Day 97

I've been thinking about how to tackle the left wing problem. Olembé's not due to return from his leave of absence for another 22 days. Ansah's injured for four to five weeks. And Russell's due back in a few days. We do have other players who can play out wide on the left side of midfield—Nicolau, Platt, Park, and Shuker too if I play him out of his comfort zone.

But there's a lot of doubt about the quality of these options. Nicolau and Platt are not very good, to put it mildly. Park is perfectly capable of playing at this level, but he's really a defender and I fear his lack of pace could be an issue (not that it seems to cause many problems for Russell or Shuker). Shuker did well on the left yesterday, after Ansah got stretchered off, but I doubt his ability to perform consistently there across 90 minutes—not just from one game to the next.

And Russell may have been in great form before his injury, but he's punching above his weight if he holds down a regular starting spot.

The choice I need to make is whether or not to try and bring someone new in. Perhaps we offer Burgess a contract. Perhaps we find someone to bring in on loan. Or maybe I scour the list of free agents, looking for a suitable candidate. We can't really afford to do this, though. And our squad is getting big for a team at this level. So I'd need to release someone. And that costs a lot of money—like, the wages for the remainder of their contract.

A casual glance at the roster revealed two potential candidates—Miro, a Mozambican international, and Khano Smith, a Bermudan international with MLS experience. Neither of them has EU nationality, which complicates matters somewhat, but I offered them trials anyway.

I also offered a trial to Johann Smith, who holds three passports (USA, UK, Jamaica) and has loads of pace. I don't expect anything to come of these moves, but I want to consider all of my options.