Thoughts on Pratley, the transfer window and financial stuff.
Rightly so, a lot of focus this week has been on the FA Cup replay at Palace. We did very well, but we were beaten and are now out of the Cup, so attention focuses back on the league and the quest to beck up into the Championship.
We’re also now into the second half of January, which means we’re past the halfway point of the transfer window.
Last night’s news that Darren Pratley is now going to be out for the season after his injury setback mean the need for reinforcements has got even bigger.
While Pratley isn’t everyone cup of tea, or hardly anyone’s cup of tea, he would have been able back up in the position that Josh Vela has made his own. But now, we have nobody at the moment. Clough and Henry could move into there, Trotter could play there, but none of those options are particularly effective.
With Keshi Anderson’s and Sammy Ameobi’s departures, in theory there should be two spaces under the terms of the transfer embargo, although those rules seem completely arbitrary.
Some would say with Pratley’s injury we could get some sort of special dispensation, but then Mark Howard, a goalkeeper, has been out for a couple of months, and we’ve had to have young Jake Turner on the bench. For an outfield player, we’ll probably be told where to stick it.
Meanwhile, in the forward search, the Adam Le Fondre links are still going around, whether there is still, or ever has been anything in them we don’t know, but Le Fondre, even after a tough year and a bit would be a massive improvement on Gary Madine and Jamie Proctor.
But maybe we should remind ourselves while we’re still under that transfer embargo. Unless I’ve missed something, the accounts are still overdue,
There might be a good reason, I don’t know. In fairness, the whole thing with Anderson wanting to buy Holdworth’s shares out probably has got in the way. The new ownership have done a lot of things right. But we’re still waiting for the accounts. It’s gone quiet there.