An unusually dramatic last day of the transfer window for the Addicks yesterday. We actually signed a player ourselves, which is unusual and in Fredrik Ulvestad from Burnley, we have the 'box-to-box' midfielder we have clearly been missing. We were still pursuing Louis Thompson but it looks like he declined, so we switched for 24-year-old Ulvestad on a season-long loan. We also threw our hat in the ring for long-term target James Henry but Bolton lured him away from Wolves.
The real drama of the day was the fact that we received strong offers for Lookman and Fox which were both resisted. I wrote yesterday that holding on to Lookman may well give us a strong view of Duchatelet's plans and, whilst not conclusive, it would suggest quite strongly that he has no ongoing plans to sell. Some fans may also be surprised we rejected three Sheffield Wednesday bids for Morgan Fox which reached £2m, although a sale would have left us with a fair sized hole in the squad at the last minute and Duchatelet may also be holding his pieces for more lucrative deals in January or at the end of the season. Palace are reported to have offered £4.5m for Lookman but told it would twice that to force our hand. Finally, Duchatelet is flexing the muscles of a billionaire. It will be interesting to see if Lookman suddenly starts matches now..
All-in-all, the Regime have done the right thing here and in strengthening the squad where it was needed and resisting good offers for players they would hitherto have accepted. That has to be a big positive for Russell Slade and for his squad which finally looks much closer in numbers and quality to what most of us would liked to have seen assembled in July and ready to attack the season at Bury. If the Regime had managed this better, they might have sold more season tickets and created a positive early season buzz amongst the supporters instead of the doom and gloom they have presided over. As things stand, we can now settle down and hopefully watch us compete strongly in this division and focus on the football for a change and not the latest antics of the Chief Executive or short-sighted policies of her and her administration.
I am genuinely pleased with the way things have turned out here, honestly.
The real drama of the day was the fact that we received strong offers for Lookman and Fox which were both resisted. I wrote yesterday that holding on to Lookman may well give us a strong view of Duchatelet's plans and, whilst not conclusive, it would suggest quite strongly that he has no ongoing plans to sell. Some fans may also be surprised we rejected three Sheffield Wednesday bids for Morgan Fox which reached £2m, although a sale would have left us with a fair sized hole in the squad at the last minute and Duchatelet may also be holding his pieces for more lucrative deals in January or at the end of the season. Palace are reported to have offered £4.5m for Lookman but told it would twice that to force our hand. Finally, Duchatelet is flexing the muscles of a billionaire. It will be interesting to see if Lookman suddenly starts matches now..
All-in-all, the Regime have done the right thing here and in strengthening the squad where it was needed and resisting good offers for players they would hitherto have accepted. That has to be a big positive for Russell Slade and for his squad which finally looks much closer in numbers and quality to what most of us would liked to have seen assembled in July and ready to attack the season at Bury. If the Regime had managed this better, they might have sold more season tickets and created a positive early season buzz amongst the supporters instead of the doom and gloom they have presided over. As things stand, we can now settle down and hopefully watch us compete strongly in this division and focus on the football for a change and not the latest antics of the Chief Executive or short-sighted policies of her and her administration.
I am genuinely pleased with the way things have turned out here, honestly.
Good summary Dave. Credit where credit is due, the regime deserve some praise for holding on to Lookman and Fox - it would have been agonising to see Lookman warming the bench (at best) for Palace this season. Of course, Slade will probably wish he had got another couple in (as all managers do) which might be possible in the free/loan market.
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