capt_oats

I mean it's Andy Halliday so my reaction is obviously... At the same time though...this honestly feels like the shortest of short term windows so also this...

It looks like he's been injured tbf. Peterboro had put him on the "transfer list" when they announced their retained list in the summer though. https://www.theposh.com/news/posh-confirm-number-players-available-transfer

Tbh, I'm probably a bit more optimistic in terms of the numbers we might bring in. I'd like to think we'll replace what's gone out the door (Souaré, Spencer and Wilko) with one or two on top of that. Before the window opened Kettlewell was quite clear in saying he felt we needed to add a couple on top of what we already had. Taking a quick look through previous seasons I think the fewest we've brought in was back in 15/16 when we only seemed to bring Gomis in on loan from Hearts (plus McFadden in December). The caveat there was we started the season with a daft sized squad when Baraclough was running around signing Theo Robinson and David Clarkson so McGhee had clearly been telt to trim the squad. Here are our January/Winter signings since then: 16/17 - Elliot Frear, Shea Gordon, Stephen Pearson (February), Russell Griffiths (loan), Zak Jules (loan) = 5 17/18 - Curtis Main, Nadir Ciftci, Tom Aldred, Stephen Hendrie = 4 18/19 - Ross McCormack (loan), Gboly Ariyibi (loan) = 2 19/20 - Tony Watt (February), Harry Robinson (March), Mikael Ndjoli (loan), Rolando Aarons (loan) = 4 20/21 - Steven Lawless, Sam Foley, Liam Kelly (loan), Harry Smith (loan), Jordan Roberts (loan), Eddie Nolan (loan), Tyler Magloire (loan) = 7 21/22 - Ross Tierney, Victor Nirennold, Joseph Efford, Robbie Mahon (March), Liam Shaw (loan) = 5 22/23 - Shane Blaney, Mikael Mandron, Riku Danzaki, Jack Aitchison, Dan Casey, Calum Butcher, Harry Paton (April), Ollie Crankshaw (loan), James Furlong (loan), Jonathan Obika (loan) = 10 (lol) That's not including the likes of Peter Hartley, Robbie Crawford and Jordan Roberts who all made their loans permanent in January. It's clearly worth mentioning that we brought Hastie back from loan in the 18/19 season as well. I mean, I don't see us going on a trolley dash akin to last season but we've generally been good for getting 4 or 5 in through the winter window if they're needed.

I see that's Monty following Gent on IG now so I guess that's one of those accounted for now.

Tbf I don't necessarily think Kettlewell doesn't trust Gent. Certainly not enough to send him back. It's probably more the case that he's less inclined to go through the 2nd half of the season with him as our first choice - if that makes sense. On RB I wondered if we might be holding off to see if we'd get Spencer back given we're the only other team he can play for now but I see he started for Huddersfield against Plymouth at the weekend so I'm guessing that ship has sailed. Fully expect him to be replaced by another regen with a similar profile though.

Vaguely related to Penney but I clocked this absolutely wild take on Twitter the other day. I mean, I definitely can't think of anything else that might have had more of an impact on our defensive record after Penney left.

Aye. He's a forward/winger who's been converted to play LB/LWB. I seem to recall had a fairly shite time at Aberdeen but from a quick check that was in the death throes of the Glass era and it looks like he was being used as a LB whereas he'll more than likely be playing as LWB/left mid in whichever variation of 343/3412/352 Kettlewell goes with. As I say, this feels like an entirely sensible move.

I think I’ve always instinctively been unsure about Montgomery because he looks about 12 years old. Setting aside irrational biases like that though, I think swapping him in for Souaré seems an entirely sensible bit of business. Fwiw, I don’t think we’re any more/less focused on LWB than any other position. I mean, we definitely need one, just as we need to fill the various other positions.

IIRC the pre-contract rules in England are different so I don’t think clubs down there would be able to speak to him in the same way as they can up here. Pretty sure that was the point Grezza made when he was blindsided by United signing Watt on the PCA. I'm not sure if that only applies to teams in the same league or if it's an association wide thing - clearly the PL and EFL are separate organisations. https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/rangers/motherwells-alexander-wants-scotland-to-copy-england-over-pre-contract-3520547

Cheers. It’s interesting to see those names as I wondered if Kelly’s name would be there when I posted that earlier especially as Slattery is currently out of contract at the end of the season and Martindale, weirdly, doesn’t seem to fancy Kelly now.

Both mentioned it. Arsenal haven't announced they've recalled him either. Having said that, he's Arsenal's player so I'd imagine circumstances could have changed in the time between those Tweets having been posted and now.

