The Real EFL Podcast

League One News: Birmingham City, Lincoln City, US TV Deal Bristol Rovers as Dark Horses and Leyton Orient.

Gary Hutchinson and Chris Laming return with another episode of The Real EFL League One News show.

This week we're covering:

The CBS EFL TV Deal

Birmingham City's Latest Business

Sean Clare Joining Leyton Orient

Promise Omochere Moving To Bristol Rovers

Lincoln City Signing George Wickens

We're not just about the news, but also the opinion. Are Orient lagging behind in the market? Should Bristol Rovers be dark horses for promotion?

This Podcast has been created and uploaded by The Real EFL Podcast. The views in this Podcast are not necessarily the views of talkSPORT.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:: 35m
Broadcast on:: 24 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

This podcast is proud to be part of the TalkSport Fan Network, TalkSport, powered by fans. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile unlimited, premium wireless, heavy to get 30, 30, get 30, get 20, 20, 20, get 20, get 20, get 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month. So! Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up for three months plus taxes and fees. Promoting for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month slows. Full turns at mintmobile.com. They say opposites attract. That's why the Sleep Number Smartbed is the best bed for couples. You like a bed that feels firm, but they want soft? Sleep Number does that. You want to sleep cooler while they like to feel warm? Sleep Number does that too. JD Power ranks Sleep Number #1 in customer satisfaction with mattresses purchased in-store. And now, during Sleep Number's biggest sale of the year, save 50% on the Sleep Number Limited Edition Smartbed plus special financing for a limited time. For JD Power 2023 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards only at a sleep number store or sleepnumber.com. See store for details. Hello and welcome to the Real EFL League One News podcast. Thanks for joining us and before we start, please don't forget to give us a like, follow and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Today, I'm joined by my regular co-host, The Thinking Man's Ponder, Chris Laming. How are you, sir? That's two weeks in a row. You said very nice things about me. I'm very well, I'm very well, even better after that introduction. How are you? I'm very, very well. Thank you. Are we ready to get into the nuts and bolts of the top five stories in League One this week? Absolutely. Let's go. So today, we're covering news from across League One. We're including stories from Birmingham City, Lincoln City, late Norrian, and Bristol Rovers. However, before all of that, we're casting a riot across the Atlantic to a major news story breaking in the US around the EFL. And here's a big surprise. It doesn't involve Rexham. So a major US TV deal has been announced. Now, we knew that there was a major TV deal with the US in the pipeline, but the EFL has agreed broadcast rights with CBS. So the exclusive deal will see up to 250 EFL matches from across the championship, League One, League Two, Caravalco, and Bristol Street Motors trophy being screened for audiences across the United States. So the package will include all 15 playoff games, a minimum of 155 championship fixtures, a minimum of 38 League One and League Two matches, 30 Caravalco matches, and somewhere they're going to find three Bristol Street Motors games that are worth watching as well. So that's interesting. Trevor Birch, CEO of the EFL said, appetite for football in the North America markets has been growing year on year. And this partnership with CBS and their leadership in covering the sports marks, a significant milestone. The EFL is already broadcast to a global audience of 400 million across 182 territories, beaming into more than 250 million homes outside the UK. They're astonishing numbers for Barrow and nurses Bromley. Now, obviously, there has been a hunger for the football in the US. It's been growing over the last couple of years. The arrival of Lionel Messi at Inter Milan certainly helped hosting the 2024 Copper America and the upcoming 2026 World Cup means that there's a huge amount of interest over there. But what does it mean, Chris, towards over here and what your thoughts on the deal? Well, it can only be a good thing. As you said, there's definitely interest in the States. For me, you always have to look a little bit close to how and what does it mean for us. And if you extra quid in the conference is always going to help, a majority of clubs, particularly in the championship, make a significant loss every season. So it's only going to help towards that. You just hope it's not going to encourage teams to spend even more over what they mean over their means. Also, though, I think a lot of clubs this time last year had one eye on a potential new deal with the Premier League and the kind of prospective income that that's going to lead to. And of course, as we're sat here right now, we don't