Karlan Ahearne-Grant
There’s a rumour going around that a couple of League Two clubs want Ahearne Grant (KAG from here) on loan. One of them, Crawley, had him last season to great effect. He scored nine in 15 for them after joining in January and looked the real deal, tall and quick but incredibly comfortable on the ball. He’s highly rated by Lee Bowyer and has England honours up to U19 level, but he is perhaps a season away from the Charlton first team.
Now, here’s the interesting bit. I’m told that he had a deal all agreed to go to another League Two club on loan, but it was scuppered when Karl Robinson, then Charlton manager, stepped in and gave him to his old Liverpool mate Harry Kewell instead. The club I’ve heard that wanted KAG, was us.
If that is the case, it stands to reason that we’re one of the clubs back in for him now Bowyer is in charge. There will be no free pass for Kewell this time, no secret hand shake or anything like that. Instead, Lee Bowyer will have to assess which club is best for the player’s development, where he’s likely to get game time and whether playing in front of 9,000 every week in a play off chasing side would be more beneficial than playing in front of 2,000 in a mid table side.
Tough choice.
Shay McCartan
What do you mean you’ve never heard of him? Let’s face facts, up until six weeks ago only half of you had heard of Tom Hopper, so bear with me on McCartan.
He switched Accrington for Bradford for £200,000 in June 2017, but struggled to settle at Valley Parade and started just 13 times last season, scoring four. Luton and Accrington were amongst nine clubs to express solid interest in him in the transfer window and I wouldn’t mind sticking a tenner on it we were amongst the other seven.
He’s not a big lad, under 6ft, but he’s earned international honours for Northern Ireland and was seen as the next ‘big thing’ after finally breaking through at Accrington. He hasn’t had a great scoring record, 10 in 39 in his last Accrington season and just four in 19 for Bradford. That doesn’t mean he isn’t a good player though and at 24 he’s come to an age where it is now or never. A change of manager at Bradford might lead to an increased opportunity in the side, or it could mean a cut-price move away and back into League Two. If it is the latter, we’ve got a few quid, haven’t we?
In my time working for FLW I’ve seen a lot of football, lots of clips and heard a lot of reports on players and McCartan’s goal return doesn’t do him justice as a player. He’s a real live wire, stocky and strong with good ball retention and pace. He’s also a dead ball specialist, hitting six free kicks in one season during his time at Accrington.
Conclusion
I can already picture the comments on this piece. “Not enough goals in their past”, “not proven,” etc etc. Bar Kabamba, every single one of these players could fill a vital role in our forward line, especially as the fourth man if we keep the same three we had last season. In the case of KAG and Agard, they are 20 goal a season men in this division, no doubt. Hawkins and McCartan are also both players with the potential to achieve great things under the right management duo.
Every one of the 92 league clubs want another striker 20 goals plus. Top rated goalkeeper. Attacking midfielder who can score a few. Defensive al round midfielder who can play the ball out. Full backs who can get forward aswell as defend. The list goes on for all clubs. We have a very good nucleus of players for the push next season, Yeh we need a few more in the squad. My concern is as soon as clubs know City are interested they will push the price up due to our successful last two seasons and apparently we have money to spend.
The Crowley’s will have a hit list continually and I have every confidence they will get the right player to fit in with what players we have.
Great close season blog to keep us interested keep up the good work Gary and hope the back is on the bend. UTI
We always hear money will be available to buy new players but none ever is..only to pay for free transfer wages.
Transfer speculation always annoys me as it is a SSN concept. They talk about the prem and if teams have had a good window and orgy at the amount spent. At our level we get sucked in saying we must go for this and that player and suddenly fans are experts on certain players having seen them play 30 times and under and against different tactical systems. And that is my main issue, there is no point signing Messi if our style is long ball. There is no point signing Jan Koller if our style is on the floor. A signing has to come as part of a package that works for how we are going to play. They may have previously been rated as poor, you know the way we watch a player in one game and forever they are awful if they didn’t play well. Regardless of if it was an off day or the style didn’t suit them.
I am shouting in a wind tunnel because it will go on all season about the players we need etc but I will just trust the managers to get in who they get in.