JRC

A team like Portsmouth can and should be able to cope with our level of injuries; they just have much bigger squads. My big concern this season would be that 2 of the relegated teams from last season proved they were comfortably mid table during periods when they had few injuries, they just didn't have the depth of squad. All bar the first relegation under Rudge we had bad seasons with injuries. Equally under Rudge most promotion seasons we had relatively few injuries. I'm not sure we have the depth of squad right now to stay up IF the injuries don't clear very quickly. It's not just the number of injuries: Clark, Ojo, Uche and Garrity are 4 of our 6 most influential players.

They offered him a big pay rise to stay and he turned it down. He's certainly off somewhere.

It's a tricky one but with Clark still out and our current league position I'd be happy to have seen him come back. We are very short at wingback.

Better 18 year old at Premiership Clubs are often on crazy wages. We don't pay all the wage but we will have to pay an agreed wage.

Whether some fans like him or not right now we all need to get behind him. As of yesterday he's become a crucial player for us.

There's plenty of close by league 2 teams, Stockport, Wrexham, Notts County, Mansfield, Salford, Accrington, Walsall. None of them fancy taking him on? It's a bit like asking why did James Norwood sign for them. He'd have scored more goals for us this season than any of our forwards. Nobody knows who else enquired after Conlon (or Norwood) but one can assume they offered him the best deal overall.

The why is he playing there? Why didn't a L2 team take him on? Wage and I don't think he's keen on relocation. Didn't he have a first child recently?

A hypothetical question but would the club have released him if they'd known Devine was going to be released? When we had Sang, Arblaster, Devine, Ojo and Chislett he wasn't anywhere near the first 11. Yesterday I certainly don't think he would have done worse

The starting midfield yesterday struggled. Chislett looked good throughout but Gore and Weir struggled. We desperately need Ojo back. It's easy to have knee jerk reactions after a defeat and that was a first game for Weir and Gore. In the ideal world I think we do need a more experienced player who can play in there, particularly with the Garrity situation. I guess the alternative is a LWB with the option to move Grant inside. If Uche is out for a month or longer we definitely need a couple of forwards. I don't know the finances but in the ideal world I still think we need 2 strikers, a LWB and a midfield player. We have a very small squad of players. I think we have 18 over 21. Even if we just bring in a couple of journeymen on short-term contracts. I don't think our first 11 is a relegation side. However, take Clark, Ojo, Uche and Garrity out of the team and I think we might be. I doubt we will sign players better than those 4 but we do need a couple in who are better cover than we currently seem to have. Someone like Olamide Shodipo isn't going to get into our first 11 but he would offer something different if needed over the next 6 months. I think we've reached the point with injuries where there has to be some focus on the here and now as well as the longer term. This season we need 20 plus more points in 20 games. I fully accept it's going to take time to progress to a higher level. There does need to be some focus on delivering today.

He's played for 2 clubs, he can't play for another EFL club.

Possible, although it's a bit simplistic to say because 2 players are tall they are too similar. Constantine and Sodje were both tall men but very different players. Uche and Loft aren't that similar, although I don't think they would compliment one another.

I don't really know a lot about Hudlin apart from he's tall. If you are looking for a precedent I think he's about the same age and height Kevin Francis was when Stockport signed him from Derby. He was considered a bit of a donkey at the time and that turned out well. As you say 2 + 2 may be equalling 5.

Alfie Devine wasn't our 2cd best player at the point Arblaster got injured. He wasn't a regular during the unbeaten run early in the season. He did really step up after the Arblaster injury. Devine and probably was our best player in the final month of his loan, when he moved into the position Arblaster had played. Losing one probably wouldn't have been a big problem as both played best in the same role. I agree losing both is an issue.

I suspect Ronnie Stutter is a forward Chelsea would look to loan out. They have 4 or 5 left wingbacks but the most likely are Sturge or Dylan Williams.

Crosby is pretty open in his interviews. I suspect it is unlikely we will be making a permanent signing for a sizeable fee this window. My money would be Hudlin as the forward. No secret we wanted him in the summer. Huddersfield have signed a couple of forwards. They need to make a decision about what to do with him in the summer. LWB probably Zac Sturge as Chelsea want him to go out somewhere. Didn't do well at Peterborough. I'd hoped we'd be in for Charlie Kirk but that seems unlikely.

The obvious one is Zak Sturge, who they recalled from Peterborough due to a lack of games. The intriguing one would be Ishe Samuels-Smith, who was the new Thierry Small when he broke into the Everton squad ... that ended well! Dylan Williams hasn't done anything either since they got him from Derby. I suspect there are more than those 3 in their squad, they seem to collect leftbacks.

Probably means Will Evans is getting sold.

Just a moment... WWW.PETERBOROUGHTODAY.CO.UK The problem with quoting the Peterborough model is the club is currently 25m in debt. Due to the high debt level they now have some loans with 18% interest attached. If they don't go up this year they may be next season's Reading.

He was with them as a youth player. The Cambridge manager said they were losing players because they were getting better offers elsewhere. I'd be very surprised if he's on less than he was at Cambridge. He may well have had better offers elsewhere.

How dumb is that! He was clearly looking to change how they play a little. They've just allowed him to sign 6 players and spend a reasonable amount of money. Then they sack him. Should have sacked him at Christmas or given him 10 games with the players and formation he wanted. Now they get a new manager with a squad to play the way Appleton wanted to play with players he wanted. Then they'll do another rebuild in the summer.

I think the issue with the big clubs loaning us players is it's quite reliant on Crosby. He has a good reputation as a coach, particularly with young players. Some of it is down to Carol and Flitcroft but most decision makers will know Crosby. Does make sacking him (I'm not in the Crosby out camp) kind of hard.

Or maybe the world gone upside down. 20 years ago clubs scouted players they wanted to sign, now the player's Club scouting the club they want the player to sign for 🤔 Let's hope he's a special as people say. The hype says he's more highly rated than the 2 we lost. If he is he'll be a pleasure to watch.

Thanks Rob .... just found it. He seemed to like accumulators and losing money.

I think the big bans are for betting on matches a player could influence, or was playing in. You could argue that is to support the gambling companies. I'm sure I read somewhere that Clark got a limited punishment because he was betting on overseas football. I think it was treated as more of a technical breach; as he probably couldn't influence Real Madrid vs Barcelona.

Mainly. His best game was the Luton match over Christmas. He played alongside Pope. Luton just couldn't handle him and he looked like a Championship player. Never hit those heights again. Showed plenty of glimpses but they were more moments rather than dominating a game.