals at Morecambe a few years back. Hasn’t had much of a sniff at Stockport so far

You are not kidding - according to the stats 'nil starts' !!

What? Only a handful of football people work at the club and they are all in the coaching area at games.  - unless they recruit the turnstile operators and ballboys for their input.

I would imagine January could be a busy time. I wouldn't be surprised if ALL our loan players went back, providing we can with the terms on each loan. They were all signed by JB and the new man may not want any of them, particularly with two being long term injured (Morton, Mbete). A couple of players could also be released allowing KN some room to bring at least 2 or 3 in during January. Could be an interesting month, there again...

Weve been through this in the past, Salford rated Morton enough, to allow him to leave on a season long loan, and you genuinely believe that they are going to welcome back a broken version? FFS get real. Until the end of the season, he is our problem. Not theirs.

We have a large network of scouts surprisingly. And a recruitment team that analyses data.

Only 30 minutes of league action so far this season, 19 of those in the draw against us back in October. He was only on the bench for their recent Trophy game against Bradford so would appear to be well down the pecking order.
Stockport though have been rocked by the news that Louie Barry is being recalled by Aston Villa in January, potentially to be loaned out to a Championship side (Leeds, Sunderland and Sheffield United all have Barry on their radar). This may open up opportunities for Mellon to have a bigger impact for the Hatters.

Morton's wages have , obviously, been split between Salford and us all season. They would have given him a free but he still had a year left on a good contract so a split was the easy compromise. As long as we continue ti pay our "share" I can't see it being a problem as it costs Salford nothing extra

Exactly this, but time will tell.

Yep. Given he isn't gonna play again this season, makes total sense to pay off the contract earlier/similar and free up a space.

Given when a player is injured if on loan or not do the insurance we have on said player play the wages

Genuine question interested how it works

Yes I think so, although it would be down to the underwriters for the details.

This season our premiums must be massive.

On the plus side we must have loads of budget left as most the squad is injured

Not getting many appearance fees and win bonuses.

Only one squad place available as it stands...

Let's hope big Kev can return some loans, cancel some contracts & release some players (on frees obviously) as we need major reinforcements to stand any chance of staying up...

Absolutely no real quality, mental or physical strength, pace or hunger from our current squad...

So bloody passive, just waiting to get beat!

NEW GOALKEEPER ALL DAY LONG.

Plural please.

Well. A new keeper might help keep a few chances out but we need to stop some of those chances occurring and someone to cancel out those chances.

NEW DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER ALL DAY LONG.

Is it a pure coincidence Guinness Walker and Eyoma have turned utter garbage after being offered extended deals?

We all knew that JB was unable to sign the players he really wanted due to a restricted budget. He said that staying up last year was his proudest achievement in football, but this year it would be much harder to do.
The commentator on Sky said that two of Reading's scorers, Knibbs and Smith were transfer targets for JB two summers ago, I think both were at Cambridge.
Some targets like those are not just out of our financial reach but unlikely because the players perception is that Reading are a bigger club and a step up for their career.
The only way of a quick change to our status, is for a Wrexham type fairy tale to happen to us. Otherwise we have to gradually build our image in League 1 and that process has stalled this year because of the increased financial muscle of some of our opponents.
Let's hope KN is backed enough to keep us up this year and look to improve in the summer.UTC.

It's true their form has dipped (along with everyone else, even John Guthrie!) but our main weakness is in midfield, not enough protection for the defence and too few chances created for the forward line.

Agreed, a fully fit Jack Sowerby has been a big miss this season and Hondermarck, although he is a valiant tryer, isn't the answer.

I think this is something that could be said about the majority of managers on the planet?

All are striving for something more surely?

After finding an effective way of playing last year with a hard working front three capable of pressing and winning the ball high up the pitch, a playmaker in midfield and two defensive midfielders to screen the defence, Brady signs two very slow strikers and a few number 10’s. He clearly has to rip up the way he plays last year to accommodate these new types of players. Very strange.

I think it’s fair to say JB had a list of players he wanted but got none of them and ended up getting the ones that were leftover.
That doesn’t make him a bad manager imo
If we look back at the summer window everyone on here knew something was wrong as we took ages to get anyone in.
It all comes down to having a board who have the finance to compete at the level you are playing at.
The chairman has often come out and explained that we can’t compete financially at this level and yet they seem unwilling to sell to anyone else who can take us to the next level.
According to press reports there has been interest in buying the club but nothing ever seems to materialise.

I think there's probably an underestimate of how essential Lenoard (and Hoskins goals) were to us. Leonard stastically was out best attacking player AND our best defensive player all in one. Just to keep ground we'd need to sign two players who were the best of our team at each end. We manage to fluke replacing Leonard by replacing him with Leonard for a second year, and time ran out on that strategy.

So is a manager with an unrealistic list of players a good manager?

He knew the budget to work with and seems to have assembled a list that was completely unrealistic.

That’s a fair point but don’t forget we also had the much heralded addition to the board of NLQ the multi millionaire.
I’d imagine JB was expecting the beginning of something much better as we all did.
That seems to have gone as flat as a pancake.

How many clubs seek extra investment, bring on board a wealthy new owner and go backwards due to lack of investment?

There’s one for the chron and radio numpty who never shy away from difficult questions  ;)

Half the managers in League 1 would have had many of the same players on their lists as first choice signings. As they all compete the agents increase the wage demands of those players, and their fees.
The delay in us signing anyone suggests this happened not only to first choices but seconds, thirds and so on.

So is a chairman and owner unwilling to give a competitive budget good custodians?

They were quick enough to buy the club for a pound and get the land,they knew the average budget in League one yet gave the manager an unrealistic budget to stay in the league.

If us amateur 'experts' agree that prompt action is required, especially in central midfield, then I hope KN has negotiations ongoing to bring in at least 2 players in the first week of January (if he can free up squad places).

I don’t know if this is correct, but with regards to squad spaces can we not free some up simply by not registering players for the second half of the season?

If Morton is out for the rest of the season then can we not simply not register him for the second half of the season, thus freeing up a squad space?

I’m basing this on my FM experience, no idea if it’s correct.

Like it or not, our best chance of turning this sh1t show round short term is in the loan market.

We need to send all 5 of our sicknote/underperforming loan players back to their respective clubs (Morton, pay Salford early, The Vicar - absolutely waste of his and our time, MBete - unlucky cuz he's good but we no longer need a left back, Chouchance - Mr 6/10 - too lightweight and Roberts - zero goals after nearly half a season) and shuffle the pack with (hopefully) better replacements.

I fail to see how we could could come up with a worse hand.

1 X goalkeeper.
2 X Defensive midfielders.
1 X Striker who offers us a physical presence
1 X winger who can either start games or be used as an impact player.

If we can then get the likes of Sowerby, Fosu...even Fox...fit then we would have a starting line up with around 7 or 8 different players than we've suffered in the last few games.

These 5 players need to be players who are good enough to start. Which to be fair shouldn't be that difficult!

Look at our midfield and lets be honest. We all had high hopes for DD and Chouchane but they have combined been an unimaginative disaster. Only Sowerby, Fox and McGeeghan are adequate for this level of football and 2 of them are made of glass.

I don't believe it would take a massive amount of extra £ to put things right and see us through to the Summer but that's on the basis that our new manager and (Colin)'s reach in terms of contacts can benefit us.

Buying players in January, well we know how hard that can be. Using a scrabble analogy. So my immediate solution would be to change all of our loan letters and replace them and hope we come out with a better hand. At the minute we have 4 e's and an o. All worth just the single point. We have no quality in that area who can stay fit whatsoever.

Cobblers wise, I cannot bloody wait until January 2nd because that is the day when surely Kev can start doing what we hope he's been brought in to do.

Fox and McGeehan are garbage, Fox is L2 at best, and McGeehan is lazy and slow.

And scores goals, unlike the rest of the team at present  ;)

McGeehan and Eaves both have their limitations no doubt but they are also capable of scoring the goals to keep us in the division.

Drilling makes a good point though that permanent January signings are rarely successful.

If you want to the most ambiguous transfer rumour you’ll read today…

Father in law bumped into Nolan and the squad before the Reading game

He overhead Sammo, Rico and Calderwood all talking about a player watching him on a tablet
(Yes Calderwood was there pre-game so I would expect his new role to be announced asap)

The only bits he heard were “he’s good out wide” and “and then he signed for Celtic”

So do with that what you will, look forward to some tenuous names and the usual sleuths!

Oh how I wish Leonard and Bowie were still here, we have been dreadful all season due to the vast amount of injury prone crap Brady offered contracts to.

What injured Bowie?😄

He is actually training again 🥳

And don't forget Fosu who is not interested.

Apparently a 'red hot' striker is in the offing.

Dont matter who he is, if theres no one to get on the end of his crosses.

CELTIC?   Someone on here will implode

Unsure if this is a comment on his last name or the establishment that burned down above the stadium a few years back haha

Jonny Joe Kenny… been on loan at Shamrock Rovers…. Been recalled by Celtic…. Can’t see it happening personally

TBF is it a case of unwilling or unable? Additionally, to draw a comparison between the operational circumstances they brought into in 2015 when they proposed a 4 to 5 year tenure and a 4 million total investment and now is extraordinary. There is absolutely no comparison between the L1 & 2 budgets of 2015 and now, and anyone who suggests they could have predicted how the financial situation would have unfolded is talking out of their arsè.

Oh, we like Jon Joe's.

So a few thoughts on the upcoming transfer window.

It’s not going to be easy, we all know that most of the players available are deemed not good enough by their club, are untested kids, have big baggage and chances are very few are actually up for a big relegation battle. Many on here were envious of Carlisle’s huge January business last year but it backfired hugely, they were relegated and now sit bottom of the football league.

