I’M reluctant to say that Jay Spearing would be the missing part of the jigsaw because that’s too much pressure to put on a young man’s shoulders.

If he signs, can he turn round our season? It would be a huge ask.

I know Jack Wilshere did it for us, and so did Daniel Sturridge but I think they were exceptional circumstances and it’s much harder for a young lad in his position to have the same effect on results.

Reading between the lines, he wants to come in on loan and maybe have a chance to go back and earn a living at Liverpool. It sounds as if there are some big hitters in for him too.

But if he does end up here then he’s got to have the right attitude from the off because at the moment we’ve got a midfield that can play but not necessarily one that can battle.

Whether we play 4-5-1 or 4-4-2, I think it’s horses for courses, but we’ve got personnel in there who should be taking over games. They should be dominating.

It’s not good enough to play well for 15 minutes here or there.

Owen says it a lot, but you have to earn the right to play and that means scrapping first and playing all the fancy football later. Not the other way round.

We can’t turn up at places like Burnley or even Crawley and say ‘we’re a Premier League team, roll over’ because they’ll use that, they will feed off that, if they’ve got anything about them.

It’s time to stop being big shots. We’re in the Championship, now act like it.

*****

IT’S time for some of the players to put up their hands and admit they haven’t been doing their jobs right.

So many times already this season I’ve seen goals that should have been avoided.

I was lucky enough to avoid the trip to Crawley but I’ve seen bits on the TV and I can’t fathom what we were doing for the second goal.

How has Marcos Alonso let the lad get a cross in? That’s the kind of stuff we need to cut out.

Aside from Kevin Davies and Keith Andrews, who I’d say have stood out among the rest so far, no one can honestly say he has been at his best.

I’m not pointing a finger at the back four, because defending goes through the whole team and it can often be just as much about tracking your runners as marking up at the back.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing when you talk about formations and substitutions – and I know on Tuesday night, a few people wondered whether 4-4-2 was the right way to go.

But if a few people were doing their jobs correctly, we could be looking forward to the third round draw.

*****

I MIGHT be tempted to take a punt on Nigel Reo-Coker if the opportunity arises.

As much as Jay Spearing looks like filling the midfield gap we have at the moment, I can understand why some are saying we should be reaching out to sign the man who left us behind in the summer.

Don’t get me wrong, I can see both sides.

Nigel thought the grass was greener and it certainly hasn’t turned out that way. Now there’s talk of him coming back and it looks as if it would be to a very mixed reception on the terraces and in the dressing room.

The manager might have been disappointed with how it ended because he wanted to keep him. The players will have picked up on that because he left them behind.

And yet I still find myself 50-50 as to whether I’d have him back in the team because, let’s face it, it’s not as if the dressing room looks as if it’s in sync at the moment.

Maybe it needs shaking up because when things aren’t right between the players it shows on the park.

*****

TOMORROW, I plan to perch myself in front of my TV and watch the transfer deadline clock tick down, wishing we were involved in a few deals.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there will be much to entertain anyone of a Bolton persuasion because we’re out of the loop. We’re one of the also-rans at the moment.

That should be an incentive to any of those lads who have turned out these last few weeks and haven’t given their absolute all.

If you want to be talked about, be up there on the big screen and shouted about by Sky Sports News anchorman Jim White, pictured, then dig in and start fighting harder.

Owen will be looking to get his one man in before the deadline, you’d hope, but these things have a habit of running on to the last moment. We’ll wait and see whether he gets Jay Spearing in or not.

But I don’t see anyone busting a gut to sign our players on their current form.

There’s been a bit said about Chung-Yong Lee to Wigan Athletic or to Stoke City but I can’t see him turning anyone’s head at the moment because I still think he’s a few weeks behind the rest.

I haven’t really seen him beat a man yet, and the only way he’ll really get there is by playing games and gaining a bit of confidence.

Like so many players at the moment, he needs time.

Mark Davies is in the same boat.

We haven’t seen anything like his top form this season, apart from in patches in the odd game, and now that Swansea have signed the Korean midfiedlder Ki, I wonder whether they still need him as desperately as they seemed to a few weeks ago.

On the plus side, if they are still here come 11 o’clock tomorrow night, Owen will have succeeded in keeping his squad together, which gives him that bit of stability as he looks to guide us towards where we want to be.