Thetownend.com

I don't want too much, a new keeper and don't sell our better players and I think we'll be OK.

What I expect is another absolute abortion of a window that further threatens our EFL existence.

Need two, an experienced goalkeeper and a player with some pace upfront.

That, plus please send Tshimanga back with Barden and Freckleton.

Glatzel could probably do with a loan move to get his confidence back, ship out Cain and Uwakwe.

Bring in a solid keeper, another CB option (with Minturn out for a while) a speedy striker and another midfielder.

In Ollie we trust😁

Assuming none of the first team are going then I’d be content with just a keeper.

Rebuilding mid-season seems daft. We have enough to stay up. Even if we could rebuild for the better it would only get us from 17th to say 13th. No worth it.

Particularly with a manager on a short term contract.
I’d rather get a keeper in, stay up & *hopefully* have a fresh start & rebuild in the summer. Top to bottom.

Lots of Twitter talk about Glatzel going to Tranmere in January for £50k. Right now I would bite their hand off but he has potential I just think Kennedy drained that out of him, go get a new start nearer your home young lad and start your career.

He showed potential last season but has shown very little this season. This is the problem with the clubs lurching managerially from here to there. He can work well in certain systems, but unlikely in this Holloway set up.

He is much better than Drinan and Tshimanga but the system we play now and will probably play under the managerial dream team of Bignot & Gunning next season is not suited to him at all, therefore he will likely want to move on and we will want to offload

Goalkeeper
Winger
Attacking midfielder

McGregor or Wright will be sold. Frecks will be recalled.

We wont buy anyone just use the loan market.

Agree with all of that, except that Billy Kirkman showed today he can do a job at CB.

Again.

 can we expect much in terms of incoming personnel ?

I think Holloway said he had to ship out before bringing in*. Which isn't unexpected.

So I suppose it's going to be limited movements in numbers.

* Was in a presser, had a quick look and couldn't find it

Expect outgoings to precede incomings as everyone might expect.  Outgoings (my guess):

Barden
Freckleton
Cain
Uwakwe
Maybe, Wright as rumoured joining the Dongs
Maybe, Tshimanga as his loan may be expensive.
Maybe, Glatzel if Tshimanga stays.

Expect only two or three incomings with six or so outgoings..

I’m assuming that sending some of the loans back (Barden, Freckleton & Tshimanga), and shipping a few out on loans for the rest of the season, plus a sale (or maybe two) would free up enough for two or three to come in 🤞

Yeah, you'd think so

Hope~
Club is sold
We sign 3 decent players including a keeper

Expectations~
We sign nobody
We sell our best 2 players
Fans are blamed for wearing orange hats

Reality ~ somewhere in between  ;)

Who exactly is going to want Uwakwe and Cain? They’ll be here until their contracts run out..

Hope
New keeper for Barden
New striker for Tshimanga
Expect
No new keeper
Couple of loanees.
Wouldn't mind if we kept what we have apart from those 2 and Freckles

I can see another League Two manager thinking he can get a better tune out of Cain if he fits his system. He's got a good touch and some talent. But for free, nobody will spend money.

Uwakwe realistically the best you're going to get a national league side take a punt on loaning him and paying a small % of his wages for the rest of the season freeing up minimal funds.

The concept of selling players as important as Smith, Wright and/or McGregor when we are where we are in the table is baffling. Wait until the summer if we have to sell to make ends meet. Don’t make us weaker when we are languishing at the wrong end of the table - surely?!

If the players don't get minutes, then they go backwards physically.  So if they are told that they won't get minutes, they will be anxious to contact their agents to find clubs.  I expect talks are already ongoing, L2 and/or NL.  They could see out their contracts, yes, but then nobody wins.  

Sounds great but the club has been trying to sell him for over a year now and they’ve had no takers. No club is going to pay for him. He reminds me a little bit of Clayton in that aspect and he’s yet to even find a club.

Yeah that is what I mean. He'd get another club on a free transfer easily, but trying for an actual transfer fee is pointless.

Im sure there’s a few National League clubs that are interested but maybe Cain wants an EFL club, and would rather wait till his contract runs out to go on trails.

He’ll be very hard to get rid of none-the-less.

We could ship him out on 6 month loan I suppose.

