Glory Hunter - A Journeyman adventure

Still very tight there, as the Championship always is. Hopefully with some good additions you can be moving back in the right direction.

Haven't seen anything that tight since my uncle premiered a 3D viewing of his last colonoscopy. Spoiler: it was a shit movie.

So that was not a great month at all. 9 points picked up from 21 available is not the type of form you want to see in a promotion chasing season. I am not sure what is up with the team to be honest. One minute we are smashing Sheffield Wednesday 5-0 and the next we are losing 2-0 to a poor Huddersfield side.

Draws are still a problem, as we lost a 2-0 lead over Fulham and we also lost a lead against Norwich in another 2-2 draw. The one shining light is Afimico Pululu is now the League's top scorer and without him we would look so toothless.

A rehaul is coming and deals have been wrapped up for players to leave and also for some players to come in. It is going to be a very busy January as we look to clamber our way back into a play-off spot before it is too late.

A tough month and that playoff place has slipped but hopefully some new deals can revitalize this team and turn it back around.

If you could turn a couple of those draws into wins, the league table would make for prettier reading for sure. Hopefully you can find a resolution quickly.

Need a good run of form to push into the promotion places here

Difficult times in the Championship, but it's not surprising as it is most definitely one of the most demanding leagues in world football. I am sure you will rebound back.

Transfers

I said we needed an overhaul and that is what I did. Firstly lets cover the outgoings. Striker Marco Tuminello was sold to Nottingham Forest for £5.5m. He had barely played and was expecting to start so i thought that good business. Lee Buchanen hadnt even made it to the subs bench so £350k was a good deal as he joined QPR.

Scandinavian Kristoffer Petersen was sold to Rostov in Russia for a deal that should net me £1m whilst back up Keeper Paolo Bastianello was sold to Luton for £130k. Finally the disappointing Mats Moller Daehli was sold to Qarabag in a deal that should rise to £6.5m. It leave the total outgoings for the season at just over £18m. In this window we also saw Borja Baston sign a pre-contract agreement with Lokomotiv Moscow meaning his £40k wages will be off the books at the end of the season

It also meant we needed some reinforcements. A couple of promising youngsters in Szondi and Lambert were promoted to the first team as cover. The first signing through the door was left sided Inside Forward Boubacar Fofana who joined from Ligue 2 side Chambly for £700k. My scouts found him and although he isnt excellent he cant be any worse than Petersen and Daehli who stunk up the place. Based on his flying start including scoring a winner on his debut he could be a little hidden gem for us.

With Baston and Tuminello on their way out, i decided to move for Wigan's Eddie Brown for £4m. He has scored quite a few goals in League 1 since the save started and i want to see if he can step up a level. He will be a back up but is versatile and could find himself on the wings or alongside Pululu. My last two signings were both Goalkeepers. Axel Sippel a German U21 international has been signed from Hamburg and immediately loaned back to them as he gets game time as their No.1. It was a cheap deal at £350k and he will likely be the Third choice next season or back up is Casilla decides to retire. However, our new No.1 comes from Barcelona as Arnau Tenas joins for £1.9m meaning Casilla is back to being a back up. It means out total transfers for the season amounted to just under half (£9.25m) of our outgoings ensuring a net transfer spend.

There could have been a lot more as some of our youngsters including Andrew Thomas were the subject of some big bids but i decided to hold on to all of the youngsters as one of the visions is to develop our own youth and right now they are proving to be integral to the side. I did look for a central midfielder but all of the options were quite expensive and Henrique Jocu has finally seemed to settle and has started to put in some decent performances to go alongside Star Man Matt Grimes.

On the Pitch


A slight improvement as we close the gap to the Top 6 by 3 points but we still need a good run and a little bit of luck if we want to get out of this division. Boubacar Fofana has been a breath of fresh air on the left wing and he has scored some vital goals as we started to pick up victory. It was only in the final league game of the month against fellow Promotion chasers Bristol City that we were ripped apart as we lost 3-0.

Meanwhile we managed to meet our FA Cup goals just about as we finally overcame Brentford in a 3rd round reply before losing to Chelsea in the FA Cup. That is now two competitions they have knocked us out of this season so i will certainly want my revenge at some point.

We need a run of form and we need it now

Some decent signings which will certainly help your push for the playoffs. The results lately are largely encouraging if you ignore the humbling loss to Bristol City. Hopefully that is just a one-off!

It’s quite tight at the top. If you overtake one, you could overtake a few. You have your eyes set on the top places, which is good. Hopefully the new attackers can fire you to promotion.

Getting closer and closer to a play-off spot, great stuff!

A better month with the gap to the playoffs looking a lot better now. The incoming signings seem to be helping improve the results and long may that continue.

We needed a good run of form and we got it as we picked up a maximum 18 points from 18 available as we beat some tough sides including Birmingham and Stoke. With other results going out way we are now suddenly in a title race with just 11 games to go.

Has it been perfect, No. We can still look a little toothless but we are now showing grit and determination something we seemed to lack in the first half of the season. The Premiership is close...

It's crazy how quick a situation can change in football! Almost exactly where you want to be now, and you have eleven games to finish your title rivals off in style!

Exactly the run of form you have been craving. You've gone from fighting for a playoff place to well and truly looking like a strong candidate for automatic promotion! The magic of the Championship.