Summer 2022 Transfer Window

[kwsaint]

6 minutes ago, saintscottofthenortham said:

I'd suggest the fact Redmond and Walcott obviously both had more interest in rotting in the wilderness whilst collecting a wage, rather than take a pay cut and see out their playing days in the Championship, also played a part in us not getting a forward over the line. Two of our bigger earners, ashamedly, who would've opened a fair chunk to throw at someone.

I notice that they’re both out of contract at the end of the season. It will definitely be a relief to release them (or even loan them out halfway through if possible)

[Give it to Ron]

18 minutes ago, Sarisbury Saint said:

The good side of not getting a striker is that the youth players ( Ballard , Dibling ect) will get a better chance now.

Isnt Dibling a midfielder?

[saintscottofthenortham]

6 minutes ago, kwsaint said:

I notice that they’re both out of contract at the end of the season. It will definitely be a relief to release them (or even loan them out halfway through if possible)

Sounded like both had the option to terminate their contracts and move on (likely a meet in the middle job), but alas. Both awful and a big symbol of our recent issues. That Walcott signing was bewildering. 

[DT]

21 minutes ago, saintscottofthenortham said:

Sounded like both had the option to terminate their contracts and move on (likely a meet in the middle job), but alas. Both awful and a big symbol of our recent issues. That Walcott signing was bewildering. 

What a drag on the club Redmond has been. Really held us back. Symbol of 'old Saints' hanging around like a bad smell

[Fitzhugh Fella]

It’s got to be said the new owners have put their money where their mouths are so fair play to them. Plus the fact they were prepared to spend big on the Dutch winger. 
We are definitely in a better place than this time last year but I have concerns over our lack of depth up front. It only takes an injury to Adams to leave us looking incredibly light weight in that dept and we can’t expect the youngsters to step into the toughest league in the world and do well. A good experienced striker was an absolute must and unfortunately it has not materialised. 
 

Those saying they are not worried about not buying a forward have their heads buried in the sand. A lot had written off Adams and Armstrong six months ago. Now they are all we’ve got notwithstanding Mara who still has much to learn. 
 

Let’s just hope Che doesn’t drop a bottle of salad cream on his foot anytime soon. 

[a1ex2001]

11 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

It’s got to be said the new owners have put their money where their mouths are so fair play to them. Plus the fact they were prepared to spend big on the Dutch winger. 
We are definitely in a better place than this time last year but I have concerns over our lack of depth up front. It only takes an injury to Adams to leave us looking incredibly light weight in that dept and we can’t expect the youngsters to step into the toughest league in the world and do well. A good experienced striker was an absolute must and unfortunately it has not materialised. 
 

Those saying they are not worried about not buying a forward have their heads buried in the sand. A lot had written off Adams and Armstrong six months ago. Now they are all we’ve got notwithstanding Mara who still has much to learn. 
 

Let’s just hope Che doesn’t drop a bottle of salad cream on his foot anytime soon. 

The World Cup this year changes things the league shuts down in a couple of months and then the window is open again so we will have another opportunity to bring in cover. 
 

all in this has been a great window for us, lots of talent in and no significant departures.  The likes of redmond and Walcott were never leaving so no disappointment for me there.  A decent forward as cover/competition for che would have been the icing on the cake but they are never easy to get.

Edited 2 September, 2022 by a1ex2001

[Mr X]

10 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

It’s got to be said the new owners have put their money where their mouths are so fair play to them. Plus the fact they were prepared to spend big on the Dutch winger. 
We are definitely in a better place than this time last year but I have concerns over our lack of depth up front. It only takes an injury to Adams to leave us looking incredibly light weight in that dept and we can’t expect the youngsters to step into the toughest league in the world and do well. A good experienced striker was an absolute must and unfortunately it has not materialised. 
 

Those saying they are not worried about not buying a forward have their heads buried in the sand. A lot had written off Adams and Armstrong six months ago. Now they are all we’ve got notwithstanding Mara who still has much to learn. 
 

Let’s just hope Che doesn’t drop a bottle of salad cream on his foot anytime soon. 

Totally agree it will be just our luck if che gets injured.... Thought the club were extremely confident of getting a striker in....