It’s hard to know what to make of the current squad with all the constant injuries, players coming in and out and for me managers playing personnel and formations that are never likely to have any success in league one. There are clear holes (central midfield being a major one) but also players we know can perform better.

We all know there will be a very limited January budget FACT so do we spread it thin and bring in a number of players  or just one or two in theory higher pedigree players?.

I’m done with players with chequered injury records or are in the tail end of their career, right now it’s way too much of a risk.

However, there are also some who have fallen down the pecking order through no fault of their own, perhaps an injection of cash for higher profile players or a change of manager, which means that they need to look elsewhere to kick start their career. Tyler Roberts would have been a good example here, although hindsight tells us to hasn't worked out quite that way..... Yet.

There are also some youngsters who have been bossing League Two and now feel they (or in the case of loanee, their parent clubs) need a crack at a higher level.

There is potential out there, but what we need are players who feel they can make a difference and are up for the struggle. Those with a bit of resilience.

Intresting fact, but a limited budget in comparison to what? The rest of the league? Those in the top half?

Top 2 thirds is pretty much common knowledge.

Was talking in terms of what will be available in January. With an increased budget from last year, an already full squad that has already seen additions through the season and falling attendances you don’t need to be a genius to know there won’t be funds for a massive overhaull.

The falling attendances are down to sky, with EFL clubs receiving £935m for a FIVE year deal, to show live matches, I think that’s a very short term view from greedy chairmen.

I would not be against an old head in the sitting midfielder role like Alan McCormack and Jason Taylor, a leader who can organise those around him.

Yes, absolutely.

I watched him play for Shamrock Rovers v Tottenham the other week in the European competition (can't remember which one) and the commentators were bigging him up before the game saying he had scored 20 goals for Rovers this season. He then goes and misses an open goal and Rovers get battered.

However I won't judge him on that game as it was Spurs and they had hardly any chances. If it's true it could be a good signing.

Andy Carroll

 ;D

A new GK a priority for me even before Burge was injured Tanzev looked week and don't want him near 1st choice no wonder Burge wasn't dropped like some fans wanted

This is certainly needed.

It’s a shame the link with Liam Kelly in the summer didn’t come to fruition.

The Northampton team need to introduce 5 or 6 new good players on the start of 2025. Perhaps skilful athletically able men. It would be preferred if, at the same time, bad distasteful athletes left the group to concentrate on poisoning other teams in the same division. This would add a good situation to a bad one.

Calling Dwight gayle
Come in gayle.

Nolan has built a knack for buying veterans. Wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of free agents offered contracts.

How’s he built a knack when he’s barely been a manager before and not for years?

It's possibly what we need a bit of experience and old heads so help in the situation we are in

Think that's a bit unfair. Whilst it was in 2018, Orient&Notts fans both were vocal about his eagerness to sign a veteran in his 2 years of management.

Let’s give Nolan a chance, unfortunately he doesn’t have that much time to get it right, conceding less than three every game would be a start.
I would like to see a considerable improvement by the end of Jan or we are done.

Old players who haven’t been playing much football lately, how long before they’re out injured for the rest of the season!

I think people are talking about Jonny Kenny not Jon Joe Kenny who is at Everton.

Let’s just sign all John Joe’s just to be safe.

Birmingham to recall Roberts to send him to a higher placed club.

Have you heard that or speculating

He's good at reading articles online.

Roberts - Birmingham think he would be better placed elsewhere and not in a relegation battle, also he has been played out of position a lot due to our injury crisis. There is an outside chance of them letting Leonard         
return.

Mellon - Fleetwood and Walsall are also interested but we are believed to be in pole position as Burnley would like him to stay in division 1. Also Nolan used to play with their manager Scott Parker.

 ;D

Made me chuckle this. Bless him. He's scored absolutely no goals as a forward and they think he'd be better somewhere else. Good! I do like Roberts though, he tries hard. He has a lot of ability. But pretty much no end product. He aint the player you need in a relegation battle so I hope you are right!

Sorry Drilling, not looking to fall out with you, but I have to disagree here.

He’s a quality player AND is usually wholehearted in his efforts, so why wouldn’t we want him. I think it would help if he was played in his correct position, with runners giving options in front of him. It might also help him to play with other players capable of protecting the ball as well as he does.

All fair points but I would hazzard a guess that Roberts is expensive for us, and to facilitate some new signings we will have to sacrifice certain players. Roberts isn't providing us anywhere near a decent ROI and given we are half way through the season, I cant see much changing in the 2nd half unless we shuffle the pack. IF we are paying him (guess)2, 3, 4, 5 grand a week of his wage at Brum, then we could get a decent warrior in for that kind of money who would be more suited for the battle ahead of us.

Wise words there mate, would miss Robert’s though he oozes quality.

Can we see Roberts, Eaves and Fosu in the same line up first?

No

I think that its fair to say, that Brady struggled with the no 10 role. What with Harrop, Hylton, Wilson, Roberts, even Pinnock being tried, none of them really settled in the role. I dont think that we will see Wilson or Roberts again.
Its pretty obvious though, this team does lack any pace. The next couple of weeks will be interesting.

Is this actually true?

Who knows, it does make sense TBF.

Hearing we might take a punt on Nile Ranger.

Will the Poppies be paying his wages?

 ;D

2 links ive heard.  Midfielder who has played for Nolan before and currently without a club.  A loan forward who played at the 2022 World Cup,  which i find hard to believe.

Not been given names

If it's a Roberts for Leonard swap, we should go for it, no question. Roberts is clearly a highly talented player, but the only player I've seen him make any connection with on the field is Fosu, who is also highly talented. Sometimes, I actually think Roberts is too good for us. Most of our players usually don't read his clever flicks. On the other hand he often tries to go it alone when he has better options, and chances go to waste. A great player to watch and he tries very hard, but is he actually very effective?

Think it's time to realise Leonard is not gonna sign back for us, how crazy are you people😂😂

Assume Mbappe.

So, the loan forward is in this list. Perfectly believable if you ask me.  (cant wait for the crackpot theories!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_squads

Why would Leonard ever come back here? He seems to get plenty of game time with Birmingham so not sure they’d want to lose him.

Maybe next season if he can’t cut it in the Championship.

I also do not think it likely that Leonard will come back here, especially now Brady has gone.

However, to say that he is getting plenty of game time at Birmingham is way off the mark.

Just four league starts this season, plus fourteen times off the bench, mostly late in the game.

I do not think that is what he moved to Birmingham for. At this stage in his career he needs to be on the pitch.

For fun, my vote is on either Mathew Leckie, an aging Australian forward at Melbourne City, or Jewison Bennette, an 18-year-old Costa Rican winger at Sunderland. Bennette went on loan to Greece and has played 2 games this season.

;D ;D ;D

It's Sterling on loan,  N Le Q to open his wallet 🤣🤣

It will obviously be Jason Cummings.

He had a trial with us before, think it was under Curle

Short story, didn’t go well. So I would say this is a no go

Kylian's brother?

I feel that the comment may have been tongue in cheek?  :D

Any news on calderwood?

To be fair garang kuol and ike ugbo could be likely.
The former is at Newcastle…..

I think they are in a different league to us. Will we be potentially seeing any West Ham youth players coming? Or Veterans? Danny Ings?

Maybe Hylton will come back now he is banging the goal in.

For what it's worth Leckie is injured. On the other hand he should fit right in.

McWilliams been told he can leave Rotherham.

Should we?

No not another injury prone player.

No, he's massively regressed over the last couple of seasons...

I trust Nolan to bring in a better quality of midfielder who can actually pass to a teammate!

I’m not saying we should definitely sign him but I’d take him over the current midfield every day of the week. He was always better than Fox and Hondermarck when they were all at the club, injuries have turned Sowerby to a shadow of the player he was. I like Chouchane but he is still very hit and miss and probably not ideal for a relegation battle.

All I heard over the summer was how every signing was an improvement on the players they replaced yet we have massively regressed. Supporters always love new signings and seem blinkered and unable to give an objective view. I’m hoping this time the signings will be an improvement but more importantly that Nolan can get more out of the players already at the club.

To add another to the injured list?

  ;D

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81wMsLeQuXL.__AC_SX300_SY300_QL70_ML2_.jpg)

James from the Chronic Error has said in a Tweet/X

Been asked this a few times. Squad registration rules are suspended for January so clubs can have as many players as they want. Squads then have to be registered again before Feb. Can see a situation where Cobblers have players under contract but not registered to play #ntfc

Doesn’t include under 21 years old and yoof players.

This opens up options depending on the financial backing.

Hoping to see a bit a movement in the next couple of days.

Interesting that Roberts is still here despite being recalled by Birmingham (according to OAP).

OAP talking bollox, surely not 😎

The recall of Roberts was being touted in the local Birmingham press.

Watch him absolutely excel at a better side in League One if that's where he goes. Will be a shame to lose one of our fittest players (and probably our highest quality). One of few players who constantly makes himself available to receive a pass.

Unfortunately it take two player to compete a pass - Roberts is a class above but frankly it’s not worked and he is occasionally prone to the I‘m better than all of you so I can‘t be arsed

That’s none sense Tyler Roberts has always worked his socks off when he’s been on the pitch.

So short of defenders but Dyche not recalled, not the greater but never let's us down

He’s injured

He's also injured...

WOT NO RUMOURS?

Malcolm Christie and Jermaine McSporran.

Tbf, Roberts isn't slow and neither is McCarron and both stepped down to come here.

We do have more pace too.... Odimayo is not slow but either through choice or design you only see it running towards our goal not the opposition's!

