JTW25 Thoughts

[gaffablade]

An unprecedented level of strengthening, obviously

Brereton was the main one and that was very pleasing. He'll massively improve our chances of scoring up to 2 goals against many teams in the league. It just happened 2 weeks too late

It's clear we had a lot to spend, and I don't think we optimised it at all. I question the choices made, whether from manager or owners

If you were to spend big on one player, it probably shouldn't have been a striker. And if it was, it should be somebody more convincing than Cannon, who has his qualities but will not impact games anywhere near as much as we'd like. He's reliant on chance creation in a team that creates few chances and plays for scrappy 1-0 wins every week

Choudhury is a strong signing but it's a commitment to maintaining our cautious, attritional, often ugly style of play and minimising entertainment. I think we may have been better served signing more of a ball player. We do have Davies, but we are now more reliant on him than I'd have liked

We were never going to replace Souttar like for like. But going for Rob Holding is quite the deviation. Jimmy Dunne made a lot of sense for various reasons, and given all we spent elsewhere, I'm very surprised we were unwilling to pay the fee for him. Holding is a gamble, in a position where we could least afford a gamble. Anything could happen with him. We are likely once again to be heavily reliant on Robinson. We have not done enough to ensure we get our conceded average back to well below 1 a game. We are leaning heavily on Souza and Choudhury to protect an unconvincing back line with no natural CB partnership

So we've strengthened a lot, but we needed to strengthen a lot, even before Souttar's injury. I'm doubtful the right decisions have been made with the vast budget available

My gut feeling is we won't have enough for the top 2. Goalscoring will remain a problem and the defence won't quite be good enough to compensate. I think Souttar's injury will cost us promotion, as I did as soon as he stayed down v Burnley

 

[loyalblade95]

8 out of 10 for me, I think our business as a whole was really good but could have been better.

Good
Clarke, Cannon, BBD, Choudhury and Holding all improve the match day squad, Clarke, BBD and Choudhury have already made claims to some of those starting places.

Moved two fringe players (Slimane and Coulibaly) out and freed up their wages.

Cannon is a risk, but we did need a striker, owing to the fitness issues of Campbell, Moore and Brewster.

Ignoring the links to Dunne and Tanganga, Holding is a solid signing at CB, clearly wants to play and get his career back on track.

Could have been improved
Would have liked to see Oné and possibly RND heading out on loan, as both could do with a run of games, wouldn't have minded Baptiste and Boyes going out on loan either.