Transfer Window Review (Summer 24/25)

kirsikka

UTC Legend
The Wins

Let's start with the positives and straight up is a nod to the new team at the top over their contract negotiations. Getting Iraola on an extended deal so early in proceedings immediately created a positive outlook for everything. They then followed that up with Lewis Cook signing an extended deal so we'll have him for longer and, also, he won't walk away on a free next summer. Excellent!

There was also a challenge around replacing Kelly, a senior player who filled left back and left sided centre back slots. That they managed to bring in a highly talented youngster who is also versatile at an incredibly attractive price seems almost too good to be true. I did wonder why Juventus and Roma were passing on Huijsen and feared that he'd turn out to be all sizzle and no sausage but so far he's looked mustard.

Losing your star man is never nice but in forcing Spurs to pay the highest transfer fee by any English club this window (Spurs! Levy must be crying into his Weetabix this morning), we've reset the ceiling for an AFCB player, shown again we can be a stepping stone to one of the biggest clubs and given ourselves a lot of FFP room. In those terms, it was an excellent deal.

I can't say for sure that Evanilson will be a PL hit, especially when the weather turns. However, the way we were decisive in immediately bringing in a replacement for Solanke was top drawer. It sends a message to the players and fans that we aren't messing around. Let's hope he lives up to the price tag, relative to us as a club. We do need to remember that in this window alone he was only about the 15th most expensive purchase by a Premier League club so across the league he isn't even that big of a potato.

Araujo seems like really smart recruitment. Taking advantage of Barcelona needing to raise cash and so selling off some of their youngsters. What I particularly liked is that there's no buyback and no sell on clause. That's good negotiating with one of 'those clubs'.


The Wait and Sees

Neto. Radu. Kepa. We seem to have a kink about signing keepers with four letter names. No comment about keepers of the past who were given four letter names by the AFCB crowd...

The last time we got all excited about signing a Chelsea backup keeper Begovic turned out to be a disappointment at Premier League level. Kepa has the pedigree and all the raw materials to be an outstanding signing for us but you could make the same argument about Neto. I'm sneakily suspicious he'll turn out to be one of the most astute pieces of business we've ever done but it really could go either way.

We've seen what Sinisterra and Unal can do without them making the case that they should be starters every week yet. So those are big fees for players who are, at the moment, back ups. I like some of what both have shown on the pitch at times but they need to really get stuck into things from here.


The Misses

There's been a huge turnover in the squad over the past couple of years but it still feels like there are some obvious potential weaknesses:

- No natural cover at left back. Yes, we have some players that can fill in there but it's still a worry not having someone who plays there as their first choice. Kerkez looks like a suspension waiting to happen at times so I suspect we'll see Smith playing out there a reasonable number of times

- The Christie, Kluivert, and Cook conundrums. Nobody else seems to bring the same energy to those roles. Billing and Scott have a few months to really push their cases and Adams needs to at least get on the pitch so we can take a proper look at him.

- Who will play striker if Evanilson is out? We could change the style and use Unal or give Semenyo another go.

We aren't Chelsea so can't have fourteen players for every position but some bad luck with injuries and suspensions could see us scrabbling around a little. I guess that's the trade off we have to make when buying expensive players. We'll have fewer but they will, hopefully, be better quality.


The Loan Moans (Not Including Ian Woan)

If there's one thing we've struggled with down the years it's moving players on without having to loan them first.

This isn't about prize jewels. There will always be buyers for the best, it's about the surplus to requirements. Look at that lot up the road. Despite their scattershot recruitment they managed to sell for actual cash five players this summer, including unwanted ones. Not just the best.

Or Burnley, who were absolutely abject last year, managed to cash in (with profits!) on at least ten players (probably 12 when all the windows are shut) with others leaving on loans with an obligation to buy next summer.

I'm not holding these clubs up as examples of transfer policy to follow but I am holding them up as examples of clubs who manage to shift players and bring in cash rather than having an army of unwanted out on loan season after season.