have a deal still. So if nothing else, this will absolutely go to plug some of the holes that I imagine quite a few clubs were planning for at the moment. So it can only be a positive and I like to think it can only grow as well. So yeah, brilliant that Mora is going to be on the EFL, particularly lower down. But ultimately, it's only a positive for the long terms to stay in the ability of every League one, League two, and championship club. Yeah, I mean, I think in real terms, the actual benefit to specific clubs may be low. I think it's 56 million is the total that the TV rights have been sold for. Part of my thinking here was more towards the general exposure, particularly for US owned clubs who were looking to grow a brand abroad. So for instance, if you look in League one, everybody knows at Rexam and Birmingham, a US owned, but actually there's a part US owner at Barnsley. For instance, Cambridge United 20% US owned, Charlton Athletic Joshua Friedman, Crawley Wagon United, US owned, Huddersfield Town, Kevin Nagle, Lincoln City have got Harvey Jabbar with WMA sports ventures and liquid investments. There's an awful lot of US owners, even down into League two on a League one podcast, but you've got Carlisle and Gillingham, US owned, Warsaw, US and Canada. Do you think the scope is there for more so for those clubs to grow, grow their brand than? And I made the throwaway comment, but perhaps more so than Bromley and Barrow. Yeah, I think there's already that kind of interest there. There's already that kind of emotional investment, I suppose. But what you might also see is even more interest from American investors coming across to invest in UK clubs. Now I'll be very skeptical of welcoming every single potential US investor to invest in English football, ultimately it's the English game. I do think that some of the American investors at the top end, like the real elite Todd Boldy coming to mind is a little bit laughable what's going on at Chelsea, it all certainly has been. I think they can sometimes be tied with a negative kind of stereotype. And there's someone quite high up in the air film it told me, put it quite nice is that America's quite a big place. They're not all the same. You just like you do in every world of life, you get people that get it, you get people that don't, you get people that have got good moral, you get people that haven't. So I would be skeptical about allowing just to have an influx of American ownership and then American investment into the air, but ultimately we want sustainable football clubs. And if we're getting more investment in here, then that can only be a positive. Yeah, of course, I mean, without kind of primo xenophobia, we're talking here about American ownership, as you said, as a blanket and actually they're a good and bad owners of all nationalities. And we together are Lincoln City fans and have certainly seen the positive impact of American ownership, whereas Liverpool fans and perhaps other big clubs are seeing negative. They might not see it whilst the owners are actually there, but things like the Super League, et cetera. But it's not necessarily nationality, the cause is that probably rather personality. And also, I think when you look at, for instance, Ipswich Town, there's a brilliant model of American owners who came in with a budget and with a plan and have implemented that plan really, really well. Well, what I would say is I think that America is a huge sports market. They took rounders and repackaged it as a world game that's only played on one continent. They've taken rugby, patted everybody up, stopped every five minutes and turned that into a sport that people want to sit and watch. Whereas in Ireland, for instance, hurling, what a fantastic sport that is. I was watching that on Twitter yesterday and nobody really cares about it. And it's right there on our doorstep. So the Americans have a brilliant way of packaging sports. I think that this could be the gateway. And the more exposure that clubs get, the better. The one thing that I would say that's a little bit negative, 155 championship games, 38 league one and lead two games. And you know of those 38, 37 of them are going to be rexom or Birmingham. So I think it's about ensuring that fair share. But then that's what we've got that issue with the Sky deal as well, I think, haven't we? Yeah, exactly. I think, ultimately, I think the high profile owners have probably given a bit of a reason for the investment in the first place. Maybe if they weren't there, there would be slightly less of an interest from the US market to maybe invest the sums that they have done. So I suppose we're just going to re tag along with that a little bit, like you say, use it as a gateway. I know there really is a a growing interest of football in in the States, particularly when there's football. Do you know what? I don't think just a little side note, when when English people get really kind of uptight and offended about Americans calling it soccer, just we we invented that word. We used to call it soccer as well. I just