Possible Signing This Week: Who Might Be In The Frame?

Courtesy Graham Burrell

Yesterday saw the transfer deadline pass without us bringing in a replacement for Tyler Walker. In fairness, we started the window with two strikers and we finished with two as well, but it’s widely expected we’ll be adding another new face this week.

Yesterday saw Grant Smith and Ben Coker leave the club on loan, whilst Charlie Andrew and Liam Bridcutt signed. Those new faces come in addition to Akeen Hinds and Timothy Eyoma’s arrival on Thursday, bolstering the City squad after a tough couple of days. We’ve had the second-highest turnover of players in the division, only Blackpool have had a greater number of ins and outs.

We can have opinions on how the window has gone, where it leaves us moving forward and whether we’ve made a short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain, but the die has been cast and as fans, we get to sit back and watch the results. I must confess, Liam Bridcutt’s arrival is one that has somewhat tempered the rather gloomy outlook I had going into Friday. Losing Tyler Walker is a huge blow but at least Bridcutt brings some experience into the midfield, which I think could be crucial. Certainly against Ipswich a week ago and, to a lesser extent, against Pompey on Tuesday, we lost the midfield battle and I can see Bridcutt and Morrell forming a really interesting partnership.

We’re not done yet either. Michael Hortin is down with the squad in Southend at present and he tweeted that one of the deals we’ve completed won’t be announced until next week.

There could be a number of reasons for the player being announced next week. It might be that we’ve done a deal with a club but need international clearance before he can play. In that instance, he could be coming from abroad, most likely Ireland. My hang-up here is we’d still announce him, surely? We announced Zack Elbouzedi long before he got clearance to play.

He could be a free agent; a player released by his club over the last month who has been working hard to find a new employer. If that’s the case, it’s likely we waited with other irons in the fire yesterday and turned to the free-agent market at a late hour, meaning the deal took a while to get over the line.

It could be a simple transaction which has been completed but, for one reason or another, it’s not being announced. That seems unlikely, surely if we’d paid for a player and signed them permanently we’d announce it. However, given the hold up with Simeon Akinola, that may not be the case.

I’ve been digging around the free agents of this world, looking for players we might sign. Now, if you don’t like this type of speculative article, move on now. Genuinely, I usually get some messages after I put something like this out which are less than complimentary, which baffles me. If I see something on the internet that won’t interest me, I don’t read it. I certainly don’t read it then attack the author. Please, if you’re critical of speculative articles throwing up ideas then the rest of this won’t be for you.

Still with me? Great. In that case, here are a few free agents (all strikers) who we could be looking at. Of course, it might be that we’re not after a striker at all, you just never know….

6 Comments

  1. Speculate away, Gary. As ever, a read as fascinating as the context is baffling. It feels like David Holdsworth all over again. “He’s got two legs. Sign him.”

  2. Blimey! David Holdsworth. That was desperate patching of holes in a sinking ship by a man of many patches. We are now recruiting for a voyage of discovery. Anyway, nice to hear from you Mike!

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