I think we're all a bit guilty sometimes of overestimating who we can attract / afford. We'd all love two pacy, skilful wingers, a midfield dynamo and a fox in the box. But then so would all of the 60 odd teams above us

Are there many players who haven’t suffered from injuries a number of times during their career? I can’t imagine there are, and if it’s an absolute criteria it’s probably going to be a very short list.

Clearly you didn’t watch him in the Micky Mouse cup games - I did say occasionally……

I’m sure things will become clearer next week

I think that type of player is as popular, and as rare, as a 30 goals a season forward!

It's tempting for clubs our size to take a punt on injury prone players, as you sometimes get lucky and get a calibre of player you wouldn't normally attract. (Gyepes, Bayo)

Obviously given the position it wouldn't make sense to take that risk. But then again a free agent in January with little history of injuries is unlikely going to be much good.

It's strange how prevalent injuries are now compared to say a decade ago. We're definitely not the only club struggling. Need to bin some of the minor competitions.

More players play, more likely to get injured they are.

Then you’re on a vicious cycle like we are of having to play players when not fully fit which inevitably leads to more injuries.

Old Andre gray has been released by Plymouth…..
He’d do a job

Someone on the Shoe Army Facebook page is saying a new signing is going to be announced today, any of the usual reliable sources got wind of anything?

Just seen Calderwood has left Southampton, probably be back here soon...

https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/jurics-coaching-additions-confirmed?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=coaching-update-juric&utm_term=news&utm_content=link

didnt he leave before Xmas and we all knew he was the addition KT mentioned in the interview?!

Yep.

Guess he just had to officially be released from his Southampton contract (to get his pay off) before he's then announced by us...

Can't help thinking he'll be off once again, as soon as Russell Martin get a job elsewhere....

Not so sure. He's pretty settled in Boughton and the Southampton job apparently suited him because he has a holiday home down that way, so unless Bournemouth or Pompey come calling i suspect it might be too much of a drag.

Is he into drag?

2:30 official klaxon.

Liam Shaw from Fleetwood then. Very interesting.

Fee paid as well

McWilliams won't be coming back then. A key signing you would think securing our weakness in front of the Back 4.

His contract with Fleetwood was only til the end of the season.

Fee triggered a release clause in his contract

He was only contracted until the end of the season so cant imagine it was anything other than the wages.. still looks like exactly what we need

I’m guessing that this was Shaw that they were referring to, although I thought he was a box to box midfielder not a wide man.

Haven’t read a good word about him but we must feel differently paying a small fee and 2.5 year contract.
In KN we trust.

Welcome Cobbler.

I like this
Signing a player with sell on potential in the future.
Much better than loans.

Good work Shoe Army’s farther in law.
Celtic…….😂😂😂😂😂😂 totally outclassed.

Levi Laing a West Ham youngster has been recalled from his loan at Cheltenham….
Centre half who can also play right back and defensive midfield….
I can see him turning up here but then again im probably wrong….

Yes this is very worrying!

Hopefully a fresh start will be just what he needs!

Does anybody have a link to an up to date Fleetwood forum?  I like to have a nosey and see what previous fans think.

So this would be the Celtic player then. Just not sure about the out wide comment haha
Father in law even mentioned the name Liam Shaw, he goes up to Celtic Park 10-20 times a season and said was the only player he could think of that ticks all the boxes! Some detective work

Shaw is the first player of four I was told we are looking at.

The other 3 players are at QPR, Stockport and Wycombe, fingers crossed!

This is all sorted at our end now

DoF ntfclad?

Believe so and believe he’ll be at Burton tomorrow

Not being announced today then?

I think we need 5 players in total. Including a goalie. 

I assume the player at Stockport Risdene is referring to will be Mellon.

Sssshhhhh!😀

Return of the 🐴

The horse is injured.

Horse?

Have we figured out if this is true or not?

I'm not fussed what Fleetwood fans think of Shaw, Sowerby came with mixed reviews.

I like that we've got a body in early though, hopefully others will follow quick so big old Kev can get them jelled.

I'm confident with him taking us back to basics , few more fully fit players we can make a go of the relegation battle.

There's are teams that are equally as poor if not worse then us.

Abundantly clear we’ve had a soft centre this season and this has contributed to outcomes in games. Hopefully he helps stop that and adds steel. Hoping more like Sowerby/McWilliams than Paul Lewis.

Shoot him then.

Full of ketamine.

I think Stockport hope the horse recovers.

Michael Mellon and Matt Butcher are two that we've had confirmed interest in

I think Butcher scored twice against us at Wycombe recently. Could be a decent signing.

Butcher looks good on paper but I wonder if we’ve signed Shaw instead?

I think we need 2 midfielders with Fox, McGeehan and Sowerby injured and the vicar rarely seen it only leaves us with Chouchane and Hondermarck.

I would assume that the QPR player would be another striker, possibly 21 year old Alfie Lloyd maybe on loan.

As we don't need to register some players at the end of the month we have several long termed injured or who rarely play that we need not register, Morton, Brough, Dibley-Dias, Lintott and possibly Koiki and Magloire if neither are going to return any time soon.

Guthrie too now if he isn't available for tyhe rest of the season, so maybe a centre-back on the shopping lists too, unless Tomlinson is ready.

If someone says Matt Butcher I'm going to always hear it as Pat Butcher in my head.

Definitely need an experienced Center half for the rest of the season, maybe with a view to a perm.

Depends how far off the injured ones are from coming back. We've got about 5 or 6!

Id still rather us use any spare pennies bolstering the midfield and forward areas, as well as looking to bring in another goal keeper (although our number2 has played pretty well the last 3 games)

Jack Baldwin - due back next week.

Willis and Baldwin are experienced centre half’s

They are also both made of glass.

We defo need to get another experienced one in can't rely on Baldwin and Willis to see us through

Really hoping for a pacy striker and winger THIS week to help Eave's create and score goals!

is that you wanting that or you’ve heard the club wants that?
Ideally both 😂

I want and I haven't any more rumours yet!

and from Greek
Why is it worrying. Why not make your own decision on the player instead of worrying about what half a dozen Fleetwood fans think of him.

Anyone heard more on Mellon?

Surely at least one striker coming in.

Can't be doing with watching Eaves the rest of the season 😩 awful.

Agree.

Seems Scottish links have dried up since Calderwood legged it😂

You could get your wish, although it might be more of one for the future than anything if we go through with it. Seems we’ve got a scout in the Cymru South or at Cardiff City.

My son in law is a Cardiff fan and I tend to watch their games in the tv when it doesn't clash with a Cobblers match. They have a young lad Joel Colwill brother of Rueban but he's on loan at Cheltenham at present. There is also a young lad called Reindorf and another called Ashford but both have been making the match day squad. Kion Etete is still injured and and has been since the end of last season. Other than that I can't see anyone else we would be interested in, even if Cardiff would let them go.

We could be looking at other clubs in South Wales I guess.

Calderwood is back involved in the set up!

Think this player got released from the academy after 2 years, had a trial at Charlton last year and is now playing in the Cymru South.
He could also be on trial I guess but the rumour around the league is that he's signed. But you know how Chinese whispers works.

Louis Phillips...?

Yep, I clearly need to make my clues harder. Very much in the Sam Hoskins mould

Took me a minute but I'm determined so I wouldnt worry haha, let's see if that comes out in the wash

Lad can't even get a gig in the top Welsh league? Bit of a red flag.

But he's only 18! As 606 said he'd be one for the future.

I played in the North while at uni, the standard is beyond bad and I can’t believe we would be looking at anyone at that level.

That's what I mean seems fairly pointless😂. Had one trial over here after Cardiff got ridand then straight to Welsh 2/3rd league. Unless he'll be on about 30 quid a week and work in carrs bar at the same time it's a waste of our and his time. 😂

How does it go? If ya good enough, you're old enough.

Our injury situation has got to the point where it’s almost becoming if you’re old enough your good enough?

I take my boots and shin pads just in case... ;)

We’ve done a lot worse.

Off to Bradford apparently.

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/bradford-city-win-race-for-burnley-starlet/

Bradford have lost Andy Cook to a knee ligament injury for the remainder of the season. Like Guthrie, an ACL injury in your mid thirties is going to be a tough one to come back from.

Yep, difference being Cook still contracted til 2026...

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/bradford-city-confirm-extent-of-andy-cooks-injury-following-withdrawal-in-draw-with-barrow-4933743 (https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/bradford-city-confirm-extent-of-andy-cooks-injury-following-withdrawal-in-draw-with-barrow-4933743)

Dibley Dias - gone back to Fulham

Absolute waste of time that was😂 John Brady loan special😂

Quelle surprise.
Now, if we can find a way to unload Wilson..

Takes some doing but I'd argue Brady's worst ever signing.

In terms of expectation and financial outlay - I think Hylton still owns this trophy.

As expected Max Dyche has been recalled.

https://x.com/wokingfc/status/1876921361693806960?t=0PwsomSVlvZPSa8mJx5lUg&s=19

Difficult to say as we never really got to see him play.

He came on and did well for Sammo both other than that his exitance was a mystery.

My dislike of Hylton is well documented, but at least he can claim to have scored at Sixfields...   something that Wilson is unlikely to achieve.

Not sure if we were actually ever in for him but Michael Mellon has signed for Bradford City

https://www.bradfordcityafc.com/news/2025/january/08/bantams-capture-mellon-/

Anyone who unfortunately bought a MDD shirt can display it with pride alongside these two gems... ;D

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64474492 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64474492)

We've certainly had a few woeful deadline day signings!

Happy to see Dyche back, I assume he's recovered from injury else what's the point...rather Woking continue to pay his wages if still crocked!

