[NoSkillz]

2021/22 Sky Bet English League One - First Half Results


Our fine form that developed during our long preseason continued into the start of the League One season, as we'd march into Liberty Stadium and knock off the pundits' favourites for promotion 2-1 in the opening game behind goals from Carlos Mendes Gomes and Jordan Gabriel.

In fact, we'd dominate in the early goings, starting off with five consecutive league wins to immediately move to the top of the League One table.

However, a heavily condensed schedule in August, which included nine total matches due to Carabao Cup and Checkatrade Trophy play, helped contribute to a loss of form and the results started to drop.

Between August 21st (a 1-1 draw versus Fleetwood Town) and October 30th (a 2-1 loss to Oxford), we'd win only 3 out of 13 league games and we'd drop to 9th place on the League One table.

We'd hit rock bottom one week later. We'd get absolutely embarrassed by League Two side Newport in FA Cup play, as they'd wallop us 5-1 to unceremoniously knock us out of the competition. Confidence was at an all-time low and I needed to take a lot of blame - my team talks weren't working and our second half performances were a consistent issue, as our in-game form would seem to drop and we'd concede way too many late goals as a result.

We had a team meeting after the Newport game and I endeavored to be a bit more calm and positive in the dressing room. We'd squeak a narrow result in Checkatrade Trophy group stage play the next game against Rotherham and we started to gain more confidence, winning five games in a row in league play to hit the halfway point of the season with a 13-5-5 record, good for 44 points and a 4th place position on the table below joint leaders Sheffield United and Barnsley (50 points) and a resurgent Swansea City (45 points).

Our 44 goals placed us 4th in the league (Sheffield United had a league high 51) while our 28 conceded placed us eighth. We were definitely having issues in both areas - we weren't getting much production at all from our strikers (Harvey Knibbs and Burnley loanee Michael Fowler led the way with only four goals each). Meanwhile, goaltender Rory Watson was battling his confidence and we still had the looming transfer request from defender Sam Lavelle hanging over our head.



January 2022 - Transfer Window

I had a couple of major issues to deal with as we reached the reopening of the transfer window. Of course, I had to still try to move Sam Lavelle out of the club - this long-time lingering issue hasn't been too problematic on the pitch, as Lavelle is a very professional player and a good leader and has continued to play at a solid level throughout the last 15 months. Our relationship is solid - he just wants to move to a bigger club. Adding to the urgency is the fact that his contract expires in June and he obviously won't renew with Morecambe, so if I don't move him in this window, I will lose him for nothing. That said, I realize I have to move off of my desired asking price of £200,000.

The other major issue I'm facing is that we are currently over our alloted wage budget so I don't really have any money to make any moves as the window opens. Selling Lavelle could help somewhat but he's only making £1200/week so moving him will actually just get us under our board-alloted wage budget.

The January transfer window ended up being a lot more interesting (and infuriating) than I could possibly imagine...



Transfers OUT

GK - Conor Mitchell - Free - Tottenham
GK - Louie Moulden - £275,000 - Cardiff
AMR - Harvey Neville - £275,000 (£650,000) - Reading
ST - Harvey Knibbs - £49,000 - Walsall

Ok, lets start with the infuriating first...

If you recall, we had an offer in July for star young winger Harvey Neville for an all-cash, upfront sum of £500,000, a deal I accepted but then cancelled after Neville got upset and indicated his desire to stay. I relented and he stayed at our club. He'd continue his fine performances in the first half of the league season, booting home 6 goals and adding 8 assists in 23 total appearances before we received a complicated, multi-clause transfer offer from Reading. This offer had a much smaller amount of up-front money but included multiple clauses for games played, goals, etc that would take it up to a potential ceiling of £650,000 - our board of directors didn't even hear my opinion on the deal, immediately accepting it and Neville quickly came to personal terms and was gone.

What a slap in the face...

We only got £275,000 up front and would likely have to wait YEARS for this total to hit the sum I actually turned down months earlier. Just an awful piece of business from our board. When you add this to the fact that the board would not allow me to continue forward with improving upon my coaching classifications, I was not really happy with how I was being treated.

The board would step in for a second time, taking a full £275,000 offer from Cardiff to sell young goalkeeping prospect Louie Moulden. Moulden spent the first half of the season on loan at Dag & Red, allowing only 31 goals in 28 starts and I actually recalled him from loan after selling Conor Mitchell to Tottenham on a free in order to get his wages off our books. One week later, Moulden was gone as well but that's a hard deal to turn down, without question. So we'd have to go with another youngster, Lewis Thomas, as our goalkeeping backup for the balance of the season. Like Moulden, I'd have to recall Thomas from his loan at Torquay.

The final transfer in January was to move out underperforming striker Harvey Knibbs in a modest deal with Walsall. We signed Knibbs on a free from Aston Villa last year and he'd play in 53 games for our club (23 starts), scoring 9 goals and adding 3 assists during that time.

The one bit of positive news revolves around transfer-listed by request defender Sam Lavelle.

I wasn't getting any offers for Lavelle and my price kept dropping, going as low as £100,000 but I still got no offers. The window would pass and Lavelle actually came into my office and said that he wanted to reaffirm his commitment to Morecambe going forward and we would open contract extension talks with immediate effect. Within days we had Lavelle signed to a two year extension with no wage increase, an incredible about-face from a player who now might be captain material going forward. A very positive development, for sure.



Transfers IN

MC - DJ Buffonge - Free - 23 years old, Antigua & Barbuda
ST - Stephy Mavididi - Free - 23 years old, England

You may recognize the first name, as Buffonge spent all of last season here with us on loan from Manchester United and was arguably our most explosive midfielder. Buffonge was released by United and I attempted to sign him back in July but couldn't afford him. By the time we hit December, Buffonge was still unsigned and his wage demands were lowered and that allowed us to bring him in on a three and a half year deal. He will likely slot in at a Mezzala role alongside on-loan Tristan Nydam.

Mavididi is an interesting addition as well. The former Arsenal U18 moved to Juventus in Italy for a few years and actually played nine games for the senior team a couple years back, with the majority of time spent with the team's U23's. He was released and we pick up the talented English forward on a free but with the highest salary at the club now and a clause that guarantees him the largest wage moving forward. That's something I'll have to monitor closely. Still, a nice pickup.

We had one other contract offer accepted for talented right winger Uriel Antuna but we couldn't get a work permit approved for the Mexican native and we were forced to cancel the deal. We'd have to move forward at right wing with two loanees in Sylvester Jasper and the often-injured Nathan Tella.



Loans OUT

None



Loans IN

None



We did have a number of players who were brought in on loan back in July request to have their season-long deals cancelled due to lack of playing time.

Asking to be returned to their parent clubs were DL Joe Anderson (Everton), DM Neil Furness (Derby), MC Ethan Galbraith and ST Juanito Lopez. Of those four, only Lopez was one I contemplated rejecting, as he was starting to play a bit more often with the lack of goals from our top two early season choices of Harvey Knibbs and Michael Fowler. But with newcomer Mavididi joining the team, I felt I could let Lopez go without too much issue.

There was one player who requested to leave but I made him stay - DL Lewis Gordon certainly wasn't playing much but I felt I needed cover at left fullback just in case main starter Bailey Owen got hurt. Gordon spent the entire second half of the season upset with me as a result.

There was one more on-loan player that I elected to move out even though he was happy here - midfielder Sadou Diallo is supremely talented but he wasn't playing well when called upon plus I was paying half of his exhorbitant wages so it was an easy decision to send him back to Wolves to alleviate some pressure on our wage budget.