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« on: October 17, 2020, 09:35:59 AM »
So with the window finally closed (albeit with us awaiting the Grosicki transfer decision), how does everyone rate our business this year?
It's definitely been a different window this year, with CoVID uncertainty and lots of clubs feeling out the changed market.
On our part, it seemed to come down to a "phase 1, phase 2" strategy. A lot of time (and money) was dedicated to rebuilding the team that hobbled over the line last season. Robinson didn't set the world alight during his loan move and yet we were really focussed on signing him back up. The deal we eventually struck was a decent one for a player who Sheff Utd bought for £7m last season, but the jury remains out whether he adds much to the team. Diangana returned, maybe unexpectedly. While i love him and love the signing in isolation, there are question marks over whether we should have spent such a large chunk of our transfer budget on him knowing we had gaps in so many other parts of the squad. Krovinovic eventually returned on loan, which considering Benfica's asking price is probably the right deal. He is another who didn't really do enough to justify a second season, but Bilic really wanted him which puts the club in a difficult position and with a second season here he might yet adapt well (Benfica fans rate him highly from his ore injury form there).
On to the new signings. We have failed to bring in a left back or a defensive/holding midfielder. Part of that will be down to Bilic wanting to prioritse other areas, but holding midfield continues to be a huge weak point thay nobody at the club seems to want to do anything with while we will probably have to field Townsend for large parts of the season at left back which really is a weak point.
We failed to land 3 key targets in Duffy, Grbic or Eze. I don't really blame the club on any of those but it is still a blow. Eze was replaced by Diangana which is the next best thing anyway. Grbic was eventually replaced by a 31 year old David Button, who you would imagine will be a place holder while we assess Palmer and Griffiths (i'd argue that's understandable). Duffy was probably the most disappointing of the lot. His replacement seems to have been bungled a bit really. Kipre was signed because he became available at a low price, rather than being somebody I think Dowling really believed was the answer. Bilic clearly didn't want him and was slightly unprofessional in saying as much to the media. To appease him, the club sanctioned Bilic bringing in a 36 year old Branislav Ivanovic, somebody Chelsea decided 2 or 3 years ago had become too slow for English football. Bilic is right, from what i've seen on twitter Zenit fans have loved "their captain", but it's going to be a huge ask for him to be at the required standard for us. It isn't often an old centre half does well in the premier league. We desperately needed a top centre back to partner Ajayi/Hegazi/OShea, but instead we have 2 real gambles.
Of the rest, Connor Gallagher has been a long term target. He had a great season last year and will I believe be a good signing, but unsure if he does enough to address our unbalanced midfield. Finally, we spent £14-£15m on Karlan Grant. Grant can score goals and was probably the best domestic option available to us, but when Habib Diallo goes for £9-£10m having scored double figures in the French top flight, you do see the flaws of Dowling's obsession with the near domestic market only policy.
Do these signings improve our first team? I think Grant does, although there will be potential balance issues signing 3 left sided attackers who like to occupy the same areas (Grant, Robinson and Diangana). I also believe Gallagher is an upgrade on Sawyers and Krov so he might help us on the counter attack and give us more bite. After that? I'm unconvinced we have improved an already flawed team enough to stay up in this difficult division.
At the risk of this post becoming an essay, I do think in addition to Dowling's lack of a foreign recruitment network, there is also a short termism that is evident in his approach. He has spoken before about not being scared to sell players as we can go out an replace them and I worry he takes every season one at a time, rather than thinking long term. Lots of clubs, reacting to increasingly inflated transfer fees, now try to sign players up young as investments. It has helped Watford this summer, while Brighton, Wolves, Villa, Leeds and even Burnley have all done the same this window. Once again, Dowling's Albion show no such intent. If we go down this season, i'm not too sure where the improvements are on last seasons team. Krov and Gallagher will be back at their parent clubs, Ivanovic will be 37, half our team will be in their 30's and the only obvious upgrade will be a notoriously twitchy Karlan Grant. Dowling said last season that we should only be focussing on players who can get us out of the championship and not thinking long term, but that policy then meant we spent all summer trying to rebuild our loan army while we have been furiously trying to sell 3 players in Zohore, Austin and Grosicki who only arrived last season for around £12-£13m. At what point does Dowling start thinking in the long term?
One ray of light has been the approach to loaning out academy players. We have finally understood the importance of getting our brightest players out on loan to ready them for life with our first team. It has worked for Edwards and O'Shea so there can be optimism that next season, somebody like Palmer, Griffiths, Morton, Windsor, Tulloch, Soule, Azaz, Shotton or Clayton-Phillips might be like a new signing for us (fingers crossed Morton, Clayton-Phillips and Tulloch return from their injuries quickly, I did read yesterday that the latter's hamstring injury is worse than first thought which is another huge blow). My only disappointment with the loan policy is that arguably the crown jewel of our under 23 players - Rakeem Harper - didn't get the loan move he desperately needed. He now sits as our 7th choice central midfielder and the only way he gets game time from this point forward is if we have a CoVID outbreak. We should really have been brave and given him a full season at a Barnsley, Luton or Coventry. He is the most likely of any of our under 23's to have been a first teamer next season.
So, overall I can't really say I see this as a successful window. It was a tough one for the club but I don't think we have done enough in the short term to keep us up this year, or the long term in seeing us return to the championship with a better team than the one that came up. We don't make our lives easier and won't until we plan longer term and build atleast a basic foreign scouting network.
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