January Winter Window Assessment

The January window has now closed, and there’s plenty to discuss.

Even as the window closed, fan opinion on social media seemed divided. It’s a classic example of never being happy – we needed a 20-goal-a-season striker, we signed one, and on deadline day, the discussion was around players we were losing. Paudie didn’t go, meaning he’ll likely go for free, and the club get a battering. If we’d sold our captain, they’d have got a battering. It is a sad reflection on the social media world we live in, even if there are good points being made in the deluge of mindless rubbish pouring out of Twitter and Facebook every day.

What are the facts? Did we come out of the window better than we went in? It’s not really for me to say, and a winter transfer window is only really to be judged in six months at best. However, I thought I’d pick out some good and bad points from the window, to help put a bit of balance on the table to be considered.

Good – James Collins

There’s always a joke about Lincoln City needing a striker in the window, and in a market where Joe Taylor costs £3 million and Sam Smith fetches £2 million, securing the right one was never going to be easy.

Capturing James Collins could turn out to be a huge moment for the club. There’s no doubt that he scores goals. He scored 19 in 46 matches for Derby County last season, and hit double figures twice in the Championship for Luton Town. Yes, he’s well north of 30, but he’s clearly here to play, not to impact from the bench.

It’s a shame that for some reason, his capture wasn’t the main focus on deadline day. Perhaps if we’d not signed him until Monday, people might feel a bit more positive.

Bad – No Central Defender

For me, not having the defensive cover could come back to bite us. Lewis Montsma is still feeling his way back carefully, and with Tom Hamer’s injury, he leaves us with three. Sean Roughan, Adam Jackson, and Paudie O’Connor are all out of contract in the summer, and I’d have liked to see someone coming in who could begin to form something of a partnership with Hamer (when back) and Montsma.

It’s being greedy, but it’s an issue I can see biting us. In the past, we’ve been depleted in midfield (last season) and attack (early part of last season), so an injury in defence against Cambridge could leave us in a tough position.

Good – Holding Onto Key Players

There’s no doubt selling our key players would have been detrimental to our late promotion push, if we have one. One such player is Ethan Erhahon, likely to fetch us a good £1.2 million at the very least. He’s had a good season so far, blighted a little by the Bolton red card, but losing him would have been an issue – we were a different side without him against Wigan in the second half.

If we are going to have a go in the final part of the season, we need all hands on deck.

Bad – Holding Onto Key Players

That said, it now looks possible we’ll lose Paudie on a free. It’s interesting to see the reaction to this, as if it is something the club have let happen. If we value three months of Paudie at a certain figure, and a club wanting to buy him doesn’t meet that figure, we were never going to sell. Equally, if a club comes in for Paudie and he doesn’t want to go there, he’s not going to move. We can’t force him to sign a contract, and as we saw with Regan Poole, if he wants to get the best deal for himself, he’ll hang on, let his contract finish and then move with a better wage and decent signing on fee. It’s what he did to come to us and at 27, he’s got to think about his future.

Of course, it’s a shame we couldn’t sell him for £300,000, but there would equally have been uproar at selling our captain and not showing ambition. Sadly, when results aren’t quite going your way, then criticism of other aspects seems a little more ready to flow.

Good – JJ McKiernan Loan

I’m a big fan of the outgoing loans. Some see it as a failure of the summer transfer policy, but in JJ and Rob Street, we have two players who should have an impact in the future but, right now, haven’t had the games needed to impress.

JJ McKiernan is a player I really like and he’s settled nicely at Burton, getting regular football at the level we need him to be ready at next season. In response, we bring in Joe Gardner, a player who, secretly, I know some are excited about. That’s also in reaction to Jack Moylan’s injury, and I wonder if, with hindsight, JJ wouldn’t have gone out. Still, that’s the lottery of the transfer window, and at least JJ is going to get plenty of minutes to aid his development.

Bad – Dylan Duffy Sale

I say ‘bad’ but it’s more situational than anything. In a perfect world, we loan Dylan out, he does well and comes back ready to battle for his place. Instead, a club with a bigger budget than ours (they’re throwing money at it in League Two) decide they want him. Not only do we get a significant transfer fee, which is thought to be almost six figures, but Jez mentioned a buy-back clause in the summer as well if we think we’ve made a mistake. Dylan gets a move and games as well, so it’s hard to really be overly angry about it. I get the situation the club were put in, and they made a call – a call that if we’d won six on the spin and Dylan hadn’t featured, it would have been more popular than it is on the back of a draw and a defeat. The irony is that the numbers would still look the same.

I’ve only picked it as bad because it’s a reflection of where the game is right now. In honesty, if I were the recruitment team, I’d have likely taken the money as well.

The Question – Sam Clucas

Here’s the big question – where is Sam Clucas? He came to the club after playing for Oldham; he’s supposedly fit and ready for selection but he is not being picked. It’s the one aspect of the transfer window it’s really hard to comment on because, on paper, he’s a good signing, but on the grass? We don’t know, because we haven’t seen him there yet. it’ll be interesting to see if he’s around the squad over the next ten days or so.