January transfer season 2021-22

A left back will be high on MT priority, but I fear unless we lose loans or loan out a few it will be a quiet window.

We could do worse than Max Melbourne and it could be argued that we are.

3 Likes

Max Melbourne is at Stevenage now.

Yes I know.

1 Like

If we’re serious about ‘having a good go’ at promotion, then we need 3 in while the xmas decorations are still up, not at the end of the month, so they can make the necessary impact quickly.

As challenging as ‘the market’ is, Fullerton and Pomlett have now had plenty of time to plan/sort. For me this window is a real test of our intent, yes the summer one will be bigger; but my fear is it will be a very dry January.

1 Like

​It’s that bad to have transfer window rumours talk so soon? Ok, I’ll bite.
Central box-to-box midfielder, who could add something to attack but mainly will be involved in all that midfield battles. If there will be enough money (ha, ha) two wing backs or wide defenders. I think MT tries to emphasise more wing play, so having such players it will be much easier. And maybe set pieces trainer. I understand it could be seen as meaningless, but turn ​a ​few defe​a​ts to draws and ​a ​few draws to wins and at the end you have a few points more in the table.

1 Like


Looks like Ash Taylor is still well regarded up north .

I’ll drive him there.

2 Likes

How bad is that Scottish League if they are missing Ash Taylor I mean even being sympathetic he’s just an ok 4th division player. How bad are the defenders Aberdeen currently have :rofl:

1 Like

He’s been rubbish is it just our fan base as has been said before or do we actually see what others don’t see? He’s pedestrian sluggish and an oil tanker turns quicker surely other clubs he’s played for can see that?

There is a fair amount of subjectivity in any individual assessing how good a particular player is - even more so when the individual is part of a group and has their view coloured by that of their peers. If it was totally objective then we wouldn’t have so many different points of view on all the threads about our favourite/best ever players.

Even when you can take objective measures though there can be other factors involved. So … Ash might have been mediocre on an absolute scale at Aberdeen but still better than everyone else in that team so gets thought of as being good. Or they could all have been a very good as a team together and that helped him raise his game above his usual average. Or the style of play and what he was asked to do up there suited his own strengths more than what we’re asking of him. Or he’s being compared to former CH heroes from when we were playing at a higher level. Or you have a downer on him for some other reason. And so on.

I think one of the worst traits that fans (as a collective) have though is to arbitrarily label a player good or bad on first impressions ( a few minutes in 1 game is enough for some) and then stick with that regardless of any contrary evidence.

As an example, I recall Chris Westwood being a bit of a boo boy amongst certain sections of our fans when he played for us after being highly thought of when he was at Hartlepool . Even though he was part of our promotion winning side under Dickie Dosh AND being selected for the PFA L2 Team of the Year, there were people constantly on his back chanting how crap he was. Fox, Dann and Gerrard who he played alongside were the poster boys who could do no wrong, but any mistimed tackle or poor pass he made was howled at while any good stuff he did barely got a nod.

At one game in particular (think it may have been some sort of Friends For a Fiver type thing) a group of the Burberrys were sat up near where I am and had a couple of non-Walsall supporting mates with them. They were telling them what they thought of each player and Westwood was obviously bottom of their list in their estimation and they said to look out for how crap everything he did was. First challenge - “Watch this, watch this! He’ll f*** this up”; no he didn’t. “He’s having a good game for once - next time …” and so on. Everyone else on the pitch (including the golden boys) all make mistakes but never a comment, Westwood didn’t put a foot wrong and was actually more than pulling his weight - until about halfway though the first half when he’d moved forward a bit to make himself an option for a pass out from the back, the other defender got it all wrong and it was intercepted leaving him out of position - he still got back and won back the ball but his hoof out didn’t hit a red shirt so they were all jumping up and down laughing at how he’d proved their point of being crap. :see_no_evil:

Another example I’ve given before is of how bad Mick Bates was for the first season he was with us but how he was probably our star player the following season after he adjusted to life with us as Div 3 team rather than all-conquering Leeds like he was used to.

