Who's responsible for the transfers? #lofc

If rumours are to be believed we're going to sign Larnell Cole tomorrow.

Now before I carry on, I've got nothing against this fella at all and wouldn't know him if I walked past him in the street. I genuinely hope he turns out to be a massive success for us and goes on to captain England.

But what worries me is WHY we are signing him, and more importantly WHO is signing him?

So who is the lad and what does he do? Born in Manchester he was at United from 2009,  played his way through the youth setup and then followed Rene Meulensteen to Fulham at the start of 2014. Since then he's had three games at MK Dons on loan last season. All i can gather about the former child superstar is that he can play in central midfield, right-wing or right-back.

And at that point i'll stop and take some air in. Because now i'm confused.

Since Liverani has been here we've signed Josh Wright permanently and then bizarrely brought in John Lundstram on loan who seems to have replaced permanent signing Wright. They were brought in, we assume, to play alongside Romain Vincelot. We also have Marvin Bartley and Harry Lee on the books from the old regime. Pritchard is a central midfield work horse. 

Two weeks ago we brought in Ryan Hedges to play on the right-wing, and by all accounts he actually looks decent, but has been dropped in favour of an out-of-position Bradley Pritchard. We also have Shaun Batt, who by his own admission isn't injured and is a right-winger. And don't forget McAnuff if he ever gets himself fit enough.

About a week ago we added Neal Eardley to the squad, an out-and-out right-sided player who was playing in the Premiership for Blackpool at right-back a couple of seasons ago. He's also more than comfortable at wing-back or right-wing at this level of football. Eardley has since played once and was then dropped for Omozusi who he'd been brought in to replace the previous week. Prior to all that Scott Cuthbert played an entire season at right-back. Bradley Pritchard and Matt Baudry can also play at there.

So we're bringing in an inexperienced young player to play in positions that we already have covered by other loan players at the expense of leaving our own more experienced players out the team?

So who's responsible for this transfer?

I think we've all read the documents that allege Liverani, Milanese and Becchetti all sign their own friends or words to that effect.

Or maybe this signing has been arranged by our chief scout, Gianluca Romano.

Who is also an agent according to his Twitter Biography and the FIFA list of Italian agents.

Which according to the grapevine, being a Chief Scout and a Football Agent isn't good practice.

The Italian Job - Russell Slade's Pre-Season Signings - Part One

There's been a lot of criticism of Russell Slade's Pre-Season signings. Let's delve into what happened, why it happened and how it happened.

The takeover from Hearn to Becchetti is complete. If rumour is to be believed, Russell was asked to name five players for each position in the squad, funds not a problem, anyone you like. Mauro Milanese (of whom we'll discuss later) and Becchetti would do the rest.

Naturally Russell went shopping in the Championship as any sane fella would do.

Adam Legzdins - Signed a two-year contract on the 13.06.2014.
According to both Slade and Legzdins we'd been in for him the previous season when he was at Derby and we needed a keeper. Derby were reluctant to let him go, fortunately for us we got Jakupovic.

Slade obviously liked the sound of Legzdins and at 6' 4'' he certainly sounded like the dominant type of keeper that Jones wasn't.

Bradley Pritchard - Signed a two-year contract on the 10.07.2014.
On the face of it, nobody really knew what this signing was about. We'd lost Moses to Brentford, but Pritchard certainly didn't spring to mind as a direct replacement on the wing. Personally i put this signing down to adding a bit of depth in midfield, providing cover and competition for Vincelot and James.

Regardless of what Slade had in mind, we'd been picking from the Championship again so no complaints on that front, plus the few Charlton fans that piped up said that we had a livewire-workaholic type of player. That definitely fits the Slade mould.

Gary Woods - Signed a two-year contract on the 17.07.2014.
Wow.. We can afford two Championship quality keepers of our own! No loans for a change! Similar to Legzdins in that we as fans had no real idea of what we were getting.

We knew that he played a load of games for Doncaster when they were promoted from the Division Three though. Gotta be a good keeper.

Shane Lowry - Signed a two-year contract on the 21.07.2014.
A player that we've heard of! I think Russell brought Lowry to Brisbane Road to shore up the left-back position and add some more quality depth to one of the best defences in the league.

25 years old, over 100 games at Championship level, this was a top-notch signing.


The Lowry signing had me (and no doubt others) starting to realise that Slade's shopping list wasn't a fabrication at all. We had a new owner, we meant business, and the four signings so far had definitely improved on what we had the previous season.