Oh, just read it out loud…
Not my gag, BTW, so I can’t claim credit for it. But anyway…. the transfer window is now shut, and we have finally managed to get the database loaded and kidnapped the club moggy until we got some transfer money.
So, welcome to AFCW Marcus Forss, Ryan Delaney and Max Sanders. Three loanees, all bar the middle one here until the end of the season, and all in positions we’ve needed to strengthen.
The big one is Forss. He scored in the PSF against us for Brentford, he’s Finnish (so the new Micky Belfield) and he’s so highly rated at Griffin Park that they’ve given him a four year deal.
And he’s 20 years old.
This is, on paper at least, a very good signing. Especially in an area where our main striker (Piggy) is off form, a hard-worker who doesn’t find the net enough (Folivi), a youngster who is only breaking into the side (Roscrow), and Appiah.
Oh, and he’s already had all the Star Wars quotes aimed at him. Which you file alongside the “Messiah” comments from Life of Brian…
With McDonald out, Delaney might not have been a surprise after all. Plus, he has L1 experience which is still lacking in our squad.
As for Sanders, he’s very much a Wally Downes-type signing. Young and hungry, mature beyond his years apparently, and position-wise something we don’t really have.
That’s three new players at a side where there was a very real danger where we could have got none.
All three are loanees, but I don’t think that matters. Two are here until the end of the season, and the third is a replacement for an injured squad member.
As long as they do the job on the field, all else is irrelevant. We worry about replacing them next close season.
If there is a reservation to be had, it’s that all three of them are young. In a squad where we’ve been missing the guiding experience of Wordsworth already, these three are still a gamble.
Indeed, you could ask yourself why these players when there’s the likes of Rudoni and Wood available.
The answer to that may be a simple one : those two mentioned need more time at a lower level before they can be put into our first team squad. Forss, Delaney, and Sanders can even play a role tonight, let alone Saturday at the Frenzydome.
In case you haven’t noticed, we need results. And we need players who are more developed right now to get them.
So I won’t be surprised to see quite a few youngsters now having a run of games in the Conference (and below). If they come back ready to go in the squad come January, all well and good. If not, well, them’s the breaks.
One player who is out on loan is Dylan Connolly – he’s spending this season at Valley Parade.
Which on the surface is a strange one. He was Walter’s first signing (or at least, one of the first) in January, showed some blistering pace and – judging by the comments on him leaving – hasn’t entirely gone down well.
The trouble is, since he burst onto the scene he’s become less effective. From what I saw of him in pre-season, he didn’t do enough to justify playing much of a part.
It’s a shame, and it happens. If his departure meant we freed up a few wages for the Fabulous Three, then so be it.
OK, many may now ask why him and not Pinnock, and one suspects if somebody wanted him he might have gone too.
All in all though, it’s been a good deadline day for Walter. Whether he put pressure on the decision makers to give him that extra bit of help or not, he’s clearly been able to do something after all.
The market trader coming to the fore, maybe.
Obviously, all transfers are a risk, and there’s no guarantee that Forss will score goals, or Delaney helps keep them out, or Sanders gets to do anything in the middle of the park.
But you can’t deny that the mood has lifted within the past 24 hours.
Let’s face it – it’s been quite sullen recently at AFCW. The very real sense that nothing has changed prevailed, but at least we’ve had that shot in the arm again.
Suddenly, you feel more confident for Saturday. At the very least, the strikers know they have to find the net more now Forss is here.
Maybe, just maybe, things will now start to look up? Which brings us onto Seedrs…
We’ve now raised £2m, which means that we’ve gone past the minimum required. To be honest, I doubted we wouldn’t get that sum, although I did have visions of it getting stuck at £1.9m with a few days left.
That was raised thanks to John Green, and while the headline is a bit sensationalist (I say that as somebody who was in yesterday’s Daily Mirror), it’s a very good bit of publicity too.
It will be interesting to see what uptick there now is. It’s the beginning of the month, so people have been a) paid, and b) been able to move money about for this.
There’s a second marketing push, with ads in the trains that serve Wimbledon. And another high profile donation (or two) will be worth its weight.
As an aside, your editor went through the donors list last week, which killed about 30 minutes, and while this is completely unscientific, it seems the bulk of donations come in three categories : £100, £10 and £1000 in that order.
That may not be entirely correct, I’m not sad enough to be typing all sums into a spreadsheet and do the number crunching, but I bet it’s in the ballpark.
It suggests that people are not only treating the donations as a once off, but also that our fanbase may be wealthy – but it’s not that wealthy.
If you’ve got an OK-paying job, then £100 or so is a reasonable sum to invest. If you haven’t, or you have other financial priorities, then £10 is a token.
There will be some who can afford to pay the £1000 in, depending on savings and nest-eggs, that kind of thing.
What’s apparent is that there aren’t too many people putting in the £10k, relatively speaking. That might change, but one suspects those who do are either very well paid, have large pension pots or there’s some beneficiaries of wills.
With that pseudo-analysis, I’m not sure how viable getting the whole £7m is, to be honest. £3m is do-able, although that will only happen through those donating six-figure sums.
Above that? Only if somebody puts in a million or two. Which isn’t impossible, but having got the sum we have we should be focusing more on what might be achievable rather than what isn’t.
Unless there really is an individual sitting there with very deep pockets and a guilty conscience. Has anyone heard anything from Hammam in recent years…?