Ok, we've been leaking goals but

LargeAddick

was centre-half a priority ? In my opinion, yes and no. Yes, if we are going to win enough games to stay up then we need to stop leaking goals otherwise we'll never win enough. No, because if we are not scoring enough it doesn't matter how many we are leaking. Answer? We need another decent striker desperately. BigBent and Fattybaink are not the answer. Nor is Lisbie, he's unproven and a gamble at this level. By Wednesday we need another striker. If we can add a decent central midfielder as well then even better but I reckon this is slightly less important. As for centre-half pairings. Bougarra and Elk or Bougarra and Diawara is my guess. Whichever way we are now overloaded in that position. Bougarra, Elk, Diawara, HH, Fortune, Sorondo and Sankofa. Add to that Gibbs and that's eight. Perhaps Fortune is off and Sorondo has been a complete waste of him. Injured most of last season, injured a lot whilst at Palace and still we signed him. Gibbs we may never see. Diawara, the juries out and probably off in the summer. reckon he would have gone this window but for the three club rule. Will we sign a striker by Wednesday ?

aliwibble

No.

razil

Sankofa, aint he a full back? Agree we are overloaded though.

ThreadKiller

it's the quality not the quantity.

Salad

Midfielder more important than striker imho.
Need to start giving our strikers some service.

AFKABartram

[cite]Posted By: PeakeysRocket[/cite]it's the quality not the quantity.

Peakey has called it right. If we go down, we've signed a centre half who is seen as one of the best in the Championship.

If he is as good for us, as the Wednesday fans have said he has been for them, we've done alright. Thatcher is a solid pro who knows his position, hopefully we have signed two players that we will look back on in twelve months time and say 'improved the team'.

I'm not sure at the moment we have the funds, or the attractability to sign players in the key areas (centre mid, striker) that will improve the team.

Ormiston_Addick

Agree with AFKA, no doubt Pards has tried to sign the best midfielder he could realistically hope to get but has not been able to secure the deal. Regardless, if we can tighten up at the back and keep clean sheets then we only need to nick five or six 1-0 wins and we are out of it so Bougherra could be a better move anyway. If you can improve on what you have, in any position, then you will be making yourself a better team.

seriously_red

Unless we are going to sell a centre back or play one in a midfield 5 (with Reid and Thomas / Romm on the wings) then I don't get it since we already have a big wage bill and I don't think our real problems are the back 5...

Just hope we can borrow a striker or midfielder from a top half club reserves since no-one in the bottom half is likely to help us out

bingaddick

I think that Pards has decided that we need to be tough to beat and therefore sorting out the defense is key. We have strenthened the spine of our team with his signing. If we can make ourselves tough to beat then this may be the foundation on which will be built the wins to keep us up. We have need of some more quality in midfield. Maybe ZZ will turn out to be this. Personally I would like to see Elk as a holding midfielder as an alternative to Faye. I'd also like to see Walton given a chance. Yes it would be nice to get another striker on board but if we haven't sorted out our defensive frailties, a striker wont help much.

AFKABartram

they always say you build from the back forwards. Having seen how many goals we've leaked this season, i don't think another centre half was completely out the agenda

T

Too right AFKA, Especally one that can speak English, French & Arabic can play as a holding midfielcer aswell.

A couple more loans in before Wednesday - Johns & Song and we should be alright in Midfield and upfront.

Chris_from_Sidcup

Pards has said before he rates Diawarra and he clearly likes HH as he constantly praises his workrate and commitment. That leaves those 2 plus Elk and Bougherra. Fortune i'm convinced will be sold. And i doubt we'll ever see Sorondo and Gibbs. Gibbs i think will probably have to retire. So that doesn't leave us that overloaded at the back.

Salad

And a centre half who is good at his day job but can also play the ball out of defence is a great asset ..... less hoofing and more playing through midfield to attack ..... and of course , just occaisonally, ina sterile game, this sort of player just takes the bull by the horns and blasts through midfield on his own to set up an attack .... which we all love to see!