Double Injury KO For Reds

The news last night that Henri Lansbury would be out with 3 months with a horrendous sounding fractured lower back. It is understood he sustained the injury in the game versus Yeovil. It had me racking my brain thinking of exactly what and when he did. I can recall an early nasty looking coming together with their full back McAllister but this was right at the start of the game.

But that’s beside the point; the main thing is the huge loss that this represents as Lansbury has been integral to so much of what we have done right. The combination of him, Reid and Vaughan for me started to turn this season around, and without them, we may lack that bit of extra quality that could see us go up automatically. Considering we are already seeing fixture pile up. Extra pressure on those players remaining who may have seen rotation and resting could bring about a breaking point.

What it represents is extra pressure on the existing players, and also Billy and Fawaz to try and secure a player to fill in for the prolonged period of absence for Vaughan and Lansbury. Dorrans name has already appeared, as has Guedioura's. A few are even touting Jonathan Williams also from palace name around as they have announced they are looking into a loan for him as he won't get much playing time with Ledley's arrival at palace. Wes Hoolahan who has completely fallen out at Norwich and has promotion experience is another obvious potential target that said he's potentially in temperamental mood, but that does mean he has something to prove. He would be a player to get forward, and might not fir that deeper role, but at times like this in this injury crisis you have to look at what the best available options out there. Is he better than the alternatives already in place?

Moussi has shone again recently, and one has to think he will be stepping up to play more after looking earlier this year like his Forest career was all but over. Majewski will surely have a strong chance to claim a spot and see Reid drop deeper out of necessity. Any regular reader knows that I get extremely frustrated by Majewski, his lack of consistency being a major bugbear. Greening was on the bench against Preston and this might well occur a few more times. Whether it could mean playing time for a youngster coming through from the ranks is also a possibility. Osborne has appeared on the bench, but he's more of an attacking midfielder, David Morgan who always looked likeliest to break through for the past few years is on loan at Tamworth, and only making their bench. Jack Blake is a name mentioned before and he had a period with Mansfield on loan in October. So it makes the loan market look far more likely.

Lansbury will be back. In time for maybe the playoffs, as will Vaughan (and maybe Cohen) so it's not as if their seasons are over. It will take time for them to reintegrate and get back form when they do return. I'll be honest, both Vaughan and Lansbury's injuries are new ones to me, I have no idea of the long term impacts of whether they will be prone to such injuries again, or if it could have an impact on other areas of the body. With any injury for a period of time there is always risk of it flaring up in some other way. For now though, we just have to get through these next months without a major talisman for the team.

 

Derby Day Delight

After 2 seasons of, well, I admit it, failure against Derby, Forest have turned it round to result in a victory in a game that always feels like it comes at vital moments in a season.

For instance this game came on the back of a run of games where we had toiled to get draws. Losing in the Capital One Cup, although no exactly painful still sits on the mind. Had we lost this game, form would start to look questionable. And with the prospect of two long away trips before the international break, it had all the possibility to turn the season the wrong way. Last season’s defeat felt like a big setback and 2 years under McClaren, well it took the wind from the sails of what might have been another kind of season.

So for me, this game felt higher stakes.

We all know the result, all know the scorer, I’m not going to break ground there, but hat surprised me, is that although Derby often looked dangerous on the attack, the seemed to almost go out of this game with a whimper. I’ve only ever seen Hughes against Forest and each time he has flattered to deceive.

We made changes, enforced changes. Moussi in the midfield, Chalobah out through injury. This both worried me and gave a new sense of what would happen as Moussi does have awful distribution and is prone to terrible errors of judgement. That said, with him in place the midfield had shape. The dynamic down the left with Reid, Majewski and Cohen was in place. With Moussi out and Cohen into midfield, and Harding on the left, it was still there at times, but just not quite firing in the same way. Collins was in for Wilson (and ultimately for Halford)

What was apparent is at set pieces Derby had clearly set their stall out defend against Henderson as the aerial threat. That’s the only way I can begin to describe the way that they completely ignored Hobbs, who despite his large frame went through the area unmarked and headed home with what would be the only goal of the game. It was absolutely criminal defending, and had they not being so obsessed with pulling Henderson’s shirt all over and stop him jumping they may have remembered other aerial threats exist.

The penalty was an interesting incident as from my seat I have near the back of the Trent End, anything that happens like that at the other end is hard to pick out and I haven’t seen the goals back. But Derby going down to 10 men is not always the best plan. I of course refer to 2 years ago and the whole “we only had 10 men” game. The resulting penalty was saved, and at this point I was worried. We should have buried the game there and then, instead there was this outside chance of hope, buoyed by the penalty save.