For the record, I don’t think Ash Taylor’s form for us has been anything to write home about so far, and I prefer the partnership of Menayese and Monthe, but I don’t think he’s not as bad as some are making out.

5 Likes

Good post .I agree entirely with your last point . Ash Taylor made that mistake at Hartlepool and seems to have been rather unfairly labelled as a bad signing. Although I like the current partnership we will need Taylor this season and the one thing he can do much better than the others is get on the end of our corners!

2 Likes

Excellent post mate and some good comparisons.I don’t personally make a decision on a player after 1 minute I’d rather give them a quarter of the season or so which I personally think is long enough to at least have come out of their shells so to speak and you’ll probably get a good feel after that period let’s just say most players won’t surprise you with anything other than what you’ve already seen after a quarter of a season they are what they are maybe other fans would go half a season or even to the last month of their 2 year contract it’s a personal preference.

I want nothing more than for Ash to get game time but it’s clear Matt isn’t breaking the partnership of Monthe and Menayese anytime soon and why would he I know I wouldn’t but that partnership was allowed to flourish initially if memory serves me correctly by Ash’s poor display at Hartlepool where he was subbed for Manny after 60 odd minutes then he threw a couple more poor displays in before injury put pay to him for a while.I’m sure he’s a model professional so he’s seen all this before difference for me this time is he’d have probably have had more hunger to get back into the first team in his early to mid 20’s not so much at his current age I hope he doesn’t fancy a seat on the bench all season getting paid if I’m honest I’d like to think he’ll try and prove a point it just gets a little harder to do it the older you get.

1 Like

I think with the Taylor situation, it’s not so much who he is as a player, but who he isn’t. I think the expectation of him as a potential captain, and leader at the heart of the defence counted against him as he didn’t live up to the expectation of him. And that’s perhaps a view shared from the club, where he moved from being a starter to back up. His injury was unfortunately timed, and others took the chance to steal ahead, meaning those very early examples of his play are the ones which remain when people think of him and his merits of a player.

1 Like

I’d say that’s a fair assessment mate and you’d be forgiven for feeling a little sorry for Ash when you put it like that.My post about harder at his age was mainly with energy and enthusiasm in mind it’s got to be tough up against a 26 year old Monthe and 23 year old Menayese especially if you keep picking up injuries at 31 years old and haven’t really hit the ground running I’d love to see him come back in and put in some excellent displays and if he gets a chance in future you’d like to think he’d take it.

1 Like

I think Labadie is an example of where it can go the other way. He came with big fanfare too, as being part of that strong spine of the team, but had quite a few middling games to start. But managed to push on and really claim his place in the team, and has been fortunate that his competition for places are all much younger and perhaps not as trusted as starters right now. Whereas defence was fairly packed in comparison.

Definitely mate and injuries also played a part in Matt sort of stumbling on the fact Kinsella and Labadie wasn’t working I.e too alike with Kinsella/Labadie getting injured/banned and Matt playing the likes of Earing and Shade(so I believe one week)Next to Labadie or Kinsella and it will be interesting now Kinsella is back to see how he fits Kinsella and Labadie back into the squad at the same time I personally think it’s too negative with them both starting

Shade and Keirnan are lucky in that they’re so inconsistent that whenever one gets taken out the team, the other has a little bright spell, and when one drifts off, the other comes in brightly.

1 Like

4-2-3-1 pretty much demands that the 3 are lively and can create I don’t really see that with Osadebe Kiernan and Shade I have seen more with Wilkinson off that right hand side as seen with his early goal in the home game against who escapes me at present.And if you don’t have a lively and creative 3 your 1 up top so Miller in our case gets isolated which has been happening quite often.

Send Shade back in Jan, bring in a new forward and a new winger. Sort fullback out, and try and get one/both of Perry and Bates on loan, with a CM coming in to replace on-loan.

4 Likes