Chapter 1: What were the highlights of Pompey's transfer window?
There's always more than enough to talk about when Steve Bone pitches up on Pompey Sound and podcast, of course. But today that is especially the case because we are still having the dust settle on an extremely busy final day of the transfer window. So, Steve, I'm just going to say Pompey's transfer window and over to you. Oh, wow.
OK, this could take the whole half hour, couldn't it really? Yeah, we ended up with three on the final day, wasn't it? Which I think gave us a total of seven players coming in.
Chapter 2: How many players did Pompey sign on the final day of the transfer window?
Which I think probably, if you said to the average Pompey fan at the start of January... How many players do we need? I think most people would have said, in the present climate, six or seven. People would maybe have expected one or two others to either go back to their clubs or to be sold on. We lost a couple.
People at that start of January would not have wanted to lose Callum Lang as part of the equation, but we did lose him on that final day. We've heard more about that and I'm sure we'll come on to that. But in terms of the players that have come in, obviously we've already seen a bit of three of them. I think I'm right in saying we've seen a fair bit of Ali, Adams and Anderson.
In the case of Ali and Adams, big thumbs up. They look as though they are going to make a difference. Well, they already have made a difference, really. Adams brings us qualities to the midfield that we didn't already have. Ali looks good on the wing and he's got an eye for goal, as we saw on Saturday, so that's good.
I don't think we've seen enough of Anderson yet, which leaves us with another four points. Still to see and I'm pleased that they're signing people in alphabetical order because it's much easier to remember them, isn't it? So we've got Elise, the defender from Sunderland that we haven't seen yet. Looks a good prospect if he can stay fit.
We've got Brown, the forward from Luton who comes with a few rave reviews and I would imagine we'll be getting some game time with Colby Bishop out. Then we've got Caballero, I think he's the really interesting one, the Paraguayan winger. Looks like he's going to be used on the right side, got a bit of pace about him.
John Massino says he can get bums off of seats, although I did notice that the manager said that three days after the official website was needing to put out a statement. reminding people that they did need to sit down during games and should only stand up in moments of high excitement or something. So maybe that's what the wing is going to bring us. Sorry, getting sidetracked there.
And then we've also signed the defender, the Senegalese defender Dier. Not sure if it's Dier or Dier from the Norwegian club. So we've actually brought players in in pretty much every position that you would have wanted us to. Whether they're all going to have the quality that we need in those positions, time will tell. But overall, I think quite promising.
OK, shall we start with Callum Lang then? Your thoughts there?
Yeah, I mean, I'm disappointed to see him go. As I've said on here before, I didn't... agree with those who said we should sell him, we should cash in because of his injury record. I know it's not been good this season, but it was okay before that. But it seems like he wanted to go. He handed in a transfer request, made it clear that he wanted the move.
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Chapter 3: What impact did Callum Lang's transfer have on the team?
So he's been a good investment. But he also says, and if he goes before his contract is up, good luck to him. It's kind of interesting.
Yeah, it is, isn't it? As the owners have said, part of their model is to buy young players that can be developed and improved and they become assets that you can make a profit from. So it's possible that he will be sold at some stage.
But at the same time, if you're looking to be ambitious yourself and establish yourself at championship level a bit more than we are at the moment, then there's a balance between selling people on and keeping them. You want a bit of a backbone of a team to give you some continuity, don't you? And I think if you were to survey...
All Pompey fans who go to Fratton Park and get them to make a list of players they'd be willing to see go, don't think Devlin would be on any of those lists. I think people want him to be sticking around long term. It'll come down to his ambitions too. If he carries on improving at the current rate, there'll be Premier League interest in him, I would think, at some point.
Maybe not in the summer, but maybe a year on from there.
Yeah.
But no, we love him and we want to keep hold of him, certainly for now.
Something about him reminds me of Stuart Pearce. Straightforward.
What you see is what you get. Heart on his sleeve, isn't it?
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Chapter 4: What qualities does Gustavo Caballero bring to Pompey?
Well, I think we're in quite good nick, actually. The first half against West Brom, I thought, was our best half of the season, certainly the best half that I've seen at home this season, and actually up there with any half that we saw last season. In fact, it was a brilliant display, first half. We took it off the gas a little bit second half when the game was won.
West Brom were very poor, weren't they? They didn't have anything going for them at all, so that was a factor as well. But I think it's four wins, four draws and one defeat in our last nine, and that's not bad, that's not relegation form. I personally think we're heading for a finish similar to what we had last season, 16th. I think we'll be safe with a couple of games to spare.
Preston away is a tricky one, it's a long way to go in the middle of winter. I can see it being quite a dour game but I can see us nicking a point I think Lange will probably play Don't think he'll score. And I think we're, you know, we've got our tails up a little bit with these new people in the squad at the moment. Don't know which of the new boys we're going to see at Preston.
Two or three of them probably on the bench in addition to those who played last Saturday. And I think we're going to come back from deep down with a nice point.
That will be the end. OK, well, Steve, thank you very much indeed, as ever.
As ever.
for working your way through a very complicated telephone directory of players coming and going and staying and not coming and not going.
I think we've probably missed a few in our sweep around them there.
Well, just out of courtesy, let's mention Jordan Archer, who unfortunately... It seems as though they can't place him. Florian Bianchini, who's in danger of not being registered even. And then LaRue, they've got another few weeks to find a loan deal for him. And that's probably what's going to happen.
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