It’s too bloody hot to be doing long updates, so I’ll be (relatively) quick – we’ve signed Andy Barcham from Pompey.
This signing has been doing the rounds in the online equivalent of saloon bars for the last couple of days, so it’s probably not the greatest of surprises. And at least he’s not a name from an iffy online rumour site.
So, what do we know about him? He’s from Basildon, though he can’t help that. He’s 28, which makes a change from the promising youngsters/thirtysomethings we normally get.
He was, ominously, injury prone whilst at Fratton Park, but Gillingham fans – and if NA is to be believed, Barry Fuller – seem to rate him. Although he was at Priestfield before we entered the Football League…
Oh, and he’s a “pacy winger”. How come all wingers are “pacy”? You don’t hear them get called lumbering, or slower than Warren Cummins with a limp.
Reading what NA has said about him, we get a fair idea of how he’s going to be used:
Andy can play on either wing or up front. He is exceptionally quick and is very good at taking players on.
A good, old fashioned utility player. And one that has a go at opposition defenders? Let’s see how long that lasts before our training sessions start taking effect.
Enough snark, it’s too hot for it. One has to wonder if this is one of the two strikers we’re supposedly after, although if he finds the net once in a while he’d be a massive improvement over Tanner.
I did notice that NA is promising to put his arm around him and get him back to how he was at Scunthorpe. We might read a lot into his tenure at Pompey, but then a lot of reasonably decent players have struggled there last season.
Like Meades, I expect he’s here to “do a job”, which makes the (three?) remaining signings the big ones. Up front and centre backs are the two areas we urgently require – and need to get right at the same time.
I know we need two CBs but if we get one decent and experienced defender then the other can be a promising youngster type. As an aside, it was odd to see Jake Goodman join TB down at Margate – you would have thought somebody like him could have been on our radar.
There’s been a murmuring of unrest within the last week or two about the absolute lack of signings. Especially as we are now officially into the third day of pre-season.
It doesn’t help that the transfer window opened today, which means contracts expire and negotiations start taking place. We can get away with not signing anybody else this week, but after that time really does start getting tight.
A week behind on pre-season training can be made up, but if it starts becoming ten days or longer, it means they won’t be up to speed for Watford. And by then, players are having to catch up.
If we do complete the remaining signings by Friday, then great. One may even get announced later today or tomorrow (no ITK on this, just a guess).
Remember that we don’t need to have wholesale changes this time round. It’s quite unusual for us to be like that, and it does take a bit of getting used to.
But at least we are finally signing players, and not ones we had before. Who knows, perhaps we’ll even get a striker in who will remain with us past January…