Agreed.Do think this thread has got a bit of censorship feel about.
With people quick to jump on any push back about squad depth and the success of the transfer window (as wonderful as the stadium ownership is, they are not the same thing).
It’s almost like a bunch of senior citizens have formed a censorship equivalent of the Thursday Murder Club - spending all their Golden Years to act with such alacrity to shut down and disparage any comments other than it was an amazing transfer window.
Are we 100% sure no loans are allowed now?Agreed.
Yep free tranfsers only.Are we 100% sure no loans are allowed now?
Are we 100% sure no loans are allowed now?
Much of an upgrade on BidwellI have had a look on the Ipswich fans forum.
A few are saying "good riddance" to Woolfenden but most are sad to see him go. The consensus seems to be that he is an experienced, calm, dependable CB. He may be just what we need but I wonder if he is really much of an upgrade on Bidwell.
We will see.
Yes it's a big upgrade from Bidwell. Bidwell is clearly LCB cover now and is not a CB, Woolfenden isI have had a look on the Ipswich fans forum.
A few are saying "good riddance" to Woolfenden but most are sad to see him go. The consensus seems to be that he is an experienced, calm, dependable CB. He may be just what we need but I wonder if he is really much of an upgrade on Bidwell.
We will see.
They also seem generally sad about the break up of the back-to-back team of which Woolfenden was a key member.I have had a look on the Ipswich fans forum.
A few are saying "good riddance" to Woolfenden but most are sad to see him go. The consensus seems to be that he is an experienced, calm, dependable CB. He may be just what we need but I wonder if he is really much of an upgrade on Bidwell.
We will see.
People moaning we have not replaced players like Rafael is a bit of a stretch. He is nowhere near the level required. Bessette was always going and we didn't miss him once he was frozen out.
You would have to assume the Sheaf offer came fairly late like Palmer last year and you cannot turn that down for a player who is not starting unless there are injuries. It can be addressed in January.
Conversely the argument we have not sold anyone is a bit misleading as it seems no offers have been made.
Its pretty clear we thought MVE would attract interest but it seems there was little concrete interest at all. So the one mistake really is that we signed his replacement and now he is not going to get game time.
I am sure we would have liked to have offloaded Simms but its not that easy.
The one area we are really short is a Number 10. We were never re-signing O Hare but that type of player would have been a big benefit. Its interesting the argument against him (wages aside) was he would demand to start. Sheaf then certainly would.
The last day nonsense just creates whipped up emotion. Looking as a whole its OK other than we miscalculated badly on MVE.
Too late? We sold Sheaf on the last dayAgree with all that. I bet we still turned down some offers for MvE though, either too low earlier in the window or too late to do anything.
Too late? We sold Sheaf on the last day
GK - Stronger - Rushworth appears to be an upgrade on Collins
CB - Stronger - Woolfenden appears to be an upgrade on Binks
RB - Stronger - Added Kesler-Hayden for depth
LB - Stronger - Added Brau for depth
CM - Weaker - Lost Sheaf and not replaced him
AM - Same - No cover for Rudoni
RW - Same - No cover for Sakamoto
LW - Weaker - Lost Paterson and Raphael and not replaced either
ST - Weaker - Lost Bassette and not replaced him
Positives
+ Kept our 3 stars in van Ewijk, Rudoni and Wright.
+ Torp is now showing himself to be a top player at this level and feels like a new £5M+ signing.
+ Desperately needed to improve the defence. Woolfenden and Kesler-Hayden are good signings, too early to tell if Brau is a good signing or not.
+ Rushworth is an upgrade on Collins despite a poor/mixed start.
Negatives
- Only 1 RW in Sakamoto who can only play on the right.
- Only 1 LW in Mason-Clark who can only play on the left.
- Not strengthened our Strikers and are now 1 fewer with Bassette gone.
- No cover for Rudoni.
- Only 22 senior players with 3 goalkeepers. We can't even play 11 v 11 in training both in terms of numbers and lack of depth in several positions. I'm not counting U23 players.
