Deadline Disappointment

So, the transfer window is all but closed. The long expected arrival of a big name forward didnt quite materialise and Darren is very disenchanted to be left with Jon Stead.

The list of potential targets has been huge and often repeated, but its worth doing so again- Emile Mpenza, Shola Ameobi, Angelos Charisteas, David Nugent, David Healy, Shola Ameobi again and others that have no doubt escaped me.

So, which one did we get? Did we manage to secure a better alternative maybe? No, we got Jon Stead.

This time last year, he would have been exactly the kind of signing we would have been aiming for and would probably have been welcomed as a player with potential that hasnt quite been realised. One for Jim and the gang to try and turn into a key player for us.

But after the raising of expectations, the determination to strive for better players, those that will really take us to that elusive "next level" that Jim so often speaks of, Jon Stead is definitely not in line with that. In fact, given all the rhetoric and failed transfer attempts of the previous few months, he looks like being the player that signifies the worst case scenario for Jim.

Nothing against the player himself, he may do quite well for us, but it does seem as if Jim has spent all summer aiming clearly too high, only to come well short and therefore find himself with nobody as the transfer window shuts. Thus, faced with ending up with absolutely nothing and having already shipped Alan Lee out for pastures new, Jim has taken up one of the few attainable options left at this short notice. The fact that Stead is here on loan seems to demonstrate the stop-gap nature of this move.

Maybe there is a big deal to come in the loan market next week. But the season is already a month old and we still seem to be searching for that elusive forward- a search that started back in January. I hope Jim doesnt regret not scaling down his aspirations a bit earlier, rather than being forced to rush things when theres nothing else left to buy.