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Loans, loans, loans…
Much has been made of the amount of games Blues have left to play this season (a minimum of seventeen), and the current thinness of the squad over the last few days. The sale of Beausejour seems a bit bizarre bearing in mind Blues were supposed to be okay on the money front and are now without a truly left-sided midfielder in the first team. Where do we go from here?
Laid bare, the facts are grim. Should Stephen Carr be added to the injury list for Barnsley along with Guirane N’Daw, Marlon King and Nikola Zigic Blues have just fourteen fit “first team” professionals. Jake Jervis will no doubt fill in one of the gaps for the sixteen man squad, with a choice between Akwasi Asante, Callum Reilly and Brice Ntambwe for the other one – but with those four players having zero starts, zero league appearances and five sub appearances in any competition for Blues between them it doesn’t fill you with confidence.
Thus I can accept that people are wondering why the hell Blues haven’t brought loan players in – when even cash-strapped Pompey have managed to get a loanee midfielder in the last few days. There was the discussion about loan dates which may or may not have had an impact on Blues deciding when to bring players in; there has been confirmation that Blues have had attempts to loan Danny Rose, Lewis McGugan, Peter Lovenkrands and Stephen Dobbie rebuffed but Blues are still desperately shy of players.
It’s been reported that Hughton is being careful in who he wants to bring in; he’s got a good team spirit currently at Blues and he doesn’t want to bring in anyone who is going to rock the boat. A player who comes in has to be good enough to hit the ground running as part of the squad – thus a raw teenager without any first team experience might not be the “right fit” for what he is looking for – and then there is the money issue in that Blues can’t afford a massive amount.
I’ve spent thirty minutes or so looking through Premier League squads for possible players that may be sent out on loan and to be honest, there isn’t that much choice. Most clubs will want to hold onto the majority of their players in case of bad injuries/suspensions – they can only recall a loan after the first twenty-eight days with either a youth or emergency loan. Would people settle for Hogan Ephraim or Patrick Agyemang on loan from QPR? What about Robbie Blake from Bolton? Or how about Mamady Sidibe or Diego Arismendi from Stoke City?
I think it’s imperative that Blues do some loan business this week – whilst I think we can muddle through up front with what we’ve got and either blooding Asante and Jervis or giving a contract to Webber or Folan I think Blues absolutely MUST sign a left-sided player. Hughton cannot allow the imbalance to continue within the team if we’re going to keep pushing for promotion because it’s affecting Chris Burke’s game markedly as well now. Hughton has worked wonders with what he has got to have got us in a great position. It’d be a shame to waste it now because we can’t get over the finishing line due to not having the depth.
Tags: Akwasi Asante, Brice Ntambwe, Callum Reilly, Chris Hughton, Guirane N'Daw, Jake Jervis, Loans, Marlon King, Nikola Zigic
20 Responses to “Loans, loans, loans…”
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What do you expect with this lot in charge,the nightmare continues with pannu and co,but its simples “we aint got a pot to pee in”and thats basically “it”………with the transfer money for players we have received since the summer and prem money we still have/got to come in things dont just make any sense???i know pannu and his track record with the fans is not good and he pushed for hughton to get the job,but pannu has been ever so lucky i feel this season with the highs we have hit,make no mistake if we was midtable or below pannu would be gettting pelters….no doubt he his nowhere to be seen yet again and over in h.k. …..i feel sorry for hughton as all the hard work over the season is about to come undone due us being skint……blame the idiot/idiots in hong kong.
No matter how short we are of players the name of Valles never appears. If he doesn´t bring himself in a position to get into the squad now I doubt he ever will…
He’s injured
Oh sorry. Missed that. at least on that point he looks like Hleb…
As John say, we can forget Valles as he is permanently injured. He is about as reliable as Parnaby was with injures and is never going to be the answer.
I can’t personally visualise him playing there but apparently N’Daw can play left back and if he gets fit in the next week or so then possibly pushing Murphy up to left mid could be an option for CH. Murph has been a revelation this year and with no obvious loaner in that position it might be worth a try.
It is frustrating for us Blues fans to hear about things that are about to happen on the loan front and then it doesn’t seem to materialise but CH has not given out signs that this avenue has been closed off yet so we need to bear with him. I agree that we are starting to look thin in numbers but whoever currently puts on the shirt gives it their all and anyone coming in will need to play with the same mentality however good their pedigree.
Excellent and conscise summarry :-)
About options on the pitch and off.
