Lower League Fortnight – Pay Up Pompey

Celtic distract Tomlin

Even for lower league teams, the final days of the transfer window can be chaotic.

Peterborough received three bids from Celtic for playmaker Lee Tomlin on Saturday 31st – the last day of the Scottish transfer window, and a match day for Peterborough. Tomlin was removed at half-time of the 2-0 defeat, with boss Darren Ferguson saying that his mind wasn’t on the game.

The fact that the third bid came during Peterborough’s match, while quite amateurish from an administrative point of view (during a home game, I’d imagine a fair amount of the admin staff will have been busy elsewhere in the stadium) shouldn’t have had an effect on distracting Tomlin. However, realistically, an agent will pass on information to the player, so two bids on the morning of a match will almost certainly have had an effect.

Given that reports suggested that Tomlin and Manchester United’s Alex Buttner were Celtic’s two big targets in the final days of the window, a big offer to conclude the deal the day before the match would seem the logical decision. I’ve seen no discussion of actual numbers, so Ferguson’s claim that Celtic “can’t have watched him much over the past few years if that’s all they think it’s worth” can be taken with a pinch of salt. But waiting until after Tomlin had started the season strongly and a point where it’d be impossible for the League One side to sign a replacement could only push his valuation higher.

That’s not to say that Peterborough have been generous with money themselves.

Posh had been in negotiations with Livingston’s Scottish U21 international Stefan Scougall, the deal falling through in part because Scougall wanted a £30,000 bonus if he achieved an international cap.

It’s something that sounds over the top for a League One player at first glance, but given that Peterborough’s current business model rests on spotting undervalued players, developing them then selling them on, it’s not that much to ask. If the added attention of an international cap could boost Scougall’s value by say, £100,000, then wouldn’t a £30,000 bonus be fair?

There’s no guarantee that a cap would translate that smoothly into a higher fee of course, but it would be a measured gamble, as were the decisions to pay big fees (by lower league standards) for George Boyd and Craig Mackail-Smith.

Notable business elsewhere

Of the three sides relegated into League One, Bristol City have been the side who’ve looked the least equipped for the current season. But late in the window, City made some of the additions fans will have hoped for. James O’Connor and Stephen McLaughlin, both of whom have played under Sean O’Driscoll previously, were brought in on loan, as well as experienced former Reading left-back Nicky Shorey.

Rotherham have signed former captain Pablo Mills, who had been on trial at the club after leaving Macclesfield during the summer.Mills had played for Rotherham previously between 2006 and 2010, as well as playing under current manager Steve Evans at Crawley between 2010 and 2012. A season at Macclesfield is perhaps lower than his ability deserves, and given that the former England youth international is still only 29, he seems a decent free transfer.

Tranmere have cancelled Stephen Foster’s contract after two months. He’d played 34 games for Barnsley a division higher last season but after Tranmere’s poor start to the season, a decision was made that Foster’s time at the club wasn’t working out. Given that Tranmere conceded 13 in the four games before Foster was released, it’s hard to disagree.

Similarly, Colchester released club legend Kem Izzet, the brother of Muzzy, who made 471 appearances across the last 12 years but hasn’t made the match-day squad this season.

Wolves signed Wrexham’s 17-year-old striker Bradley Reid, but their best business of the window is almost certainly keeping Bakary Sako at the club. Sako had been left out of the squad for the match against Port Vale on the 24th, as Kenny Jackett felt he was distracted by talk of a move. However, a £3.5m bid from Nottingham Forest was rejected and he looks set to remain at the club for now, at least.

While not deadline day business, a decision on the fee Brentford are to pay for Will Grigg is to be further delayed. A tribunal was pushed back until the final week of the window, but, according to Brentford director Mark Warburton “Clubs, lawyers, agents and officials are all tied up in the transfer window at the moment” which for some reason wasn’t foreseen.

Walsall have started the season pretty well, but the fact a fee hasn’t been decided yet means that they have, in the short-term at least, had to replace their star striker without a fee.