I think it's baffling. Don't get it wrong. poke poke fun at the Americans. I understand the joke, but like we we invented the word soccer, then we take the criticise them for using that word. I think it's a little bit harsh at times. Anyway, but there is a growing interest there. I know that the whole promotion, relegation idea is just so far separated from American sports culture, and they just find it absolutely fascinating. And of course, in the Premier League, it's particularly last season, you know, the three teams that went up came back down again. Yeah, that's not that that's not like exciting. That's not that interesting compared to teams that have got the mentality. Like a reximin fairness that started on the National League, I've got aspirations of really kind of growing and growing. So, supposedly American market can really get on board with that because it's just not something that that can happen in their regular sports culture. Talking of soccer ball, we're going to move over to Birmingham City, American owned, splashing the catch. I'm going to be talking transfer news. Now Birmingham City, I think we're our headline story last week when they signed Alex Cochran. This week, they're our headline story again, and it's for a double purchase. And so they've purchased Willem Williamson, and he's 25 years old, Icelandic international attack in midfielder. 15 goals in 58 top flight Dutch games for Go Ahead Eagles, one of my favourite Dutch team names, and 10 goal involvement last season alone. The fee here transfer market suggests, and we know that that's not entirely accurate all the time, suggests 4 million euros. If that wasn't enough, they then signed Christoph Klara. He's 24 years old, Austrian under 21 international centre back, place four or played rather, for Darmstadt 98 in the Bundesliga II, I believe, which I know he's one of Chris' favourite divisions, so he's going to give us a low down in a minute. Once of Southampton and transfer market again have this at 4 million euros. We're talking close to 7 million pounds, potentially. The two players in League One, they're in talks, apparently to try and sign Jay Stansfield, for 6 million. Where do we even start with Birmingham City over the last couple of weeks? Oh, it's mental, isn't it? He mentioned Ipswich, they came into League One with a budget and a plan and they executed that plan to precision. Look at them now, I'm guessing Birmingham probably taking a, I suppose, inspiration from that, but they seem to be kind of really blowing everyone outside the water in this regard. I remember this time last week, before these two signings, they'd still spent around 5 million quid. I was maybe a little bit critical so I could see them going one of two ways. They could be like an Ipswich in season one, a Sunderland in season one in League One, and really struggling, almost feeling that they've got this. Maybe a divine right to get promoted, and I really, I suppose, I just have a little bit of a taste for clubs that have that kind of that mentality, but the other half of that is they could just absolutely walk it. And to be honest with you, with these signings, it's unbelievable to manage, but then to attract these players to League One, absolutely unbelievable, particularly Christoph Clara, you mentioned he played the Bundesliga, as a wider Bundesliga last season, he actually played in the Bundesliga, Darmstadt were in the top flight last season. He's a duttoff before that, really kind of top performer in this wider Bundesliga, got his move to a top flight size. Darmstadt did go down again, but he's had a full season as a starting centre back in the Bundesliga, they get some move, Birmingham City and League One as a reward for that. But clearly, these players are clearly seeing the plan that I imagine Birmingham are expecting to spend just a single season in League One, and then fancy themselves to go again in the championship. I know that they, you know, they mentioned that if they stayed up in the championship last season, this coming season, they would have a budget, which would allow them to push for promotion. So I'm guessing they're kind of just doing it now, they expect to get out of this division at the first time I've asked him, and then to potentially go again. There's a few teams that get promoted from League One that really do struggle in the championship, if they go up comfortably this season, you can imagine them doing quite staying in the championship, quite comfortably next. But just because you're spending money on players doesn't mean those players are going to gel, doesn't necessarily mean they're going to fit into a particular system. And let's be honest, Birmingham City are going to be coming up against the best version of every opposition this season, because they're going to be every team's cook final. It's a little bit of a, it's a little bit of a, maybe an easy, an easy saying to make. But I think there's an element of truth in that, you know, everyone's going to be on top of their game, particularly going to St Andrews as well. So, you