Blimey.
We all thought things would pick up again after TB got back off holiday, but you can imagine the shock when reading on the OS the following headline : Five Sign Up Today.
And no, it wasn’t an announcement the shit early 2000s boy band had signed a marketing deal with us.
Two of them aren’t actually new signings, of course. Along with BJ, Seb signing is probably one of the most important we’ve made without it being particularly fanfared. To say the guy could well be our first big money sale in a couple of years to a decent Championship club isn’t an unreasonable assumption to make.
Ryan Jackson is one of the youngsters we want to keep, and finally James Mulley made up his mind and has agreed to stay with us. So at least we’ve now got enough players to hold a pre-season training session.
There are two new signings, although one isn’t actually a new signing. Yes, Chris Bush is back and according to his Twitter account he’s here on a two year deal. Although it seems like there are some incentives due to Brentford if he continues to fulfill his promise. So we finally have a left back.
A couple of questions arise from this deal : does this mean that Gwillim won’t be coming after all? Personally, I would like both at the club – they know the ropes here, they seem keen to be here, and neither of them let us down. Most importantly, they look like they could do a job for us in League Two.
Will there be another LB coming in? If one assumes that BJ can play there well enough, and we can move another CB into position, perhaps not. Then again, isn’t CB a, er, CB?
Thirdly, and thinking back to Bush’s time here. As he was on work experience then, does this mean he no longer has to do the filing and photocopying? Somebody else can make his tea for him now too, as he does the work the grown ups get to do…
The other signing is a striker, one Charles Ademeno. An intriguing signing if nothing else – no hints beforehand, not on anyone’s radar, and another one off the infamous PFA list. The OS says he’s fully recovered from his knee op he had in January, although his contract at the moment reflects what he’s had.
In other words, he’s cheap.
He’s never seemed to have a run in a side, and even with us you get the feeling he’ll be behind Midson and AN Other striker (or even DK) in the pecking order. A sort of Mark Nwokeji for the Football League.
Still, he deserves his chance, and the stats suggest that given a run in a side he does get goals. Whether this was the Conference striker SC mentioned in the last SW19 update is unclear – he may have been one on the nice-to-get-if-available list, he was available and the rest is history.
I doubt if he’ll be the only striker signed (or kept on, IYSWIM), but at least we’ve got somebody else up front now, to stop Jack Midson from feeling lonely. Didn’t have a very good time at Grimsby, including a notorious incident where the chairman slagged off the manager for signing him. But apparently when he did go to Blundell Park a number of League Two sides were looking at him…
What this means is that we do have a solid side now, maybe one or two players short (bar replacements), which should be able to be mid-table in L2 without tearing up too many trees. Which is more or less what we want (and probably need) next season. One doubts the transfers end here, and by the time this goes up no doubt Gregory will have departed for pastures new.
Of course, if DK agrees to stay…