All of AJ’s four mooted players were kept by their club, for various reasons, none were allowed out on loan – except one, but only as a sale. Although Beau’s sale was a surprise, I think that money and wages talked, and considering the stick he was getting in his last half dozen matches, with hindsight that sale seems sensible.
There are options within our squad as it stands.
I see no value in getting a teenager from Arsenal or Manchester, when the parent club inisists on match time which could come at the expense of say Redmond/Burke/Spector??
Personally I’d go for the Wade Elliot type of player, experienced and amenable to improvement at St Andrews – rather than this year’s version of David Bentley.
Its worrying why our loan attempts keep failing,are we asking the loan club to pay a % of the wages? or do these players not want to come here?.
Wasnt massively impressed with Rose for Spurs yesterday,but they were poor all over.
Havent seen us linked with Ephraim,but he can play left & right wing & up front so that could be useful if we can follow that & complete the deal.
Well CH doesn’t seem to be worrying just yet and surely that must be a good sign? He made a comment over the weekend when asked about his thoughts on the Chelsea owner turning up at training and CH has the opinion that the time to worry is when you dont see your board. Obviously its a little difficult to see Carson at the moment but no doubt Peter Pannu sees CH and also no doubt are working hard to bring a player or two in.
Sidibe and Arisimendi were contacted through their agents. Believe me or not-many seem to like having a go at me for revealing facts on Facebook regarding transfers, but those two were mentioned by my source many many many times.
Wouldn’t read into Robbie Blake too much though as a suggestion
Harry, I only mentioned them as they’re potentially available – nothing more.
I have no actual idea who Blues are going to bring in.
I don’t understand why/how CH missed out on Newcastle’s Tamas Kadar (now on loan and scoring for Cardiff)? He’s a left sided defender but more than capable of putting in a left side midfield shift, especially in a 4-5-1. CH knows the player well, so it’s a mystery – unless NUFC simply won’t play ball with CH? The Lovenkrands enquiry also reaching a dead end despite him – apparently – still being touted around as a loanee until his contract expires in May. Cardiff again, perhaps? Mmmm – an anti-Hughton conspiracy?
Lovenkrands turned us down, nowt to do with Newcastle there.
Newcastle fans were surprised CH never moved in for Kadar, but who are we to judge. Im surprised Nile Ranger hasn’t been targeted by CH again, maybe because he never made an impact on loan with Barnsley recently.
Nil(e) Ranger, I strongly suspect, would not pass Hughtons’ ‘right person’ test in a month of Sundays. After blowing chance after chance on Tyneside, many under CH, his latest extra curricula activities make it difficult to imagine him passing anyone’s ‘right person’ test. And I wouldn’t get too wound up about missing Lovenkrands either, he’s strictly an impact sub these days – and even then it’s hit and miss.
In not making funds available in January a gamble has been taken with promotion, and it’s not a clever one. At one point I was concerned about missing automatic promotion, I now worry about even a play off spot with the current injury list.
CH is not a big fan of Kadar he was at fault for quite a few goals when he played him in matches for newcastle. He simply doesnt think he would be worth the cost to B/ham
I don’t understand your comment about not having a proper left winger affecting Chris Burke’s game. Burkey has played a lot of games this season and it’s the tiredness that comes with that which is affecting his game. That’s why CH rested him for the cup game. We need to rotate Burke with Redmond to prevent burnout of either player ie NR on right where he is his best.
Since we lost Beausejour, Burke has become our only real outlet in most games; thus teams know that if they double team him and take him out of the game then Blues won’t get much. Thus Burke has had much harder games of late (because of the fact he’s the only true winger and the amount of pressure on him from opposition defenders) and his game has suffered.
If CH put Asante on against Barnsley and gets two goals, what does the manager learn from that? The guy is able and ready, and match fit, but is second or third best to an ailing ageing striker who is clearly struggling with fitness. Why send him out on loan to get match fit if he is NEVER going to get even ten minutes match time?
Misery Guts here.
Almajir, you seem to have had your early, realistic expectations swept away in all the excitement!
The quality and depth of squad, plus the likelihood of January sales led you to expect a mid-table finish with the hope of a play-off place at best. Nothing has changed apart from a good run of results.
There is no money and that is not going to change until CY’s position is sorted once and for all. Loanees will not get us an automatic spot so the only (still outside) chance of promotion is through the luck of a knock-out competition. But the squad is being worn down.
Top half of the table and I’m happy. Promotion? I’ll then expect Stans to be burned down following a lightning strike – just our luck!!!!
But KRO anyway.