I think another CM is needed, I like Flood for his attitude but to consistently challenge for honours you really need a bit more than that. I now see him as the weakest link in the side and, even worse, he has no direct competition for his position.
On doing a little research on Ness he could be a good shout. He played last season for crewe on loan from Stoke and did pretty well apparently, they want him back according to an article in crewes local rag from last week. He's 6ft 1 so has a bit of presence about him and despite the fact we have our best team in decades the cm is a little lightweight.
I had hoped we would go for McGinn from helen to add a bit of steel to the centre of the park but this ness is 24 and has more experience at a higher level. Ness was one of the deserters for free when the huns went to the wall (another bonus, the huns will hate him for walking out on them.... the seethe from the ranks of Mordor if he came and did well for us would be almost intoxicating) Stoke may be prepared to terminate his contract for little to nothing. He's never going to get a game for them and it will free up the wage so they would likely be easy to deal with. It could be a very shrewd piece of business IMO
I was never overly keen on the idea of taking in May on loan, not for his ability but for the developing another teams player in an area we have decent options and a young prospect aspect of it. Taking him on a perm would be a very different story, no question he would be a superb addition giving us real strength in depth up front.
This comes off it will be the best transfer window in my memory by a distance