Indeed Derby had chances. Hughes with a free kick, and Sammon as their human battering ram. But their main worry all game for me, and always is when we play them was Jamie Ward, he’s just that hateful little figure of a player who antagonises and I could see him doing something. So I was delighted when they withdrew him.

Reid had a glorious one on one right at the death, and 2-0 would have been probably the right result, but it was saved. Henderson had earlier missed a glorious headed opportunity to finish, but his header went way off target.

A word on a number of players. Collins was superb, and it’s that kind of showing we bought him for. Henderson toiled as the target man, and for much was an aerial target after we shifted dynamic with Moussi out. Although he missed a gilt edge header and the penalty he worried Derby. Harding did his job when he came on, but Abdoun didn’t seem as confident when he came into action. Lansbury in the deeper role had a quieter game.

The win of course has since seen Nigel Clough dismissed and hilarious McClaren bought in. Maybe it will work out, but evidence from his last Championship job suggests otherwise. With Middlesbrough where he had success he had cash to spend. We know what he did with us, failed at Wolfsburg, Twente (in his second spell) and of curse England. This could be his last chance of a vestige of saving face in England.

Transfer Deadline Day : LIVE (ish) (UPDATED 20.30)

Ok so not live blogging or update upon update, but when I can and where I can I will try to follow the latest news going on with the deadline day madness, seeing as we’re still meant to be in for people.

Will Sako, Holt, Leadbitter, Vaz Te, or Morgan sign. Who will depart. We will follow the news today

9am: So here we go first update... David Nugent is being linked, as is Liam Bridcutt at Brighton. Some wag is suggesting Benteke might be coming, forgetting he has a new contract and frankly would be as likely as signing Messi or Ronaldo. There is nothing concrete in either direction yet. No departures really being rumoured, though Blackstocks name is being bandied around


10.30 Update
Well, the usual names are being chucked around, Nugent and Sako are getting the most tweets and the most likely sounding also. Few others being thrown in for good measure include Aaron Wilbraham, Luciano Becchio, and Josh McEachran. I can’t see any of those 3 being likely.

Still nothing concrete, still just guesswork.

As for outs, nothing there either. For all of how breathless I thought this might be, it’s all rather... well. Quiet. It’s not going to be one of those deadline days again is it?


12 Noon.
And it looks like Guy Moussi could be out the door. Rumoured to be £500k for the Frenchman, which would be a profit and not a bad bit of business. Sheffield Wednesday looks like his destination. Say what you like, on his day the man is a machine and will be missed, if not only for the behind the scenes stories. There isn;t anything official yet though.

Adlene Guedioura is now being linked with Crystal Palace according to Sky. Not a huge surprise because Davies has been rumoured to be unsure on the Algerian. However at the same time he was influential in bringing in Abdoun, and was being used to market the club in Kuwait. It may be he is used to finance a deal for the the type of ball carrying defensive midfielder Davies clearly wants. However the rumour is Palace are in talks about the possibility. It might have been a very short conversation.

Again nothing official.

On the subject of in’s no further updates or news has sprung up. Unless you count what certainly looks unlikely in a loan bid for Obi Mikel from Chelsea.


1330 Update
No updates on Moussi to Wednesday and Guedioura to Palace. They both remain seemingly on. Although apparently Bannan going to Palace might see their Guedioura interest ended, there is also apparent chatter Palace aren’t alone in terms of Premiership clubs eyeing Adlene.

On any players at the start of the day being mentioned as departures, well no news on Miller, Derbyshire, Blackstock, or Gillett being off.

It’s all rather quiet, save for spurts of conjecture with no real basis.

This is all going to be rather anti climatic isn’t it?

Oh and if I see one more bloody eye joke I might scream.


1600 Update
In an attempt to at least have something salient, I tried leaving it an extra hour. Remember what I said about periods of quiet punctuated with a flurry of mental activity, well....

Liam Bridcutt has started to be wildly linked after a passing mention on Twitter this morning, this has either started to spread like wildfire with little basis, or there is some substance to this. Paul Taylor felt the need to mention on it, that in the absence of a Leadbitter deal it may be plan B. A plan B which would likely be expensive, and I really can’t see one of last seasons top teams selling a vital player. That said, you never know. Brighton have supposedly said he isn't for sale.

