At the time of writing this piece, Tranmere have seen three departures during the January transfer window and, as yet, there’s have been no fresh additions to the Rovers squad.
Micky Mellon did, during a recent interview, say that players needed to leave before anyone could come in, to free up some funds, so there’s 20 days to try and freshen up the squad and see if we can strengthen enough to push for a play-off place this season.
The three departures so far have all been from the relatively strong defensive unit; Dynel Simeu was recalled by Southampton before joining League One Morecambe on a similar temporary agreement, Neill Byrne left the club after just six months to join Stockport County and goalkeeper Ross Doohan yesterday left to join Forest Green Rovers.
Two of those three have not been regularly involved in the team in recent weeks, so it shouldn’t impact too much, but the departure of the number one goalkeeper, Doohan, came as a bit of a surprise.
The former Celtic shot-stopper has had a bit of a hard time of late, a mistake to allow Sutton United’s second equaliser last Saturday the latest of a few errors in his game in recent weeks.
His understudy, Matheusz Hewelt, has impressed in the handful of appearances he’s made for Rovers this term, albeit in the ‘lesser’ Papa John’s Trophy competition.
It will be interesting to see if he is given his opportunity to take the number one position or whether another goalkeeper is brought it to come straight into the starting XI.
Personally, I would not be against Hewelt starting this Saturday’s home game against Walsall. As I mentioned, he has done fairly well when he’s had the chance, and probably deserves an opportunity of a run in the side to see if he is capable to step from the number two position.
We still have Joe Murphy in the squad who last season showed that he’s not past it either, although it would seem unlikely that he would come into the reckoning at this stage in his career.
Although we haven’t seen any confirmed signings yet, a few names have been touted as transfer targets, the latest being striker Jamille Matt.
The Forest Green front man is 33 years old and his signing would seem to go against the grain of the club’s summer transfer policy of signing younger players to develop and potentially ‘sell on’.
However, you could argue that some experience is needed to help the younger lads and Matt could be a useful acquisition to assist the likes of Kane Hemmings and Elliot Nevitt.
That said, Matt seems destined to join Saturday’s opponents Walsall and team up once again with his ex-Newport County boss Mike Flynn at the Poundland Stadium.
Strengthening the attack must be Micky’s priority, as we simply haven’t scored enough goals. Arguably, we haven’t really replaced James Vaughan who retired a couple of years ago.
It seems unlikely that we’d be able to pick up a guaranteed 20-goal a season man at this stage, but someone to help carry the burden up front, notch his fair share and help the team moving forward is a must and surely something the management are hoping to do during this transfer window.
Fingers crossed, we see some positive movement in the market in the coming days.
