Pardew sparks the silly season

And not just down at Selhurst Park where apparently Steve Parish has agreed a £2m compensation with Mike Ashley for Alan Pardew’s services! A marriage made in heaven.

The transfer window opens on New Year’s Day and although it remains to be seen what plans Roland Duchâtelet has for us, the Charlton rumours are rolling in.

The gift that keeps on giving is Andy Delort, signed by Wigan for £3m on summer deadline day in a blaze of self-social media publicity driven mostly by his Dad. It was no secret that Duchâtelet had banked on bringing in the 23-year old from Tours who was joint top scorer in Ligue 2 last season.

In the end, and the Belgian could hardly be blamed, the self-aggrandizing and inflated fee was enough to put the Addicks off. Since, Delort has struggled to make any impact at all with Wigan. Signed by Uwe Rosler, but dropped to the development team, Delort has not even made a matchday squad for the Latics under new manager Malky Mackay. Delort in 8 Championship appearances has yet to register a goal, but has scored 5 for Wigan’s development side against the likes of Morecombe, Walsall and Tranmere.

Talk is that Delort will move to The Valley on loan until the end of the season.

Tom Watt watched the game on Friday and is expected to be involved in the Blackburn cup game. With Frederic Bulot going to the Africa Cup of Nations on January 17th with Gabon, Astrit Ajdarevic’s name has resurfaced as a possible squad replacement.

We are said to be interested in 19-year Chelsea striker Islam Feruz, who is currently on loan at Greek side OFI Crete. Feruz is Scottish and has played at all national levels up to U21. Another young striker said to be on our radar is Belgian Aaron Leya Iseka, who is only 17 and plays for Anderlecht.

Both fit again Simon Church and Joe Pigott are anticipating being sent out on loan. Church’s contract is out at the end of the season, but Pigott’s runs to 2016.

I am less happy about whispers linking Johnnie Jackson with Chris Powell at Huddersfield. I would think Jackson would be hard to shift, but the attraction of reuniting with Powell might be enough for the 32-year old to up sticks.

Morgan Fox was said to be interesting Mick McCarthy as a potential replacement for Tyrone Mings, the Tractor Boys’ highly sought after left back.

Oguchi Onyewu has had his loan from the MLS extended until June 1st, I heard good reports about the American when he made his home debut as a substitute against Cardiff.

Likewise, Neil Etheridge, whose Oldham contract expires on December 31st. One would think that Peeters will definitely give Etheridge a short term deal to run until the end of the season especially with Stephen Henderson looking like he needs an operation on his shoulder. Henderson dislocated his shoulder a year ago playing for Bournemouth and was out for 6 months.