Steve and I have arranged a sit down to go through the January transfer movements.
"OK. You know we had no cash at all for transfers, but we've managed to get one player on a free, and some decent loans in. A few of our fringe players have left to ply their trade in the lower divisions.
The most promising signing is Elvir Maloku from Hajduk Split. His agent said he'd be value, and we managed to get him at a decent salary and with a very low signon. He's only backup material right now, but Phil says he could be as good as Ryan Kent in the future - worth the gamble. He's still not the speedster you want in that wide position but he can play a few roles, and he's at least a decent backup on the left.
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You also asked me to grab some backup strikers just in case. We had a good look at a whole range of French youngsters last month and have picked up one of the promising players on loan. You also indicated that one of the kids scouted from Spain is worth a chance. Neither of these were players you want to sign long term, but they are interesting prospects.
Matias from Levante would be a good false nine at the moment. We should give him some game time during less important matches.
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Yassine Benoist needs a haircut but you can't tell teenagers anything! He's more of a target man and could be a good alternative. I'd suggest giving him a run in the 18s first. Both these lads have been told they are on a rotation so we should give them some game time, but they arent expecting to start for us.
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Leaving the club we have Kirby, our backup backup AMRL, and Ridehalgh our "hadnt played for ages" reserve left fullback going to MK Dons, Thomas Eisfeld has gone back to Germany to Aue on a loan, and we've farmed off a couple of players that didnt have work permits to our new feeder club in Croatia. Although apparently that was a mistake - turns out Croatia is an 8 year wait for citizenship. We all thought it was two... maybe we should have checked more carefully huh. We're stuck with them now for the next 10 months..."
"Well, that is a blow. Oh well, maybe the children of those kids we just farmed out will become great Croatian citizens and want to play for Tranmere, because they will be too old to be of any use if we let them wait until they get citizenship!"
"Yep. And since the window just closed we cant even recall them. You really messed that up mate. Lucky they werent the most promising prospects we have in the first place."