Adlene is still being linked with Palace, though after a few hours now the furore has settled. It also doesn’t seem to have moved on anywhere. So it’s still a little unclear. I’d argue the longer these go on without something more concrete that they might have been sheer speculation, but a lot of these rumours slow burn all day and if he was en route to Croydon, well that’s not an quick and easy journey to make.

Stephen McLaughlin is going out on loan to Bristol city, where he joins up with ex Forest boss Sean O’Driscoll. The exposure to regular first team football will surely show whether he will be able to make the step up, and have a huge impact on his future so he has a lot to prove. A lot of hopefully motivating factors for the Irishman.

And now Matty Fryatt is being strongly linked by Sky. Forest apparently with a loan move for the striker. The average reaction on twitter is one of indifference bordering on disappointment. This is before a player is even signed and pulls on a shirt. These same people also usually say trust in Fawaz or Trust in Billy, yet now are complete armchair managers. Anyway, he looks like being the latest solution to the striker issue.


20.30 Update
All very quiet. Doesn't look like anything happening. Not even confirmation of the supposed Moussi and McLaughlin deals. Same old Deadline Day Forest.Thing is we really don't need much anyway. What we have is good enough to be up there.

Potential Forest Departures

With Billy now getting a transfer window to tackle his squad, there might be just as many heading out of doors as coming in them. Partially to free up wages, clear out some dead wood and just to get rid of players Billy simply doesn’t fancy.

Potential outs

Dan Harding
Ok so our recognised left back, but the fact simply looks like he’s not good enough, and Billy doesn’t rate him. Whether that means sticking with ever reliable Chris Cohen, or shifting him back to midfield and getting a specialized left back in isn’t fully clear. However you would think anyone with any sense would bring in a proper left back and get Cohen back to where he is effective. Harding didn’t have the greatest of seasons, and should there be much interest I could see him being moved on.

Gillett

Simon Gillett
Genuinely thought he might be a Billy type player, very much in that McKenna mould, but again, Billy tends to want his own men in roles he see’s vital, and he doesn’t much seem to like Gillett. He flattered to deceive in the second half of the season, and O’Driscoll may come a knocking again for his erstwhile side kick. Don’t imagine we’d demand much of a fee either.

Matt Derbyshire
Please god someone take this waste of resources off us. He didn’t do much on either loan, and just seems to be content taking vast wedges of cash for his wife to splurge in the cinema. Really hope he gets shipped on. The only nagging doubt I have is that Billy likes a poacher, he might see Derbyshire as one of those, but I think also board pressure would want to see players like Derbyshire out the club.

Collins

Danny Collins
Might be slightly controversial this one, but Billy didn’t initially seem to like the Welshman. Additionally, the captaincy was removed from him. In that regard he might well get told he’s not seen as first choice and his age he may decide he’s prefer to look elsewhere for action. A lot of fans don’t rate Collins, I don’t mind him, but he is cumbersome at times. I don’t imagine his wages are cheap either.





Stephen McLaughlin
It’s funny we all this focus on a winger when we have rough and ready one in reserve, admittedly on Reidy’s side, but we don’t much about the Irishman. Now I base this all purely on the McCleary evidence but Billy never gave him his chance, he only blossomed under Cotterill. Is there something about these unpolished diamonds Billy doesn’t like? He does tend to focus on players who are the finished article, not having the patience to see someone develop fully. Might see him go or at least loaned out for 6 months.

Miller

Ishmael Miller
Hardly set the world alight with Boro but could quite easily be on his way. Expensive and not getting the returns on the investment it might be best to cut losses, or just simply take what we can and accept the loss. Some have said Billy could get him playing, but I think the ship sailed a long time ago on Miller. Just get him off the wage bill. Him and Derbyshire alone are taking up the pay we could get 4/5 very good players for. Hungry players. m There has been a number on Twitter saying we should give him a chance. These people clearly only saw him for West Brom







Dexter Blackstock
Yeah he has only just signed a deal, but there have been numerous occasions there has been chatter he could be off. If we did sign Carlton Cole I’d expect to see Dexter go, and lets be honest his form last season was pretty bad. It’s also one player we could get a fee to reinvest from.

Guy Moussi
Moussi is not first XI by any stretch and is so inconsistent. After his contract negotiations the other season i don’t suppose he is cheap either. He’s the type of player we might look to recoup some money on, and Billy doesn’t seem to like him as much as he did before.