know, if they can overcome that, they'll be in a good place. But it's just, it's just incredible, the amount of money they're spending, I've never seen anything like it in League One. There's Vice-Bunder-Lego. You can tell who's doing German on Duolingo, and who's doing the Italian finally, unfortunately. Bunder-Lego too, for me, it's got two in it. So, it's Bunder-Lego too. Yeah, I like you said, they're going to be everybody's cook final. There's comparisons with it, which there's comparisons with Sunderland. You know, when Sunderland came down, it was a reported four million on Will Greg, and everyone was off in arms about it, and they were Ada McGee, 25,000 upon arm. This is every sign in its every single week. And the thing is, it's not even as if it's unsustainable, because they've actually got the money. So, even when you start implementing things like financial fair play, if you start kind of trying to build things like that into their model, that they'd probably survive most of the tests, that they'd probably be able to go and justify their spending. And I don't ever think that financial fair play should regulate teams who have the ability to generate the income organically. So, okay, Birmingham City may be slightly over that, but there's still going to be 20,000, 25,000. I have many to get at Birmingham every single week watching these games, and they've every right to try and go again. And it's an element of jealousy. I've been quite critical of them on social media platforms and had all the bites, but it's just jealousy. That's all there is to it. We shall move on. It's our favorite subject. So, Lincoln City have announced a triple signing over the last seven days. Tom Hamer, 24-year-old centerback from Burton Albion. Dom Jeffries, who was a surprise signing, caught everybody off guard. He's come from drilling him for an undisclosed fee, but I believe the two clubs reached an agreement, otherwise it would go to the development of our funeral. And George Wickens, 6'5" goalkeeper from Fulham made headlines last season whilst online at Ross County. Now, director of football, Jess George, speaking about the Wickens deal, said, "To have executed this signing in such a timely manner, hopefully, evidences our recruitment process and planning. It also demonstrates how our model works by us investing a portion of the transfer fee received for Lucas Jensen into such a talented young goalkeeper with huge potential and future asset value." So, that's George Wickens. Let's focus on the Wickens signing. First of all, he's the third goalkeeper that Lincoln City have brought in this summer, on the back of them selling three goalkeepers all for cash. That's pretty unprecedented at the imps, isn't it? Yes, it's pretty unprecedented. I think anywhere in League one to sell three goalkeepers in one summer window. Of course, Lucas Jensen has made an estimated half a million pound move to Merwall after a real standout season. Last season is the imps just missed out on the playoffs. I think he was just one goal short of the golden glove as well, so it would be big shoes or big gloves to fill, should I say. George Wickens appears to be a goal keeper very much in the same kind of profile as Jensen, 6 foot 5, really commanding in his area, makes big saves, actually averaged more saves per match while he was on loan at Ross County last season than Jensen did at Lincoln, though, of course, I imagine he was facing a few more shots as well. But he has just a really interesting business, just quickly on Lincoln's business overall. That's their tenth signing now of the pre-season, and we're not even in August yet. I mean, 10 incoming, albeit three of them goalkeepers, but also seven of those 10 players on age 24 or under. I think Lincoln City has had a bit of success recently in recruiting young players and selling them on for a profit, and it appears that they're just kind of doubling down on that mentality yet adding some established professionals like Derek Corinne, Bayless, and Column of Grandals to that group. I just think it's really, really interesting business by Lincoln, mainly just to get to say many players through the door, so many exciting, up and coming players through the door, and most impressively, just so early in the window as well, just looking at their squad is. They're not a million miles away from being done with real depth. It's really the centre-back position that it looks like it needs a little bit of kind of a little bit tinkering, and they're pretty much done with nearly five, six weeks of the transfer window still remaining. Yeah, it's fascinating. It's also fascinating the way that George Wickens referenced some of the players that had gone before him, so as he signed Lincoln, he said, "You only need to look at the track record of the young goalkeepers the club have brought through in the past few years and how well they've gone on to do." Now, there's a bit of credit there to the club that's probably not entirely justified, because some of the young players that have come to play at Lincoln are