I'm quietly optimistic on the Lavery front.
I do think he has a future at Wednesday and I don't think they'll want to bin him off long-term. However, he isn't likely to get a run in their side any time in the immediate future. Therefore I would not be at all surprised if they were at best actively looking to be (or at least, open to the possibility of) loaning him out.
It's a fair point that they MAY look for a League One side to test himself at a higher level but then you've also got to think about the odds of him having a guaranteed starting slot and the chances of him not settling there compared to somewhere where we know he'd be starting and we know he's previously been happy. Stiffler, of course Reid and Alessandra are playing very well together up front and ordinarily they'd be amongst the last players to be dropped. However, if Lavery is even half as good as he showed to us last time he came here he would be even better. I think you've got to look at it dispassionately. It may seem 'disloyal' to Lewi Alessandra to either drop him or move him deeper to account for a loanee but if we had a player as good as Lavery was last time (or even in that ballpark) then I think we'd just outscore teams.
On the whole, we played poorly against both Mansfield and Wimbledon and came out of the two games with 1 point and 0 goals. However, in spite of our poor overall performances in each game we had a purple patch over the last 20 minutes in both of them in which a lot of chances came across the 18 yard box. I'm convinced that if we had Lavery in the side then he'd have been able to put at least one of them away. 1 point could very easily have became 3 or even 4. As good as Alessandra is he just doesn't quite have that composure and killer instinct to just nab a cheap goal in the 18 yard box out of absolutely nowhere. He started 4 games, played an active part in all 4 of them and scored in 3 of them.
That's why I don't think a return would be either impossible or at all undesirable. Even if we only had him for 6 weeks, imagine a 6 week spell of Alessandra in the hole behind Reid and Lavery. It may leave us more open defensively but we could just outscore teams into submission.