Aye. We've seen 3 players you'd genuinely label as 'out' - Souaré, Spencer and Wilkinson. Folk like Maguire, McGinley coming back plus Mahon etc leaving really just speaks to the idea of how mental our squad sizes have been for years if you're wanting to run a Reserve side in erm...Reserve? It feels like a lot of the the undeniable bloat we've carried has been precisely that *type* of player. Did we really need a Petravicius or Manzinga, a Harry Robinson or even a George Newell? In hindsight they just ended up here to pad out the squad. Tbh, as far as whether a deadline day siging is a show of desperation or patience, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. It depends on the player we get in.

It still tickles me that it was Alexander who signed him (and Goss) given the way #Grezza wanted to set up and play vs Slattery's strengths and the fact that he's someone who broadly wants to get on the ball (and be fouled). Agree that he has a high ceiling and that much is clear when you look at his CV (Toulon tournament etc) and you're probably right about the low floor part as well however I think he's someone who fits into a team set to play a specific way. I'd genuinely be curious to know which players are closest to him in similarity of profile. He has quite a specific skillset.

He's played 1569 league minutes this season so it works out at him being fouled every 24.9 minutes.

Playing against the hammer throwers in this league has clearly taken its toll. https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/aberdeen-fc/6325642/scottish-premiership-2023-24-stats-top-performers-this-season/

As @Gianfranco he was absolutely murder for us when Robinson signed him. I'm maybe being unfair but I've always thought he has an issue with complacency and as I've said before based on some of the stuff he's said publicly he seemed to view himself as a first pick whilst his performances suggested otherwise. His uptick in performance when Alexander came in post-Robinson had the energy of someone trying to prove a point to a new manager and his form seemed to dip again the season after he signed his extension (although there's every chance that's explained by Hammell getting the job). In that respect it'll be interesting to see how his performances go at Dundee once his move becomes permanent and whether he gets complacent and lapses again. We've been talking a fair bit on here recently about the idea of the culture of the club with us losing players like Lasley, Hammell through to Aldred, Hartley, Tait and Campbell: players who'd come in, set standards and elevate those around them. When Lamie came in as part of our apparent 'Friends of Declan' signing policy it kind of felt like he was the opposite of what we needed as far as club 'culture' goes. We put this video out not long after he signed and...dunne the vibes just seemed off from the start IMO.

If we wanted to be arseholes about it, assuming the PCA is announced during the window, we could follow St Mirren's lead and recall him in the way they rinsed St Johnstone for £75k or whatever it was for Cammy MacPherson. @RandomGuy. will know the details of that better than me. I believe the last time the Dundee/Lamie thing happened they tried to heavy lean us to make it permanent during January which we (clearly) knocked back. I think it was Alexander who said at the time "we didn't need another bag of balls".

The interview wasn't really for me tbh but it's not really worth getting into it.

Aye, I saw that reply from Burns about us not being able to afford Watt's wages and my initial thought was "and St Mirren could?". Full disclosure, I'd genuinely forgotten that he was at St Mirren but I'm fairly sure they weren't paying the full 10k p/w or whatever it is he's on.

Not to bring the thread back to the video (which if McGarry's mailout is correct McMahon is paying for himself) but I noticed this write up presumably by the PA. Like, that's all fine, and it's been pretty clear to anyone who has been paying attention and isn't being deliberately thick that the investment by Anderson and Cormack is what he's been talking about when he said we need investment. However, see if you're having to clarify and explain all that stuff after the fact...it's probably fair to say that the video didn't land, regardless of the number of Twitter views the Tweet got. It seems the piece was written by McCafferty so there's a bit of context as it was him who posted that pretty disingenuous Tweet about the finances and comparison with Killie the other week.

Ally Gorrin signs for Forest Green. And in other former player news...

The Thelonius Bair Hype Train:

Of the two I think Penney is the easier to imagine since the fact that he's been without a club since last year means I don't think it's a given he'd go straight into the team ahead of Gent - it'd probably be more straightforward option to balance Gent getting game time as part of his loan and Penney being able to work his way up to some sort of acceptable match fitness. Having two loans for the same position presumably with expectations of game time feels far more messy for a number of reasons. Similarly, I don't quite have a handle on Kettlewell's preference to squad building but the fact we started the season with Souré/Gent and SOD/Spencer gave us one younger option along with an experienced alternative. Either way I don't follow Matt Penney on IG so I don't know his posting habits enough to tell whether that Story was some sort of (not very) cryptic hint or just something he put up to remind folk he still kicks a baw. We certainly need both a LWB and RWB though.