Even if we sign no more today 2 is better than nothing
Whilst 2024 is only one month old neither has played any first team football this year. Hopefully, it won't take them long to get match fit but I doubt we will see either of them in a starting line up for a few weeks.
With Dozzell, Kelman and Duke-McKenna now out on loan and Field suspended and Kolli injured we would have a job to name the full quota of 9 players on the bench on Saturday. So I think any signings will be straight into the squad regardless of fitness!
Isaac Hayden and Joe Hodge would be good, short-term solutions in midfield. They, plus Michael Frey up front should strengthen the squad a lot. My only concern would be how long they will take to get to Championship-level match-fitness.
Hodge is a strange one. The club keep going on about FFP in every announcement yet we've brought in 2 central midfielders.
Of course we need to improve but perhaps a wide player was more necessary than another central midfielder.
So I'm surprised we've brought in both Hayden AND Hodges.
Spare a thought too for Elijah Dixon-Bonner. 24 hours ago he was certain to start, now he will be lucky to get off the bench.
Maybe Hodges is seen as a better option off the bench than what we currently have and he's not been getting much game time at Wolves.
But when everybody is available we have Field, Colback, Hayden, Hodges and Dixon-Bonner competing for 2/3 places.
The wide man is probably going to be Lucas Anderson who was released by his club last night and is now a free agent. I'd suspect we will sign him later today. He's a decent player when fit but is nicknamed 'Glass Legs' because most of the time he's injured.
I agree that Hodge is the strange one. Frey and Hayden make more sense. We have a short term need so Hodge only makes sense if he can make a difference pretty much immediately. I don’t know much about him but hopefully he has the ability to do that.
I am presuming Hayden and Field are competing for the DM role, whereas Colback and Hodge (and presumably EDB?) are competing for the AM role. Given the lack of back-up for Field in particular, the additions make sense. We may see one of them start in place of Field (suspended), and that should be Hayden if he is match-fit.