Summer Transfer Suggestion Thread 2023

[Ghost of Clough]

Thinking about the formation a bit more...

Warne has commented on "winning over players and fans", which could include the players stubbornness to change style and formation. You could see the team struggle to play 352 last season (for a variety of reasons), but we've heard first hand how they enjoyed finishing the season in a 3421.

Warne also isn't one to sit stubbornly on a single formation, used pretty much every formation imaginable since he became Rotherham manager, and tweaked the squad to transition between formations every season. I wouldn't be surprised if we start the season with 3421, before transitioning to 352 for next season. This will be mainly due to transitioning between having wingers (Mendez-Laing and Barkhuizen) who won't fit into a 352. With Warne talking of singing a CM, but still having a number of other CMs contracted who're around the first team (Hourihane, Smith, Bird, Sibley, Tommo, DRobinson, Radcliffe), I can see a plan to make that 352 transition.

 

We would have an effective 31 man squad (first team and fringe players), although 7-9 of those are unlikely to see much football and mostly play in the U21s.

GK: Wildsmith, Vickers, Loach
RCB: Nelson, Rooney, Bardell
CB: Bradley, Forsyth
LCB: Cashin, Cox
RWB: Ward, Wilson, Moore
LWB: Elder, Moloney
CM: Bird, Smith, DRobinson, Radcliffe
CM: Hourihane, Signing, Tommo
AM: Signing, Mendez-Laing
AM: Sibley, Signing, Barkhuizen
CF: Signing, Washington, Collins, Brown

[jimtastic56]

12 hours ago, Big Trav said:

I'm led to believe it's another striker, 2 x '10s' and another midfielder. Currently no thoughts of loaning Rooney out. 

This is what we have been waiting for . Warne will have learnt from the Plymouth games last season -Switching formations 2/3 times during a game . The biggest budget in the league should = Quality.

[Srg]

4 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Thinking about the formation a bit more...

Warne has commented on "winning over players and fans", which could include the players stubbornness to change style and formation. You could see the team struggle to play 352 last season (for a variety of reasons), but we've heard first hand how they enjoyed finishing the season in a 3421.

Warne also isn't one to sit stubbornly on a single formation, used pretty much every formation imaginable since he became Rotherham manager, and tweaked the squad to transition between formations every season. I wouldn't be surprised if we start the season with 3421, before transitioning to 352 for next season. This will be mainly due to transitioning between having wingers (Mendez-Laing and Barkhuizen) who won't fit into a 352. With Warne talking of singing a CM, but still having a number of other CMs contracted who're around the first team (Hourihane, Smith, Bird, Sibley, Tommo, DRobinson, Radcliffe), I can see a plan to make that 352 transition.

 

We would have an effective 31 man squad (first team and fringe players), although 7-9 of those are unlikely to see much football and mostly play in the U21s.

GK: Wildsmith, Vickers, Loach
RCB: Nelson, Rooney, Bardell
CB: Bradley, Forsyth
LCB: Cashin, Cox
RWB: Ward, Wilson, Moore
LWB: Elder, Moloney
CM: Bird, Smith, DRobinson, Radcliffe
CM: Hourihane, Signing, Tommo
AM: Signing, Mendez-Laing
AM: Sibley, Signing, Barkhuizen
CF: Signing, Washington, Collins, Brown

I'd agree with that squad assessment, although I get why from how you've written it out, I don't think we would see Moloney if Elder got injured. You'd likely see Wilson or Ward on the left. Same with Moore and Cox really, I think they're at best candidates for Papa John's. Don't think we'll see them in the league unless we were in a desperate crisis.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Srg said:

I'd agree with that squad assessment, although I get why from how you've written it out, I don't think we would see Moloney if Elder got injured. You'd likely see Wilson or Ward on the left. Same with Moore and Cox really, I think they're at best candidates for Papa John's. Don't think we'll see them in the league unless we were in a desperate crisis.

Possibly Wilson if Elder unavailable, not sure about Ward on the left. I would have thought Forsyth or Sibley would be quite likely replacements there too.

