Page 14 - 360633 LP236168 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (April 2022)

JAN WINDOW:
PROGRESS
REPORT
Although the recruitment strategy for our January window was strange to say the least, it arguably looks excellent on paper. We lost Aiden O’Brien to Pompey and replaced him with Jermain Defoe, the ninth highest Premier League goalscorer of all time. We lost a Hume and gained a Hume, the latter Hume a top prospect in Northern Ireland whilst the former had seen his career stagnate with us.
This all sounds very promising to the layman, especially if you told said layman we also acquired a combined £22m worth of talent from Manchester City and Spurs. Upon hearing this, this imaginary lay person might have rushed excitedly to the nearest tattoo artist and had a bespoke ‘League One Play Off Final Champions 2022’ design hastily imprinted somewhere upon their imaginary body. To this made-up layman I say, wait. Read this article. I will assess how our signings are actually doing, right at this moment in time. As they say, only fools rush in.
of the back three which we have utilised recently, allowing his fellow countryman Carl Winchester to slot into midfield and allow our other Ulsterman, Corry Evans, to take a break. Even if he is not deemed fully ready to play for us yet, his signing seems like good business.
DANNY BATTH
Danny Batth has probably proved to be our worst signing of the window so far. No doubt he was drafted in under Lee Johnson to be a physical presence in a back three, with Callum Doyle and Bailey Wright affording us the luxury of still being able to pass it out from the back on the ground, but, we have had limited chances to do this. When he has played, Batth scored an awful own goal against Bolton in our 6-0 defeat and overall, looked a bit ropey to say the least. He has a lot of experience at a higher level, so maybe when he has a decent run in the side he will play better, but currently he looks a bit of a lummox, hopelessly punting the ball up the pitch more or less every time he gets the chance.
TRAI HUME
As surely as every properly constructed alphabet begins with A and ends with Z, similarly, any list of January signings must begin with our first signing, which was Trai Hume
from Linfield. Hume was an unknown player, but the unanimous Linfield view was that he was an exciting prospect, a view obviously shared by those in the Northern Ireland setup, with Hume recently receiving his first senior call up, having represented his country since he was a schoolboy. This call up comes despite the defenders restricted appearances for us.
It seems everyone rates him highly, that is, everyone except us. I think Hume probably did enough in his first start against Cheltenham to warrant him being in contention at least going forward, but Trai must try to be patient. Against Cheltenham he looked assured defensively and was particularly good in the air, and though perhaps there was a remnant of the Irish League left in his direct approach in which he pumped the occasional long ball forward, this wasn’t helped by the way in which we set up that day. Overall, he looks fairly promising and I would have liked to have seen him on the right side
PATRICK ROBERTS
14 ALOVESUPREME ISSUE258
Rather than being a club that kills players’ careers, it seems as if Lee Johnson intended to set the club