- An injury to either Rudoni, Sakamoto, Mason-Clark or Wright and we are left with far weaker players that would be playing out of position.
Verdict
Not the worst window we've ever had. We've managed to offload most of the players who weren't good enough and managed to get good fees for Binks and Sheaf. But we really needed at least 2 more signings. A winger and a versatile central attacker to cover Rudoni and upfront were needed.
Out of all the teams who finished in and around the top 6 last season, we probably needed to sign the least amount of players.
Overall I think we are right to feel disappointed.
Bidwell is actually better at Centre back nowYes it's a big upgrade from Bidwell. Bidwell is clearly LCB cover now and is not a CB, Woolfenden is
He's an acceptable replacement if we are desparateBidwell is actually better at Centre back now
You might be onto something there Duffer. Given the fall off in energy of both EMC and BTA in the second half on Saturday and leaving our full backs exposed - in certain game situations/oppo - having that additional defensive cover higher up the pitch could be useful.That's a fair analysis, I think overall I'd say underwhelmed rather than disappointed though.
I suppose there is cover of a kind on the flanks, in that at a push JDS, MVE, KKH, or Brau might be able to go into a more attacking role with the alternate full back behind.
We'd still lose something in that situation though, obviously...
I'm not sure we are weaker in the striking dept, Bassette scored 2 goals and probably made one but had plenty of game time. I think EMC would have done better in that role even if it isn't his best position. We do need something extra up front going forward.GK - Stronger - Rushworth appears to be an upgrade on Collins
CB - Stronger - Woolfenden appears to be an upgrade on Binks
RB - Stronger - Added Kesler-Hayden for depth
LB - Stronger - Added Brau for depth
CM - Weaker - Lost Sheaf and not replaced him
AM - Same - No cover for Rudoni
RW - Same - No cover for Sakamoto
LW - Weaker - Lost Paterson and Raphael and not replaced either
ST - Weaker - Lost Bassette and not replaced him
Positives
+ Kept our 3 stars in van Ewijk, Rudoni and Wright.
+ Torp is now showing himself to be a top player at this level and feels like a new £5M+ signing.
+ Desperately needed to improve the defence. Woolfenden and Kesler-Hayden are good signings, too early to tell if Brau is a good signing or not.
+ Rushworth is an upgrade on Collins despite a poor/mixed start.
Negatives
- Only 1 RW in Sakamoto who can only play on the right.
- Only 1 LW in Mason-Clark who can only play on the left.
- Not strengthened our Strikers and are now 1 fewer with Bassette gone.
- No cover for Rudoni.
- Only 22 senior players with 3 goalkeepers. We can't even play 11 v 11 in training both in terms of numbers and lack of depth in several positions. I'm not counting U23 players.
- An injury to either Rudoni, Sakamoto, Mason-Clark or Wright and we are left with far weaker players that would be playing out of position.
Verdict
Not the worst window we've ever had. We've managed to offload most of the players who weren't good enough and managed to get good fees for Binks and Sheaf. But we really needed at least 2 more signings. A winger and a versatile central attacker to cover Rudoni and upfront were needed.
Out of all the teams who finished in and around the top 6 last season, we probably needed to sign the least amount of players.
Overall I think we are right to feel disappointed.
I wonder if that highly rated striker from the 18's could feature a few times this seasonI'm not sure we are weaker in the striking dept, Bassette scored 2 goals and probably made one but had plenty of game time. I think EMC would have done better in that role even if it isn't his best position. We do need something extra up front going forward.
Makes more sense of the moves to loan Rapha and Justin O out putting it that way.As I said in the other thread King needs promising young players in to develop and sell on.
Much of an upgrade on Bidwell
Yes it's a big upgrade from Bidwell.
Ipswich weren't in our league last season. The season before that I assume you are talking about he started just about every single game.I only said, "We will see". Obviously I hope that he is.
Quite a few (though I would say a minority) of Ipswich fans are pleased he has been shipped out. I've not see him play, as he was an unused substitute in the league game at the CBS last season (which doesn't exactly inspire confidence) and I didn't go to the cup game when he captained their weakened side.
