1. Happy with all of the incomings to one degree or another. Olsen could be very good in this league and is a big upgrade on Wes and Verrips. The 2 midfielders would have to be very bad to be worse than what we have, and they could have a lot of upside. I'm not 100% sold on Davies but again he's an upgrade on the in house alternatives.
2. The squad is certainly better than it was this time last week. I suppose the Algerian lad might come too making the dream of no Fleck, Berge or Norwood on the pitch a possibility.
3. Just bringing in loans is kicking the can down the road on a squad rebuild and is another sign we are potless but if I'd spent over 40 million on Brewster and McBurnie I wouldn't want to spend much either.
4. I am slightly disappointed Jebbison was loaned out but at least we will find out if he's any good.
5. the most glaring omission, of course, is the failure to bring in wide men. We tried to do this and it seems to have collapsed on us. Doing business earlier might have helped, I suppose. This makes me wonder what formation the manager will use, because the players we have do not lend themselves to him using a formation that has made him successful in the past. If there's little variation on what we are doing at the moment, a number of players are really going to have to buck their ideas up.
6. Shame we couldn't get rid of more of the players who are not contributing but their contracts are millstones for us. And people have seen them play.
7. I don't think the upgrades will see us in the top 6, but they should hopefully be enough to see us higher than 23rd.
Fair summary. If you were to look at the window as a whole you would find more negatives than positives IMO. We got much needed replacements for Ramsdale and Lundstram and a LCB finally with the one real new addition in MGW. Lowe, Siriki, Jebbison were loaned. Smith was a permanent out with no fee and we failed to move on the high earners, with the exception of Ramsdale, leaving a bloated unbalanced squad devoid of the wide players SJ desperately needed.
The simple fact is we failed to deliver to SJ what he had asked for and as a consequence it restricts his ability to turn around the current malaise.
He had to go public late in the day to state the agreed strategy was not being followed. This brings into question how the Club operates off the field on a day to day basis. In the absence of information to the contrary I'm concerned the United World hybrid structure is inhibiting decision making at SUFC. There is a real need for a football brain on the Board in the guise of a DOF. The manner with which we conducted our last day of transfer business lends weight to that view.
The one real positive is the price negotiated for Ramsdale. £30 million from a starting point of wanting £32.5m compared to Arse's first bid of £18m is a good result. It's significant SUFC employed a third party in Jordan to do the deal. Its doubtful this person was used in other aspects of transfer business and therein lies the problem.
We know from SJ he had decision making authority into players coming in and out with the exception of Ramsdale and Berge. He put in his lists 2 months ago. He agreed a strategy with the powers that be. I'm surmising that was the Prince, his acting Chairman Yusef G with some input from JVW. Previously we had a transfer committee, maybe it still exists, where everyone had their say and deals were voted on and signed off.
So what happened in the intervening period? Paul Mitchell and his team of 5 would have identified targets prior to any sign off so it would be difficult to apportion any blame here. The only logical conclusion is that the disconnect lies at the door of those doing the negotiating namely Messrs Bettis and Schieber whose track record in failing to get deals over the line is well known. This assumes everyone was working to the same plan?
We've been embarrassed before about fax machines and doing negotiations too late in day. It seems nothing has been learned from previous failures when we are incapable of understanding work permit issues that have been in the public domain for months. Worse still we pursue a transfer to the final hurdle and then crash into it because someones not done the due diligence. In competent organisations heads would roll as a result but our negotiating team have acquired teflon hands.
This continuing mis management reflects badly on PA, it unsettles a quality manager who has only been here for 2 months and leads to lack of confidence amongst the supporters. Many thought under new ownership the comedy fax routine would disappear on deadline day. Unfortunately someone dusted it off and took it to a new level yesterday with the failed Karamoh transfer.
I hope PA now realises he needs to devote more time to providing SJ with football support on a day to day basis at SUFC. It is not a good look in the football world that 2 successive managers have felt the need to go public to air their grievances. The disconnect needs to be dealt with if we are to grow as a Club and aspire to return to the EPL in the long term. In the short term a root and branch review of what went wrong in this transfer window and what needs to be put right for the JTW should have commenced this morning at 9 a.m.
