2024/25 Kevin Thelwell

Actually signed players we need at smart prices.

Completely fit the profile of what we need.

O'Brien - £15m - huge upside, 23-yearw old. If all goes well, his value will only rise, which Is where we need to be aiming for all players, sadly.
I fail to see where we'd have got better value in England.

Iroegbunam - £9m - don't think anyone expected anything from him other than PSR Relief, so huge bonus that he's looked likely and promising so far. Still 21, so £9m is worth the gamble and value will only Increase as he gets better.

N'Diaye - £15m - 24-Years Old. But of explosiveness and direct, just being patient getting into first team.

Lindstrom & Harrison will be useful players. Lindstrom looks a bit raw, when he finds his footing I'm sure he'll be a good addition.

£70m for Dobbin, Godfrey & Onana, all of which I don't think many would be upset about.

Alli & Gomes wages off the books.
Think he got dealt a rotten hand with some of these contracts the likes of Holgate, Keane etc are on.

He's working with one arm tied behind his back and sadly we'll be in a situation where every club will know we need a striker next summer, but I think the signings have been smart.

We all know Dyche needs his hand to be forced for things to happen (and I like Dyche), so wouldn't surprise me to see new players eventually getting a run out.
 
I'm one of those who think he's doing quite well under the circumstances. It's not easy recruiting players when we're constantly under threat of PSR sanctions and its hard to get the right players for little to no upfront payment, or when you have clowns in the board room sticking their noses in. He's reduced the age profile of the squad and the wage bill. And the role of the DOF is not limited to transfers. He's seemingly done a lot of work behind the scenes at the academy for example, bringing in some good people with good CVs, and has got us a little bit away from the old boys culture we had previously. Managing Unsworth out of the academy was a good move for example.
 

Big Sams Undies said:
Criminal that we’ve no viable option at RB still whilst Young and Coleman are offered extensions despite absolutely stinking the place out and, quite frankly, embarrassing themselves really
Click to expand...
Weve needed a RB for about 3 years, i think the problem has been that there is always so many holes in the squad that the RB area always seems the least priority at the time.
 
Big Sams Undies said:
Criminal that we’ve no viable option at RB still whilst Young and Coleman are offered extensions despite absolutely stinking the place out and, quite frankly, embarrassing themselves really
Click to expand...

JLW said:
Weve needed a RB for about 3 years, i think the problem has been that there is always so many holes in the squad that the RB area always seems the least priority at the time.
Click to expand...

Agree with @JLW . I think also because we have the options there (even if they aren't that good)...they probably thought we could afford a stop gap for a year in that position more than any others.
 
JLW said:
Weve needed a RB for about 3 years, i think the problem has been that there is always so many holes in the squad that the RB area always seems the least priority at the time.
Click to expand...
That's the point, we would have 3 people to cover this position, 2 are injured all the time and acceptable with grinding teeth, one is clearly not good enough anymore.

And looking back to last season, rather we struggled offensively.
 

Delargeinho said:
That's the point, we would have 3 people to cover this position, 2 are injured all the time and acceptable with grinding teeth, one is clearly not good enough anymore.

And looking back to last season, rather we struggled offensively.
Click to expand...
We need to move away from Coleman and Young being viable options, at worst they should be playing in games like last night but PL games.
 
JLW said:
We need to move away from Coleman and Young being viable options, at worst they should be playing in games like last night but PL games.
Click to expand...
Most certainly, we had Godfrey as well, who could play CB and both sides last year who did a good job there defensively, but understable we sold him at the last year of the contract.

I said I would have kept Coleman as a back up, and get another guy in. Just because the financial situation was predictable to be bad. And it would take 100m at least to get all the gaps of the squad filled.
 
Bob Elstone said:
Very underwhelming.
Click to expand...
He took over a blown-up club that spent almost his whole turn over into players (2nd highest-value in Europe). He almost halfed the wages in these 2,5 years (105m to 65m) to a now pretty acceptable value. That was one of the major tasks, and this had to be done while still having a competitive squad, which I think we have.

100% perfection will never be there. There were flops like Maupay (who could have worked out and was not overpaid back then), maybe the Doucoure extension or keeping Young, but overall he did a more than solid job.

I'm going only to involve permanent 1st league teams within his 3 seasons here. We had player sellings of +90m in his 5 windows here. That's the highest of any teams that kept premier league in those 3 years. Obviously it was Brighton before, but they spent a lot eventually this year...

170m expenditures in that time means the 2nd lowest after Palace, who had -50m net spent in the same time.

So I'd think with 100m more he was available to spend we would be in a better position. Most of his signings have been ok at least, fewer expensive flops than before.
 

Welcome to GrandOldTeam

Get involved. Registration is simple and free.

Register
Top