One in - one out

[seatonspitfire]

From today's Echo.....

Ex-Portsmouth midfielder James Granger joins Eastleigh for the National League run-in


EASTLEIGH have a new, young face in the camp for the Vanarama National League run-in.



On-loan Swansea City midfielder Tom Holland has returned to his parent club without kicking a ball.



That spare place has been filled by former Portsmouth academy prospect James Granger, a 19-year-old central midfielder who has been training with the squad for the last month.



He joins an Eastleigh side whose play-off destiny hinges on the last nine games of a rollercoaster campaign – starting at home to struggling Welling United tomorrow (Good Friday, 3pm).





Manager Chris Todd explained: “The Swansea lad's gone back because he wanted to play, which is understandable, but I couldn’t offer him that.



“Tom's a good, young prospect who trained hard and was great to have around the place. I thank Swansea for letting us have him.



“I tried to get him minutes, but we've had some close games and I didn’t want to upset things.



“James Granger's come in and he’s also dual-signed for Poole Town.



“He’s a big lad, which is a bonus, and a great talent in central midfield. He’s trained well and he’s an extra body for us.”



Eastleigh are still without suspended pair Ben Strevens and Paul Reid to face second-to-bottom Welling, whose 22-match winless league run stretches back to October.


Jamie Turley is not quite fully over the hip injury that forced him off at half-time against Bromley, but he is available for selection tomorrow.



So too is fellow centre-back Will Evans who twisted an ankle in the closing minutes of that 2-0 Bromley win – the Spitfires' third home victory in the space of eight glorious days.



A lull of nine days without a game has left eighth-placed Eastleigh three points off play-off pace, but they are fully rested and ready for an Easter double header which takes Todd back to his old club Torquay United on Monday (3pm).



Like Welling, the Gulls are scrapping for survival, making them potentially dangerous opponents.





“It’s never easy against sides who are fighting for their lives. There’s a lot at stake for them and us,” said Todd.



“We’ve got no god-given right to beat anyone unless we perform. You have to dig in to win matches whoever you’re playing.



“But we’ve trained really hard and had a bit of rest as well. We’re a good team who are working hard and we’ve got to be confident.”

[Deleted]

Absolutely pointless. Don't take this the wrong way as dont know the player, but are our sights now on players who have joint dual-signed with Southern Premier level teams ? We send out our own players who are good enough to play at that level and above already.

What was it said about the 2 Carlisle lads ? I am not going to sign players who are not better than we currently have !

As for Holland and "Manager Chris Todd explained: “The Swansea lad's gone back because he wanted to play, which is understandable, but I couldn’t offer him that.

“Tom's a good, young prospect who trained hard and was great to have around the place. I thank Swansea for letting us have him.

“I tried to get him minutes, but we've had some close games and I didn’t want to upset things."

Were we expecting easy games from now to the end of the season then to give the lad some minutes ? Thought we would help develop a lad nothing to do with the club over our own youth setup ? We have plenty of players who we could re shuffle the midfield pack with and then also have kept Lee on the bench instead.

Yet I bet the signing policy continues to be defended in some shape or form.

Rant over and welcome to the club James

[tenacres]

Don't sit on the fence there SunnySaturdays! :0)

You never know he might just make an impact tomorrow

[Deleted]

I cant see any benefit frrom this loan signing. It doesnt seem like much of a gamble though and hopefully he will make a good impact.
Just a shame none of the academy players are deemed good enough for the 1st team squad yet.

[tenacres]

Emergency loan window ended today @ 5pm which presumably explains the timing of this. Sounds like we've traded up on the lad from Swansea.

Who knows what lies ahead in the next few weeks? So for me it makes sense to get an extra body in whilst we could

[Deleted]

A few seasons ago Adam Watkins joined on loan from Luton at a similar age and time frame. He did quite well and scored a couple of goals in tight games.
Maybe James Granger will be a decent signing in the short term.

[back4more]

I would guess we would like to sign excellent players who are the "finished article" and CT's interviews have indicated that he has tried but that the January transfer and subsequent loan windows are not that easy.

Re the comment on the two Carlisle players, it might be worth remembering that the Carlisle first team has won only two of their last ten matches and both those wins were in one week in February against sides which were near the bottom of the table. It's highly likely that our first team is better than theirs. That being the case, I'm surprised we were even considering taking players who weren't good enough to get into their squad.

I really don't know anything like half of what goes on but I can imagine that, as others have suggested, we've done all we can to try to ensure we can put out a capable side as and when more injuries come along or players need recovery time (eg fatigue/loss of form etc). 

BTW, didn't that Charlie Austin play for Poole?

[Deleted]

Mar 24, 2016 21:24:51 GMT tenacres said:

Emergency loan window ended today @ 5pm which presumably explains the timing of this. Sounds like we've traded up on the lad from Swansea.

As we don't know the ability of either, we can only go on paper, so how is taking a released academy player from a league 2 team classed as a 'trade up' on a current academy player of a Premier League team ?

Like I said, we have countless players in our squad that will get moved into midfield position before James gets on the pitch, so just put TL on the bench instead and give him the time when the match is won, cause that is the only time James will get game time.

Apart from keepers, Turley, Reid, Constable and Tubbs, pretty much the rest of the entire squad can, and probably will be selected as a starting midfield make shift role over James.

It's not just about what we need also. We should do right by these young lads, not drag them from Wales with the intention of playing minutes only in games that are already won and our foot is off the gas.

We will be getting a reputation soon that will affect players coming to us.

[Deleted]

Good post, SS.
They echo my thoughts from a couple of weeks back. Our recruiting situation is becoming very embarrassing & we will soon lose the trust of the Parent clubs.
We are bringing in players who are then not being played, & are then stated as being not as good as the players we already have at the club. The biggest mistake in all that is that they are not even as good as he players have sent out on loan!!
That's very poor, no matter what the intention is with bringing in these young lads.