While I don’t entirely agree with paulosull, he does actually touch on a good point, despite the many comments stating he doesn’t Know what he is talking about.
The role of the director of football/technical director, as established out in Europe, is to be in control of the medium to long term planning for a club, which mitigates what a manager would want to do (ie, Harry Redknapp style short termism, whatever suits for the one season ahead).
Now can we say this has been achieved by Dowling this January?
The signings we have made all make us stronger than we were before January. Even taking for the loss of Harvey Barnes, this team now has more balance, better options, a better defence and arguably more goals and assists in the team than before January (we have also potentially countered our over reliance on certain players).
There are also arguments to be made that Dowling has proved his worth in negotiation, getting 3 really useful players over the line yesterday, dealing with last minute curveballs, and avoiding the pitfalls sides like Leeds encountered with the James deal and Villa had with the Fer deal.
This morning, fans at Leeds, Norwich, Sheffield Utd and Boro are looking at us and the majority will likely feel threatened.
But that doesn’t mean this is the perfect window - far from it.
For starters, the best run clubs do not do their business on the final day of the window. They get in earlier and navigate what does seem to be an increasingly more difficult transfer market. Doing everything last minute suggests panic and unpreparedness. Some of the stories coming out of yesterday suggest we were trying to sign anyone and everyone - Sterling, Bojan, Sawyers, Oviedo. Looks scattergun.
There is a question also around the long term planning. Dowling shouldn’t be judged on this window alone because he needs to have a full summer to start thinking about longer term plans, coming in a few months into the season isn’t giving him enough time to really start deeper planning. I did however want to see some evidence of it in his thought process, but there is barely any from what we have done in his 1st window here. If we don’t go up, then maybe a few of these loans can be turned into permanent deals, but if we do go up, the rebuilding job will have to start from scratch this summer, having had 2 consecutive windows where no signing we have made has come in with a view to the future. That is a huge job considering what we already had was ageing, and while i’m now more confident of getting promotion, i’d say we are odds on to come straight back down unless Dowling can have an incredible summer and Moore can work wonders.
I would have hoped for evidence he is prepared to look past our borders as well, instead of limiting ourselves to one market. Brexit might be the concern, but i’ve Seen other clubs this month sign players who are young and up and coming, and in some cases loan them back to their old club. These signings show a club planning for the season after the one they are in, and so I was hoping for one of those to prove our longer term strategy, but that didn’t happen.
Player development wise, we managed to get Burke out on loan, but the majority of our other youngsters have also fell victim to the short term planning. Leko, Edwards and Field all needed loan moves in the summer and all needed loan moves in January. They might play in the FA cup replay, but i’d bank on that being their final appearances of the season. One or two of them may have came back in the summer as genuine options but now you feel they are just stagnating.
If all that matters is this promotion, then yes, it is a good window. But if you scratch the surface, it has added some question marks to Dowling as well. Question marks i’m Just hoping he answers in the summer once he has more time.