You wait ages for a goal, then five come along at once

It’s been an incredibly frustrating start to the season for Hartlepool United. After relegation from League One, few were predicting an immediate return – even as a Hartlepool fan myself, all I was hoping for was mid-table, consolidation for the future, and some decent football. But last season’s struggle to score goals has continued. When Millwall struck from the penalty spot against Sheffield Wednesday on the 24th, it meant Pools were the last team not to score a league goal. There’d been some decent attacking pressure, shots from range going just wide and a fair few decent opportunities, but no actual goals. It’s been a long-term problem. Since September 2011, Pools have lost 25 home games, and failed to score in 26.

The following midweek against Bradford in the Football League Trophy, that was all to change.

Bradford made a number of changes, with Nahki Wells, target man James Hanson and midfield engine Gary Jones among those left out. But as is the rule for the competition, six of the most regular appearance-makers were selected – remember, this is the club who overcame Arsenal, Aston Villa and Wigan, as well as being promoted from League Two last season. So Hartlepool’s 5-0 win was a bit of a shock.

Pools scored through a Luke James poached goal; winger Jonathan Franks following up a rebound from his own spilled shot; a headed goal from teenage centre half Christian Burgess; a penalty from winger Jack Compton; and an overhead kick from squad player Nialle Rodney.

Hartlepool followed the win up with defeat once again, this time to Wycombe, but with a goal (scored in the very last minute). The first half of the match saw Hartlepool attacking and pushing Wycombe back, but a combination of a lack of cutting edge and some committed defending from Gary Doherty and team-mates kept the scoreline blank. Wycombe rose their game in the second half, Hartlepool failed to rise to the challenge, and there was a two goal margin before long.

The chances were there in the first half and reports suggest a strong start on the opening day at Rochdale…but after Rochdale got the first goal on the break, heads dropped. The five goals prove that there is some attacking flair at Pools – with a bit more mental strength, semi-consistent entertainment is achievable. But a stronger mentality is required first.

Brentford’s dodgy keepers

Bradford reacted well to defeat at the weekend, though that’s at least partially down to Brentford goalkeeper David Button.

When the ball was passed back to him early in the match, he blasted it against Nahki Wells, who was closing him down. Fortunately, it was with enough power to cannon out for a goal kick. In the 26th minute Wells raced through behind the defence, only for Button to race out and take him out on the edge of the box Harald Schumacher style. Understandably, he was sent off.

Substitute keeper Jack Bonham didn’t do much better. Bonham, formerly of Watford, made his first professional appearance for the Hornets on the last day of last season, when he spilled a vital goal into his own net.

Released by Watford in the summer, he made his second professional appearance for Brentford in the League Cup – a 3-2 win over Dagenham. His third came in a game where the first team was rested against Derby, conceding five. His appearance at the weekend was his fourth professional appearance…and it showed.

Bonham could do nothing when a Bradford cutting move found James Hanson free near the penalty spot to score the first goal. But he has to take the blame for the second – he came rushing out past a defender to allow Wells to race past into an open goal, and was later beaten low at the near post for the fourth. There was also a late shot that Bonham appeared confident was sailing over by the way he left it, but it hit the crossbar and came back into play.

It’s not that Bonham’s necessarily a bad goalkeeper of course, but he’s still a teenager, so bound to be raw. It doesn’t help that his appearances tend to come against a team a division higher, a side with a point to prove or in a must-win end of season game. But the start of his career’s been pretty rough.

Pope remains dangerous

As Hartlepool were beating Bradford by five, Port Vale’s Tom Pope scored twice against Bury, to give the newly promoted League One side victory over newly relegated League Two. Though he scored 31 goals last season, these were his first goals of the season.

He carried on the form at the weekend, placing a shot into the bottom corner against Carlisle for the only goal in a 1-0 win. Given that last season he outscored his previous career total, he could very easily be described as a confidence player – this may well be the start of another impressive season.