[John B]

17 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

It’s got to be said the new owners have put their money where their mouths are so fair play to them. Plus the fact they were prepared to spend big on the Dutch winger. 
We are definitely in a better place than this time last year but I have concerns over our lack of depth up front. It only takes an injury to Adams to leave us looking incredibly light weight in that dept and we can’t expect the youngsters to step into the toughest league in the world and do well. A good experienced striker was an absolute must and unfortunately it has not materialised. 
 

Those saying they are not worried about not buying a forward have their heads buried in the sand. A lot had written off Adams and Armstrong six months ago. Now they are all we’ve got notwithstanding Mara who still has much to learn. 
 

Let’s just hope Che doesn’t drop a bottle of salad cream on his foot anytime soon. 

A bit of reality there FF well said but getting what is wanted with regard to a goal scorer to SFC is not easy

[beatlesaint]

Because of the World Cup break we only have 13 games before the next window so if things aren’t going well on the striker front at least we still have half a season to address the issue.

[Sarisbury Saint]

1 hour ago, Give it to Ron said:

Isnt Dibling a midfielder?

He is, but I’ve also seen him play as a striker.

[saintrich]

We have a much quicker side now and all the players can cover ground well, we can afford to be a bit more aggressive with our buildup play on the front foot without worrying that we might leave someone like Romeu or Bednarek chasing back slowly. Hopefully that alone can contribute to a few more goals. We can win the ball back and transition quickly too.

Ralph made a big point about not selling Adams and he has started well, proving to be really robust in his two non scoring games. A new contract must be due and hopefully he can flourish with that confidence in him. I'm sure Aribo can move up to be a presence up the top end in games where Adams is tiring. 

Gakpo would have been lovely, but let's not forget how hard it has been to shift our unwanted players - we did the right thing in not buying someone just because the money was there, if the players we identified weren't available.

If you just watched the Chelsea game alone in zero context, you wouldn't say we needed 4 additions after that, so it's nice we have continued to evolve the squad. #noholdsbarred 

[macca155]

1 hour ago, Sarisbury Saint said:

The good side of not getting a striker is that the youth players ( Ballard , Dibling ect) will get a better chance now.

Too early for Dibling,  he'll need careful handling  but agree on Ballard.

Strikers start young, making the best use of pace and confidence. Telling he hasn't gone on loan, hopefully that means he'll be in Ralph's plans.

[Bad Wolf]

I thought Ballard was a midfielder

[gio1saints]

2 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

Our best window in years and people still not happy, truly #saintsy

Am stoked, unlucky with a statement player but in that price bracket it gets trickier. 

Well done the entire team behind the scenes and owners.

We go again in Jan if needed.

Well said!
Very good work the recruitment team that got us all these exciting talents. Obviously headed by Mr. Shields but the analysts and collective including Ralph and the new coaches must all have contributed. Credit where credit is due. Well done non playing Saints team. 

[Lighthouse]

44 minutes ago, Mr X said:

Totally agree it will be just our luck if che gets injured.... Thought the club were extremely confident of getting a striker in....

Then Mara or AA will have to play there. It’ll be unfortunate, same as if Bazunu got a knock, but it’s not some tragedy which will get us relegated.

[tajjuk]

Excellent window, shame the big attacking signing didn't come off, looks like Leeds basically ruined it for us and then pretty much got their karma straight away with that Marseille player.

The most important thing for me was the intention, that we were willing to spend in that £30-40 million bracket for the right player, as others have said we have a weird season coming up with a world cup bang in the middle of it and that potentially could lead to a very interesting January window, so we will see what happens. But I still reckon that statement record signing is coming, be it in Jan or next summer. 

I mean end of the day we have had an around £75 million spend this summer, most we have spent for ages AND have not needed to sell anyone really to do that. 

Edited 2 September, 2022 by tajjuk

[Roboze]

Has Tyler Dibling returned to us as our player, or a we just baby sitting him for Chelsea?

 

[trousers]

I think one positive to come out of the 'not getting Gakpo' situation is that Adams now knows that he's the no.1 striker until the next window. I've often felt his sometimes below par performances have come from dented confidence levels due to being played out of position and/or dropped to the bench. Now he's the 'main man', and the formation change suits him, I think that'll do his confidence a world of good and we'll start to see some consistency that wasn't there before. Almost like a new signing you could say... (as they say in cliché land... Are you still keeping count Hypo?  )

Edited 2 September, 2022 by trousers

[Streaky]

5 minutes ago, Roboze said:

Has Tyler Dibling returned to us as our player, or a we just baby sitting him for Chelsea?