[Srg]

1 minute ago, jameso said:

Possibly Wilson if Elder unavailable, not sure about Ward on the left. I would have thought Forsyth or Sibley would be quite likely replacements there too.

Only going off what Warne himself said yesterday in one of the interview clips.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Srg said:

Only going off what Warne himself said yesterday in one of the interview clips.

You are quite right. I don't think that clip had made it to YouTube. I haven't seen Ward on the left before and he looks particularly right-sided to me, but there it is from the horse's mouth!

[Ghost of Clough]

17 minutes ago, Srg said:

I'd agree with that squad assessment, although I get why from how you've written it out, I don't think we would see Moloney if Elder got injured. You'd likely see Wilson or Ward on the left. Same with Moore and Cox really, I think they're at best candidates for Papa John's. Don't think we'll see them in the league unless we were in a desperate crisis.

I also think we'll only see Ward, Wilson and Elder in the wing back positions unless 2 of them pick up injuries. In that scenario, I would rather see Moloney get a couple of games at LWB rather than shoehorn someone unfamiliar to the role in there instead (Sibley, Barkhuizen). Based on Warne's comments, it would probably be Forysth, but even then, I'd still like to see Moloney come off the bench for 30 minutes given Forsyth isn't really suited to the wing back role anymore.

Similar for Cox. He'd be my 6th choice CB. A role in the squad which should mean very limited game time - the polar opposite to what you'd expect to get out of Cashin. He'll be a very complete LCB once he's fully developed, so the earlier we expose him to the first time the better off both he and us will be in the long term.

It would take something pretty drastic for Moore to break through this season.

[Caerphilly Ram]

5 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I also think we'll only see Ward, Wilson and Elder in the wing back positions unless 2 of them pick up injuries. In that scenario, I would rather see Moloney get a couple of games at LWB rather than shoehorn someone unfamiliar to the role in there instead (Sibley, Barkhuizen). Based on Warne's comments, it would probably be Forysth, but even then, I'd still like to see Moloney come off the bench for 30 minutes given Forsyth isn't really suited to the wing back role anymore.

 

You’re correct, Warne said as much himself yesterday. Said Wilson and Ward are capable of playing both sides and Foz could at a pinch but not the way Warne wants (no mention of Sibley) so he’s happy going into the season with 3 quality options at wing back rather than 4 average ones (or words to that effect).

[RamLad1884]

42 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

You’re correct, Warne said as much himself yesterday. Said Wilson and Ward are capable of playing both sides and Foz could at a pinch but not the way Warne wants (no mention of Sibley) so he’s happy going into the season with 3 quality options at wing back rather than 4 average ones (or words to that effect).

Think both Ward and Elder are fairly consistent and injury free aren’t they? 
 

Probably a case that Warne expects them both to play most if not all games and Wilson would be more than sufficient cover/rotation for either. 
 

Not sure we can expect to have 2 first team quality players for every position.

[Ghost of Clough]

1 hour ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

You’re correct, Warne said as much himself yesterday. Said Wilson and Ward are capable of playing both sides and Foz could at a pinch but not the way Warne wants (no mention of Sibley) so he’s happy going into the season with 3 quality options at wing back rather than 4 average ones (or words to that effect).

It was a discussion regarding at what stage Moore, Bardell, Cox, Moloney, Radcliffe, DRobinson, Brown, etc would be picked rather than signing additional players to fill in.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Ghost of Clough

[MACKWORTHRAM]

In his interview yesterday Warne alluded to replacing Knight with someone similar to him.

Wonder what options are out there? Not sure how much Oxford would want for Brannagan. When I've seen him play, which admittedly isn't a great amount. He always seems to be full of energy. So maybe he is a candidate. 

If we're using Knight as a benchmark. Brannagan should cost around the £1 million mark. But who knows.

Open to other suggestions?

[Ghost of Clough]

9 minutes ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

In his interview yesterday Warne alluded to replacing Knight with someone similar to him.

Wonder what options are out there? Not sure how much Oxford would want for Brannagan. When I've seen him play, which admittedly isn't a great amount. He always seems to be full of energy. So maybe he is a candidate. 

