The final signing of an unusually busy loan window deadline day say Chris Maguire join the club on a 5 week loan deal from Sheffield Wednesday. Maguire can operate as either a striker or a winger, providing options in two under served areas in the squad. The Scot also has a penchant for scoring a spectacular goal, as can be seen below.
Maguire actually came very close to joining Coventry in our Championship days, after signing Guillaume Beuzelin we had agreed a fee with his former club Aberdeen however the he chose to remain with the SPL side. Since then he made the move to Derby County where he struggled to establish himself in the first-team. A loan move to Portsmouth was much more successful, including that goal from above, he impressed a skilfull player out wide for the troubled South Coast side. This spell included a controversial appearance at the Ricoh Arena where he appeared to spit at a ball boy as well as generally going down quite easily.
After impressing at Portsmouth he made the switch to Sheffield Wednesday, hoping to finally establish himself as a permanent player for a Championship club. However like many Dave Jones signings at the Owls he quickly fell out of favour as the former Cardiff manager pursued short-term loans in the hope of success. This is where we find Chris Maguire, although regarded as a supremely talented player at Hillsborough he’s been a casualty of Dave Jones’s scattergun approach to squad building.
Maguire adds options to both the wings and up front over the congested festive period. This firstly offers competition to the underperforming Franck Moussa and Carl Baker, both clearly need a strong kick up the back-side at the moment. Additionally as a striker he offers security should Chris Dagnall struggle to impress during his own loan period. It’s tough to see where he fits in immediately but he’s such a talented player that he improves the side anyway.
The final element of our transfer dealings today is that all 3 have a hint that they could be made into permanent deals. All 3 are out of favour in their parent clubs, although that’s the case with 90% of loan players, and are players that Pressley has been after for much longer than just the past few days. The fact that Pressley has waited to bring the right players in suggest to me that there’s a strong chance that at least one of the three will become permanent fixtures and that the next few weeks are a chance to assess whether they are right for the club for the next couple of seasons.
Sideways Sammy 