Very odd, nowhere to be seen, starts, nowhere to be seen

I have heard Tranmere are likely to terminate Khans loan there so we will have another player to get rid of in the window. Hes only played 4 times so far for them this season and not impressed when he has played.

Perhaps we knew a scout was turning up to watch?!

Khan coming back would be interesting. He might actually fit quite nicely into a combative Holloway midfield (in the same way a McGurk type player doesn’t appear to fit), and help us drive forward. I suspect, however, that he has mentally burned his bridges here.

Currently out injured for up to 3 months, so if he does come back we will be stuck with him and his wages.

Does insurance ever cover any wages? Assume it's just medical costs

Has Khan played for us at all this season? Just thinking if he has, he can't play for anyone else if we were miraculously able to get a buyer.

As Quaggy states, he seems to have a pretty bad injury so it sounds like we may be 'stuck' with him until his contract expires.

Need to do something with loanees.  Very disappointing group

If your going to get a loanee goalkeeper you need to very clearly decide if they are cover or a starter.  Right now we have two goalies who IMO are substitute goalkeeper quality.

Freckles well he is shot confidence wise and reviews from Chesterfield fans were negative prior to him kicking a ball.  I think he was supposed to be a backup but injuries forced him to play.  I’d swap him for a midfielder.

Cotterill has been ok but not amazing just squad player strength

Tshimanga struggles to stay on his feet and hasn’t lived upto the big hype they placed around him. 

In short I wouldn’t be gutted if all of them went back and we could swap them.  Realistically I’d expect only Freckles to be swapped. 

I do worry with the low crowds how our budget is looking.  The club really does need to take a look at how it operates.  Way to many staff on match days, the hospitality teams spend large amounts of time stood around doing nothing and the legends normally has 2 bar staff to every punter (post match anyway).  Time to bin the orange hats and get behind the team as the fixtures at the end of the season look tough so we need to get ourselves clear quick sharp.

Need a Keeper.

Front man with pace that can cross 5/10 (this is L2).

A load of dead wood out.

Freckles to go back, poor sod, has been nothing short of disaster for all parties. Hope he bounces back.

Cain, Wakers to find a new contract.

Umbongo to stay or go, not bothered, he has at least started to stay on his feet a bit more now for sure but if there a decision to be made on the pitch, bet your arse he makes the wrong one.

Surely it depends on the terms of the loan for Khan, we might not have to take him back therefore leaving his wages and medical expense sat with Tranmere.  Not exactly fair on the player welfare front, but if Khan was pushing for the move then he kinda made his bed.

However the terms could also mean we don't have a choice either.

Pretty normal to have a break clause though, I assume he'll be back.

Forgot all about him tbh

I'm actually starting to warm to the idea of Holloway being able to bring in who he wants/needs. The last few games have seen us playing with more determination/desire and players who have previously looked no that great are starting to look competent.

A solid keeper and more pace up top and I think we could have a comfortable end of the season.

Horrible window to do business, even worse when we’re in the position we are in.

Get a goalkeeper and couple of winger/wide forward types in. Do them on loans or contracts to the end of the season with options if you can. Get to the summer safely and attempt a squad overhaul then with hopefully better options.

Wants:
Clearly need a first choice keeper.
A CB to be part of the squad (especially if Minturn’s injury is going to be a long one).
Some pace up front, not sure it needs to be a winger. A George Ndah type would be great.
Another RB might be useful, especially if McGregor is out for a while.

I guess it also depends on who leaves, we may then need replacements.

Expectations:
A fucking disaster of a window

Intriguing thought does Ollie get more than one window🤔

Forgot he was still even our player.

Remember when Gunning said he was the beat DCM in the league because we were trying to flog him to Wrexham?

Hilarious. No way we get money for him.

(https://media.tenor.com/xIVna3QzuUIAAAAM/dr-evil-how-about-no.gif)

The irony is that the majority of the people that make any noise at games and get behind the team are the orange hat wearers.

Support the team, not the regime is the motto

Gunning also said this is a shit leaue and laughed about it.

Fucking clown

This is what the majority of non SO69 supporters don't get, or don't want to listen to, including our Manager..  Stated that he wants to just manage the team and not get involved in ownership topics, so don't then..  The protesters are 100% behind the team and whoever is managing them whilst being 100% against the regime for the state our club finds itself in.

Our results have improved since the orange hats appeared.

Orange hats are good for the team.

