No more Hutton!

Hopefully not true but rumours going round that Hourihane may go to Palace?

I heard that,but I also heard that the delay is due to Barnsley making sure they've signed Matty James before letting him go.

Sam Johnstone
James Bree
Henri Lansbury
Conor Hourihane
Birkir Bjarnason

Great window so far, fingers crossed for a striker

Even if we don't get a striker, we'll be much better with the players we have now. Realistically we only need cover for Kodjia as he will be our main striker again now he's back.

What I'm really excited about is the midfield which now looks good & no more Westwood and Hutton will be nice though I don't want to get into negative comments.

Team for Tues could be:
Johnstone
Bree Chester Baker Amavi
Lansbury Hourihane
Adomah Grealish Bjarnason
Kodjia

Would quite like to see Richards given a chance if he can get fit, think he'd be a top player in the Championship.

Birkir more central maybe?

Get the impression Bree is not the finished article, particularly as regards defence. So I think Hutton will still play, some of the time.

Ideally another attacker and another central defender would be nice, but this new midfield should improve things at both ends of the pitch.

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Get the impression with Gollini was that he hadn't settled well enough, and it made sense to let him go back home for 18 months. When he arrived, he had the support of an Italian goal-keeping coach, and when the coach left he may have found things difficult; he's only 20, and was still learning English.

Reckon he's actually a very good keeper and will only improve. Could still have a future with us. Don't know that Johnstone is better, but he is in a better situation.

Agree about Gollini, the Johnstone fella looks to have potential too but would have definitely kept Gollini. He's gone to Serie A club Atalanta and looks to be on the bench for them so he's not even being used over there. If he's going to be bench-warming he may as well do it at his parent club and act as cover than on loan benefiting someone else, or go on loan to a team that will play him.

I can imagine that Bjarnason might play in a midfield three with Lansbury and Hourihane actually, and Jedinak still featuring but maybe in and out of the team more given his age, with Grealish or Ayew on the left, Adomah on the right and Kodjia up front. In an ideal world we'd have extra competition for Baker at centre back (even though he looks much better this season), cover for Amavi, and cover for Kodjia (that isn't Gabby). I imagine a new striker will come in if/when McCormack goes. Rhodes would be fine, but he'll probably be backup to Kodjia as we only need Kodjia as a lone striker.

Would like to see rotation between youngster Bree and Richards. Think Bree is still working on the defensive side and needs to be eased in, but we potentially have an outstanding right back for the future (to go with an excellent full back in the making on the left in Amavi). Personally don't rate Hutton, even at this level, and given he is now 32 surely a move would be best option for him.

Dr Tony

He tweeted: “We're still working 2 make some in&out2improve the squad till the end of the win as we'll keep fighting until we get where we should be.”

One of those is likely to be Bury defender Jacob Bedeau.