I like Anthony and would have been happy to see him in the squad this season but if AI has decided there's no place for him then why are we doing a deal with Burnley that lets them potentially walk away and not buy him next summer? Didn't we get burned by Arter already? Look at what happened with Hannibal. Burnley wanted something similar but Man Utd put their foot down. End result - fee for Man Utd.

He may not be Messi but he was a key cog in a Championship promotion winning team and is still young. I struggle to believe, if we had this part of our process sorted, we couldn't have found a buyer rather than a loan.

Same with Rothwell.

As for Mepham - just how did we not manage to get a buyer for him? That's insane.

Faivre and Traore I can understand due to the FFP implications of selling but they are going to be into the mix next summer.

Feels like this has been an ongoing issue for years. For example, we couldn't rustle up a buyer for Moore in January and had to loan him. A proven Championship striker!

It might be somehow clubs struggle with the perception of buying AFCB's castoffs because they still see us as a small club but we really need to get a hold of this situation.


Final Thoughts

B+ for the window overall. Despite the grumbling above it was actually very well run and I'm excited to see the team take shape over the coming months.
 
Not sure how anyone could moan at that window (other than its sad to lose Solanke). Excellent business by the club moving on some of the horrendous deadwood we've collected and replacing them with young talent. No point in saying we didn't get money for Faivre, Traore, Neto etc - who in their right mind would buy them?

I guess some people just look to pick holes but overall it's cut costs as per FPP and seen some excellent talent arrive.
 
Without meaning to state the blindingly obvious, I think it is too early to evaluate our window at this point. Time will be the judge of that.

I think a lot hinges on whether Evanilson and Unal between them can provide enough fire power to compensate for the loss of Solanke.

I also think that squad availability in the next few months will play a big part as to whether this Summer was seen as a success or not. I understand the argument that we may have left ourselves short in certain areas, but I would guess that Franno and his team are banking on the versatility of certain players to fill in the gaps. If Cook were to get injured I think that Christie has shown himself to be more than capable to occupy that deeper midfield role, for example. The one worry that I have is if Evanilson were to pick up an injury before Unal returns to fitness then I do not believe we have the tools to cope with that. Playing a winger up front doesn’t really work at the top level, as we saw on the opening day. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that but it does seem like a risk by the club.

In terms of outgoings, I would guess that the likes of Mepham are on too much money to attract any permanent suitors. I imagine that he could have found a permanent home quite easily had he been prepared to take a pay cut. Traore as has been said on here before, I think would be very hard to find a buyer for as he still has a very high book value. We are just going to have to hope that he tears it up on one of his loan moves I guess.
 
Agree that it's far too early to evaluate the transfer window, but there are signs there that it could well prove to be a positive one in regards to signings.

We look like we are stronger at the back, Huijsen is Kelly's replacement can play anywhere along the back four, is young and looks an exciting prospect already. Let's hope it works out like that.

Araujo looks like an improvement at right back, even with us being heavily stacked in this area with Adam Smith and Max Aarons capable of filling in just fine.

Kepa, not that I've seen him for a long time should be an improvement on Neto, albeit a temporary solution. Finances forced our hand to shift on Neto on high wages and another two seasons on his contract, which is unfortunate for Travers but the right thing to do.

Depth is a bit of an issue at the back for me (a part from right-back), quality disappears quickly once two from Senesi, Zabarnyi and Huijsen are out of the equation at centre-back as James Hill is far from ready unless he's taken huge strides in the summer.

Left-back after Milos Kerkez, is covered with Huijsen, Smith, Aarons or Dango, none ideal for a long-term run if required though.

Up front, £65 million for Solanke feels like a fair and decent price but obviously, its difficult to replace a player of his quality with everything he offered the side.

Evanilson has shown promise and I don't doubt he'll hit double figures this season, but he needs time to settle and adapt to a new league and country and we need to work out how to play to his strengths as he doesn't appear to be a direct like-for-like swap.