 

He's back, didn't like it at Chelsea. Very shy apparently and found it tough to fit in. Hopefully stays now and becomes a first team player over the next few years.

He's got the ability and hopefully has the mental toughness too.

[Turkish]

How much did we spend in the end?

carleta-car seems to be anything between 6-15m euros

the two city kids about £16m

so c£25m spent on deadline day 

plus the £50m already spent 

I make it about £75m with only a couple of nominal transfer and loan fees received 

[Bakovnetski]

These two came in too...maybe young but that is what we're about

[Wilf]

9 hours ago, SambaMaverick said:

Decent window overall but I'm not convinced that front line is enough to stave off one of Ralph's inevitable streaks of shite that seem to happen every season. Happy to be proven wrong.

Hopefully we'll have a few irons in the fire ahead of January (and we won't be leaving it until the last minute)

That picture is really useful, gonna print it off !

[hypochondriac]

7 minutes ago, trousers said:

I think one positive to come out of the 'not getting Gakpo' situation is that Adams now knows that he's the no.1 striker until the next window. I've often felt his sometimes below par performances have come from dented confidence levels due to being played out of position and/or dropped to the bench. Now he's the 'main man', and the formation change suits him, I think that'll do his confidence a world of good and we'll start to see some consistency that wasn't there before. Almost like a new signing you could say... (as they say in cliché land... Are you still keeping count Hypo?  )

Yep I can see it! I presume if we had got a striker in, the people making all manner of excuses now would be bemoaning that we aren't keeping the pathway clear for dibling or that it could upset Adams? Or that our squad is too bloated? 

[TheDevilishSaint]

3 minutes ago, Bakovnetski said:

These two came in too...maybe young but that is what we're about

Two youth players I actually know!

Seen them in football manager a lot.

[ErwinK1961]

8 out of 10 window for me. Point off for the lack of striker and another off for some of the deadwood still lingering, but all in all a very good job. Some important back room changes made too, which seem to be bearing fruit already.

A shame and quite frustrating on the striker front as it was clearly an area everyone can see is lacking - presumably the reason it all seemed quite late in the day is that the calibre of player we wanted had higher ambitions initially, so we had to wait. Shame it didn’t come off, but good to know there’s some serious money there for the right player. Maybe with a less leaky defence, we might not need to score as many goals to win matches!

[tajjuk]

11 minutes ago, trousers said:

I think one positive to come out of the 'not getting Gakpo' situation is that Adams now knows that he's the no.1 striker until the next window. I've often felt his sometimes below par performances have come from dented confidence levels due to being played out of position and/or dropped to the bench. Now he's the 'main man', and the formation change suits him, I think that'll do his confidence a world of good and we'll start to see some consistency that wasn't there before. Almost like a new signing you could say... (as they say in cliché land... Are you still keeping count Hypo?  )

Devil's advocate but the player we were going big for wasn't a striker.

So either at some point we decided we couldn't finds a clear upgrade striker for our budget or we changed the plans and decided Che was going to be the main forward and wanted to improve the people just behind him. Gakpo isn't a no.9, never really has been (though you'd think with his physicality he could play there) he plays wide, predominantly from the left, so he was looking like an upgrade on A.Armstrong. 

[Lighthouse]

3 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Yep I can see it! I presume if we had got a striker in, the people making all manner of excuses now would be bemoaning that we aren't keeping the pathway clear for dibling or that it could upset Adams? Or that our squad is too bloated? 

We don't need to make any excuses for anything. We've signed 9 players and all bar possibly Larios look like they will add something to the first team. That included 3 attacking players who between them only have to surpass the 7 goals contributed by Long and Broja. We've kept hold of the only two players I'd have been genuinely annoyed to lose - the WP brothers - and offloaded a high number of substandard players.

Another striker would have been a 10/10 window, hence I've given it a 9, but that's hardly a complaint compared to teams like Leicester, Bournemouth and Everton.

[saintmonkey1979]

I'm not so sure the striker was the massive priority we all think it is. Last season, our strikers didn't score as many as we'd have liked them to, but also, how many of those chances were nailed on finishes and how many were made harder by our slow, laboured and uncertain build up and poor decision making in the  final third?

