27-07-2023, 10:42
As an outsider I was amazed to see how many players you had, so I'm sure there has to be a slimming-down as well as re-building process, but it does need to be carried out thoughtfully. Maybe the changes behind the scenes are making this process more random than it ought to be?
For instance, Camara may have been keen to leave, but the fact that Udinese came in to get him should give you pause of thought. They try to maintain a place in the top half of Serie A by buying young players at bargain prices, who can perform at the required level and are then likely to sold on quite profitably. To me Camara looked like a player with real promise, but you've extracted little value from him on field and have now let him go for peanuts.
Tyreece Simpson's loan looks like a potential nutcase move. He's going down just one division to a club not much worse than you, playing only to a slightly lower standard. They think he might do them a job. I think of Plymouth last season. Swansea loaned them Morgan Whittaker who immediately became one the division's stars, whilst Swansea pursued a determined road to nowhere. Similarly Norwich loaned them Bali Mumba, who made the EFL1's team of the season having played throughout in its best team. Meanwhile Norwich were refusing to cash in on their most saleable asset, for whom he would have been an ideal replacement, and watching the promotion race from afar. If Simpson is capable of staying fit and doing well at Northampton, then surely he'd have been able to do the same for you and you'll have wasted a season proving it?
Interestingly both Norwich and Swansea have now confirmed their stubborn assessment of those players by selling them to Plymouth.
Sometimes re-building can all too easily become synonymous with demolition. Even your young Australian giant keeper has gone. The Posh wasted no time in snapping up a potential bargain, that's how they too fight above their weight. Is the very ordinary Chris Maxwell coming in any sort of good news, or just another signpost on the confusing road that might just be going nowhere?
I hope prospects are a bit less bleak for you than they look form way outside. Saving you last season took one form of near-genius. Setting you up to avoid a similar struggle might be an even greater task. I do hope not.
For instance, Camara may have been keen to leave, but the fact that Udinese came in to get him should give you pause of thought. They try to maintain a place in the top half of Serie A by buying young players at bargain prices, who can perform at the required level and are then likely to sold on quite profitably. To me Camara looked like a player with real promise, but you've extracted little value from him on field and have now let him go for peanuts.
Tyreece Simpson's loan looks like a potential nutcase move. He's going down just one division to a club not much worse than you, playing only to a slightly lower standard. They think he might do them a job. I think of Plymouth last season. Swansea loaned them Morgan Whittaker who immediately became one the division's stars, whilst Swansea pursued a determined road to nowhere. Similarly Norwich loaned them Bali Mumba, who made the EFL1's team of the season having played throughout in its best team. Meanwhile Norwich were refusing to cash in on their most saleable asset, for whom he would have been an ideal replacement, and watching the promotion race from afar. If Simpson is capable of staying fit and doing well at Northampton, then surely he'd have been able to do the same for you and you'll have wasted a season proving it?
Interestingly both Norwich and Swansea have now confirmed their stubborn assessment of those players by selling them to Plymouth.
Sometimes re-building can all too easily become synonymous with demolition. Even your young Australian giant keeper has gone. The Posh wasted no time in snapping up a potential bargain, that's how they too fight above their weight. Is the very ordinary Chris Maxwell coming in any sort of good news, or just another signpost on the confusing road that might just be going nowhere?
I hope prospects are a bit less bleak for you than they look form way outside. Saving you last season took one form of near-genius. Setting you up to avoid a similar struggle might be an even greater task. I do hope not.