Agree, its given people an outlet and stopped the games from getting toxic. Sadly quite hard for some to understand and/or see any negativity no matter how valid and go on the offensive.

Toxic positivity sufferers.

Want:

Keeper who is not in his first loan spell and has played elsewhere but wants 1st team football
Striker
Pacy wide player
and midfielder who has ability
Loans to return to their clubs

Expect:

Glatzel to leave (probably needs to his confidence is shot and he not an Olly type of player)
Kirkman to be sold to a championship club
Wright to sold
Smith to be sold
Cain to leave on free transfer for a relegation rival

Selling Smith would be the stupidest thing Clem ever did.

I can't see it, even under this ownership.

More confidence than me. Can't see the wood for the trees this lot.

It would be very Fallon 2006 wouldn't it.

Selling Fjortoft & replacing him with nobody.
Selling Austin & replacing him with Benyon.

Selling Shearer and replacing with Terry Gibson.

I thought we replaced Fjortoft with Jason Drysdale

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

You lot are far too optimistic! Selling Smith and not replacing him more like.

So some thoughts on the current squad:

Would want to keep: Sobowale, Delaney, Wright, Cox, McGregor, Minturn, Kirkman, Ofoborh, Clarke, Cotterill, Kilkenny, Brown, Smith

Not fussed either way but expect to stay: Bycroft (backup), Longelo, Hall, Butterworth, Drinan, Tshimanga

Need a move if we can find them one: Cain, Uwakwe, Glatzel (sadly)

Recalls expected: Barden, Freckleton


So more players there that we'd keep than expected four weeks ago. I'd expect one or two surprise names to depart just because that tends to be how our Januaries go. Harry Smith is the one I fear - McGregor would be a bigger emotional blow as the local lad and Uber prospect, but Smith is the only person in our team scoring goals with any regularity.

In terms of ins, as people have said, a new goalkeeper and a bit of pace both at the back and at the front.

Going to be an interesting month - a lot of possibles, but many probables. Have a feeling it's going to be busier than we'd maybe expect.

We have a serious issue between the sticks. Neither keeper is good enough and the chopping and changing of them is detrimental to both of their respective developments. Send Barden back. But I would also look to get Bycroft a NL loan as he won't develop sitting on our bench but we cannot risk playing the rest of the season with him.

Keep Smith, Wright, Clarke, Cox and McGregor. The rest are much of a muchness to be honest. Average League Two players.

Can't see us selling Smith and I can't really see any clubs coming in for him. He a typical League Two journeyman that rocks up on a free.

Glatz I could see leaving but who would buy him? He's in awful form. If he was to leave, I imagine it would be for free.

I would personally like to see Tyreece Simpson return on a loan.

I would love that too but hes made 18 appearances this season (24 in total) for Stevenage (no goals in the league but 2 in the cup) so that aint happening.

The end of last season showed that Glatzel has potential. I’d be reluctant to let him go because he’s not had a good first half of this season, only to replace him, most likely, with a player from elsewhere who hasn’t played well somewhere else for half a season, or hasn’t played at all for half a season. I realise football is evolving, but we need to find a way around such short-termism.

Ian Holloway on transfers:

All I have managed to do is that anybody who has contacted me with names, there are thousands of them, so I have sent them on to those who are dealing with me. The guy who got me this job is helping me, closely linked with my good friend. I have told them what I want and what I feel we need and it is their job to do that and find at least three or four in the positions so I can see what we can get. That means I can get the best of what we have got and then look to add to it. We are looking at possible trials so I can find out more about them. The choice won't be large but hopefully it will be effective.

It will take some time, the awkward bit is that there are a couple who haven't been playing and that is a massive risk. Unless they come in and train with me I can't go with that. One has a new manager, so he might not let the one I want leave. At the moment, I am concentrating on our lads who are doing so well and the changes I made I felt were right because of training and they rewarded me with a fantastic performance. Bromley are on a great run and we managed to nullify them and create more chances. I was just disappointed with their goal, particularly that they got the cross in. I am focusing on what my team can do to get as many points as we can and then switch next week to the work they have done for me. I gave them a detailed list on what I want from a position. I am passing it over to people that know what I want. The part I might struggle with is the experience, I think we are short at the moment. Grant is out again and the other is Ollie and I will wrap him up because of the injuries and the bookings he gets. This is life. What I can't do is show what I am doing to anyone else, my lads need me to be totally emersed in them and then I can look at what they have done to me. I have to have the final say and we need to know the person. We might end up with none, I hope not and I would be disappointed if we did as we need minimum two.