Jonathan Greening
Like Derbyshire and Miller on a lot of money for no real returns. Offloading him, for free probably, considering age and poor performance, and we could ease off that £12 k from the wage bill he is swallowing up. Nobody will miss him, he seems to only serve the purpose of keeping the dressing room entertained these days.



All of this would maybe free up some cash on the wages front, that we now have to consider FFP wise. Consider that supposedly Derbyshire, Miller and Greening between them are on over £40k a week, which s a little over £2mill a year of our turnover we have to pay out to crap. We can’t let that continue. Players sitting on fat long term contracts has to end.

Settled Midfield Reaps Benefits

At the start of this season we signed a glut of midfielders. Considering we were already quite blessed in this position it seemed a strange one. Already in possession of Majewski, McGugan, Moussi, Greening, Reid and Cohen in the midfield we added Gillett, Coppinger, Lansbury, Guedioura, and since the summer McLaughlin.

Lansbury has been able to settle in team under Davies

It led some wags to choose a XI of just midfielders. But what it also led to was a lot of chopping and changing, some of it enforced, some of it for the sake of it to use them all. This led to a very unbalanced side and players badly out of form. Guedioura looked a shell of the player he was last year, Lansbury never settled, McGugan and Majewski seemed peripheral and unneeded.

Fast forward to now and a lots changed there. Instead of the tinkering, there is consistency, and as a result the team is winning.

We started the season with an element of consistency. The same midfield 4 was frequently used right up till we lost a couple against Leeds and some lot called Derby. We went with Gillett, Guedioura, McGugan and Reid. This consistency as I say was partially enforced, Lansbury and Cohen both injured at this stage. The last game of this run of the midfield saw Guedioura get sent off against Palace and so the chopping and changing began, and the form faltered.

If you look from the end of November up to and including the Watford game, a run which many wanted SoD to be sacked during, the form was inconsistent, with horrible defeats, but also quite good results it would look now (0-0 at Brighton doesn’t look bad) Gillett started in that run, but didn’t finish, Moussi taking over, Guedioura and Cohen were used in a majority of games but would be dropped (and sometimes bought on at half time) and Lansbury and McGugan switched in and out the team. Coppinger played a couple of times. In fact the prevalence of early substitutions does smack a little of a manager trying to tinker to get things right, and although now we look fondly back at O’Driscoll period on charge, there were glaring inconsistencies. I for one think we would have got it right, but it was a case of trying to juggle too many balls.

Radi blossoming in new role

The problem is there no –one gets a consistent run of form and it told. When McLeish came in he had a midfield which was largely out of form, he didn’t know his best side, and besides, a midfield is superfluous in a McLeish team as the ball gets humped over them (I again implore you to seek out Aliaksander Hleb’s quotes on this from his spell at Birmingham)

So how was it Billy was instantly able to galvanise this midfield into one that is a constant, in form, and above all free scoring. Well he seemed to decide on a different set of personnel and although in the familiar 1-3 layout, with one deep the other attacking, gave a certain artistic license to Majewski, who revels in such a role. Lansbury gets to be the box to box midfielder, and Guedioura gets treated more a quarter back to control the play. Gillett played this role before but with the quarter back element. Instead of long balls forward, he was more like a rugby scrum half, getting the ball and passing sideways. Guedioura's range of passing far outstrips Gillett’s, and though both don’t shirk the physical side of the game, Guedi is bigger and stronger, and can shrug off challenges.

We have also now settled on a formation. O’Driscoll by and large used the 4-1-3-2 at home but was prone to adjusting to a 4-2-3-1 formation, which didn’t work. Indeed when we altered to this against Wolves for a while we struggled to control the game. The sole forward with less support struggles to maintain possession. Additionally, having the 2 men sitting deeper means we don’t attack in the same force. I am also acutely aware I supported this formation saying many modern teams play it. They do, but that’s in the Premier League.

Whether it was a case of SoD trying to keep people fresh, and that he did have knocks to contend with we will never properly know. But we were doing better before he kept trying to adjust the midfield, and the formation. Billy has faithfully stuck to his 4-1-3-2 and it’s paying dividends. He hasn’t tried to evolve the game to involve more width; he sees what we have and is making the best of it. Players like greening and Moussi are kept involved, but are not integral. The only usual change is to see McGugan come into the fray for whoever looks like they need removing. And he is a great foil to be able to bring on.

