Having taken a bit of time to get over the Chaplin departure and reflecting on the window as a whole I think it has the potential to be a great step towards Town becoming a sustainable lower to mid-level Premier League side - but the timing of our ins and outs leaves a lot to be desired. I'll try to be brief.
The inconvenient truth is that our squad last year was not good enough for the Premier League, whether that's the players who had been with us through the promotions or many of the new signings we made last year. Only Delap and O'Shea demonstrated they were good enough for the Premier League - and in patches Axel as well. As much as we loved Omari, it's difficult to pinpoint any times where he tore the game apart.
Sure, there were little cameos over the year from Broadhead, Chaplin and Hirst - but none of them really made a case that they were of the standard and that's been proven by the lack of interest in them from Premier League clubs. Even Davis, for me our player of the season for each of the two previous years was horribly exposed last season.
So, if we're trying to become an established Premier League side then it's no surprise that there's been a wholesale clear out. It stings a lot (I had to unfollow Chappers on social media because it hurt too much to see him with the wrong badge on his blue shirt), but ripping off the band aid is usually the right thing to do.
We also complained that we hadn't shopped overseas last year - so here we are with multiple foreign players, who we hope will be an improvement, but we don't know because all we've got are two-minute highlight reels to go off.
So on face value this squad is a good evolution from last season and a huge upgrade on the 2023/24 squad.
The big issue though, is we've brought the squad together too late. Just like last year, we kicked off the first game of the season with a team that isn't going to be our first team for the season and we're playing catch up now during the international breaks to try and build cohesion, patterns of play and our identity.
The other issue with the timing is that magic sauce called momentum - we carried a great atmosphere and positivity into last weekend off the back of the four new signings, but we finish the window letting loved players out the door to get down to the 25-man squad limit.
And now we're faced with the good old 'time to gel' period where McKenna needs to find a settled starting XI, and in doing so may end up pi$$ing off some players who thought they were going to be starters but might find themselves as impact subs - at a guess I would say Hirst, Nunez, McAteer, Szmodics, Philogene/Clarke and Johnson could all end up playing a lot less minutes than they expected.
Thank goodness our first game after the break is the Norwich of the North - a team bereft of confidence who are unlikely to deploy a low block. 2-3 wins through September and then a home derby to hopefully get the crowd on board. Win that and we'll all look back at this end to the window as a distant memory. |  |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