If we're using Knight as a benchmark. Brannagan should cost around the £1 million mark. But who knows.

Open to other suggestions?

I think Lewis Wing would be a better fit and is available on a free. But, I see both as being more of a replacement for Hourihane due to both being set piece takers. Both will also want to be starting almost every game, something we can't guarantee in a 3421 and having Hourihane and Bird.

Max Power is available and gained 16 assists along side his 5 goals in all competitions for Wigan in 21/22. Whilst primarily a CM, he would be excellent cover at RWB, in the event of 2 of our recognised wing backs being unavailable. In 21/22, he played half his games at CM (4 goals and 11 assists) and half at RB (1 goal and 5 assists). Pretty much everything we were hoping Knight would be for us last season.

He's not a name to get  everyone excited, but I could also see it being someone like Dennis Adeniran who just got released by Sheff Weds. Another hard working and versatile midfielder. Will be content as a squad player, and has a reasonable minutes per contribution despite limited game time - 206.5 minutes per contribution in 22/23 (1239 mins played in all competitions). Still only 24 too.
Luke Amos scored 6 in 1348 league minutes in 21/22 but got frozen out of the squad last season and is now a free agent.

[FKANorwichExile]

2 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I think Lewis Wing would be a better fit and is available on a free. But, I see both as being more of a replacement for Hourihane due to both being set piece takers. Both will also want to be starting almost every game, something we can't guarantee in a 3421 and having Hourihane and Bird.

Max Power is available and gained 16 assists along side his 5 goals in all competitions for Wigan in 21/22. Whilst primarily a CM, he would be excellent cover at RWB, in the event of 2 of our recognised wing backs being unavailable. In 21/22, he played half his games at CM (4 goals and 11 assists) and half at RB (1 goal and 5 assists). Pretty much everything we were hoping Knight would be for us last season.

He's not a name to get  everyone excited, but I could also see it being someone like Dennis Adeniran who just got released by Sheff Weds. Another hard working and versatile midfielder. Will be content as a squad player, and has a reasonable minutes per contribution despite limited game time - 206.5 minutes per contribution in 22/23 (1239 mins played in all competitions). Still only 24 too.
Luke Amos scored 6 in 1348 league minutes in 21/22 but got frozen out of the squad last season and is now a free agent.

Adeniran isn't a bad shout. I doubt he'll be short of offers but not a lot of clubs will be promising him a starting role. If Wing doesn't go to the Championship I'll be very surprised, but he could really flourish here and it'd be exciting to see how he'd get on.

[Srg]

13 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I think Lewis Wing would be a better fit and is available on a free. But, I see both as being more of a replacement for Hourihane due to both being set piece takers. Both will also want to be starting almost every game, something we can't guarantee in a 3421 and having Hourihane and Bird.

Max Power is available and gained 16 assists along side his 5 goals in all competitions for Wigan in 21/22. Whilst primarily a CM, he would be excellent cover at RWB, in the event of 2 of our recognised wing backs being unavailable. In 21/22, he played half his games at CM (4 goals and 11 assists) and half at RB (1 goal and 5 assists). Pretty much everything we were hoping Knight would be for us last season.

He's not a name to get  everyone excited, but I could also see it being someone like Dennis Adeniran who just got released by Sheff Weds. Another hard working and versatile midfielder. Will be content as a squad player, and has a reasonable minutes per contribution despite limited game time - 206.5 minutes per contribution in 22/23 (1239 mins played in all competitions). Still only 24 too.
Luke Amos scored 6 in 1348 league minutes in 21/22 but got frozen out of the squad last season and is now a free agent.

Max Power supposedly going to Saudi Arabia.

[Ambitious]

Luke Leahy, a very similar player to Knight, has just moved to Wycombe for less than £200k. By every metric you can possibly use, he had a better season than Knight last year and to be honest has been pretty consistent at this level for a while. He's an older player, of course, but he seems like he would've been a good replacement. He could've covered LWB & CB as well as CM too.  

Good signing for Wycombe - no doubt their replacement for Lewis Wing. 

