Cue beard oil, second hand upcycled clothes and thick rimmed glasses. To express your individuality, of course…
Your editor is away from later this afternoon until the 11th June (North Macedonia, Nuremberg and Dusseldorf await), though given updates in 2024 you won’t notice much difference.
So, just a quick one before I depart. The slow march to rebuilding our squad continued this week with the surprise signing of Myles Hippolyte.
I say “surprise”, because the rumour mill didn’t even pick up his name seconds before he signed, so this was definitely out of the blue.
He’s ex-Stockport, has been around a bit, and was badly injured last season which is probably why he was released.
If his surname sounds a tad familiar, a quick butchers on Wikipedia says Johnson Hippolyte is his dad’s cousin.
You just know he’ll inevitably get christened “Hippo”. And at least one OS headline of “Hungry Hippo” when he scores a hat-trick against Brentford u21s in the BSM Cup.
The injury thing is perhaps the big cloud over him. A “ruptured fibular collateral ligament”, whatever that is, kiboshed him this time last season and he didn’t feature again until last October.
Then, he got crocked for another three months for something that doesn’t seem easy to find out.
So, you kind-of hope that history doesn’t repeat itself with us, although there’s a nagging feeling that’s what will happen.
Terry Brown used to specialise in injury-prone players, or at least it seemed, and we kept wondering why our physio room had more in it than the dressing room.
That aside, Hippo (sorry) doesn’t sound a bad player. Stockport fans seem to rate him, and think it’s a good move, judging by their reaction.
If nothing else, it’s another signing in a period where transfers trickle out.
I’m in no doubt more will follow soon. Indeed, don’t be entirely surprised if another one gets announced soon after I press “publish” on this.
I can’t remember if this time last year we added more, but we seem to be planning to get as much of our business done as early as possible.
Pre season training doesn’t start for at least a month, and nobody can properly sign players until the 1st July anyway, if they’ve just been released.
Getting as much done before the first beep test down the training ground worked well in 23/24, and we’re obviously trying to do the same again.
Granted, there’ll be some late editions, not to mention the inevitable loan signing late on.
As is usual this time of year, most transfer rumours will prove to be bollocks. Only this morning, somebody has come up with Vaughn Covil.
Now watch him sign and give the mandatory “I know about the club’s history” stuff, presumably at gunpoint.
Being linked with this Palace lad as keeper is probably more likely, and I wouldn’t be shocked one bit if a similar signing eventually happens.
Other than that, it’s more or less as you were right now. I’m sure things will properly pick up in the next ten days, and there’ll be plenty to write in the next update.
Who knows – we might even have announced a pre-season friendly by then…