I guess the challenge becomes when a result or two goes against us, and maybe then chopping and changing might be seen. When you’re in a great run you don’t makes too many changes, except in our case when the strikers just aren’t firing. I keep seeing people suggest involving more width, or that we should change the structure, but why the hell do anything when the team doesn’t changing? People seem to want to tinker for the sake of it, and what we illustrated above shows that doesn’t work. I think as said before that too many people play Football Manager and think because what happens in a fictional cyber world will play out exactly in reality. It doesn’t work like that.

It’d be interesting to see what happens if Guedioura got injured, would Davies favour this system with either Moussi or Gillett, would he reshuffle to a 4-4-2, a flatter formation with Reid wide or Lansbury on the right? All conjecture. Why change what’s working unless we have to? Consistency. It is the watchword of the day for me, and it shows how obviously it is needed.

Guedi the new DM

Greening Official, Moussi Close to Signing

First up Jonathan Greening has officially signed today. There's a picture there of him in the kit so it must be official (as an aside, that's never really officially, remember Kevin Miller?) It looks likely he will also be installed as club captain, after signing a 3 year deal with the club. The deal is worth £600k. Reaction has been mostly positive amongst fans,thought the usual miserable folks are out asking why we are signing "has beens" and why is he on a 3 year deal (so was McKenna) These people are never happy of course.

In other good news Sky Sports say Guy Moussi is set to stay at the City Ground. All the Premier League interest he was supposedly cultivating has failed to materialise., Therefore I guess this was all agent speak trying to garner interest in Moussi. Or of course force Forests hand to up their offer. This obviously never happened, so then Derby were linked. Still Forest weren't shifted. Now he has to accept.

Oh and it looks like the Routledge deal might still be on. According to some on Twitter anyway. Not overly trustworthy, but we can hope.

Still no left backs though.


******EXCITING UPDATE*****
I've just been told on Twitter Moussi definitely signed at 18:30 today.

Transfer Exits Rumours and Round Up

It was well known before and covered before but Nathan Tyson has of course departed to Derby.It says something when our reerve strikers are sought after by Derby. Good luck Nathan but you were no longer good enough.


Today has come the news that it looks likely that Paul McKenna will be moving to Hull City. It was broken by a couple of smaller sites,so I ignored until Sky have gone with it.To be fair to McKenna he is on the wane and has garnered the ire of many of our fans. He does still offer something, but if we are shipping him I wish him well.He was Davies man,so maybe now the Scot has gone McKenna wanted to move on too.

Rob Earnshaw was linked with a move to Palace. One report got it hopelessly wrong when it said we had released him, we haven't. He is still to agree a new deal that is on the table,and it remains to be seen if he will sign. Seeing as Palace are in and out of financial trouble I doubt it will be to them IF he does leave, as his wages aren't exactly cheap.The man himself said on Twitter he doesn't know where he will be next season.Forest have made an offer to Earnshaw,as they have with Moussi.

Julian Bennett has been told if he doesn't find a new club Forest will give him an extra year,to stand by him after his long term injury problems.


Mark Byrne and Niall Rodney have been released.

So Long, and Thankyou...

As previously reported it looked like Tyson, Moussi and others may be off.

Well the first confirmed departure is Dele Adebola,who it has been revealed has signed a deal with Hull. Two things spring to mind with me and Adebola. One it's really not much of a miss. Ok the big feller came on and scored one or two vital goals here and there, and he always tried his damndest, but lets face it, he was never good enough. In fact had we released him at the end of last season most would have been relieved. He won a few people more over this season, but he was never going to be leading the line for the Reds, used as a big lump to aim at when we really need it up in the area late on. Another aspect to this is that a "promotion rival" in Hull (I used inverted commas as I see them as nothing of the sort) has signed him. One of our cast offs being picked up by a rival can only be good news. Our players who aren't good enough are still sought after elsewhere, what does that say about us?

Nathan Tyson looks likely to sign a deal somewhere this week, with a number of clubs including Ipswich, Derby and Hull have been mentioned. The thing with Tyson is I don't begrudge the guy a move. He has been a number of years, but I still say he isn't a Championship quality player, as he can neither control the ball, finish or cross. That being said he has been therein some vital matches and no-one will ever forget the Man City goal, but lets face it,if we wan to kick on, he isn't good enough. Neither does he play enough being as injury prone as he is. We all laughed when Blackpool were linked last summer.

Julian Bennett is unlikely to be retained, as most readers will know I am not a fan of a player whose whole reputation is for effort. That will only take you so far, ability has to be there too and I'm afraid he doesn't have the requisite amount. Those who hold him high regard are usually the types of fan who celebrate a hard tackle as much as a goal. No doubt like Tyson he weighed in with some good performances but he is also a League 1 player. Palace didn't think much to him either, and they were rubbish. Indeed a 37 year old Edgar Davids was used as left back ahead of Bennett in a few games.

