Loan Window

As the saying goes, when God closes a window he opens another window. The loan window is less sexy than January's transfer window. You don't get groups of scallies trying to get on Sky Sports News at the news that Plymouth are signing Ipswich's third choice right back on a months contract. But for clubs like Orient it is the loan market that can make or break their season because mid season 'free transfers' like Dean Leacock don't come along every day. Nor do statements from Barry Hearn like 'we're prepared to pay whatever it takes to get into the play offs', which I think is actually a goodthing. Watching the way Bournemouth are throwing money around for players they could get for free within months, with no guarantee of success in the short period that the benefactor is in love with his new plaything makes me fear for their future.

Russell Slade has already moved early to fill the two most obvious holes in the squad. Ryan Dickson comes in from Southampton to take the left back position, already successfully inhabited by Charlie Daniels, Tony Craig and Adam Chicksen this season. Soloman Taiwo is a supposed replacement for Stephen Dawson. If he was that good then Barnsley would have signed Taiwo on loan and picked up Dawson for free at the end of the season. I look forward to seeing what he offers us but we probably need to temper our expectations a little.

So what other signings does Russ need to make if we are to finish the season strongly? Lee Cook is the one player we have been linked with and it is an exciting thought. But it is hard to see where he would fit into the team. Cox has to be our first choice winger. Cook is the better player (which isn't a slight on Cox at all) but there is no point displacing the best player we have and upsetting him in the process. The Chesterfield game showed that Cox isn't effective when he plays off the wing and from watching Cook I'm not sure he'd be any better if they swapped the positions they took up in that game. Cook's game was all about beating a player, creating half a yard for a cross, I can't seem him playing up front and running into the channels.

The wage money could be better spent on a right back and a striker. The right back position has been even more of a revolving door than left back this season. Recently Terrell Forbes has been doing a decent job there but I've never been comfortable relying on a centre back out of position for too long - teams suss them out pretty quickly. With no right winger we need someone who can get up and down that flank to balance the midfield and support the strikers and although he did well against 10-man Charlton Forbes really isn't that player. Leon McSweeney has done nothing wrong in that position either and would be my first choice of the current options. But with the loss of Dawson I would rather use him in midfield, which is after all his natural position.

Spring has been outstanding in the last two months and Jimmy Smith's ability to score goals from midfield is hugely undervalued. That leaves someone to do the dirty work. Laird is still struggling to find some consistency and Taiwo is, as yet, an unknown quantity. I would prefer the option of playing McSweeney there because he has proved all season that he is willing to role up his sleeves and get stuck in.

First choice strikers Lisbie and Mooney have been satisfactory this season but both would probably agree there has also been room for improvement. They couldn't ask for more than having Dean Cox creating chances for them and both have been guilty of squandering opportunities. Like Smith, I think Mooney gets a bit of a raw deal from supporters but if he had reached double figures by now we might be higher up the table. There seems to be no downside in bringing in someone capable of hitting the target who is currently wasting his abilities in the reserve team of a Premiership or even Championship club. It'll give him first team experience and we might just pick up a gem for three months and if it doesn't work out Lisbie and Mooney are doing enough to prevent us getting into serious trouble, scoring goals here and there. Harry Kane made a useful contribution last year, we just struggled when forced to rely on him because of injuries and fatigue.

Beyond that there isn't a lot wrong with the squad and we can have one eye on the summer when we can make longer term improvements. Injuries may mean we need to bring in short term cover but such is our lot, we can't afford to be paying the wages of a player who ends up sitting on the bench for the whole season. We've lost a lot of players over the last 12 months for a variety of reasons. The fact that Slade has continued to field a team that can compete in a league that has a number of teams in it that have resources we can only dream of deserves some recognition.