already very good goalkeepers who are established, but they've certainly used Lincoln as a step in board to go further. We're talking Alex Palmer, who's now a regular at West Bromwich Albion, Josh Griffiths, and was a young goalkeeper from West Brom again, who in fairness hasn't had quite the same amount of success. Carl Rushworth, who was excellent for Swanzi last season, was superb for Lincoln Lucas Jensen as well. There's been an awful lot of very good goalkeepers, and you only have to actually go a little bit further back and think about Ryan Allsop, who's just moved to Birmingham of all teams, and for a reported £900,000, according to Transfer Market, you look at Josh Vickers, who will be playing regular championship football next season. What is it in the water at Sinsul Bank that helps produce so many good goalkeepers? I wish I knew. I wish I knew the answer to that question. As an ex-girlfriend for myself at Lincoln City, I wish I knew the answer to that question. Gary, I really do. It's interesting. It's not like Lincoln had been a team that I've had in the last couple of seasons. They've been weak defensively, and goalkeeper is often a shine in poor teams with kind of porous offenses, because they stand out more. Maybe under Michael Epperton, that could maybe have been a little bit more true, but certainly in the last two or three seasons, it could have been pretty solid at the back, and the goalkeeper has a really valuable role to play in that. What it is that means that they've got such a reputation now, really, for developing these young goalkeepers. I'm not entirely sure. A goalkeeping coach has actually changed a couple of times as well, so it isn't a particular coach. It's clearly just a reputation that the clubs have built on. It's clearly just good recruitment. They have a clear profile that they want to recruit for. I'm going to go for it. Long may it continue, of course, as a Lincoln City supporter. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. At Mint Mobile, we like to do the opposite of what Big Wireless does. They charge you a lot. We charge you a little. So naturally, when they announced they'd be raising their prices due to inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due to not hating you. That's right. We're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up front for three months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month, slows. Full turns at Mint Mobile.com. They say opposites attract. That's why the Sleep Number Smartbed is the best bed for couples. You like a bed that feels firm, but they want soft? Sleep Number does that. You want to sleep cooler while they like to feel warm? Sleep Number does that too. JD Power ranks Sleep Number #1 in customer satisfaction with mattresses purchased in-store. And now, during Sleep Number's biggest sale of the year, save 50% on the Sleep Number limited edition Smartbed plus special financing for a limited time. For JD Power 2023 award information, visit jdpower.com/awards only at a sleep number store or sleep number dot com. See store for details. So we mentioned just Griffiths there. He's moved to Bristol Rovers this season. He's not the only player to move to Bristol Rovers and we're picking up on one of their latest recruits for our next news piece. So they have signed centre forward promise on a cherry from Fleetwood Town. He's a 23 year old striker. Now he got six goals on one assist for Fleetwood last season. And he originally came to Fleetwood from Bohemians. So he's doubling born and Irish striker. Now the fee is a reported, this isn't transfer market, this is a reported fee of half a million pounds and apparently they've fought a strong trust from Barnsley and Rexham to bring in on the cherry. Now Matt Taylor who has been a success at this level before, he's at Bristol Rovers now and he says we are delighted to welcome Promise to Bristol Rovers. Promise has fantastic attributes which he showed in both games against his last season and which we look forward to developing during his time with us. He's shown his attacking ability over the last two seasons in League one and at 23 has a lot of room to grow and become even better. Now his goals and assists numbers didn't catch my eye. He caught my eye last season as a player that I thought was a real handful and it looks on paper like this is a good sign in for Bristol Rovers. I agree 100% that it's a good sign in. He's a player that's got real potential to kick on. He has all the physical attributes that, I mean he could be a success higher, he's got a few things to polish but yeah it's absolutely helpful. We'll definitely occupy defenders, we'll definitely give some defenders there. Yes on sleepless nights I think this season. I was not surprised that there was going to be quite a lot of interest in him this summer. He would have been a, yeah let's be honest too good for League two but I am surprised by the thing. I know setting forwards of course if they kick on really well if he has a breakout season this season in terms of goal scoring then Bristol Rovers