Religious schism as Pope gets Abbott sacked

Although it wasn’t announced until Monday, Saturday’s 1-0 defeat was the final straw for Carlisle manager Greg Abbott. It’s hardly surprising given their start to the season – four goal defeats in the first three league games, 15 conceded in six games and only two scored. The last three results have been an improvement. Draws against a decent Colchester side and Brentford, who should be close to automatic promotion at the end of the season, preceded the Port Vale match. The lack of benefit of the doubt is understandable.

Abbott was the third longest serving manager in the Football League, behind Arsene Wenger and Exeter’s Paul Tidsdale. It can seem a kneejerk reaction to sack a manager six league games into the season – especially with Carlisle having beaten Blackburn in that time – but the problems have gone on for longer. As mentioned previously in this column, Carlisle had the division’s worst defence last season, but summer transfer activity instead focused on attacking talent.

Most of the reaction I’ve seen from ex-pros and the national media has criticised the ‘knee-jerk’ nature of Abbott’s sacking, but the wider context of last season has to be taken into account. Looking in from a distance, I’ve admired Abbott for a few years – he’s kept the Cumbrians consistently safe from danger in League One and won the Football League Trophy while playing an attacking, cultured game. But it does seem to have been the right decision to let him go.

Are the Blades the Lower League Man City?

Although Sheffield United’s start to the season has been pretty poor, more focus has been on the club off the field, with chairman Kevin McCabe selling his 50% stake in the club to a Saudi Prince. Although I’m far from an expert on the Saudi royal family, Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is apparently a former president of Al-Hilal, Saudi Arabia’s most successful football club, as well as build the Saudi Paper Manufacturing Company, which produces ’tissues and an assortment of other related products’.

Sheffield United have claimed (as is always the case when extremely rich people take over a football club) that big money will be spent, though the moves made by the Blades at the end of the transfer window seem to have been financed by the departure of Kevin McDonald to Wolves.

Jose Baxter has come in from Oldham, and perhaps just as impressively the club have signed Florent Cuvelier, a key part of Walsall’s unexpected play-off push last season, on a permanent deal from Stoke. United also made enquiries to Coventry for both Callum Wilson and Leon Clarke, but given the importance of the strike pair to keeping the Sky Blues in League One, they were understandably fruitless.

Coventry now in positive figures

At the weekend, Coventry’s strike force showed why they attracted Sheffield United’s interest, with Callum Wilson’s strikes taking them into positive figures after their ten point deduction. On Sunday, Coventry hosted Colchester and took the lead when Callum Wilson took advantage of a spilled shot. The second was totally different – Wilson played an excellent one-two with Clarke, raced through the defence and rounded the goalkeeper.

It was bound to happen at some point this season, but the crowd of 1789 was the lowest in Coventry’s history. Despite the quality of football on display, Coventry’s fans don’t seem willing to take the journey to Sixfields. It seems that Coventry’s story, which is dramatically different on and off the field, will diverge even further apart over the course of the season.

Pompey will pay up

The extent of money owed by Portsmouth to former players has been revealed this week – despite going through two spells in administration in recent years, many non-football creditors will get only a small portion of the fees agreed for their services and former players are owed £6.7million in total, with the club committed to paying £110,000 a month for the next three years.

Of course, it’s more a problem with football practices than Portsmouth as a club. I can see the logic of the football creditors’ rule to prevent clubs underpaying on agreed transfer fees, for example. But the current situation means that small local businesses and charities are further down in the pecking order than some players who contributed relatively little to Portsmouth, picked up bigger wages than they could have hoped to get elsewhere.

That’s not to say footballers as a whole are the villains. Luke Varney has spoken of how he remortgaged his house to take a paycut and help the club going, and there will be at least some others who did the same. Essentially, the situation is a mess, which will require at least a few more years of stability to sort out.

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The Lower League Fortnight – The “We’re Mostly Not Racist” EditionLower League Fortnight – Happiness & Unicorns EditionThe Lower League Fortnight – Air of General Negativity