Makis
Player Valuation: £2.5m
Ok, how do you know club can even find a competent replacement? They are at least as hard to find as competent managers. We have so far had three and Thelwell's record is easily the best (although in the case of the first two we can't know how much owner & chairman interfered).
Strikers are the most expensive players to buy so since you seem so competent at this, how do you reckon Thelwell could have signed better strikers without money? Beto cost 30m, yes, but the whole point was that club didn't need to pay anything that season. So effectively he was free for a year. Where would you have found a better option at that price? Maupay was a) signed for Lampard and b) cost 10m. He had scored over 20 goals in one season in Championship & 10 goals in a season in PL. What do you think a striker with that record & age (26 at the time I think) should cost? Where do you find a striker with PL experience with 10m that is better?
Chermiti has looked quite promising but very unlucky so hard to say if he ever makes it. But he was another 10m signing.
We have lost on so many players because we couldn't afford them or just bad luck. We apparently pretty much had Kudus in the bag until ManU paid 100 milllion for Antony and Ajax didn't need to sell Kudus any more. We have been outbid on multiple occasions.
You put the blame of PSR issues on Thelwell while he wasn't here when the issues were caused. And you want him to have spent even less than he spent, but magically signed top class strikers and players with pace. Has it occured that other clubs also want to sign these players and they have actual money to spend?
Which players with long list of injuries have had renewed contracts? Coleman?
Lets go through his signings season by season:
24/25
Bought: O'Brien, Ndiaye, Iroegbunam. Signed Begovic. Loaned Harrison, Lindstrom, Alcaraz, Mangala, Broja.
Sold: Onana, Godfrey, Dobbin. Loaned out Maupay.
Made a profit of around 25 million.
23/24
Bought: Beto, Chermiti. Signed Young. Loaned Harrison, Danjuma.
Sold: Kean, Iwobi, Gray, Cannon, Simms, Nkounkou. Loaned out Holgate, Maupay.
Made a proft of around 35m.
22/23
Bought: Onana, McNeil, Maupay, Garner, Gueye. Signed Tarkowski. Loaned Vinagre, Coady.
Sold: Richarlison, Gordon. Loaned out Gbamin, Gomes.
Made a profit of 15m.
We are the only club in the Premier League over the past five years to make a profit in the player market. Only! And which seasons out of those would you say he did a poor job? In his first he signed four players who are still key players and one who was sold for a profit. Second season was obviously very difficult, actual spend that season on Chermiti as I mentioned about Beto. So in truth we made more like 60 million in profit that season. Last season was also very difficult financially, yet he managed to sign our best forward this season & defender who has proven himself after Moyes arrived. Mangala was a good loan, and Lindstrom also has improved since Moyes gave him a chance. Alcaraz deal also looks good, and doubly so if he plays well as his price would be around 15m.
One thing to understand is that main reason for the losses have been high wages and amortizations. In both cases most of that has been caused by players not signed by Thelwell. Especially 22/23 when we made a big loss, all of that was because of signings made before Thelwell arrived.
So how DoFs actually have done a better job considering the circumstances? Obviously someone who has spent 300 million over those three seasons has signed better players but that's hardly a fair comparison, is it? What money he has spent he has mostly signed good value. Maupay is the only bomb, and that was just 10m. Beto we also paid too much but as I said it's not like there were many options at the time.