It’s January, and that means transfer window time…although the only signinge we have the money to make was made months ago and it’s Argentina midfielder Matias Surue (dubbed the new Diego Simeone) who comes in.
He could well be the replacement for Abadaki or Flanagan.
Jansen, Calatayud, Garcia, Sangelli, Gutierrez and Mulenda are all wanted. This could be a busy transfer window.
Josh Brooking has been on loan to Nashville who trigger his release clause. The £3m is well above his value.
Guangzhou bid £27.5m for Calatayud - nope.
Jiangsu - £21m - Mulenda...no to that as well.
Man Utd & Liverpool in consecutive games? Oh go on then, what’s the worst that could happen?
Spurs (a) - We were SO close to getting a very improbable point out of that game until transfer listed and not wanted Jack Jenkins spanks one in from 30 yards in his first appearance of the season. What are the chances?
Portsmouth (h) FA Cup 3rd Round - Another chance to rotate the squad, so there are a few fringe players making appearances. New signing Sarue is on the bench and Sinclair has returned from his American loan to sit next to him. Sarue comes on, scores his goal and concedes a penalty in a rather eventful game. We could do without the replay though.
Guangzhou come back for Jansen - £79m this time. No, but I’m concerned this is getting close to a figure the board might just accept over my head.
Jiangsu - £35.5m for Calatayud...again, no.
West Brom (a) Carabao Cup Semi-Final 1st leg - Consecutive cup games means it’s an unchanged starting 11 but it’s almost the Pompey game replayed. West Brom almost gegenpress us into defeat as they constantly closed down and harassed us almost into submission, but the additional quality eventually shows through. Stewart gets another, Wilson is excellent and Sinclair gets his first for the senior team.
Since picking him up from Chelsea for a not very large fee, Sinclair has been on loan. He’s probably not good enough for regular games in the Premier League, so he’ll get the odd appearance here and there until a decent transfer bid comes in.
Fulham (h) - Layton Stewart is the striker in form and fully deserves to start, alongside Sarue making his first start and Owolabi, Gutierrez & Mulenda who all return. It doesn’t take Stewart long to repay the faith shown to start him, but, I left that game fuming have thrown away a 2 goal lead. Not happy and the lads knew it by the end.
Portsmouth (a) FA Cup 3rd Round replay - With so many games this month, the lines are becoming blurred between who’s meant to be playing cup games and who is fit, so this is a bit of a mixture but the lads pull it out of the bag. Sarue is looking very at home in that central midfield role. Despite the late hiccup, we do what we should have done in the first leg. A goal and assist for Krawiec in a deserved MoM performance.
Which pitches us against Man Utd in the 4th round, meaning the rest of our month’s fixtures read Man Utd, Liverpool, Man Utd, West Brom, West Brom...oh…
Manchester United (a) - Top of the league with the top goalscorer (Ramon - 27), assister (Tairi - 11) and clean sheets (Simon - 29). It doesn’t get tougher than this. The sending off definitely did not help, but we were light years away from being able to compete on a level playing field. Stewart’s goal there takes him to 9 in all competitions, making him our top scorer which just shows how off the boil Jansen is compared to last season.
Antonio picks up a neck injury in training, ruling him out for 3 weeks...although we’re okay for right backs.
Liverpool (h) - The tough games just keep coming. Abadaki’s red card rules him out but Stewart has to start, along with Sarue and Krawiec who have been in good form. A couple of tactical and positional changes are made to try and stifle Liverpool. We had a couple of pretty good chances, but similar to the United game - the gulf in quality was immense.
Manchester United FA Cup 4th Round - We keep the 2 DM formation with Flanagan & Sangelli, hopefully, providing some cover in front of the defensive. Other than MacFarlane, again it’s difficult to come up with enough fit players from the ‘cup squad’ to put that team out. Another 3 goals, although the second half was much better. This is starting to get depressing.
Championship side Aston Villa pull a shock out of the hat and beat Arsenal in the other semi-final. There will be no better opportunity for us to a) get to the final; and b) win this thing.
West Brom Carabao Cup Semi-Final 2nd leg (h) - A home game and the narrow 3-2 victory from the first leg puts us in good stead but morale has taken a battering. This is not the game it would have been a month ago. Hardly the most compelling of performances, but it is a result which puts us through. Quite a lot of underwhelming performances there.
West Brom (a) - Jansen returns and I’m hoping for an improvement from him, as we don’t have that many other goalscorers in the team, and it shows.
That was THE longest month but the poor results mean a team meeting is called...and for once, it seems to go down very well.
And the transfer window shuts with some interesting business done this month:
In:
Sarue - the 20 year old Argentine carrilero has started in fine form. He already looks at home.
Stewart - bought on the final day, the 20 year old Scottish attacking midfielder comes in as back-up to Wilson, with Helm ageing.
Out:
Conlan was picked up on a free from Welsh side Connah’s quay. His loans at Championship clubs showed he wasn’t good enough to step up and Hull made a very acceptable bid.
Garcia was picked up to play the carrilero role, but found his way blocked by better players. Would have been nothing more than a squad option...and I have plenty of those.
Lerda is in exactly the same position as Garcia...happy to cash in.
Ouane - youngster who was only ever going to be Championship quality, if that.
10 players out permanently which does helpfully thin the squad a little. £71m is a lot to spend though but I do feel like that was a successful window with young players brought in who will be around for a while.