'Chesterfield finish transfer window stronger than when it opened'

Monday’s 7pm deadline passed, as expected, without any dramas. There were no incomings or outgoings, which can sometimes make it feel like a ‘flat’ transfer window, but that is not the case, with seven new players arriving early on.

We saw Malik Owolabi-Belewu and Freddie Ladapo announced on New Year’s Day, while loan trio Sam Curtis, Sammy Braybrooke and Sil Swinkels joined three days later. Tom Pearce came in the following week and then Will Dickson’s loan was turned into a permanent deal in the middle of January.

Owolabi-Belewu is yet to make his debut but we have seen enough from Curtis, Braybrooke and Swinkels to know that they are an improvement on what they already had, while Ladapo has mainly been used off the bench so far. Dickson will be one for the future.

A year ago Chesterfield sold James Berry to Wycombe Wanderers, and Kabongo Tshimanga left for Peterborough United in 2023, but they have not lost any of their best players this time. There have not even been any whispers of any departures. Previous windows have involved Armando Dobra’s name being linked with clubs but he has only just returned from a three-month hamstring injury.

Great credit needs to go to the Kirk family for backing Paul Cook with seven new players and for getting them through the door early. Weeks and weeks of planning and meetings went into this window and it paid off. There was no panic-buying or scrambling around for players in desperation.

The new players still need more time to gel, and Chesterfield deserve a grace period in terms of trying to get Dobra, Dilan Markanday and Chey Dunkley fully up to speed. They are three big players. But after that they need to go on a run to get into the play-offs, which I think they will.

If they don’t, then I think it would be fair enough if the fans had some challenging questions come the end of the season.