No one will be more delighted than me if he turns out to be an excellent buy
Ipswich weren't in our league last season. The season before that I assume you are talking about he started just about every single game.
Ipswich fans are saying far more positive than I see from most fans about players that are on the way out.
Honestly man our fans are so fucking negative sometimes.
We were pursuing him long before either of those...Quite right. I meant last "year" as it was towards the end of the 23/24 season.
I'm not negative and I want him to be brilliant for us but I was a bit concerned about some of the comments I have seen. My views might have been a bit skewed by the fact that he was, at best, our third choice CB after Charlie Hughes and Villad Nielsen.
As I said, we will see.
We were interested in Woolfenden way before Hughes , in fact the Hughes interest started around the time the Thomas bid came in.Quite right. I meant last "year" as it was towards the end of the 23/24 season.
I'm not negative and I want him to be brilliant for us but I was a bit concerned about some of the comments I have seen. My views might have been a bit skewed by the fact that he was, at best, our third choice CB after Charlie Hughes and Villad Nielsen.
As I said, we will see.
GK - Stronger - Rushworth appears to be an upgrade on Collins
CB - Stronger - Woolfenden appears to be an upgrade on Binks
RB - Stronger - Added Kesler-Hayden for depth
LB - Stronger - Added Brau for depth
CM - Weaker - Lost Sheaf and not replaced him
AM - Same - No cover for Rudoni
RW - Same - No cover for Sakamoto
LW - Weaker - Lost Paterson and Raphael and not replaced either
ST - Weaker - Lost Bassette and not replaced him
Positives
+ Kept our 3 stars in van Ewijk, Rudoni and Wright.
+ Torp is now showing himself to be a top player at this level and feels like a new £5M+ signing.
+ Desperately needed to improve the defence. Woolfenden and Kesler-Hayden are good signings, too early to tell if Brau is a good signing or not.
+ Rushworth is an upgrade on Collins despite a poor/mixed start.
Negatives
- Only 1 RW in Sakamoto who can only play on the right.
- Only 1 LW in Mason-Clark who can only play on the left.
- Not strengthened our Strikers and are now 1 fewer with Bassette gone.
- No cover for Rudoni.
- Only 22 senior players with 3 goalkeepers. We can't even play 11 v 11 in training both in terms of numbers and lack of depth in several positions. I'm not counting U23 players.
- An injury to either Rudoni, Sakamoto, Mason-Clark or Wright and we are left with far weaker players that would be playing out of position.
Verdict
Not the worst window we've ever had. We've managed to offload most of the players who weren't good enough and managed to get good fees for Binks and Sheaf. But we really needed at least 2 more signings. A winger and a versatile central attacker to cover Rudoni and upfront were needed.
Out of all the teams who finished in and around the top 6 last season, we probably needed to sign the least amount of players.
Overall I think we are right to feel disappointed.
Also lost Obikwu and DauschYou’ve missed Tavares who was mostly deployed as a RW and I’d argue Paterson gave you AM backup as well. So you could argue we’re weaker across the whole front line without Tavares, Paterson, Rapha, and Bassette.
I'm really tired of people's sole argument that IF key players get injured or suspended, then we are weaker..... Right... Wow, real groundbreaking stuff there. That is the exact same case for every single football team going.
For the first time in my memory, we haven't sold / lost a key player. And none of you start pretending suddenly Sheaf is... Again, usual suspects constantly stating captain... Despite the FACT the person wearing the armband the most this season has been Kitching. Sheaf has long been rinsing a wage on medical table, or been under performing on the pitch for the last 2 seasons. 1 good season in championship, the rest in lower league. Says it all.
It's been the most insufferable this forums ever been, constant drivel and idiocy wrapped up as 'trolling'. Whenever a fair point is raised it's ignored (evidenced countless times in this thread) and I will await the classic, really original now and hilarious : Reaction score reviewed, opinion rejected.
Also lost Obikwu and Dausch
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