He could thrive under big Kev & 6 months to try to earn a new contract...and he's left sided!  ;D

Hylton - by a mile

I will take your gem, and offer you this.  ;D

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43334892

;D

Reminds me when my new shirt for the season turned up with Matty Taylor on the back
He signed for Swindon literally the next day

Thankfully he saw the funny side and signed it for me and saying sorry. Proudly up in my bar alongside a few others  ;D

To be fair, I would feel sorry for anybody who did put Dibley-Dias on the back of their shirt, and had to pay per letter.

I actually remember him at least... who was Boris Mathis??

Sounds like an Eastern European trafficker, one of two tiers mates.  :P

I will take your gem, and offer you this.  ;D
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24033232

Wasn't this just a publicity exercise?

Dont think we ever found out. And they didn't publicise it much. Wasn't there also a rumour that a relative of his was looking to buy the club?

Alright then, gloves are off..  ;D

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11739/6240552/cobblers-bring-in-slowe

Can only be because of two things, surely?

One of Baldwin or Wiilis is going to be out for a while, and
Not enough money in the pot to get another defender in.

Thoughts?

If that had appeared just as JB left, there is no way Sammo would have been given the caretaker role.
He'd be cringing reading that.  ;D

That must have been a seriously dodgy deal as at best he looked like a competition winner. I wonder if such an enigma exists today in the EFL, where a decent proportion of the fan base were probably better than one of the squad?

Or three, he is injured. Either way, he soon will be.  :P

At least he made it on to a pitch for someone!

And on the bench at Anfield, daddy must have paid a lot for that.  ;D

Or four, another club has offered money for him. A long shot, I know…

That was a publicity stunt more than a proper transfer

Romaine Sawyers joins Bristol Rovers. Potentially a very good signing.

Didn't we pay a fee for Benny Ashley Seal?

Ahhhh BAS, fcuk me we’ve signed some shyte.

f***ing hell, what a disaster he was. The lad could barely stand up.

He made 23 league 1 appearances for us in the 20/21 season!

No surprise he’s a free agent now if we’re desperate.

He played in a pre season friendly v Luton (I think) as a mysterious triallist & literally got injured within the first 2 minutes & had to be subbed off...

We then went and signed him pretty much straight after for an undisclosed fee on a two year deal!!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54059271 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54059271)

Yep you have won the s***test transfer ever.

The club actually parted with cash money for him.

Benny Ashley-Seal played football the way his appearance suggested he should, like he'd had a lobotomy 😂

I got very strong Lenny from Of mice and men vibes from poor BAS😂

Don’t forget the two Eastern European lads that Gary Johnson signed!

Corker.

I thought they were Austrian, or was that two other people.

Lumbardh Salihu was one of the two and yes he was Austrian..... can't remember/find the name of the other one!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/14340296

Pozgain never played...why I couldn't find him!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/16747505

Get the picture, we've signed some sh!te and that includes every manager.

Back on thread, anything happening?

Players rather go to mid table league two than us at the minute 😂

Of Albanian descent I believe

Apparently he won the Kosovan version of Big Brother.

33 and not good enough to get a game at AFC Wimbledon. Wouldn’t have been impressed had we signed him.

With Dibley-Dias going back - I'm hoping this means Roberts and Mbete are staying?

After Guthrie, Mbete and Roberts should be our best players when fit.

Is Mbete back in training?

Will we ever see Eaves, Roberts and Fosu in the same team continuously this season? I hope so!

Is that a three pronged threat or a triangle of luxury?

Keep hearing that Roberts isn't the type of forward to get you loads of goals. I mean I make it it 21 goals in 197 appearances, frankly for a forward player that's terrible! So what is he then?
Looks like KN is gonna stick with him though.

In my opinion Roberts is one of the most skillful players I have seen at the Cobblers for years and it is up to KN to get an effective forward from him, to our benefit!

I agree - his work for the Fosu goal at Lincoln a prime example. After that less so! He has either played out of position as a lone no. 9 or not had the right players around him thanks to all the injuries.

Maybe we will see him in a wide position as part of a front 3 - his pressing is actually very good (even if he often doesn't look like he moves as much as a Hoskins or Pinnock) and I can't see Nolan playing with a luxury no. 10 as he wants a packed midfield.

I had one of them once, at a nurses home! (https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/styles/smilies/laugh.png)

Jesus that’s an acquired taste mate 😵

You do know that they used to compare notes with their colleagues? St Crispin Nurse's accommodation was infamous  ;)

So was St Andrews version.

Dont shout. The current Mrs T might hear.  :D

;D

Anything much said regards transfers on the cobblers show on the wireless

KN will try and sign 2 or 3 first team starters with a Guthrie replacement now important.

He mentioned 2 players might be back for Saturday! Baldwin and ?

Reading the article on the chron Roberts I would think

Ta

Chris O’Donnell and Micky Bodley

Potentially 3 starters is pretty huge news

This 100%

Anyone who fails to see how good Roberts is at our level doesn't know football. The obvious fact is we don't have the quality around him to get the best from him.

Feel free to discuss

I agree 100%, not much of a discussion though?

Technically class for this level, but he needs a few more goals....or a goal at least

does that apply to every club he's been at?

A surprising signing given our stats based scouting system

I think we are giving the much vaunted transfer committee too much credit here.
Frankly the signings have been the leftovers that no one else signed and in general awful.

You don’t need a transfer committee to sign the leftovers.

I could do that free of charge.

You need a transfer committee to identify in demand players and then the wherewithal to actually sign them.

As I always say the proof of the pudding is signing strikers, the good ones command a transfer fee and decent wages.
Who was the last striker we paid a fee for?

Having already missed out on Mellon let’s see if we actually try to get a proper striker in this window or just scrat around for what’s left over again in the final days.

Make no mistake, the business we do (or don’t) this window will determine which division we play in next season.

Huddersfield set to sign Joe Taylor from Luton for 3 million!

That's what we're up against...

Oh, and the bl00dy slugs will get another tidy sell on grrrrr!

Appere, Ashley-Seal and Korboa

Fully agree on how good Roberts is, however, where does he fit into a team, he's not a striker, he's not a no.10 and he's not a winger but his quality, vision and skill level are there to see. Was having this discussion with a Bluenose at work and he said he was a great player but they could never find where he fitted into a team. It's almost like he needs to carve out his own role and then build a team around him.

Maybe give him a free role, like Pinnock used to have under JB?

And this my point we are in the bottom six, we cannot afford "free roles"

mid table to play off contending, then yeah build a team around him

Three in five years….
The last one three years ago…..

Thanks for the info

Why is it surprising?

It is certainly worth a try, he definitely has the ability.

You need everyone else solid and disciplined to get away with it.

The League One top 3 goalscorer list is currently:

1. Loan Player
2. Free Transfer
3. £20m striker

Trying to work out what would be the most feasible approach for Cobblers here.

Why can't we afford 'free roles', if it works it could be the difference between staying up and going down.

I was just reminiscing. Remember when Carr signed Morley, Hill, Reed, McGoldrick, all from non-league. Then picked up Gleasure, Gilbert, Benjamin & Willcox from fellow Division 3 clubs, plus McPherson from West Ham. It can be done. At least it was once.

Have I missed something?  Has Calderwood officially joined the club in some capacity or other or not?  If not I'm beginning to wonder if I would not prefer Sean Dyche to come in as DOF.

no one would prefer Dyche - footballing dinosaur and we simply couldnt afford him

Do you really think we'll get a premier league manager to turn his back on management at this stage in his career to become director of football on a salary reduction of approx £78,000 every single week?

CC probably not committing to us, as he's probably just waiting for Russell Martin to get another job soon...

Is it really worth investing again in him, if he's just going to bail at the first opportunity?

Any actual update on this ntfclad?

Times change
The other day York from non league PAID £350,000 FOR a player !!!

I think you will find fitness and technical ability have moved on exponentially since 1986, however there are still some players in non league that could do a job in L2, not so sure about L1 and above though.

January 2025 Transfer window.

Can you imagine the social media if it was around in those days?  :)

In the 1960's players were in the Flamingo club on Friday nights.
Barry Lines used to catch the train from Bletchley and walk up to the County Ground to play.

January 2025 transfer window

I don't think Barry Lines is likely to return.

Tom Nicholls gone from Mansfield to Swindon - Possibly done us a job? - I've always been pretty impressed with him and he's scored goals in lg 2 

Have you got Tourette’s?

blimey! you think we would be paying him around £6m a year then?!

We have a scouting system??  ;D

Based out of Guy's and St Thomas' and Addenbrookes!

Trying to get this thread back on track  ;)

No inside knowledge whatsoever, but knowing how hard it is to get in a striker esp in January, could be looking at one of these two on loan for the rest of the season...

Olly Sanderson or Joe Hugill

Both sent back by Bradford & Wigan, so available to re-loan elsewhere...

Might fit in better here with how KN wants us to play...

Let's face it, ANYONE would be an improvement on the injury plagued wooden legged Wilson!!!

KN mentioned on the radio last night that he was the link man between the youngsters at WHU & the first team, so I'm hoping he's earmarked one or two young WHU gems to come in...

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/cobblers-have-identified-targets-and-are-in-talks-to-add-to-squad-4936650

"There's lots to go through but we were well ahead of where we needed to be when I walked into the building. Alex gave me a list of players and I've been through all of them and we have identified targets. If we can get them over the line, great. If not, we'll work with what we've got and we move on and we look at the next one"

Didn't realise we had a head of recruitment but we do. Alex Latimer seems to be the man with the list whoever he is. I assume he knows what hes talking about but hopefully Nolan can get some of his own targets line up also.

Let’s go with the loan option with no intent to buy , that’s been proven to be of long term benefit

It’s Thomas’s mantra, short term, no commitment, no extra capacity needed.

