Thursday 28 January 2016

Have AFCB done enough business in this window?

This is a question that Eddie Howe and the club's investors must be pondering now as we enter the last few days of the January transfer window. Once the door closes that will be it until May and it is such an important second half of AFCB's first Premier League season that the ability to spend must be balanced with the need to try and build on what the squad has sensibly and not to buy just because the club can.

Already though we have seen AFCB bring in Juan Iturbe for £1.1m on loan, Benik Afobe for £9m and Lewis Grabban for £7m making a total spend of around £17m, which is more than many clubs have splashed out on. Norwich have signed four players (Naismith £8.5m, Klose, Pinto and Godfrey-18-yr-old), Newcastle have brought in two (Shelvey £12m and Townsend £12m), but Swansea have not yet signed a player and Sunderland have signed (Harper free , Kone and Dame N'Doye on loan).
AFCB got their business done earlier but is there one more to come?
What Eddie Howe wants to do is bring in players that are better than what he has already in the starting 11. It's no good having players that are not going to contribute and the 25-man squad will have to cover any injuries. The recent injury to Junior Stanislas has questioned whether Eddie will go back into the market again, perhaps for QPR's Matt Phillips but if Junior is only out for a few weeks I can't see the point of this as we know Junior can play well at this level and bringing in another untested Championship player is costly and untried.

At the back AFCB have Tommy Elphick coming back and the only lack of cover is really at left back for Daniels. But the Cherries have not been linked with any players in this position which is surprising unless we consider Adam Smith playing that role if he comes out of the starting 11 to allow Elphick to come in.

The midfield has been helped by the return of Josh King and Juan Iturbe's signing, while Lewis Grabban can also play out wide if need be. There has been no move for Jonathan de Guzman who now seems a possible signing for Swansea or Capri.

Goals are what the Cherries require more than most and Benik Afobe and Glenn Murray will soon hopefully be supported by a returning Max Gradel some time in February, but I still believe their is a space left for another striker having seen Kermorgant leave and Tomlin go out on loan.

Sadly, it does not look like Callum Wilson or Tyrone Mings will be back this season.

So I see the 25-man squad being something like this at the moment: 

Boruc, Francis, Cook, Elphick, Smith, Daniels, Arter, Ritchie, Gosling, Surman, Pugh, King, Murray, Afobe, Gradel, Stanislas, Iturbe, MacDonald, O'Kane, Grabban, Distin, Rantie, Allsop, Federici and one new signing to come? plus Cargill U21 player.

1 comment:

  1. Surely we've got to at least consider calling back Ryan Fraser over splashing out on Phillips, he's probably been Ipswich's best player this season

    ReplyDelete

tag: