The January Transfer Window Reviewed
Three incomings and no outgoings: here's what we made of the U's January business
It’s easy to lose track of the amount of times you get told that January is a difficult window. Unlike pre-season, the window runs parallel with the weekly grind of the league season, and often at a time when some teams are experiencing a fixture backlog and almost all an injury crisis of some sort. That means that a players’ value to a club can change within 24 hours; a fourth choice striker quickly becomes the only back up if someone ahead of the queue picks up an injury.
This window even more so. With the well-reported stinginess of the top tier due to financial regulations finally seeming to have some sort of impact, sides with top level academies are perhaps more inclined than ever to hold onto their talented young players rather than ship them out for EFL experience. Where Championship clubs might normally go after a Premier League team’s most talented youth player, they aren’t as available as in previous years, causing a domino effect for League One and Two sides hoping to pick up future talent from a second tier side. And so on.
Like buying a house, it’s just one long chain. For the U’s, Neil Harris has said as much - his honest and open approach with the media when it comes to our business dealings in January is worthy of its own article, but he has said a few times that he thought we had a deal over the line only for the situation to change in a matter of hours and we’ve missed out. C’est la vie I guess, Neil.
But that doesn’t mean we haven’t managed to get any deals over the line - three in fact, with none departing. Let’s have a quick look at those incomings and make some sort of judgment call on the business this window:
LYLE TAYLOR: Unattached → United [PERMANENT, 6 MONTHS]
The first piece of our January business, and arguably the most important one. Given the fact that since playing Exeter at home on the 22nd of December we didn’t have a single striker fit to play, adding one (and adding one early) was critical. If you cast your mind back a few weeks to the start of January, we’d put in the worst display yet under Harris against Orient on New Years Day, bowed out of the cup valiantly against Blackburn, and then had the prospect of Fleetwood at home, as close to a six-pointer as you get in January.
It was paramount we had a striker in for that game, and almost inexcusable if we hadn’t got one over the line - even with the preface of the January window I gave above, it has been obvious we’ve been needing to add someone here since about October.
And at the eleventh hour, in came Lyle Taylor. Most were expecting a young unknown loanee, but Harris clearly wants to bolster his side with some proven goalscoring nous. And it only took half an hour of Taylor’s debut to show it, with a goal and an assist to give the U’s all three points. He’d played with Harris right at the start of his career at Millwall, and cited him as a big reason for coming to the Abbey. A trend I suspect we will be seeing more of.
One thing his career path tells us is that when it works for Taylor, it really works. His spells at Wimbledon and Charlton are particularly indicative of this, despite it not ending well at the Valley. Even being part of Forest’s Premier League promotion winning squad only three seasons ago is no mean feat. At 6 foot 2 he is a decent frame, with an experienced head on his shoulder, and more than anything he has that intangible quality football fans love to give strikers: “he knows where the goal is”.
After a failed move to Wycombe, this could well be a move that suits all parties as we add a proven goalscorer who has one last roll of the dice to get himself one more decent contract to finish a fine career with. The hunger is there from both parties for it to succeed, that’s clear enough already.
JAMES GIBBONS: Bristol Rovers → United [LOAN, 6 MONTHS]
The second addition is both unglamorous and a bit of an unknown. But absolutely necessary. Aside from the forward situation, it has also been clear for a while that we’ve needed some cover for young Liam Bennett at right back. Aside from Okedina, who Harris clearly doesn’t want to play out there, we don’t have another option, heaping the pressure on young Liam’s shoulders. Add the intense fixture list that the second half of the season always provides, it was a no brainer to get something done here.
Step forward James Gibbons. Part of Port Vale’s side that won promotion out of League 2, where he also racked up 111 appearances after coming through their academy, Gibbons went on to move to Bristol Rovers. Joining on their return to the third tier, he made 37 appearances for the Gas, with a few injury struggles and competition for places limiting his game time.
He’s described on his Wikipedia as a “little terrier” by current Wales manager Rob Page, and that he “plays with a lot of intensity and physicality" by a former youth coach. So, Liam Bennett 2.0? Or -1.0, as he’s older, I guess…
Either way, to bring in some very decent experience and, again, another player with a point to prove, who can cover at full back on both sides, this seems like very smart business overall.
MACAULEY BONNE: Gillingham → United [LOAN, 6 MONTHS]
I think if you had told a United fan five years ago that we would be about to head into the latter stages of our third season in League One with an attacking line up that features Lyle Taylor, Elias Kachunga, George Thomas, and now Macauley Bonne, they would have laughed all the way home from Crawley or Newport - or wherever we’d have been visiting in 2018.
Obviously, there are reasons why all those players have ended up here - a combination of United’s upward mobility as a football club and those individual players dropping to either find regular gametime or rediscover their form or promise that was once so evident.
The latter is clearly the case with Bonne. After scoring 45 in 90 for Orient and helping them return to the Football League, he signed for previously mentioned Lyle Taylor’s Charlton in the second tier, where he hit double digits and earned himself a move to QPR. Here is where his career maybe starts to not quite live up to its promise - QPR, Ipswich (maybe a bit harsh as he did contribute 12 goals in his one season here), a second stint at Charlton, and finally Gillingham, he hasn’t quite been able to muster up the electric form he’d started his career with.
But that’s not to say there isn’t a very, very capable player in here. And one man who certainly thinks so is Neil Harris - by all accounts it was Gillingham who beat the U’s to his signature in the summer, such is Bonne’s desire to play for Harris. And that’s what coaxed him away from Priestfield on a 6 month loan, to work with a man who scored so many goals in his career.
Similar to Taylor, it feels like Bonne is in a position where a really successful second half to this season puts him on the watchlist for clubs above United and reignites his career. As far as I’m concerned, in the short term, we now have some numbers and options in attack, and a wide range of experience that has been through plenty of relegation fights in their time.
And promotion chases too, but one thing at a time…
GENERAL VERDICT
It’s hard to be anything other than positive from our window. We strengthened exactly where we needed to strengthen, and we’ve brought in proven quality and players that Harris clearly wants to work with.
To be a perfect window, as Harris himself said, it would’ve been ideal to add a fourth. Personally I would’ve liked a centre mid as I think we’re light in there if one gets injured, and to see fan favourite McGrandles leave Charlton for Lincoln on loan does sting a bit. But I think considering I wasn’t expecting us to bring in players of Taylor’s and Bonne’s quality, we can all agree we’re in a better shape than we were on the 31st of December. Time will tell if it’s enough.
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