Bromley of league two are expected to sign ex cobbler nicke kabamba from Barnet for £100,000+
Bromley.

No wonder Andy woodman is staying there!!

The times are changing regards league clubs…

Whoever would have thought that Bromley would be a bigger club than us finance wise !!!

Be interesting to see how he fares back in the league.

I'd be fuming if we paid 100K plus for s soon to be 32 year old, who couldn't cut it in league 2 the last time he played in it...

Still, if Woody had got the gig here, we might have re-signed him anyway  ;D

I'm interested to see if we may make a move for Southampton Youth player Dom Ballard, especially if CC does end up signing the deal to be our new DOF. He hasn't had the greatest record at this level but at the age of 19 there is only room for improvement. His record at an U21/23 level is quite frankly superb

Reuben Wyatt loaned out to St Albans.

Unfortunately from what I have seen, none of the current crop of youth team are not anywhere near good enough for League football.

Tomlinson maybe the exception

I remember the first game of the season in 2021 when the Port Vale keeper came out almost to the touchline and Kabamba beat him to the ball only for the keeper to pull him down as he went past him. The keeper was sent off and we went on to win 1-0 with Benny Ashley Seal scoring the winner. In 21 games Kabamba failed to score for us but has been prolific for Barnet scoring 54 in 102 games.
If I remember correctly Evers was sat just behind me next to a Port Vale supporter.

Emmm, that fact Super Kev is looking to bring in a experienced central defender says differently, Tomlinson needs to be playing in the football league to gain experience.

Tomlinson has generally put in good performances in the EFL Trophy and looks as thou he could be a good future prospect but not yet ready for div1 football.

With Moyes appointed Everton manager will Kev call in a favour to get a return to the Cobblers of Calvert-Lewin!!!!!😀

if not a couple of up and coming younger attacking players on loan?

Agree, he's not ready now, but has decent potential

Not a rumour just a personal opinion
I’d try to buy will Boyle from Wrexham if he isn’t injured.
Consistent form at Cheltenham and a big lump that’s good in the air.
Not playing at Wrexham but I’ve always thought he was a decent centre back

Not sure that’s entirely true as my guess is our wage budget is at least double theirs. I would imagine they would have made all the money for that transfer fee with their fa cup tie at Newcastle that’s on tv.

It may be necessary given the recent injury to Guthrie and injury-proness of our other centre backs, but I find it depressing that Nolan is considering signing another centre back. IMO we have at least 5 L1 standard centre backs on our books: Guthrie, Baldwin, Willis, Eyoma and Magloire. Mbete is probably another, although we've mostly see him at left back. It just goes to show how important it is to improve the situation regarding injuries going forward.

Not seen anything about bringing in another centre half. Frank Spencer will soon be fit and I’m sure that was his preferred position rather than left back

That will go over a couple of peoples heads.  ;D

It was in his interview with radio Numpty Thursday evening.FACT

Fixed spell checker for you 👍🏻

How much are you offering for said player? Asking for Thomas.

There you go again spending other people’s money

I think the point people miss when they ask other supporters why they don't put their money where their mouth is if he chairman "invested" money in the club in a player, he retains that value as he owns the club so if they player goes on to be sold for a much higher fee, that's his money. That is not true for a supporter, the minute he hands over money its gone. Maybe when the supporters club handed over £1,000 towards the £10,000 fee for Warren Donald we should have insisted on 10% of any future transfer fee?

Was there any?

My guess is Diddy squat.

Does the transfer fee make him a better play than when we got him for free?

I never or ever sat next to PV supporter! …..ever

Sorry Evers my mistake. It was the first game of the season and I remember you introducing the chap you was sitting next to I don't recall ever seeing him again. Perhaps it was a different game.

Whats the word on Calderwood then? Or was it just a load of fabricated old nonsense, by people with an overactive imagination gland?

Maybe we have put him on hold now that Mr Dyche senior is available.

He’s been photo’d with the team a few times, he’s back in the set up just not been announced yet

Not sure why, maybe something to do with his leaving Saints and employment terms? Not sure. But he’s 100% involved again

Has he? I missed that.

Unlike you to get something wrong.  ;D

Hmmmmm  ;)

Long term commitment 😂 when’s that statue being erected 😉

I proposed it through the FAB on the 10 year anniversary but it got rejected. They didn’t want to upset you, so I’ll have to make do with my KT doll. I’ll try again on the 15 year anniversary.

No probs

Will up you be doing the honourable thing giving KT a reach around ?
I think this could force a rethink and maybe cast in bronze.

Any actual rumours?

I’m getting a doll of you, and you and KTs effigy are going to be intimate. Any requests?

I’m modelling you on this.

https://youtu.be/m9iaEWrYv3k?si=FKP0_ZvYtZrMAMij

There is a rumour going round that there are no rumours.

;D

I wonder if Brady leaving will impact ntfclad's inside info...

Uncanny resemblance Melly  ;D

England under 19 Nathan Lowe, recalled by Stoke, from he's loan spell at Walsall having scored 15 goals.

Joe Hugill

I watched him the other day in the televised Walsall v Tranmere game and he scored the 5th goal. They said Stoke might recall him but they almost certainly want him at Stoke as they are struggling to score goals. He was working well with Jamille Matt at Walsall.

I doubt that Stoke will do us any favours, after the Wright- Phillips fiasco.  :D

Seems so!

Very interesting!

JB leaking information?

Or there isn't any 'inside info' to report on currently?

Agreed 👍

Not just Mysterious, but also conspiratorial! ;)

Obsessive 😉

Amanda staveley  ;)

Amanda Staveley is the former owner of Newcastle United; a fearsome Lady and a good looker by all acounts. She heavily criticised the financial ceiling attempt by some Rival Prem' Clubs to instigate a financial ceiling on Newcastle in responce to their new 'Mega' owners! Amanda is blessed with a generous command of the English vocabulary.

This amendment issued to reflect Shoemakers recent comments in various message concerning Saudi investments in Lower League Clubs!

I feel obliged to offer Shoemaker an apology for suggesting he is a close friend of Ms Amanda Staveley -a most redoutable Lady. Am sorry Shoemaker you missed the two evocative emoji's but under the circumstanes                        please accept my apologies for making false assumptions even in jest on your relationship with said Lady. Hope you are able to accept my apology.

Amanda is also very skilled in legal matters.
Stating in your post that Amanda is apparently a close friend of mine is entirely false and misleading.
I do not know Amanda personally.
Just a bit of friendly advice everbrite.

The rumour given to me in a phone call today via a third party linked to the club who is not known to me concerns Saudi investors looking at buying a lower league club , Northampton town are said to be of interest and Amanda staveleys name was mentioned (not surprising given her Saudi contacts)
Nigel le quasne would move in the same circles with ultra rich clients but I have no idea if Nigel and Amanda know each other personally.

It’s always intrigued me why Nigel has got involved with the club especially with very rich clients.

Normally I’d take this with a pinch of salt but the source seems to be well placed and Nigel MAY connect interested parties.

I could ask some people who move in those circles but won’t be seeing them for a couple of weeks time….

The mere inclination that there may be some substance is very intriguing.

I’m sure many including myself would love this to have some foundation.

Time will tell I guess.

https://www.blackstonechambers.com/documents/PCP-v-Barclays-Judgment.pdf

Here's a tentative link for Nige and Amanda.

Assume you’ve been on the pop early today Shoey.

I recall having an exchange with you a few years back, about a billionaire friend of yours, and his desire to move the club to Blisworth. This was on the basis that the new rail freight terminal may (at some point in the future) also take passengers. Is he still on the scene, or have you moved on to new Wetherspoons drinking buddies?  ;D

Tata  steel back in with rival bid

 ;D

Thanks for the denial; just as I found your original comment misleading. Did you get permission to use her name ?

Friendly advice from you is very misleading!

Of course you can use her name with a sports rumour what you can’t do is make statements that I know her when I don’t.
One is stated as a rumour the other is presented as fact.

All I was doing was pointing out that you were factually incorrect which I think was helpful.

He is very much still on the scene but now more likely to invest in motorsport.

What relevance are her looks?

From a public document:

“Just to confirm, the directors for all three are Philip Burgin, Nigel Le Quesne and Amanda Staveley.
As at signing the three SPVs are owned by Craig Eadie and Amanda Staveley in their capacity as PCP partners.
In terms of your question as to whether the SPVs are wholly owned subsidiaries of IPIC or not, the principal
finance provider will be introduced into the ownership structure following signing. It may not be IPIC but may
be another controlled fund of His Highness’s. The person or entity to be named in the announcement is being....etc"

I would rather we didn't touch Saudi money. At risk of tarring them all with the same brush, I don't know that their person values would be as inclusive as our club is and should be. I also fear their money is "tainted". All that glistens is not necessarily gold.

Unless they build us a mega done and sign great players.

Then we can sing We’ll Never Play You Again at the little clubs for a year until it goes belly up.

All that money and no phones?

The rumour is that some investors (I was told today they were Saudi) were looking to buy a lower league club to build up rather than a ready made prem offering.
Maybe the cobblers are one of a few in the mix but if there is any truth in it then one could reason we as a club would have a direct route via NLQ - AS - foreign investment.

Often 2 and 2 can equal five but there is no denying the club has a personel in place to make a move involving foreign investors possible.

I’ve no idea what’s going on so please don’t ridicule me or shoot the messenger so to speak as I’m just passing on a rumour I got told this afternoon.
The rumour originated from someone within / connected to the club and it now appears that one of footballs main movers and shakers in the form of foreign investment is known to one of our directors.

It may indeed lead to nothing, who knows but it doesn’t seem completely nonsensical the more you look into it.