Enes Unal, is technically a summer signing as well, but obviously all sorted previously. Jebbison a signing for the future, but allowing him out on loan is a bold move with only two strikers in the squad, one still settling in and another injured.

Personally, I'd like more strikers in the squad than goalkeepers and right-backs. We lack options to change a game relying on our abundance of wingers and attacking midfielders to rotate around. Sometimes this will work, other times it won't. If Evanilson picks up an injury or suspension then we will look really short.

It's not possible to always have the perfect balanced squad and building a new side takes multiple windows, but these areas aren't ideal in my view.
 
Araujo has looked interesting so far. He seems to have great recovery pace but has found it difficult when defending one verses one when a tricky attacker is dribbling at him, the Everton lad had him on toast yesterday. He is new and still adapting to the league though, I’m sure that he’s not used to this intensity and pace so hopefully he can adapt. As of yet he hasn’t really shown a lot going forward. Definitely too early to be labelling him as an upgrade in my opinion. What Smith lacks in pace he makes up for in other areas.

Similarly with Kepa, he was solid enough yesterday but seems to have the same issues that Neto has. Quite a few crosses were swung into his six yard box and he didn’t show any inclination to leave his line at any point. To be considered as an upgrade to Neto he will have to be a hell of a shot stopper as Neto wasn’t exactly bad in this area. The fact that Chelsea spent 70+ million on him should mean little as they are clearly quite insane as a football club.

The one signing that does immediately look like an improvement is Huijsen, very rarely does a player of that age immediately have such an aura about him. Early days but right now he falls firmly into the ‘how on earth did we sign him’ category.

Evanilson looked good in his first couple of games. I don’t think he should be judged negatively on yesterday as I didn’t feel he did a lot wrong. He was a willing runner and competed well, but Haaland would have struggled to get a sniff at goal yesterday with that lack of service.
 
Not sure how anyone could moan at that window (other than its sad to lose Solanke). Excellent business by the club moving on some of the horrendous deadwood we've collected and replacing them with young talent. No point in saying we didn't get money for Faivre, Traore, Neto etc - who in their right mind would buy them?

I guess some people just look to pick holes but overall it's cut costs as per FPP and seen some excellent talent arrive.

Not sure if it was a general comment or a specific response to my loan moans, so if it was the latter then all I'll say is I specifically excluded Faivre and Traore. If it's the former then ignore that.

Anyway, there's always room for a grumble, no matter how well we've done... Like I said I thought we did well but it could be we're a player or two light. If injuries and suspensions go our way we likely won't even notice that, so fingers crossed.
 
Without meaning to state the blindingly obvious, I think it is too early to evaluate our window at this point. Time will be the judge of that.

I think a lot hinges on whether Evanilson and Unal between them can provide enough fire power to compensate for the loss of Solanke.

I also think that squad availability in the next few months will play a big part as to whether this Summer was seen as a success or not. I understand the argument that we may have left ourselves short in certain areas, but I would guess that Franno and his team are banking on the versatility of certain players to fill in the gaps. If Cook were to get injured I think that Christie has shown himself to be more than capable to occupy that deeper midfield role, for example. The one worry that I have is if Evanilson were to pick up an injury before Unal returns to fitness then I do not believe we have the tools to cope with that. Playing a winger up front doesn’t really work at the top level, as we saw on the opening day. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that but it does seem like a risk by the club.

In terms of outgoings, I would guess that the likes of Mepham are on too much money to attract any permanent suitors. I imagine that he could have found a permanent home quite easily had he been prepared to take a pay cut. Traore as has been said on here before, I think would be very hard to find a buyer for as he still has a very high book value. We are just going to have to hope that he tears it up on one of his loan moves I guess.

That's fair, although I don't think a hot take does any harm. Hindsight makes it easy where the wins were made and, equally, the mistakes. Right now it's based on a feeling of the business done against what we needed rather than actual knowledge of the players recruited.

On the outgoings, the wages thing is a fair comment but shouldn't that apply to other clubs as well?

