[Sir Megson]

I see in the Express & Dingle we are considering maintaining our high player age average by offering 36 year old Gareth Barry a two year contract with second year determined by performance. Is it yet more 'paper talk' and would he be a good addition to our aging squad?

Sounds like the deal we offered Fletcher and he decided not to accept it and then went on to get a guaranteed 2 year contract at Stoke. Closer to home for him as well so as a player approaching his retirement it's a deal that makes sense for him. Fletcher could have played on for us imo but being an aging ever present meant he always looked knackered when we entered the busiest period of the season; and played twice or more in the space of a week. I imagine he'll not start quite as often at Stoke as he did for us.

It's got to be said regardless of age, for a free transfer Barry could be a good addition as long as he's not a regular starter, more so used as rotation in the starting XI or on the bench similarly to how I imagine Stoke would utilize Fletcher. Although I think we'll more than likely see Barry go to Swansea as part of the Sigurdsson deal that's being rumoured if that does indeed turn out to be true.

I'm still trying to keep positive and hope that my gut instincts of us dealing late in the window and waiting it out for better players becoming available turns out to be accurate, but it's definitely becoming more worrying as each day passes I have to say. 

Common sense tells me that Pulis, Hammond & Garlick etc haven't just twigged today that we've got a threadbare squad and need the numbers in - to be fair they probably have more at stake than us as fans, it's their careers on the line.

Could well mean that us having to wait so long is just a by-product of the players we're chasing not being allowed to leave their clubs until later in the window once they've lined up their replacement/s. Obviously this is total guess work on all our parts but I do hope that this approach is mainly down to Pulis and Co not panicking and buying some last choice player just because they can get them in earlier than another player. Fingers crossed!