ponsaelius

Yeah that's the only other thing that it suggests tbh. Because otherwise it really has Ashley era levels of incompetence about it. The worry is the club really doesn't want to invest further into Howe's image of the squad.

FFP both in terms of incomings and outgoings has seemingly put us into a freeze state, where we're utterly terrified to now buy any player for decent money that isn't deemed by the club an absolute guaranteed success. This has reduced our targets to a tiny pool (as admitted, stupidly imo, by Howe) of players. It's put us in a terrible negotiating position. You would expect us to have a much broader option for potential signings across varying pricepoint - particularly when we're actually looking at multiple positions.

Yes we have definitely had the piss taken out of us.

It's been an absolute mess of a window, surely we can all admit that now?

Plus Glasner likes to play a back 3.

I still think they need one other CB on top of that personally.

I thought he was good. Given his lack of that little yard of pace I've always felt like he'd end up as more of an all round central midfielder rather than a wide player. He is pretty strong, manipulates and uses the ball well, and is technically sound. Don't think he'll ever be a top player but pretty much convinced he'll play his entire career in the PL tbh. If he would bite the bullet and declare for Scotland he'll get 50+ caps as well.

Going on loan to Newport.

Still think he'll end up being a very decent PL midfielder in the long term.

So poor.

I'd 100% let him go for £15 million even if we couldn't get a replacement. We could get by without and we'd be able to move for a replacement in January.

Just posting for sake of it

They need to sign two CBs before Friday to let him go. It's simply not happening. Don't think it's bedwetting or unreasonable to say it's been a complete shambles of a window.

meltdown

I don't think Parish is too arsed whether he goes or not. I think if they could get replacement lined up they'd do the deal at the max value, but otherwise he will stay and they'd be fine with that too. It is pretty clear now I'd say that we have no other alternatives lined up, and we've put our entire transfer window eggs one basket. It is looking pretty shambolic to be honest

Tomkins left on a free in the summer as well if you're looking purely at squad numbers.

That actually makes a lot of sense, surprised it took this long to happen

Personally given the state of the market I'd have taken whatever we got offered for Almiron by Charlotte and moved for two players in the £30-35 million bracket from Europe rather than focusing entirely on Guehi. I'd have trusted Mitchell/Nixon to pick good players and for Howe to elevate them. Overall I think that would have put us in a stronger position across the squad going into the season. While I don't believe the dynamic between the two is terminal I can't help but think it must be awkward. There's no way that Mitchell, who has a track record of building teams, will have wanted our entire window to be based around negotiating for a single (overpriced) UK based player.

Yeah great post Haydn, I'll allow the plagiarism in the second paragraph go . Totally agree with your summary. We've really lacked creativity and ruthlessness in the transfer market for me over the last 12 months. We all know we're basically bunged up with PSR but you have to find ways around it to keep moving forward, and I think we've lacked the dynamism and bravery to do so and things have become very stagnant. I definitely think Howe for as good as he is as a coach is potentially an issue with us navigating the next stage due to his approach to recruitment and playing style. We are in an awkward position.

I still think it comes down entirely to them getting replacements. I think they'd need two CBs in to sell him.

RIP. The Amazon documentary is worth a watch, although I would have enjoyed more about his early career pre-England.

Clubs still have room for those players in their squads they just won't pay any money for them. Brentford will sign Ben Mee on a free transfer but they'd never pay actual cash for a Callum Wilson, as a blunt example. Like you say every single club is basically circling the same market for the exact same kind of players, just at slightly different levels. Data driven recruitment means every club basically has the same information available to them, and coaching philosophies have narrowed to want to play largely the same style of play.

Ideally I'd agree but it's clearly proven extremely hard to find a market for these players - particularly with PSR. Lower PL clubs are just far more sensible with their money than they were 5-10 years ago.