We seem to be quicker and better at picking the right pass this seasin so far with the new look midfield and having ball playing defenders. 

We're already better off points and spectacle wise this season, and while a top end striker would have been amazing, I think what we have will be improved with the other changes.

Not buying into this replacing Broja either. He had half a good season but seemed to change and became a fairly selfish player to the detriment of many if our attacks. A striker needs a bit of that, but i felt he would rather go for personal glory at the cost to team glory on many occasions. Which again comes back to the poor decision making in the final third.

[trousers]

15 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Yep I can see it! I presume if we had got a striker in, the people making all manner of excuses now would be bemoaning that we aren't keeping the pathway clear for dibling or that it could upset Adams? Or that our squad is too bloated? 

I guess the pragmatists amongst us are simply concentrating on the positives of any given scenario rather than the negatives. Obviously, most situations in life have a balance of positive and negative attributes. Some people focus on the positives, others on the negatives. Nothing wrong with either approach to life per se, just different. Life is a rich tapestry of convoluted paths. And long may it continue. Vive la difference! 

(cliche count = cliche count + 7) 

Edited 2 September, 2022 by trousers

[trousers]

8 minutes ago, tajjuk said:

Devil's advocate but the player we were going big for wasn't a striker.

So either at some point we decided we couldn't finds a clear upgrade striker for our budget or we changed the plans and decided Che was going to be the main forward and wanted to improve the people just behind him. Gakpo isn't a no.9, never really has been (though you'd think with his physicality he could play there) he plays wide, predominantly from the left, so he was looking like an upgrade on A.Armstrong. 

Fair points sir 👍

[hypochondriac]

3 minutes ago, trousers said:

I guess the pragmatists amongst us are simply concentrating on the positives of any given scenario rather than the negatives. Obviously, most situations in life have a balance of positive and negative attributes. Some people focus on the positives, others on the negatives. Nothing wrong with either approach to life per se, just different. Life is a rich tapestry of convoluted paths. And long may it continue. Vive la difference! 

(cliche count = cliche count + 7) 

I'm not sure you can accuse me of dwelling on the negatives in this instance given my earlier post that ranked the areas of the transfer window. I have our defensive acquisitions a 9 or a 10 and overall gave us a 7.5-8 which certainly isn't negative. I wouldn't say it's over the top either but I'd prefer to look at the positives and negatives together in order to reach an overall conclusion. Getting overly excited about our amazing work recruiting at the back obscures some issues elsewhere. 

[trousers]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

I'm not sure you can accuse me of dwelling on the negatives in this instance given my earlier post that ranked the areas of the transfer window

I was talking in general, not about your good self specifically. 

[Ex Lion Tamer]

Not getting Gakpo took us back to where I thought we were two weeks ago, which is that this season might be a bit of struggle with so many young players, but if we can get through it then we'll really reap the benefits in years 2 and 3 

[tajjuk]

3 minutes ago, saintmonkey1979 said:

I'm not so sure the striker was the massive priority we all think it is. Last season, our strikers didn't score as many as we'd have liked them to, but also, how many of those chances were nailed on finishes and how many were made harder by our slow, laboured and uncertain build up and poor decision making in the  final third?

IIRC we underperformed our XG by over 10.  So generally we created more than we scored but just didn't finish chances. 

Though certainly you could argue that now we might not only create more chances (thus are our average strikers and attacking mids should score more) but we should be tighter at the back and concede less. 

We were a weird one last year, which is probably why Ralph looks so stressed most of the time and it's good he's got some more backroom help I think to try to figure it out, we were at times excellent and at times woeful. Defensively we had periods of imperious defending and had some great defensive performances, then had other games where we conceded 5 or 6 but looked all at sea. If you look at our goals against, often it was 0-1 conceded or like 3-4-5 conceded. 

Add in that we didn't consistently take our chances, that is why we were 15th, not say 10th. 

So we needed to improve both ends of the pitch really, take more chances, and defend better. We have clearly improved defensively, whether we have improved attacking wise remains to be seen but I don't see us being much worse considering as Lighthouse says we are talking about just 7 goals from Broja and Long. 

So the defensive improvements alone should be enough IMO to put us further up the table. You could then argue that a fit, on form Ings like striker might push us into like top 7-8 contention but we couldn't find the player.