Peddling down the expectations already

'the guy who got me this job is working on it'

Like... that feels a bit unhealthy? No shit, at this club, obviously, but he's basically saying his agent is doing transfers? It's very Phil Spencer under Di Canio.

Do we know/can we guess who that is?

If it's not Michael Standing (or associate of) I'll give you your money back.

Actually, what was the name of the agent that got all Irish lads in?

Dunno but didnt he only meet Holloway the day before he got the job?

That night before stuff is surely bollards
-----
"Miguel will be going back, he knows that"

No revelation there, but confirmed at least

He confirmed that about 2 weeks ago mate in a pre match interview, said its doing him no good being here and that he basically blamed the fans for picking on him.

Oh, missed her said it was definitely being terminated

I think it may have been before a home game at about 2pm so you probably missed it by being at the game.

You're probably right but he's only started 6 times and hasn't scored any goals so they could look to loan him out... That's not exactly the sort of numbers that keep you in League One as a striker. I imagine there would be better teams interested though.

Looks like Holloway has the same agent as George Cox, Grant Hall, Will Wright and Billy Kirkman (as well as McGregor and Minturn) according to Transfermarkt.

Don't put much faith in such sites myself

This thing with Simpson has to stop.

He wasn't that good. And he still isn't.

He played in a team with McKirdy, Payne, Williams, KKH, Reed, Gladwin all supplying him as the sole striker.

Bambi on ice for the majority of his time here.

I am baffled why he is remembered so fondly.

And yes I did call him out at the time for being crap even when he played for us.

I've never understood it either. Even Blair Sturrock would have scored scored 30+ with all those options laying it on a plate for him. Anytime he needed to use his strength it was non-existent. Couldn't jump for a header if his life depended on it. And with one exception he had absolutely no movement or pace to get away from defenders when outside the box.

Both him & Davidson were shite footballers made to look decent by being the point man in a team set up to have them score from 6 yards out. Literally any striker who could figure out facing the goal would score in those situations.

Only just seen this. What the actual fuck?

If you were at Grimsby after the protest you'd of seen that the orange hate wearers were amongst the more vocal supporters that day.

I didn't stop and my voice was shot.

What is so hard for people to grasp. These are 2 seperate entities.

The orange hat wearers seem to be the loudest behind the team. The Arkells stand had very few hats and make the least (if any) noise. I'll be wearing mine again tomorrow.  The hats are not anti STFC team, they're anti STFC ownership. Lot of people need educating.

Some are too thick to understand. A lot just hear any form of negativity about anything and try to poo poo it no matter how valid. Some have a problem with both.

and either a willingness to be educated and/or a brain with the capacity to understand in the first place.

It's bollocks. Nothing has changed

Josh Davison was decent.

Yes, he had good supply from McKirdy & Barry (who people also didn’t seem to rate bizarrely) but we’ve all watched Swindon enough to know there are plenty of strikers who even when presented with a lot of good chances don’t take them.

A return of 9 in 21 is decent.

Sure, his post Swindon career has been absolutely nothing to write home about but he did a job for us.

Yeah to say any striker would have scored is a stretch. I wouldn't back Pericard to score half that.

Harry Parsons certainly didn't.

Nicky Ajose decent here but didn’t do much elsewhere.

I liked Simpson, but then I liked Adebayo, Michael Smith and James Collins, which not many others did so what do I know.

We haven't signed many better strikers than him of that mold since he left, so would welcome him back, not that it is going to happen.

I liked Simpson too but he was definitely more of a ‘got potential’ rather than being a ‘real deal’ here.
The type of striker - that 5 years down the road could have come on massively & be a decent championship striker or got no better & be playing non league; neither would have been a massive surprise (or anything in between)

Adebayo a fairly decent comparison. Clear to some he had something about him but not a guarantee he’d be able to harvest it & maximise it - which evidently he has…

I was sat in the Arkells right under the press box with my orange hat on, and to be honest, there wasn't many around me wearing orange, and the atmosphere was crap. What was amazing though, was looking over at all the orange hats in the DR stand.