I’m not getting into the politics of foreign investment I’m just pointing out a rumour and the timing of it may make sense as the stand is nearing completion and the owners MAY decide they wish to move on.

No more, no less
UTC

Il be meeting them face to face , granted marvo I could ring but they are people I don’t tend to ring out of the blue but would feel comfortable speaking to them when I meet them if you get the gist.
Anyway it may all be debunked by then and I’m sure everyone will pile on as they tend to if a rumour doesn’t materialise.

Has this thread been hijacked by something other than transfer rumours? No surprise there I hear  ::)

My sincerest apologies , you are so right.
Have you heard any transfer rumours?

Yes. But I'm not telling you  ;D

Hello number 2. What happened to KingCobb number one?  ;D

It's my age  ;)

None to you perhaps but I appreciate good looking Ladies, they make the world go round! Perhaps Ms Amanda Stavely might make a decent Chair/Owner of NTFC. As you may know she used to part own Newcastle United - well I think she might have been! Could be wrong!

https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/news/former-newcastle-co-owner-amanda-30759985

Maybe contacts with Le Quesne here? think he has a box at spurs?

Well god damn, that’s tenuous, Shoey is bored.

(Joe)  - AKA Joseph Brennen Hugill loaned to Wigan by Man U is a very decent rumour by somebody on here. Has just been recalled by Man U. 6' 2" Centre Forward. Looks a real toughie!! Very doubtful for us though!

Can see Huddersfield going up automatically....

3 million already spent on Joe Taylor & about to sign Dion Charles from Bolton for 750K

Unless the Saudis come on board we ain't ever gonna compete with that! ;D

I'm sure there is enough baseless rumours on this thread to pass off a potential multi million pound take over as FACT.  ;D

Heard there was concrete interest and conversations with Matt Butcher at Wycombe

But the management changes and the re-call of Aaron Morley by Bolton has meant that Butcher is not as quick out the door as first thought

No clue if Shaw coming in has also dented that prospect

We need the Saudis to provide a war chest.

Nolan has said we’ve met the financial demands of our targets now it’s a waiting game

He also has said that he won't wait forever. Laudable I think.

But why wait at all, here's the contract, take it or leave it.

I like that, take it or fcuk off, clear and concise.

For all the sound bites regards not waiting , as fans we will still be checking this forum as the transfer window clock ticks down…..

It’s the 15th of January, plenty of time left for the usual suspects to dissect any new signings 😉

Presumably waiting for their current clubs to line up replacements.

Or waiting for better offers?

(Joke! There are no better offers than playing for the mighty Cobblers)

I wonder if his interview is on this basis to try and move deals forward before pulling them.

It’s another of Willshires propaganda videos.

Rumour running on FB:
"4 players, 4 transfer fees agreed between clubs, just waiting on their agents and players approval

This has been circling around at the moment don't know if this is correct but if it is hopefully they can do something for us this season "

8)

Unlike you to comment on Facebook rumours; plus transfer fees agreed as well.  Some news is always welcome, it’s certainly more interesting than a cold indifference.
Welcome DeepCut Lad!

I’d assume the delay is because the Saudi consortium are in the process of pumping millions into the transfer budget.

.....it's probably bulls*** but in reality If you look up and down the country for a club, history and catchment area one could pick up cheaply and make a difference with a billionaire's pocket money we have to be on a short list.

.....having said that such a scenario is fraught with all sorts of other problems - the only certainty, with the exception of Bed's rival local consortium none of us will have any say in the matter.

If this is true someone is financing this….
We will already be paying players who will not make our squad and then paying FOUR transfer fees in one window on top of this….
It’s fair to say we’ve never done this with David and Kelvin in charge in the past….

Maybe NLQ is investing
Maybe someone else

Maybe we will pay fees for no one let alone four new players….
It’ll be interesting if this rumour is correct and the players turn up!!

Depends on how much the transfer fees are and calibre of player, however this all looks very promising, let’s see if it’s real or not.

I've hunted for some information in order to get the thread back on topic and that's all that I could find... ;)

I would hope at least 2 in ready for saturday, some tough games coming thick and fast we need to give ourselves a fighting chance as id guess most around us will strengthen too

Transfers usually gets announced on a Friday 🤞

9 of our 16 signings this seasons were announced on a Friday. Good omen for tomorrow given we have irons in the fire

Up the saudi rich cobblers

Imagine four new "starters" added to our current line-up, plus some of the injured players returning. I'd think we would be quite capable of avoiding relegation and might even climb enough to challenge Brady's final position of 2023-4. Fingers crossed.

Orient have signed Dilan Markanday on loan from Blackburn after a successful loan spell at Chesterfield earlier this season. Wouldn’t be surprised if this is somebody we had in the pipeline given our lack of wingers. Would have been a superb signing

Looks like no new signing for tomorrow and no players returning. I guess those offered terms have declined

Why do you guess that

Assume the Saudis have got lost on their way over.

Well that's a disanointing end to a two week wait.

It's weirdly quiet isn't it? Not just on the player front, but staff as well... what happened to the experienced DOF type appointment (apparently Calderwood)... I wonder why it hasn't been announced? I'd imagine if Nolan was told he could bring his own staff in he wouldn't want to wait too long.

I don't know how many more weeks I can watch Eaves up front on his own

Eaves up front on his own is a complete disaster, stick the imp up with him because on his own it’s painful.

Comrade Manny in Super Sam acceptance and acknowledgement that he is indeed a footballer shocker. What next? The Americans being so stupid as to let Trump be President again? Peace in the Middle East? Perhaps the Earth is flat and there were never dinosaurs after all.

It's a funny old world.

You do worry a lot :o 8)
On the subject of Eaves it is hard work but better than nothing!

Your relationship with strikers is much like David Hate predicting outcomes of boxing bouts

I'm having few quid on Eaves to score tomorrow.

Eaves is what they call in the business, absolutely dogwank.

And what business would that be?

Joe Hugill has gone to Carlisle on loan for the rest of the season.

He may be now but he certainly wasn't when he was younger. Top class when at Gillingham.

Nolan reckons Caldermidwife is wank so that interest has ended.

I hear he feels the same about you  :P

Required.

1 x creative midfielder
2 x striker
1 x winger

Totally the wingers and maybe even a striker. I think when Roberts comes back this team will tick as he works hard and has the ability to connect defence and attack, which we lacked today. I think we struggled to have someone getting the play started as Eyoma & Willis had way too much of the ball. Ethan Brierly would be my pick, maybe Rodri if these Saudis are interested😂

Until we replace Hoskins and Hondermarc in our midfield with 2 creative players we are DOOMED!

Some pace up front is needed.

and a Guthrie replacement to command in the air.

and........

Another defender to add to this too.

Time to to get the check book out Kelvin if you want to stay in this league

Who's Kelvon and what's a check book?

Kelvon is no fool
He knows a league two club would be worth millions less than a league one club.

A Cheque book for US types

How did that turn out?

That’s Kelvins real name on his home planet.

The more I watch us this season the more I realise how lower league football works.

Owners/invesrnent is the most important thing by a country mile.

After that a managers recruitment is key.

Which leads on then therefore to the players selected.

Beyond that a manager has little impact.

With the bulk of this squad Guardiola wouldn’t keep us up.

We have a comedian on here. Stick to your day job.

Hasn’t done Carlisle much good since their wealthy owners took over.

Funny (pardon the pun) you should say that. That is my day job.

If we get relegated it's time for kelvin to go!

I bet you empty the room when it's your time to tell jokes.

There are alot of keyboard warriors on here.

Absolutely.

Yep, totally Kelvin's fault...

He gives our then manager one of our biggest budgets in years, only for him to spunk it all on a bloated squad of mostly L2 quality players, before jumping ship when he realised what he'd assembled....

Add in the most amateurish pre season preparation we've probably ever had...

Add in being the strongest/most financially one sided L1 in years then yep, it's all Kelvin's fault  ::)

Of course it Thomas’s fault, he’s the chairman, when a company goes bust who do you think gets the blame?
a) the shît house cleaner
b) the chairman
c) Henry the mild mannered janitor

Normally everyone except the chairman, he gets a multi million pound golden handshake!

The mild mannered janitor is Penry, not Henry. FACT.

That's not like you Comrade to fully do your research before posting.

Bloody apple spellcheck Comrade.

I’m not having that, depends on the circumstances. I could give you multiple examples, but you know about those already so I won’t bother. Nice try though😉

'Thomas's fault' LAUGHABLE!

He has provided an increased budget year on year (we always want more because it is easy spending the Chairman's money!).

He has provided the best off field facilities we have ever had!

Up to 17 injuries are not his fault!

Don't let facts get in the way of your bollocks OPINION!!!!

To add balance
Whatever the budget, it wasn’t one that enabled JB to get in ANY of his targets.
The clubs own rhetoric was that we couldn’t compete and we would wait till the market ‘settled down’ in hindsight this meant getting the leftovers that no one else wanted whether down to ability or past injury records.
If we look back we couldn’t even put a proper team out for friendlies until right up until the season started as we hadn’t signed the players!!!

Now you can spin budgets this way and that but our budget did NOT allow us to compete at league one level.
Getting the last minute leftovers has come back to bite us on the arse.
A bloated squad of injury prone players that are mainly league two/non league standard.

A few weeks before we were told if Marc Leonard was available for £350,000 we’d buy him (of course we couldn’t compete on wages but the impression was we were in a position to pay a transfer fee in that region)
That would finally put us on a par with the bottom half of this division when competing for signings.
I’d therefore assume we still can in this window which should make things interesting !!!!

