Transfer rumours !

Slow, but there are rumours of something happening this weekend - thought to be McAtee.
Wrexham are also after him to add to Parky's roster of seasoned pros which now includes Bolton-hater McClean.

Not worried yet but I still feel we need some quality on both sides to give us a bit more flexibility with the new system - and with arrangements being made to loan out Matheson, Khumbeni and Conway, two of whom are cover for the wide positions there is an implication that we're still in with a chance of getting it.

Rumour Mill:

Jordi Osei-Tutu - an English professional footballer who plays as a right-back for German Bundesliga side VfL Bochum.

Luke McGowan from Dundee.

Never one to think that I could possibly know better than a professional football manager, I’ll be happy with anyone Evatt and the club deem suitable to enhance the squad. I wish they’d get on with it though.

Keegan wrote:Rumour Mill:

Jordi Osei-Tutu - an English professional footballer who plays as a right-back for German Bundesliga side VfL Bochum.

Luke McGowan from Dundee.

Just a passing thought, I read somewhere that the rules had been changed and clubs in our division can now sign up to two players from other countries leagues (subject to international clearance).

If so presumably that will also apply to Scotland as well?

The thing I'm getting to is if so, we've just signed a Hungarian, and are now linked with a player playing in Belgium and two players from Scotland.

Does that mean we can only sign one of the three we are rumoured to be linked too, or are players signed from Scotland somehow exempt from the rule?

Or can we sign as many as we want but only field two in any game?

As I understand it, the new rules introduced by the FA allow clubs in League One to sign two players per season who do not meet the current points requirements of the international visa system. Therefore, if all four players meet the current points requirements, we can sign them all - but if only two meet the requirements, we are still good.

Keegan wrote:As I understand it, the new rules introduced by the FA allow clubs in League One to sign two players per season who do not meet the current points requirements of the international visa system. Therefore, if all four players meet the current points requirements, we can can sign them all - but if only two meet the requirements, we are still good.

Thanks K, I look forward to us signing them all then!!!

Eight in so who is on their way out?

Obviously Victor is touted to go to Plymouth/Turkey/next rumour and lots reckon that Iredale, Morley and Dan plus Jones and Forrester may be moved on but the rumour that caught my attention was Dion to Rovers as Smodics replacement.
Interesting especially as we'd be likely to get decent money.

Not what I really wanted to hear. Watch us not have enough players now when a couple or so get injured…

I'm a bit lost as to how many players we now have and who can be registered?

(I post the rules below)

Obviously if we are at the limit of those who can be registered, then we can't bring anyone new in unless one leaves first - or is a keeper or under 21 (as they don't need to be registered).

We do however are required to register 8 'home grown players'.

So we have 22 places, less 8 'home grown' players leaving us with 14 places for non home grown players over the age of 21 and not a keeper.

Yes?

If so we've already got too many players?

Jones, Iredale, Thomason, Santos, Johnston, Sheehan, Adeboyejo, Charles, Nlundulu, JDC, Toal, Collins, Dempsey, Williams, Forrester, Arfield, McAtee, Schon, Matete, Osei-Tutu, Gomes.

George probably falls into the home grown category but I doubt we have 7 others?

Clearly something is wrong somewhere - maybe it should be 32 players including the 8 home grown players perhaps - it would certainly make more sense number wise?

Anyway if we are bringing in anyone, where do we need to strengthen???




Short of downloading the EFL rule book

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These apparently are the rules...

What are the EFL squad rules for 2024/25? Loanee limits, home grown players and how many subs are allowed

Championship clubs can have squads of up to 25 players, of which a minimum of 8 need to be home grown (we'll come to what that means in a moment). For League One and League Two clubs, it's a maximum of 22 players, of which at least 8 need to be home grown.

On top of that, you're allowed as many under-21 players as you like in League One and League Two squads, whether they're loanees or your own youngsters, because those players don't need to be registered to the squad list to be eligible to play. You don't need to register goalkeepers of any age in Leagues One and Two, either, so they don't count towards the 22-player squad maximum.

What qualifies as home grown, club developed and under-21 in the EFL?
For a player to be considered home grown by the EFL, they don't necessarily need to be British (they can be any nationality) or to have been trained by that specific club.

All that is required to qualify as home grown is to have been registered with any club affiliated to the FA or the FA of Wales for at least three seasons or 36 months prior to their 21st birthday (or the end of the season they turn 21). We can't see anything to say loanees are excluded from counting as home grown players.

Their definition of 'Under 21' this season is very simply defined as 'any player born on or after January 1 2004'.

A club developed player is any player who was at the club for 'at least 12 months prior to the end of his Under 19 season'; basically, anyone who was signed to the club for at least a year as a teenager (even if they were out on loan).

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Rumours are Nlundulu will leave which is no great loss. Read this morning we have turned down a £1million bid for Big Vic which is crazy! He isn't great and we should cash in now.

The bloke who wrote the tweet is the football reporter for the Telegraph newspaper -

A bit more on Birmingham's transfers this summer...

The League One transfer record before this summer was the £4m Sunderland spent on former Wigan striker Will Grigg in 2018.

Birmingham signed Christoph Klarer and Willum Willumsson earlier this summer with both deals coming in around the £4m mark.

The Blues have spent around £14m in total with Emil Hansson, Ayumu Yokoyama, Alex Cochrane and Lyndon Dykes moving to St Andrew's.
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So £15m for Stansfield, two lots of £4m and some bibs and bobs for a further £14m  = £37m !!!!

Pete O'Rourke, Transfer Correspondent
Sun 8 September 2024 15:31, UK

Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers have made moves to sign former Fulham winger Sylvester Jasper on a free transfer, sources have told Football Insider.

Jasper, 22, is a free agent after mutually cancelling his contract at Portuguese club Portimonense before the close of the transfer window last month.

Seems odd this in so many ways but the source O'Rourke has been usually reliable in the past.

Why would we seemingly want a winger when we don't play with wingers?

Jasper seems to be a complete mongrel (meant in the nicest way) he was born in London with a Bulgarian mum and a Nigerian dad, loaned out by Fulham to clubs in England and Scotland, signed to a Portuguese club (who have mutually terminated his contract?) and played for the Bulgarian U21 side!!!

As for O'Rourke he used to be the football correspondent for the Mail (iirc?) but hasn't posted the rumour on HIS twitter account but published it on something called Football Insider, who he seems to now be now working for?

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Bit of a mixed bag all round, really!