So really we are looking at attacking wise whether a more on form Adams, a changed position Armstrong, plus the additions of Aribo and Mara will add more goals. But I think it's pretty clear that defensively we are looking better and will pick up more points than last year because of that. 

 

[saintwbu]

Ralph wanted an attacker, we all wanted an attacker, so it is a bit disappointing to not get a big addition in that area. But we didn’t score many goals last season, we did however concede a shit load, and we’ve definitely addressed that issue.

I loved Broja here and really want him back, but numbers wise he didn’t bring anything after new year, so i’d say we’re about the same as we were last season in an attacking sense. We’ve added Mara, Aribo, Edozie and the only player of substance we’ve lost is Broja. We’ve also found a place to get more out of Armstrong, so hopefully we’ll see more of a contribution from him than we did last season. 

Hopefully the significant strengthening in midfield and defence will be the big transformation from the second half of last season, maybe we’ll see more of the 1-0 wins we saw at the start of last season, which is fine by me. Also was really nice to see some genuine quality brought in to be a backup, in Caleta-Car - when was the last time we did that!?

[Daft Kerplunk]

12 minutes ago, saintmonkey1979 said:

I'm not so sure the striker was the massive priority we all think it is. Last season, our strikers didn't score as many as we'd have liked them to, but also, how many of those chances were nailed on finishes and how many were made harder by our slow, laboured and uncertain build up and poor decision making in the  final third?

We seem to be quicker and better at picking the right pass this seasin so far with the new look midfield and having ball playing defenders. 

We're already better off points and spectacle wise this season, and while a top end striker would have been amazing, I think what we have will be improved with the other changes.

Not buying into this replacing Broja either. He had half a good season but seemed to change and became a fairly selfish player to the detriment of many if our attacks. A striker needs a bit of that, but i felt he would rather go for personal glory at the cost to team glory on many occasions. Which again comes back to the poor decision making in the final third.

The transition from midfield to forwards has been a consistent problem since the Koeman days. The pace and power we’ve added in between should help Adams, Armstrong, Mara, Ballard and Dibling if he’s promoted to the first team squad. 
 

The goal is surely to stay up more comfortably and then move on a little next summer before we lose a few players in 2024, and then locate the next batch of players. A continued upward trajectory will be important in attracting the best young players. 

[Midlandsaint]

10 hours ago, CB Fry said:

Just to confirm, you can all say how shit he is over and over again but wah wah wah wah he's said on the Villa website that he pleased to sign for Villa how dare he.

As I said, get over yourselves.

What a weird way to take all of this 

[rallyboy]

Personally I think Bednarek has shit all over his own room with that comment, unwise to go out of your way to slag off Saints when you just go on loan - I'm pleased to be at Villa would have been fine.

Whatever positive legacy he did have is gone, and he needs to move away permanently asap, as I can't imagine anyone wanting him back.

Hopefully he goes straight into their back four tomorrow and marks Haaland - they will then discover how good he really is.

[trousers]

I don't wish to dwell on this and, yes, "it's time to move on" I agree, but as an epilogue to the Gakpo saga, surely someone is being economical with the truth here...? 

Why would a club that "don't sell our best players" agree a transfer fee and player terms with another club...?

Anyway... Onwards and upwards....

 

Edited 2 September, 2022 by trousers

[ErwinK1961]

3 minutes ago, trousers said:

I don't wish to dwell on this and, yes, "it's time to move on" I agree, but as an epilogue to the Gakpo saga, surely someone is being economical with the truth here...? 

Why would a club that "don't sell our best players" agree a transfer fee and player terms with another club...?

Anyway... Onwards and upwards....

 

I read that as they don’t sell to another team in the Netherlands.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

5 minutes ago, trousers said:

I don't wish to dwell on this and, yes, "it's time to move on" I agree, but as an epilogue to the Gakpo saga, surely someone is being economical with the truth here...? 

Why would a club that "don't sell our best players" agree a transfer fee and player terms with another club...?

Anyway... Onwards and upwards....

 

Does RVN mean that they wouldn't sell Gakpo to Ajax, only to a club in another country?

[S-Clarke]

8 minutes ago, trousers said:

I don't wish to dwell on this and, yes, "it's time to move on" I agree, but as an epilogue to the Gakpo saga, surely someone is being economical with the truth here...? 

Why would a club that "don't sell our best players" agree a transfer fee and player terms with another club...?

Anyway... Onwards and upwards....