No wonder KN is laughing  ;D

To add balance: speaking to a couple of Tottenham fans yesterday and they were bemoaning that Levy needs to loosen the purse strings.........after he had overseen the new excellent stadium and range of new players!!!😯

As I said it is sooooo easy to spend other people's money, sometimes it comes down to people you employ getting the best with what they have got.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”

For those who want Kelvin to go who do you realistically think will want to take us on

Frankly, blaming anything to do with our league position on Thomas is ridiculous.

Yes, he could have spent more money. But as previously pointed out, that is always the case, regardless of what level you are at or how much you have spent.

I don't think any of our summer signings generated groans or shouts of "Why the hell have we signed him?", and some of the signings were genuinely exciting. I maintain that on paper our squad is better this year than last, on paper at least.

We've been phenomenally unlucky with injury and that has set us back massively. Yes, we gàmbled on injury prone players but while you could (and probably should) expect some of them to pick up injuries, I think the sheer volume of injuries we've picked up, and at the same time, is pretty much unprecedented.

Even Man City, with their almost endless resources, have found themselves on the back foot with an injury crisis this season. If they are struggling with an injury crisis that saw fewer players out than we've had, how are we to be expected to cope?

Of course, it's not all down to injuries and the upheaval of Brady going, Sammo's disastrous spell and a new manager coming in with his own ideas has also been disruptive.

If rumours about incoming players are to be believed, it sounds like the owners are prepared to blow the budget to support Nolan.

Shall we at least wait until the end of January before we get the pitchforks out?

Put all suggestions in a bowl and give it a sheik.

Que Sera Sera

I'll let you off this time Comrade, but please do try and get things right in the future otherwise I fear you might get a reputation for making things up.

I hope none of the prospective signings were watching the match yesterday. I’m guessing that the prospect of a relegation battle isn’t exactly attractive, although money talks I suppose.

This rumour on FB about four incoming players, was started by a kid. This rumour about a Sheik incoming, was started on here, by a well known contributor who claims to mix with multi millionaires. Are you all that desperate for some positive news, that you will accept everything as factual?
In these situations I prefer to say, show me the evidence.

I think if I was a player whose club had come to an agreement to sell me and my agent had agreed terms I would be holding off until committing to a transfer until later in the month to see who else we sign and consider if we had a realistic chance of playing division 1 football next season.

I didn’t imagine Kelvin stating the board (not me personally) were prepared to pay £350,000 for the right player.
That wasn’t me.
It was our owners…..
It did happen didn’t it, I didn’t dream it..
Can anyone help me by confirming it
Ta.

Strong the whiff of Mierda de Toro is

I would have stated that I would pay £300k (?) of my own money for Leonard because he was never going to stay!!!

:o

Accrington were able to push for the league 1 play offs with a budget half that at best of nearly every other club in the league. Yeovil got promoted from league 1 under Gary Johnson with the lowest budget in the league. We can speculate whether our budget is in the bottom four in the league but I think it’s pretty certain it’s in the ballpark of at least six or seven other clubs in the division that it is definitely not the defining factor whether we stay up or not. So to say our budget did NOT allow us to compete (in terms of staying in the division) at league one level is just wrong.

Or option d) the manager that spunked all the finances available on utter s***e?

D for me…

Who chose the manager that chose the players?
Chairmen are often quick to sack managers to avoid the "Sack the Board" chants.

It’s fair to say that JB wasn’t able to bring in the players he wanted
Indeed KT explained the situation.
I stand by the original budget was not enough to keep us in the division
We got the leftovers and had to increase the budget once all our targets had gone elsewhere ( we ended up
with injury prone and free transfers/loans) This was obviously the wrong decision , the rhetoric was ‘there will be much better value later on’…..
Well we sure as hell didn’t get it.
That’s the reality , it’s all on record.

Really? I know quite a few who were distinctly underwhelmed when we signed James Wilson, a free transfer from a club League 2, but I'm struggling to think of the "Genuinely exciting" ones, except our last minute loan of Tyler Roberts.

Roberts is one I was thinking of (although not sure why the snide "last minute" reference was needed), but I was also thinking:

- Fosu. Terrific for Brentford
- Morton. We know from experience how good he can be when used properly
- Eaves. Proven record in the lowet leagues and held his own in higher league
- Mbete. Highly thought of Man City prospect. One of his last games for them was against Barcelona!
- Chouchane. Higher in the pecking order than Leonard in Brighton's youth ranks
- McCarron. A bit more of an unknown, but stood out in preseason games as someone who'd fun at defences at pace and had a good pedigree.

There are plenty of exciting signings there, 4 of whom came from a higher division and one who has previously excelled at a higher division prior to some dreadful career advice!

You can't blame the owners for this one.

Yes there are fragments of reality there but they lead to a lot of suppositions and assumptions. The injuries have just as much been players already at the club as ‘injury prone leftovers’. JB knew his budget so were his targets unrealistic? or did they go elsewhere for other reasons other than money?. Sherring supposedly dropped down a division to join MK Dons on less money than we offered him. So why were our first two signings players that we need us to rip up our successful way of playing last year to fit in the team?. Is that money or JB making a strategy call. If we look at the players we’ve signed on big wages in the last few years they’ve hardly been a great success, so who’s to say that just spending more would have resulted in a guaranteed better outcome, it definitely didn’t help Carlisle in the winter window last year.

Fragments of reality  ;D
That is what happened
It was widely reported and you can check the quotes regards ‘ having to increase budget to compete’
‘Not being able to get our targets in’ and ‘better value later on’
This was from the club during the window….
The one where most supporters realised how badly the signing situation was when the pre season turned into a farce due to lack of players.
Those my friend are not fragments of reality ,they are the facts of how this season unfolded backed up  by quotes from the club at the time.
You are more than welcome to have a different opinion as that is the whole point of forums but you cant rewrite history and pretend this didn’t happen.

Not sure about your comments but are you well ?

Absolutely wild this opinion is still floating about. Which players represent an upgrade on Leonard, Sherring, Bowie, Appere and McWilliams?

My brother who has a brain injury from a box falling on his head at UPS would be an improvement on Appere .

It's all easy with hindsight and I've said myself we've gàmbled - that's the thing about a gamble though, isn't it? They don't always pay off, but there was certainly the potential there and no one was complaining when we signed them.

As I already explained I never had an issue with the facts you mentioned, just the assumptions and suppositions you drew from them. Like you say everyone is welcome to their own opinions. I just think it’s sad that no matter how much a club loses each year there’s still the clamour for every club to spend more and more. Before anyone calls me a KT apologist, I think the club could be run a hell of a lot better. We barely bring anyone through the youth team are barely generate any revenue through player sales compared with other clubs. We’ve already shown with the likes of Hylton that spending big on a player isn’t always bring the guaranteed success some think it will.

He is right Shoey! Please agree? Bit surprised that some of your new found friends failed to make an impact!

Anyone got any transfer rumours, just wondered  :)

Very well thank you Evers old chum, how are you?
Hope you are fighting fit.

Yes it would be nice to get back on topic, we have had 26 pages of mainly arguing which is normal.

No fear of that Comrade, I only deal with FACTS.

Half the numpties on here chose the manager!

Back to the thread, James Collins is leaving Derby.

Lincoln and Orient favourites to sign him.

Yeah he was shît, only got us promoted and then followed it up with our highest league position for decades.

In the last 28 years 6 managers have got us promoted and another failed in the play-offs final. In fact four times we've missed out on promotion in that period via the play-offs. Getting NTFC into the third tier of the football League is not the biggie you lot think it is, rather it is the norm. We've spent 13 of the last 28 seasons in the third tier! Now if we could find a manager that could keep us at this level for more than three seasons, or god forbid actually get us close to the Championship, well then now you're talking.

That will go down well with some of the 'numpties' on here!

An old big immobile centre forward who hasn’t been scoring this season, don’t we already have that covered!.

He is 34yrs and considerably slower than when was with us in 2016.  Nearly a decade ago!! Good luck to the Imps and Orient!

ps Cue he joins NTFC - may the devil forbid! 

Ainsworth rumoured to be signing his former Wycombe player Dominic Gape for Shrewsbury. I didn’t think he looked bad in his few games for us

Surely we start to see some activity this week. If the players we've offered terms too don't accept by Wednesday they clearly don't want to come here. Move onto other targets.

+1

Alex Lowry who we were once interested in is due to sign for Wycombe.

Harvey Lintott goes on loan to Sligo Rovers. Probably the last we'll see of him. Nice of the club to not announce it though...

Yeah, it is a bit odd..  Nothing in the Chron either.


https://www.sligorovers.com/full-back-lintott-joins-on-loan/

Considering our overall lack of defenders its a little surprising. That being said he has not been available essentially all season anyway so I guess it dosnt particularly impact us, difficult to miss what you dont have. If it allows us more leeway to bring in additions then its for the best, i do wonder how long he has been fit for though, hasnt even been making the bench for us.

It will be soon, after they read this forum  ;)

Is NTFC media man on half term holidays?  ;D

Have they signed him injured I wonder?

Seems strange he hasn’t been in and around the squad with so many injuries.

Spurs have recalled Scarlett from Oxford, say he hasnt had enough game time!

The prolific Tyreese Simpson leaves Stevenage and joins Colchester on loan for the rest of the season.
Damn we have missed out again.

About his level, some muppets on here saying he will play in the championship 😂

Another defender that struggles to defend

True some did say when he first started playing that he would go on to play at a higher level but there were also muppets consistently banging on about getting Simpson back. He failed to cut it at division 1 level now with 2 clubs and it didn’t take Stevenage long to discard him.

I think the difference is simpson has tge attributes to make it, he proved at swindon he was good enough. It was always he's attitude that was the issue. Lintott was never good enough, any winger with any speed against him  ripped him to pieces.

