Joe McKee? Is he Gina McKee’s son? Plus the never ending Matt Mills loan-come-transfer.
Morning all. Another rainy day in Manchester. But this won`t come as news to you, wherever you are in the world. The next weather update will be from Belfast, as myself and Mrs X begin our round Ireland tour tomorrow with an eight hour boat trip from Birkkkkkenhead to Norn Oirland.
Severe weather warnings have been given for the Irish Sea.
We deal mostly with transfers today, starting with the news that Joe McKee has tweeted that he has joined Bolton from Burnley. No, me neither.
Having had a quick look at his Wikipedia page, it transpires that OC brought McKee down from Scotland to Burnley and still considers him well enough to have “snapped” him up after Burnley released him during the summer. Since joining Burnley, his first team experience includes forty one minutes for Livingston in 2009 before managing one minute more for St Mirren whilst on loan to them last season. And that`s it. Note the important fact that he played not one second for Burnley.
As such, he is an unknown quantity but in a squad already top heavy with midfield players you wonder why the manager has gone off to sign another one. Nothing against the player, but someone who managed not one second for Burnley and was then let go seems to be a strange signing for the club. If he wasn`t good enough for Burnley, just how is he good enough for us? Is our transfer strategy now to sign the majority of our players from Turf Moor?
In these cost cutting times, the wage of a player who will not be challenging for a first team place is money that could have gone somewhere else and it doesn`t make me happy that this has happened. OC may well see something in the player, but now is not the time to be trying to prove to yourself that the player still has the potential that you saw three years ago. The fact that McKee has since tweeted that he has been given a squad number (35) would suggest that the manager is looking to involve him in the first team, although exactly how is anyone`s guess.
Elsewhere, the Matt Mills deal ambles ever closer to the finishing line and is now expected to sign almost as soon as this article is published. However, given the amount of time that the deal has taken, Keith Andrews was mooted and signed in the time it has taken, I wouldn`t hold my breath. Transfers like this do grate, with players wrangling over bonus and loyalty payments after just over a year at a club, with their representatives wanting a cut of the action. The player obviously wants to move and the club obviously want to get rid. Whilst this is all happening, the buying club are left twiddling their fingers, not being able to focus on other potential signings until they have a definite yes or no. Mills is as close to signing as you can get without having actually put pen to paper, having gone through a medical at T`Reebok. Yet stranger things have happened in football and, whilst one Leicester paper has his move confirmed this morning, nothing has come out of Bolton. So, until it does, as with the McKee transfer, we should all just hold our collective breaths in rapt anticipation.
Don`t hurt yourself mind.
Right, that appears to be it for today. Al is back tomorrow and check out his first regular article from yesterday about the Nat Lofthouse fund. And I will see you, sea sickness depending, on Friday. Begorra.