 

Hopefully that's the last we hear from that Rik, a really irritating reporter who loves the sound of his own voice!

[hypochondriac]

44 minutes ago, trousers said:

I was talking in general, not about your good self specifically. 

Well then I don't think expressing disappointment at an area of the squad that some believe needs more strengthening whilst also praising the recruitment team for the rest of their acquisitions is dwelling on the negatives. 

[Le Timmier]

3 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Hopefully that's the last we hear from that Rik, a really irritating reporter who loves the sound of his own voice!

Agreed! (Although i'll happily hear from him in January if it means we're signing Gakpo) 🙂

[Saint Fan CaM]

An excellent window bar the lack of striker, but something tells me that’s not going to be a problem in this revitalised new look squad. Genuinely excited to see the new guys in action. Well done to SR and the recruitment team - outside of the top 6-7 clubs, I think we’ve come out stronger than others. Not concerned about Walcott and Redmond to be honest…at the very least they’ll provide good support to the younger players. If CC can score goals maybe he’ll be in Ralph’s plans ahead of Salisu or ABK.

Ralph really does have some midfield selection headaches.

[trousers]

12 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

I read that as they don’t sell to another team in the Netherlands.

 

11 minutes ago, Ex Lion Tamer said:

Does RVN mean that they wouldn't sell Gakpo to Ajax, only to a club in another country?

Ah, yes, that could be it. 

Right, blue line time....

[trousers]

4 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Well then I don't think expressing disappointment at an area of the squad that some believe needs more strengthening whilst also praising the recruitment team for the rest of their acquisitions is dwelling on the negatives. 

I said 'focus on', not dwell, but anyway.... FWIW, I happen to think your views are well balanced but there are plenty who will only focus on the negatives and ignore the positives. (And, yes, there are those that do the opposite too, which is equally unbalanced). 

[ally_uk]

My own thoughts fantastic window hats off to the  new owners and board 👌 👍 

I'm optimistic, excited and I'm getting ahead of myself when I say mid table is doable. 

The spine of the squad has been strengthened massively. 

Let's not underestimate our current attacking options either. Besides the Jan Windows will come round soon enough and the board obviously have targets in mind.

I watched the Chelsea game and I had this thought that the tide is turning. Chelsea in comparison just looked boring to watch like the wheels have fallen off with ownership etc.... 

I watched Saints and thought do you know what I wouldn't be surprised if this team surprises a few this season with how we perform and finish.

Our youth setup looks like it has some talent coming through aswell such as Doyle, Payne, Ballard, Jimmy Morgan, Edwards and Dibbling if he has returned 

What a time to be a Saints fan.

I'm excited 😊 

 

[mitch01]

Good article on Bednarek in the Athletic.

It bothers me that people find it so easy just to dismiss the contribution of someone like him. He has been important for us for a number of years, basically since he volleyed the one in against Chelsea for Mark Hughes. It was time to move on and I'm glad we have, because our other CBs are more aggressive and I think will make us a better team overall, but there's nothing to suggest his attitude has been an issue. If anything the article suggests he's overly self-critical. Someone said he sarcastically clapped the fans at some point which is obviously a mistake, but it's one SKD made too and I know if I played football in front of thousands of people for years I would do something at least as bad and I consider myself to be mild-mannered. 

Thanks Jan!

[Chewy]

I’m really torn on assessing the window; for every part of the pitch and squad except one we’ve done excellent work. 
Most of the (expensive) deadwood is gone, and more will be at the end of the season; we’ve added exciting youth everywhere; we’ve strengthened the leaky defence; we’ve added pace; we’ve added height and strength; we’ve kept all of our exciting talent except for Dibling … who’s now back. 
So much to be happy with.

But two points off for me for not addressing the glaring issue everyone identified. I fully appreciate the club tried but ultimately we’ve missed big time. I’m delighted Adams is currently on form - I really like him and want him to do well - but he’s hardly prolific.

Since Broja stopped scoring mid season we’ve been woeful in front of goal, and since then until a week ago our form has been nailed-on relegation form. Literally dreadful.

The defence is better, we should create more and own games more so we can’t compare exactly, but not getting a striker is a very significant and reasonable concern to have.

The relative lack of games until January helps this season so hopefully we’re not exposed for too long, but it’s a gig enough issue for me to mark an otherwise exceptional window as 8/10.