Bartley and Townsend look like long term planning, but that only works if they turn out to be good enough.
I don’t think you can plan too far ahead in our position as it's all about the short term (the coming season). If we get promotion then we can plan for the long term, however if we don't we need a short term strategy to see us bounce back to the Prem without financially crippling ourselves. That's why I am 100% behind bringing the likes of the Barnes and Adarabioyo in.
Loan deals are like certain foods, they are good as part of a balanced diet (or transfer policy in this case).
If you look at the 2 promotions that i’d say jointly resulted in us having an extended stay in the top division, we signed the likes of Morrison, Brunt, Thomas, Mulumbu, Jara, Cox, Texeira and Miller.
All of those players contributed to making us one of the top 2 teams in the league in both seasons, and while some couldn’t quite make the step up to prem level, others formed the backbone of our premier league side that went on to have a long stay in the league.
Our signings this summer can’t quite be described that way so far, as Bartley has had 6 years in the top flight with Swansea without breaking in to the team, while Townsend is 25 (so not that young), and is being brought in as back up to Gibbs.
The loan moves we have made so far are great, but we do need to balance that out by signing a couple of players now who we see as long term options (think a young Brunt and Morrison).