The other difference is that you could not fault Lintott for effort whereas Simpson only put in an effort for a handful of games which was disappointing because he had some pace and ability but lacked any motivation.

Simpson or Wilson, I rest my case.

Neither

Not bothered but very strange why Lintott departure has not been announced by the club?

I had a look on the Sligo Rovers website and they have definitely signed Lintott on loan until the end of the season, they even interviewed him.  I agree it is a bit odd the club haven't announced it, have Sligo jumped the gun? I also wish they would clear up the Calderwood saga, is he our DOF or not? just a simple yes or no would do. What does a DOF do anyway.

It seems to be all about the East Stand at the moment and while it's great that it's finally nearing completion I cannot get excited about it myself as I doubt I will ever go in it, being a season ticket holder in the West Stand. Still it will improve the view from where I sit.

Hoping for either some players back for Saturday or some new faces or preferably both as I don't fancy our chances against Wycombe if we field the same team as last week. It seems a long time since we even got a draw against WW.

🤲 That was me.

I think there's plenty of players we've had who didn't do so well or weren't amazing,, who went elsewhere and did better sometimes at a higher level.

Conversely, we've signed plenty who were good elsewhere but we're absolute gash for us.

Can you see where I'm going with this? We have a habit of making otherwise decent players look rather ordinary....

Sometimes players are only as good as those around them. I recall Ted McDougal fired over 40 goals for Bournemouth when he had Bowyer providing the ammunition. McDougal moved on and failed to do the business UNTIL his club signed Bowyer and then the goals flowed again. Maybe if we had a couple of wide men getting to the line and swinging over dangerous crosses Eaves might beheading them in like nobodies business. Then again he may not, who knows. I do feel sorry for our strikers, it cant be a coincidence so many fail to make a mark here.

Totally agree

(https://compote.slate.com/images/befe3051-eea6-445a-b79b-3997aa3109a5.jpeg?crop=2706%2C1804%2Cx0%2Cy0&width=1440)

I thought Lintott was our best option at RB until he got injured also I remember a couple of games where mistakes were happening all over the pitch but Brady seemed insistent on berating Lintott for the whole game for very little, you could see the confidence disappear until Brady took him off., maybe it was his confidence was missing more then he was injured and wanted out new manager or not.

Has a player ever left with not a mention before?

Not including Kashif.

Rather ironically the short purple one does bare more than a passing resemblance.

The way we set-up at the moment I don't envy any striker. You'd need someone who could feed off scraps and run the channels for 90 minutes.

Reminds me of West Ham over the last 10 years. Spent tens of millions on strikers that have done the business elsewhere, but always reverting to Antonio to run onto a long punt up field as he's best suited to how they play.

Eaves would probably be decent at a club who dominate the ball and need a presence in the box to finish it off, but it aint us.

3 players have rejected us so far this window. 2 of them to go to league 2 clubs.

Indeed there’s an uncanny resemblance to me, top right.

No idea if this is true but if so it has the same ring to it as the last transfer window.

Name and shame then...

If these players choose to sign for league 2 clubs then they're clearly not of the calibre needed, as for people who constantly denigrate our player can I suggest you "va bane"  :-*

Worrying yet also not surprised.

Well it happened in pre season so why not now.

Also not the only club in that position I'm sure.

Hmmm newbie.. KN’s brother by any chance?

Connor O'Riordan and Michael Mellon?

I think the owners are under pressure to bring in a least 2 new faces, let’s see how they get on.

Said that when we signed him and pretty much throughout the season, it’s hardly rocket science. Weirdly if we do go down he could be an asset at a lower level.

It definitely won’t be easy to bring in attackers on loan. If I was at the parent club or a representative for a young striker I would be very reluctant to send them into a relegation battle at a club that barely creates anything right now.

Michael Mellon signed for Bradford City keep up.

As you'll have read, we've met the demands of 3 targets and were just waiting on the agents.

It sounds like if there was any pressure the owners have stood up to it so fair play to them.

We often stand up to agents…..
I wouldn’t be surprised if some don’t even bother dealing with us which may be part of the problem.
One things for sure we can’t seem to sign our targets….

I eagerly await a decent signing later this afternoon  ;D

You seem to want to blame everyone apart from the people that own the club, odd.

What do we have to blame them for?

The manager said last week that our owners have funded the offers for our top targets which have met the respective clubs and players demands...

I think he was trying to indicate who we may well have missed out on

Jack Sparks (LWB) from the slugs was possibly one we missed out on...signed for Chesterfield...

On a different note, Koiki must be the longest footballer in history, to be sidelined by a "hamstring" injury!

Roll on Summer when all the crocks can be released once & for all!

By my calculations since his injury against Harrogate in February 2023 he has featured in 16 of our 99 games…

Which is exactly half of Magloires contribution!

How an earth is he still here.

Don’t Nolan’s transfer interviews read like an exact copy and paste from Brady’s interviews. 

You could run a transfer statement bingo!!!

I’ll start with “must be better than we’ve got” or “have to improve us”

Lintott now announced. Paperwork holding up our announcement it appears.

Think you'll find that's EVERY manager...

What do you expect him to say?

Hopefully, we'll bring someone in who's got two legs & knows what a football is...

They'll probably be far worse than what we've already got as no one else wants them, but our supporters are desperate for any old signings who will more than likely join our ever expanding injury list anyway, so at least it will shut them up til Summer!  ;D

One things for sure, if we don’t add to the squad we’ll go down.

Good news is, we will add to the squad.

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/theres-always-a-question-mark-birmingham-city-advised-to-explore-shock-23-year-old-departure/#:~:text=The%20suggestion%20of%20loaning%20out,for%20most%20League%20One%20clubs.

“Of the remaining squad and those who are very closely linked to the first team, I think Marc Leonard’s an interesting one. I definitely wouldn’t want to see him go, and I think we absolutely need to keep him, but he has had minutes reduced, and we have got other options, with Taylor Gardner-Hickman while Krystian Bielik can play in midfield as well."

Not usually a fan of targeting old players but I will make an exception for him!

I wouldn’t be surprised if the board slap the £350,000 down that they’ve earmarked to buy him.

As if Leonard is ever coming back to play for us!  ::)

Even if we offered 500K (which to remind the youngers, our largest fee paid to date is still the 165K for Josh Low!)
 
We could never match his quadruple wages since he left...

He could have his pick of any high end L1/low end Champ club, so why the fvck would he want to be involved in a relegation dog fight with us...

Perspective needed people!

After Wilson rose like Lazarus last Saturday, It wouldnt surprise me in the slightest to see Koiki make the bench at Wycombe. Both have a point to prove to the new manager, or risk sliding off into the ether, like Dibley-Dias. And to be fair, Koiki would only have to touch the ball, to be an improvement on Wilsons cameo last Saturday.

Whens Calderwood going to be announced then?

Terry Taylor. Watch this space

On loan.
Why would any high end L1 / low end Champ club want a player that cant make the first 11 of a L1 team and isnt match fit.... different perspective.

I understand it's imminent.

I assume when they’ve finally found the pen.

The plumber from duston?

He's already at a high end league one club and obviously ain't cutting it.

A quick search and found he had ankle surgery in October, I give it a week if he signs till he’s on treatment table again!.

Just checked and he played the whole game on Saturday so

https://www.charltonafc.com/player/267

Maybe him and Super Kev didn’t hit it off, or KT saving the penny’s for Leonard 🥴

Competition.....

https://www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-bolton-shrewsbury-and-stevenage-in-race-to-sign-charlton-ace-taylor/

Heard he was at the training ground today.. Deal supposedly done

I'm sure we will soon find out!

Lots of shouting from the training ground earlier, they made my dog jump!

Pretty sure it will be announced tomorrow. Charlton have a game tonight and he is not involved.

he hasn’t been in their squad for about a month

From Charlton forum "Terry Taylor off on loan to Northampton according to their fans forum - he is far too good for that pub side"

Another one from Calderwood Scottish Black Book??!

Just had a look at his stats....

correct in that he hasn't played for Charlton since December 14th's goalless draw at home to Mansfield (he was subbed off after 61 minuutes)

One Sub appearance for Wolves in the League Cup in 2019
Four appearances for Wolves U21's in the Trophy
14 games on loan at Grimsby
Free transfer to Burton where he made 69 appearances in all competitions
Undisclosed transfer to Charlton in July 2023 and he has since made 21 appearances

109 appearances overall.. and not a single goal scored! Has picked up 24 yellow cards though.  ;D

21 appearances since July 2023?  That makes Hylton look prolific.

Another to add to our list of League 1 players who can’t get into League 1 teams.

Hardly going to improve us or help us move up the table.

We need quality and/or experience or else this season is going to be a repeat of our last relegation

Yet another one picked apart, and he hasn't even signed up yet!

Yup. But we are all often accused of saying we all embraced our summer signings. So I’m being honest, underwhelmed and unimpressed.

Wonder if you thought the same of Shaw when he signed from a struggling league two side. He’s done well so far

Probably missed out/decided against signing Matt Butcher of Wycombe. I think he may have been on the list of possibles but that was before their manager went to Luton. This lad from Charlton could be next on that list.

I think Terry Taylor would be a good signing if he’s fit and stays fit! Could work nicely with Shaw.

A defensive midfielder at a good age.

On the football app I use in each game he plays he generally gets a good rating stats wise…

Besides…. anyone is an upgrade on Chouchane and Hondermarck.

Will help plug the big hole in the middle of the park. Any sign of anyone able to stick it between the posts coming in?

Charlton fans reckon he's decent - but the manager only wants workhorses in the middle. Hopefully be a positive signing if he comes.

Shaw aside, he’d be a massive upgrade.
He’s only on loan BTW.

But can’t be anything other than an upgrade on our other loans!