[MACKWORTHRAM]

3 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I think Lewis Wing would be a better fit and is available on a free. But, I see both as being more of a replacement for Hourihane due to both being set piece takers. Both will also want to be starting almost every game, something we can't guarantee in a 3421 and having Hourihane and Bird.

Max Power is available and gained 16 assists along side his 5 goals in all competitions for Wigan in 21/22. Whilst primarily a CM, he would be excellent cover at RWB, in the event of 2 of our recognised wing backs being unavailable. In 21/22, he played half his games at CM (4 goals and 11 assists) and half at RB (1 goal and 5 assists). Pretty much everything we were hoping Knight would be for us last season.

He's not a name to get  everyone excited, but I could also see it being someone like Dennis Adeniran who just got released by Sheff Weds. Another hard working and versatile midfielder. Will be content as a squad player, and has a reasonable minutes per contribution despite limited game time - 206.5 minutes per contribution in 22/23 (1239 mins played in all competitions). Still only 24 too.
Luke Amos scored 6 in 1348 league minutes in 21/22 but got frozen out of the squad last season and is now a free agent.

Some good suggestions there mate. 

I think Lewis Wing is going to QPR. But I would have had him here in a heartbeat.

I know we have accumulated a little bit of money now. Possibly circa £2.5 million. 

Even spending less than half of that we could recruit someone decent enough. 

I'm not sure if we will spend any of the money though? Or if we do maybe we might spend the majority on a striker?

I would ask Peterborough what they want for JCH. But I'd imagine their owner will want more than £2 million to sell to a rival. Despite him being transfer listed. 

Just in JCH. As soon as he was transfer listed, I expected him to be linked here there and everywhere. But I've not seen anything on him at all.

[EraniosSocks]

15 minutes ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

Some good suggestions there mate. 

I think Lewis Wing is going to QPR. But I would have had him here in a heartbeat.

I know we have accumulated a little bit of money now. Possibly circa £2.5 million. 

Even spending less than half of that we could recruit someone decent enough. 

I'm not sure if we will spend any of the money though? Or if we do maybe we might spend the majority on a striker?

I would ask Peterborough what they want for JCH. But I'd imagine their owner will want more than £2 million to sell to a rival. Despite him being transfer listed. 

Just in JCH. As soon as he was transfer listed, I expected him to be linked here there and everywhere. But I've not seen anything on him at all.

There was a mention of JCH being looked at by WBA and Leeds at a sum of £4 Million 

[Nuwtfly]

21 minutes ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

I would ask Peterborough what they want for JCH. But I'd imagine their owner will want more than £2 million to sell to a rival. Despite him being transfer listed. 

Just in JCH. As soon as he was transfer listed, I expected him to be linked here there and everywhere. But I've not seen anything on him at all.

He’s transfer listed? I didn’t see that?

pboro must need some catch if they’re trying to flog him 😳

[Caerphilly Ram]

9 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

He’s transfer listed? I didn’t see that?

pboro must need some catch if they’re trying to flog him 😳

They publicly transfer listed a number of players in the final year of their contracts. Bit of an odd move

https://www.theposh.com/news/posh-confirm-number-players-available-transfer

Edited July 12, 2023 by Caerphilly Ram

[nogbad van 50]

4 hours ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

In his interview yesterday Warne alluded to replacing Knight with someone similar to him.

Wonder what options are out there? Not sure how much Oxford would want for Brannagan. When I've seen him play, which admittedly isn't a great amount. He always seems to be full of energy. So maybe he is a candidate. 

If we're using Knight as a benchmark. Brannagan should cost around the £1 million mark. But who knows.

Open to other suggestions?

Back in the day I so wanted Dennis Wise for our midfield but he never came .Then,subsequently ,I wanted Ray Houghton but the silly man joined Liverpool! I really like Brannagan but he wouldn't come cheap and I don't want a hat trick of disappointments!!

My gut feeling is that we'll splash the cash on someone like Sam Nombe from Exeter.A quality signing at this level with the potential to play at a higher level if we go up .