Paul Smith, won't be signing for Boro as they don't have any spare budget for wages. Thats because they are paying such ridiculous fees to former SPL rejects. Add in they only got him into cover injuries anyway, so they have keepers they already rate without adding more to their creaking wage bill.

Now we come to the two players where there is a lot of interest from Forest fans. There are numerous unconfirmed reports that Moussi has signed for Everton. There has been no concrete proof of this yet. To be fair he is so inconsistent that it might not be such a huge loss. When he is poor he might as well be an opponents twelfth man he gives away possession so much. That said he is a beast in the midfield.
Earnshaw has attracted supposed interest from Leicester and Cardiff. However the word is he wants to stay at Forest as he feels settled. The issue is we want him to take a pay cut. He does have a higher paid deal on offer elsewhere, but on a shorter term deal than we are offering (ie we are offering 2 years, the other deal offered by whoever is one year) I comes down to a quick pay day for Earnie or more stability, so its still very much in the air.

Nialle Rodney tweeted earlier today he doesn't know where he will be playing next year.

Forest Player Exit Rumours

Usually we always deal with a vast number of incoming player rumours. Well this time due to a stuttering promotion bid it's our own players being linked with other clubs, and quite a number of them this week to round up and evaluate how likely many of these seem.


Chris Gunter
The Welsh right back is being linked with soon to be promoted QPR as they look to bolster their ranks for the Premiership. And most rumours link them with the cream of the Championship. I think it could be likely to see QPR go for Gunts. He is still young and therefore would be a good investment, I could see him jumping at the chance of Premiership football if offered. If Forest accept such an offer remains to be seen. Every player has his price and all that.


Lewis McGugan
Similarly QPR are being linked with McGugan which is a rumour that also appeared back in January, that didn't have much in it at the time. If Taarabt does leave QPR(a host of top top clubs are linked)then McGugan would be a like for like replacement, though not as good, and with more questions about attitude. McGugan would undoubtedly jump at the offer of Premiership football. Remember before he broke though here he was touting himself to Chelsea apparently


Lee Camp
Obviously a player on top form will get linked, and the season Camp has had its no surprise that Premiership clubs would be sniffing round the new Northern Ireland no.1. Aston Villa are the club being mentioned, Friedel being in the last years of his career is apparently out of contract and Villa are looking to replace the American with Camp. Camp is undoubtedly the one player we would miss more than most, top goalkeepers such as him are few and far between at this level. I'm not sure if Camp would agitate for a move, but a club like Villa could certainly triple his wages easily.


Guy Moussi
Moussi is out of contract this summer,and what with where we will be next season still unknown it seems we are leaving negotiations late. Following his excellent season a few Premiership clubs are sitting up and taking note of this situation. Stoke, Wigan and Everton are the ones being mentioned, and considering he would be on a free it would be relatively risk free. Whether he'd want to go and sit on a Premiership bench for most of the season, as he would, is unclear. He would be a loss for free though.


Luke Chambers
Wolves were being mentioned at looking at Chambers a few weeks ago. Wolves being embroiled in a fight for their top flight status though put's this move in the 'unsure' pile. Baring in mind if relegated they'd have more money than most due to Parachute Payments, they might look at Chambers has a proven Championship defender to help their promotion bid. I can't see them risking him as a buy in the Premiership, but they do persist with Richard Stearman,so who knows.

Guy Moussi - January Player of the Month

Firstly thank you for a record number of votes in this months poll for player of the month.
Now onto business. Guy Moussi has won the poll that has been up on the site for January player of the month.The French midfielder, put in a number of powerful performances and takes this award for the first time. He won with 48% of the vote, with Luke Chambers coming second with 17% and Nathan Tyson third with 12%.
It's a shame that he is now injured for the next couple of months and can'therefore goon to show what he can do. He has been instrumental in our excellent run of form.

Injuries to Findley and Moussi

Following Moussi's injury last night (match report to follow)comes the news that new signing Robbie Findley pulled up in training with a thigh injury.
Findley has not played in some time since leaving Salt Lake City, so it suggests he may have been working too hard in training to catch up with the rest.
Moussi picked up his injury as he set up Earnshaw to score. He carried on despite pulling up and set up the goal before going off.
Both will undergo scans later this week to ascertain the full extent of their injuries.