Jamie Richards

Has joined Warren Feeney's Linfield on a 7 month loan. Think we now have 4 defenders, two of which are purrington and Bentley.

Strange, thought Richards might break into the first team this year. He's got good reviews on the few times he has started. We are certainly going to need at least 3 more defensive players now.

He'll come back a much improved player after regular game time, much like Ashley Barnes did years ago following a spell on loan at a lower level.

He's already had two loan spells at lower levels though. I think Sheridan just doesn't rate him.

At least three more defensive players needed and maybe even a fourth if the budget will stretch it.

There's lower levels and lower levels though isn't there. Can't quite recall where Eastbourne were when Barnes went there but I think it was Conference, a decent standard, undoubtedly toughened him up and improved his game.

Richards would have benefitted from his time at Weymouth and Bideford (?) but not convinced Southern Prem or Southern 1st is anywhere near as beneficial as game time at a Conf club (e.g. Barnes at Eastbourne, Sawyer at Exeter, who both came back to compete for a first team place in the CCC) or a few months at Linfield.

The standard at Linfield is also very low though. Rhys Griffiths scored a goal a game at a similar level.

It's also worth pointing out that Barnes came back to play in the Championship. Conference is better than Southern Prem but Champ is better than League Two too so that evens itself out.

Didn't Rory Patterson move and play for Linfield?

Fair enough Sam, if you think a few games at Weymouth in the Southern First division significantly aids his development, against part timers and crowds of a few hundred.
Playing at Linfield is undoubtedly a much higher standard than the 4th tier of english non-league football, and should allow him to get minimum 25 plus games under his belt against much better players, and come back a better player, toughened up, and ready to compete for a first team place, which was my original point.
I guess we'll see in 7 months time. We saw what happened when Barnes and Sawyer were given games at a decent standard.

Linfield will be playing qualifiers for the Europa League this summer.