Sorry but I’m not having this ‘bad transfer window’ narrative. The whole of last season we whined about depth - Parish more than delivered. We added solid premiership performers like McNeill, Disasi, Tomiyasu, Chillwell and to a degree, Guessand. We added experienced and well regarded internationals such as Mingueza and Timber, then we added exciting new prospects such as Osario, Honest, Khalali and Gozo. We also kept Wharton, Mateta and Sarr.
There was nothing to suggest Disasi was going to be as average as he’s been so far.
For me, it was a decent window. The problem is the lack of cohesion and clarity of style right now and possibly motivation - the players are good enough.
My opinion only.
I think you have to put all this in the context of who left, and who was left behind against their wishes.
We lost La Croix and Munoz, not only two excellent players, but two seasoned pros and part of the core of the team. Guehi went six months before that. Eze before that.
To say we kept Mateta is one way of putting it. I'd be amazed if that was by choice given what we saw when Guehi's contract was running down. I imagine we just couldn't sell him. Hopefully JPM will play and perform, but I imagine the plan was for him not to be here.
In other words, a big chunk of the core of the FA Cup winning side has gone or all-but gone in a year. In that context, we needed hardened, proven players to replace them. McNeill has obviously been of interest for a while, and could be OK (if Sage ever picks him). He at least knows the league. Disasi I agreed with at the time, and still hope he will do OK in a more coherent defensive set up. Tomiyasu seems really good but we all knew he was a massive gamble (so far, one we are losing). Chilwell is like Tomiyasu - he has quality but there is a reason we got him for free and nobody else wanted him. He did very little when he was here last time, and has done very little so far this time. Guessand was, to my mind, shite last season and I have no idea why we got him back.
When you add it all up, the outgoings and the incomings just don't tally at all. Of course, we were never going to replace some of those players like-for-like, but surely that just made it all the more obvious that we were going to have a much weaker team?
That's the thing for me. I have no time at all for this idea of squad depth. This is Palace. We can barely afford a first team good enough for the league, surely spreading our money even further to put together a deeper squad was only ever going to dilute the quality to the point of failure?
The classic example is selling Munoz, an established, battle-hardened player we could rely on to bring in Khalili and Mingueza. On paper we have two players now for one position. Great. Except neither is obviously good enough. What looked good on a director of football spreadsheet has undermined the actual team on the grass.
What is more, by bringing in too many average players at the same time we have blocked many of them from establishing themselves. Gozo, Osario, McNeill, and even Guessand must look at the team and think 'I'm surely as good as some of these, yet here I am, kicking my heels'. They have all barely seen the light of day. At least half of them must be starting to regret joining us. How is that good value for money?
Yet at the other extreme we have inexperienced kids like Khalili playing every week and getting murdered. What should have happened is that we had established, senior players (unspectacular, but solid), supported by a few promising players. Then the likes of Gozo, Osario, Honest, Khalili, and especially Canvot, would be playing once in every four games or so, dipping their toes in, getting their fingers burnt here and there, coming back out to reflect and regroup, before going back in.
There is no hierarchy of seniority now to the team and squad. Just a large pool of average, inexperienced players floundering in the absence of structure.
For me, it was a crap window because of the flawed mindset that underpinned it: Squad depth and development potential ahead of team quality. I imagine we will sack Sage sooner or later, and if his replacement is at all experienced then he will start by trimming the squad, building the team around a core of experience, and drip feeding the newer, younger players in, bit at a time, as has worked pretty well for 150 years!
That's my opinion anyway!
🙂
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