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 were told it would take 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 were told it would take 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.
Dave, your faith in the word of Brussel Slade is charming but how likely do you think it really sounds?
ReplyDeleteEven if RS was told exactly what he told us, do you think he believes it?
Roly turned down more than £6M for just 2 players?
Not a cat in hell's chance.
Roly believes 1) all players are interchangeable and 2) they each have a discreet economic value.
As soon as an offer arrives which matches or exceeds that ascribed value, they're available.
It's just about possible AL or MF declined their respective opportunity.
We all know how well received that will be among the Pyongyang devotees on the SMT. If so come January they will be "disgruntled former employees"
Is it credible that Fox's ascribed valuation is 3 or 4 times higher than what Roly paid for Ricky Holmes or 5 times the revenue from THD? As far as Roly's concerned left-backs are free (see Chicksen) and they're all as effective as each other.
Roly's adherence to statistical scouting (as interpreted by a belgian 20something of no discernible football knwoledge) has been entrenched for years and word is the recently recruited credible scout may already have decamped.
Far more likely is that kites were being flown but no actual faxes sent.
Given Daisy's aversion to a full day's work the 11pm deadline on transfer day is at least 7 hours past meaningful. She couldn't even get a chunk of Tex's wages of the rosta and that was always on page one of her list of priorities. His "injury" gonna turn out to be as serious as Nancy's newest recruit Diarra's.
I fear your spectacles' lenses have acquired a light pinkish hue, Dave.
I'd love to be wrong but the last 31 months weigh heavier than one perky scripted press conference.
SCN - the reports of the offers for Lookman and Fox were coming in all day and not just from Regime sources or Russell Slade. The local Wednesday papers were reporting three separate bids for Fox which would suggest chunky increments maybe adding to the reported £2m. My post was a reflection the previous day's when I surmised that they might cash in on Lookman. We also bought a player on the last day in the most needed position, so the relative positivity of my post reflects that. The bad news, of course, is that I think they are here until the end of the season as a minimum. We do look like we can compete in League One, not something I was saying prior to the season kicking off. I had a oner on relegation....
ReplyDeleteWe should be building the squad around talents like Lookman, so maybe he'll get some starts now we know we have until at least January.
ReplyDeleteThe squad still looks pretty thin to me - we are only a couple of injuries away from giving the kids a run out, and no loan window to fall back on this time round.