We need more orange in the Arkells.

Older fans usually sit in the Arkells and we know what a hit Clem is with that demographic.

4D sometimes sits in the Arkells isn’t old and has been known to be vociferous😁

Do a Venn diagram and I'll be in the middle  :D
Back in the TE now though

If we had a modern ground with a decent concourse you could float between the two just like we used to from the Townend to Shrivenham Road all those years ago :D

Generally I hate generic bowl style grounds but in mythical fantasy land where have competent owners with a pot to piss in, knocking the town end and arkells and replacing them with a half of that style stadium would be superb and then just put something basic and small with a roof on it for the bank. Leave the DRS as it is, boxes can be in the new part.

and then I woke up.

It wouldn't help you move from behind the goal to DRS however.

Surely to set the record straight and for clarity regards the messaging surrounding ''Orange Hats'', someone like Hawes only has to ask as his final question to Hollowhead:

''Finally, Ollie/Ian - you do understand what the Orange Hats are all about and what they signify. don't you?''

{I read that in AH's soft tones then}

When he ultimately gives an incredibly wrong answer and starts going off on one. Hawes can simply correct him and read a previously prepared mission statement from SpiritOf69. Which could rebuff any bollocks about people only wearing them because they are cold, because they hate the manager {even it is very easy to do so} or that they don't back the team.

I'm not really sure why this hasn't been done yet tbh. We {the hat dwellers or tangerine persuasion} know the messaging and comms from SpiritOf69 has been pretty clear and excellent but of course the club seemingly will aim to put confusion amongst the pigeons {like any horrible political spinny snitches would} and they've somewhat achieved that. A simple post match presser question, posed to Holloway could easily remedy that.

Transfer wants and expectations:

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And a club that is properly fucking ran

There is a short clip of him online softening on the hat thing. Maybe someone has had a quiet word.

You got a link? I must've missed that. Have missed any post match stuff the last couple of matches tbh and I know some stuff gets posted very much in the immediate post match aftermath.

https://x.com/SwindonSA/status/1874116202374848978

Hmmmm, yeah thanks for the link. Doesn't really show he understands why the hats are being worn though. The twitter account has assumed that and put as final. Hollowhead just states he thanks the fans for their support regardless of what hat {or scarves} they are wearing.

He still probably doesn't know why, nor cares.

He definitely takes it personally and doesn't really get it.

He doesn't need to know why really. The campaign *does* need him to not be actively opposing at every turn. What he's said today would be fine really if he'd said it straight away, and I'll take it now.

Let’s be honest, he doesn’t have a clue. He’s a company man. He’ll go back to blaming the fans once we start losing again.

You say it best, “when you say nothing at all”

I wouldn’t put it passed this shower to Announce we’ve signed ‘Zava’ From Richmond.

Yeah... what he said was fine. Like you, I'll take it...

I endorse the above view. Would be a much more effective player with a bit of the Harry Smith 'nasty streak'...

With regards to outgoings and in response to other stuff I've read in this thread...
Cain / Glatzel...wouldn't be surprised to see them move on and to be honest, I think it's best for both. Glatzel v Bromley looked a shadow of the player I think most of of us think he's capable of being. Coming into a struggling side with 4 managers in a year is a ridiculously tough situation to come into. Cain, you wonder why we signed him. Never given a run in the side...
Uwakwe...get him off the books, pay up his contract. Never worked out, shouldn't have signed him...move on

Smith...can't believe we'll sell him. That would be a special kind of stupid as Batch said...

Kirkman / McGregor / young lads in general...can't really imagine any of them getting sold at this point. McGregor's injury timing could be a blessing in disguise. I'd forgotten Kirkman existed prior to his recall before the Wycombe game. Although I think he's done fantastically well, I don't see anyone making a 'swoop' for him at this stage...in the Summer, that's a different matter...

Will Wright...On the face of it, Wright would be an obvious target for Lindsey at Franchise. I really hope not and I'd like to think that Clem hasn't been totally impervious to the protests and we'll hopefully hold on to him...for now

Incoming....don't think we should disrupt the squad too much, I think (hope) it's just starting to come together. Would love to see an experienced keeper come in and a natural wide player...

Holloway definitely talks about bringing in a couple of older experienced players in if he can get them and that the squad is way too big.

Teams announcing signings already. Wonder how many weeks it will take us?