 My view on the January transfer window as far as we are concerned is very little will happen. Why should Arry upset the apple cart? with all the injuries we have endured we are still in the race for a top 4 finish, Arry will only buy if it strengthens our squad but if you look at the papers and some of the players we are being linked with they offer nothing more than we already have at WHL.
I have said it before that I feel we need another striker but it needs to be a player who offers more than we have at the moment, an out and out goal scorer who can bang in 10 goals between now and the end of May, so if a player with that pedigree becomes available then rest assured Arry and Mr. Levy will break the bank to secure his services. I would still like to see the pairing of Pav and Keane given a proper run as a backup to Crouch and Defoe, why not change the pairing at 60/65 minutes if it's not working? who knows it might just be what Robbie needs and one thing is certain Pav has the intelligence to compliment RK and if we don't look at it we will never know.
The same goes for midfield, now we all know that we need another tiger to help support Wilson Pallacios, he cannot be expected to do the whole season on his own and it does get my back up when certain quarters are now saying that he has blown and his form is not as good as when he first came to us and I say to these people take a reality check, the guy has not only toughened up our midfield but also the players around him and Hudd in particular but he cannot do it all on his own so I do expect reinforcements in that area to be brought in and for all the shouts for so many overseas players I expect Scott Parker to be Arry's choice, having said that it may not happen but that's my opinion. In defence we still have this nagging injury worry with Ledley and Woody to contend with and again we might just see one new addition in this area.
The last dilemma lies with the Goalkeeping situation, it is obvious with Carlo being sidelined for the remainder of the season Arry has a problem with cover, he clearly does not have the confidence in current personnel and we can expect a new keeper to be signed before the closing of the window.
So we are left with the possibility of 4 signings at the most in my opinion and probably only 2 in reality, why is this you may well ask? Well we now have a weather situation to contend with and the problems that it may bring. If we have prolonged adverse conditions that will mean a backlog of fixtures and midweek games in force, that is where we will benefit on the run in with our strength of personnel, we have as most will agree a very strong squad the only problem is not every player gets a game, this affects form and confidence naturally, but put the likes of Pav and Keane into another PL club and be sure they will come back and bite us hard, they are not bad players just suffering from loss of form and regular football, and that is where our problem lies. Where do you find these top class players at this time of the year? we all know the best are signed in the summer and most of what's on offer are players with the same problems as we already have, does Arry take a chance on someone with a history of injuries or a bad attitude, would you? We could do a lot worse than stay with what we have and I think that is the message Arry is trying to get across, he is not going to wheel and deal for the sake of his reputation, not this time for he can see the prize and is within touching distance, he must be trusted to take us to the CL for we have had enough false dawns at WHL.
We will need this strong squad in the final run in and that is Arry's big problem keeping everyone happy, imagine if we add another striker and midfielder to what we have already then being able to field top players fresh for a midweek game, it's not any different to playing in Europe really where you must have this squad strength, come the summer when we have achieved our goal all will be different and we can then attract the top names for a successful campaign in the Champions League.
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