And, as said above, I specifically excluded Traore precisely because of the FFP valuation and that's why I mentioned next summer as being key with him since that's when we're really in the zone that we should be able to do something to find him a permanent new home.
 
That's fair, although I don't think a hot take does any harm. Hindsight makes it easy where the wins were made and, equally, the mistakes. Right now it's based on a feeling of the business done against what we needed rather than actual knowledge of the players recruited.

On the outgoings, the wages thing is a fair comment but shouldn't that apply to other clubs as well?

And, as said above, I specifically excluded Traore precisely because of the FFP valuation and that's why I mentioned next summer as being key with him since that's when we're really in the zone that we should be able to do something to find him a permanent new home.
I would assume that in the case of Mepham it must be due to the wage that he is on relative to his ability level. If we are being honest he is probably an upper mid table level championship player, I’m sure that there are a number of championship clubs that would take him permanently but not on the PL wages that he is currently on. I guess it’s a smaller scale version of the issue that Man United have, they can’t offload the likes of Maguire because even though there would be many takers, he is currently being overpaid relative to his ability level.
 
Dunno yet. Think our biggest miss is not having 2 keepers on the books called Kepa Neto
100%.

While we miss Solanke at least we replaced him. Going from 3 or 4 pros to having your second keeper and youth for at least two games feels like the only regression in the squad and easily the biggest one in our time in the Premier League.

If it financed the permanent signing of Kepa or better yet a try before you buy it might be worth the risk. I think he's got the potential to be amazing but even if he realises that potential (which others have tried and failed to help him with) I can't see a world where 32 games with him between the sticks is a transformative season for us.
In terms of "one of the most astute pieces of business we've ever done" it couldn't be further away from Ritchie, Arter, Wilson, Ake in terms of getting loads out of them before making a profit from their sale or Mousett and Afobe who were terrible but turned around a good profit after plugging a hole.
 
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I think we have done incredible business.
Kepa is a statement signing, we will have to wait and see if he can live up to his potential and hype.
Araujo and Huijsen (Huijsen is a massive upgrade from Kelly.. let's be honest) have slotted straight in and already look like seasoned premier league players. Getting both young players with European/international experience from giant clubs at only £25m was a steal. James Hill has looked very impressive too, so I think we have got great strength in defence baring in mind Dango and Smudge can do a job at left back. Our young defence will just keep getting better (like Zabarnyi has) and grow in value..... Someone on here recently pointed out Dango is only 22, another player who just keeps flourishing under AI.
We are overloaded with quality in midfield and the three forward positions. I'm glad we kept Phil Bill, I think he will play a key role at some point, I'd like to see him in a more advanced position again to keep Kluivert on his toes. Lewis Cook and Christie won't get complacent knowing Tyler Adams and Alex Scott are trying to break into the first team. I am slightly concerned that we let both Anthony and Traore go out on loan because Sini seems to miss quite a few games. Semenyo has established himself as our main man now so his long contract was a good move by the club.
Up front, I rate Unal and Evanilson and they will provide good competition for each other. I think we should have kept Jebbison as a third choice.

For me the window is an 9 out of 10.

The one that got away?
I think Sarr was a bargain for Palace. Rambo went for a lot cheaper than expected. Cry baby on loan would have guaranteed end product and goals.

I'm surprised a team like Ipswich, Burnley or Wolves didn't want to give us a few million for Meps. I also hoped Leeds would give us whatever we paid for Aarons.
 
Huijsen looks fantastic, Araujo looks very handy. Evanilson is a signing beyond what I thought the club capable of, getting starting players from Champions leagues clubs is just wow. Fingers crossed he settles.
The team misses Dom currently but it was always going to whoever came in.
Kepa was a surprise.

Considering who we lost we've gotten cracking looking replacements.

Better money for squad players needs to go on the to do list, not being able to get a perm transfer fee for Meps seems bonkers.
Traorè not getting a go at all also seems strange.

If Smudge and Dango weren't options at rb I'd think we're short.

Overall it looks to have gone as well as can be expected having lost Dom.
 

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