will be easily able to turn a significant profit on a half a million pound investment but half a million pounds is one hell of an investment for a club the size of Bristol Rovers. Now I know they made a few quid off selling Collins to Bolton in January so I imagine there's a few pennies floating around there to add in that part of the pitch. I just feel like in terms of market value there probably wasn't half a million pounds worth there from a cherry but if it goes well I do think they'd be able to recoup that fee and more but on the pitch will absolutely add to Bristol Rovers front line no doubt about it. Now I think there needs to be a conversation around Bristol Rovers. I mean they've lost Anthony Evans was another sale around the £500,000 mark I believe to Huddersfield Town so they certainly have the money. Last season Bristol Rovers weren't really in the playoff discussion and they weren't really in the relegation discussion. They were the filler they were the middle bit of the table and they were difficult for some teams to play against and perhaps not so much others. Now this summer I think there is some really eye-catching business from them and I'm not just talking about on Macheary I'm talking about Isaac Hutchinson coming from Walthor who I think has been excellent for them over the last couple of seasons. He's a real talent. Jamie Lindsey from Rotherhamium played regularly for them last season. Another player who you would think is experienced enough to help drive a team up the table. Raul Satorio who's come from Lane Orient another young striker who is only 23 as well so they're kind of investing in the youth and then you're looking at Clinton Moeller Joel Sr. They've signed obviously Josh Griffiths who have spoken about Michael Forbes West Ham on the 21 as joined on loan. Taylor Moore has joined. It's interesting business and with Matt Taylor you've got a manager who I don't think could be as far removed from Joey Barton as possible and which is a great thing everybody wants that. Better manager who's been there he's done it but he's still young he's still exciting. Are we looking at Dark Horses in League one this season? Yeah I think so. I'm particularly impressed by their front line. Isaac Hutchinson very much in that attack and creative midfield role. I was really impressed with the Walks all last season. Walks Satorio I think is a really, really smart pick up from Lake Norrin. I think it's a really good season at Orient last season and then of course Amachere. So you imagine Amachere is a tutorial up top with Hutchinson in and around creating. It's got a little bit of everything in that front line. They can keep themselves solid at the back. I think they've got a really good opportunity. I've been in and around that kind of top 10 but they're not going to be the only teams in there. I think that's the thing this season League one. It's so difficult to call because I keep changing my mind as to who I feel has got a shot at being a top 10 season. There's about 15 teams in there. Obviously they can't all make it but I just think they're going about their business really smartly which to be honest isn't something that you could say necessarily say about Bristol Rovers in recent seasons but yeah but under Taylor this season they certainly seem to be doing things slightly differently. Yeah and you've got a member of players like James Wilson regularly promoted from this division with different clubs. Scott Sinclair, Luke Thomas, Giovanni Brown, Chris Martin. There's certainly going to be an interesting side. We mentioned Raw Satorio there. He was at late in Orient last season and for our final story of today we're going to go to Brisbane Road and late in Orient as they have announced the capture of right back Sean Clare. 27 years old he turned out 38 times for Wigan last season. He's made 285 senior appearances in his career. Only eight of those have been below League one unless you class the Scottish Premier League is below League one and some Ross County fans may well do that. So hugely experienced player and on joining the club head coach Richie Welland said first and foremost Sean is an experienced League one player and he also has experienced in the championship and the Scottish Premier League. He can cover several areas for us has lots of pace and athleticism. He's a good size and a very good footballer. I think he'll be a good signing for us. Now you're talking about a player that's got Charlton Burton, Oxford Hartz, Sheffield Wednesday all in his locker in his previous employers as well. What your initial thoughts on this transfer? Just a very solid, very, very solid signing. We'll definitely improve the right side of Orient. We'll allow them to be flexible and it can play comfortably as a right back in the back four but also pretty comfortably as a very forward thinking wing back in the back three slash five. So yeah, office tactical flexibility, very, very dependable at this level. Yeah, adds to a couple of eye-catching signings, really, from Orient. Well, that's a couple. The other one being