Haaland was a stupid comment from Walsh. Nothing was agreed and was probably even near. Half the continent wanted him so even if the hierarchy had agreed it's unlikely he'd have ended up at Everton.
Being in negotiations with players and then that deal not happening is normal. Good players tend to have more than one choice. And sometimes something happens that is just beyond club's powers, like the Kudus deal falling through because ManU offered 100 million for Antony.
Fact remains, Thelwell had to make a profit every year on player trading. No other Premier League club had the same restrictions. Yet somehow Thelwell is the one making bad deals. Except of course now that we have a manager interested in using the squad properly not many of his signings in the squad look bad. Thelwell signed exactly one 30+ million player and sold him on for a profit. Every other PL club has signed several during that time. Thelwell was forced to work in the bargain basement & loan market.
Tarkowski for free. Great business.
McNeil for 15 million. Good business.
Young for free. Decent business.
Gueye for 2 million. Great, great business.
Garner for 10 million. Good business.
Onana for 30 million. Nice profit, so good business.
Ndiaye for 15 million. Great business.
O'Brien for 15 million. Good business, potentially great.
Chermiti - jury's still out. Too many injuries.
Beto for 25 million. Not good, signed basically because club couldn't pay any fees that season and his fee could be deferred to next season. But we clearly paid too much for his skillset (or lack of).
Iroegbunam for 10 million. Seems decent business. A backup at worst, or we could sell him on and not make a loss.
Those ten cost around 125 million or thereabouts and 50 of that was recouped with the Onana sale. Add 10 for Maupay and total outlay is about what the big clubs might pay for one player. Even a club like Brighton whose model we apparently should emulate paid 40 million for Rutter, 30 milion for Minteh, close to 30 for Wieffer, Gruda, Kadioglu and O'Riley last summer and 30 million for Pedro season before that. But Thelwell was bad at his job because he couldn't make similar signings with no money.
Loans have been more hit and miss but that's their nature. Clubs rarely want to loan players who are doing well. Mangala looked decent and I feel he would have been good under Moyes. Dyche's kick and rush didn't really suit him. Alcaraz has looked good on his cameos but Moyes might have other targets in his mind for summer. Harrison was ok-ish during his first season but poor since. Rest of the loans amount to little, although I would have expected more from Danjuma.