Jai Simi, Jai Simi, who had a really, really impressive season at Charlton, not so long ago. But yeah, I think this is a strong sign. I don't want to say really, other than it's a good start to the transfer window for Orient. But they have been a little slow. There's not been many incomeings which you'd expect to see be guaranteed to first-team starters and there was a fair few exits. So I think there's still got a bit more work to do to if they feel that they want, they're able to challenge at that right end of the table to even challenge where they finished last season, to be honest. But this is a good solid start to the transfer window for them. And normally in League One there's a team that suffers second-season syndrome. So they come in and do really well in the first season or do relatively well, comparatively well. Now I thought Orient were very unlucky last season with one or two things. There was the postponed game against Lincoln City. They were winning, which subsequently Lincoln won the replay. And perhaps that was three points they should have had from a promotion rival. They figured out ways to stop teams playing in Richie Wellens. They've got a really good manager. But it has been a slow start to the transfer window. Charlie Kellman and Sonny Perkins, I think, coming on loan. Perkins was on loan at Oxford and barely kicked a ball last season, took back Giusemi, who is a decent sign-in and regularly in League One for Charlton and Sean Clare. But it's been very, very slow coming. When you look through the squad, Jordan Graham is a decent player when you can get 40 games a season out of them at this level, Theo Archibald, it is tricky on the ball. You've got Jordan Mccurney, Thengal Braith, both players. I think that there are many people right at this level. But at the moment they almost seem to be banking on a if it ain't broke, don't fix it approach and just pepper in the side with the old player. Now that can be an approach that works. If you're good enough in the first instance, and it's just about a little tinker and a little bit of improvement. But personally, I think their biggest strength here is Wellens, who's a manager, I think knows how to get the best out of a team and get the best out of the squad. I think that they're going to be knocking around mid-table again this season, potentially. Yeah, I have to agree, terribly to be honest. I would actually say if they didn't have Wellens in charge, they might be maybe a surprise struggle this season. You often have that. It's like, who's won the transfer market kind of conversation at the end of the transfer window? No one knows. No one knows until the end of the season. Who's won the transfer market? Like you say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But I think at this time of the season, you always analyze incomeings and outgoings. And sometimes if I get who's already there, and they've got a strong squad, as you mentioned, I don't think they've got a squad that's going to particularly punch any higher than they punched last season. I think they'll be. They're probably people like we just mentioned Bristol Rovers, we're kind of neither here nor there last season in regard to promotion, renegation. I think late in our room will probably have a similar season this season in this time around. I imagine they'll take that there. They're looking to probably just establish themselves at this level. And like you say, ain't broke, don't fix it. But there's still five weeks of transfer window left yet. There's this plenty of business that could, they could, they could still take place. Late in our insurance always an attractive club for players that want to live in around London, always an attractive club for for loans, particularly towards the end of the transfer window as well. They primarily click things, do have to be a bit more careful now about the amount of loans that they can send out, of course. But I think they'll be absolutely fine, but I agree that their bigger strength is really well and is no doubt. Yeah, I think that's an interesting conversation that we will have to save for another podcast and quite how we would get it in. I don't know, but the smaller amount of loans that are going around at the moment is absolutely noticeable. So thank you everybody for joining us. We have covered five of the top league one new stories. Please do not be upset if we haven't covered your team. It just means they're not interesting enough. My name is Gary Hutchinson and he was Chris Lamming. Thank you for listening to the real EFL League one news podcast. We appreciate you joining us. And before we go, please can I just remind you, don't forget to give us a like, follow and the subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, a retweet on Twitter, a mention on Facebook, whatever it is, whatever floats your boat, make sure that we are floating with you. And we'll be flowing with you around the same time next Wednesday. Goodbye for now. [Music] This podcast is proud to be part of the TalkSport Fan Network. TalkSport. Powered by fans.