Transfer window closed

[mileend]

All good posts, nice to read those. Just to add a few extras

Normally a Brighton player refusing to come to Palace would have those Seagulls ecstatic but in this case picking West Ham instead, again normally a very irritating outcome, has most Palace fans pretty happy (on balance) as we keep Guehi though there are money matters will have to be sorted out in the future.

As others have said there were extreme reservations about Igor if it meant Marc went. Hopefully these will play out and he'll bring the Hammers down a notch or two.

I didn't know anything about Christantus Uche. Seen a few videos now. Still don't know much but clearly has the physicality for the Premier League and if he puts out that kind of energy it will help. Maybe in September he'll be replacing Mateta up top for the last 20 minutes until Eddie is fit. But turning his transfer from a buy to a loan with an option does illustrate that money is tight here.

To what extent the billionaires would fund without PSR restrictions we don't know. I'm suspicious they wouldn't pile in like a mad fat greek owner I could mention anyway. But until they build the new stand we are going to be constrained by having a lower income than we could have and it will continue to be difficult to compete for transfers. Better win the Conference and pick up that £17m we lost on Marc!

 

[silvertop]

Just a bit of balance to drown out all the Parish hate. It’s gone to another level.

We always knew that the dangers of this window were Eze and Guehi. One with a release clause, the other last year of contract.

Hard to go and replace early because, well they might not actually leave, and we don’t have big money to throw around on bench players. But also when signing a hight profile player, they will probably want to be sure that they are going to be as indispensable as you promise.

So the sensible thing to do is to have targets lined up for if and when that happens. To help speed things along, we had a release clause that expired for Eze, and Parish spoke publicly about the need to sell Guehi this window.

Window trundles along and no bids for anyone. First nibble was Spurs for Eze in late August. Eze then calls Arsenal to engineer a move there (and not that I’m bitter, tells OG he can’t play in the European game). We potentilly let Guessard go (as hadn’t got a bid in for Eze yet) Leicester are f3cking around with El Khannouss so we move on, Leipzig sell a load of players so don’t want to let Baumgartner go. End up signing Pino. Great price, great experience, perfect age. Feels like good work.

Liverpool put their first bid in for Guehi on the 30th August…..Lets assume for a moment that Parish and Glasner are on the same page (and Glasner talking in the press isn’t a threat, but clarifying the club’s stance). We look at deals for Pavlovic, Akanji, and Julio. And potentially the deal sheet was something to do with one of those or Joe Gomez. We couldn’t get those done so pulled the plug.

Outside of that. We’ve signed a LB cover for peanuts, and an experienced back up keeper. We’ve signed a very highly regarded CB prospect. We also may still get the Uche deal done. Another who’s stock is skyrocketing.

Franca is on loan to hopefully get his mojo back, and Edouard is gone!

Messy yes. But is that Parish’s fault. Potentially. Did it help that Eze’s clause wasn’t triggered, and Liverpool decided to wait until 2 days before? Absolutely not.

In Pino, Carvot and Uche we’ve signed some great young talent. Maybe the next Eze, Olise and Guehi. Ignore all the noise and IMO it’s a pretty good window.

I could not agree more. Something of an embarrassing late minute fiasco to top off a window with enough melodrama to fill a Netflix mini season.

The Telegraph put us 17th on successful windows. This follows a pattern where we are usually placed very low at the beginning of the season and then praised to the rafters by the end for finding these gems. The problem is Brighton gets praised at both ends.

Any how, the one comment that stood out was that Pino is a "definite downgrade" on Eze. I am not so sure. Time will tell. However, I suspect it is a comment from a journalist who ranked us 18th a few seasons back, saying we only got some kid from QPR called Essay (or something?). At least now he can pronounce his name (ish).

 

[silvertop]

All good posts, nice to read those. Just to add a few extras

Normally a Brighton player refusing to come to Palace would have those Seagulls ecstatic but in this case picking West Ham instead, again normally a very irritating outcome, has most Palace fans pretty happy (on balance) as we keep Guehi though there are money matters will have to be sorted out in the future.

As others have said there were extreme reservations about Igor if it meant Marc went. Hopefully these will play out and he'll bring the Hammers down a notch or two.

I didn't know anything about Christantus Uche. Seen a few videos now. Still don't know much but clearly has the physicality for the Premier League and if he puts out that kind of energy it will help. Maybe in September he'll be replacing Mateta up top for the last 20 minutes until Eddie is fit. But turning his transfer from a buy to a loan with an option does illustrate that money is tight here.

To what extent the billionaires would fund without PSR restrictions we don't know. I'm suspicious they wouldn't pile in like a mad fat greek owner I could mention anyway. But until they build the new stand we are going to be constrained by having a lower income than we could have and it will continue to be difficult to compete for transfers. Better win the Conference and pick up that £17m we lost on Marc!

Or that we are canny and wanted a try before we buy on a relative unknown who has never played in the EPL.

 

[taylors lovechild]

If Marc ends up being the backbone of our success this season then we can thank a (now former) Brighton player for it. That would be the funniest thing since FFS Murray!

The only player I would have felt comfortable replacing Marc at the eleventh hour was Akanji, so when it became clear a few days ago that he was not going to join us, I had hoped Guehi would stay.

Given how little I imagine most of us know about the three most recent additions it is difficult to make a solid assessment, but it looks promising, especially Yeremy. My fear was we'd end up replacing Eze with Sterling, get in a couple of cr@p loans and we'd hang on until January.

Ignoring all the politics, I am fairly happy with the signings. Hopefully Glasner is too.

 

[Nicholas91]

I'm content.

Our squad hasn't been gutted, Eze has gone who whilst a sensation was liable to be absent in games. Pino looks an exciting replacement.

We've reinforced the defence with Borsa and Canvot, we have an experienced back up GK, plus we've added Uche who'll strengthen striking options but may also be a bit of a utility man.

A wild spending spree was never on the cards but we have the vast majority of the FA Cup winning team available.

My biggest concern was a slow start however we have qualified for our European competition and are unbeaten in the league, with 5 points from Chelsea, Forest and Villa. Three teams who'll be up the top of the table. Things actually look quite good. Thank fudge the Window is closed now, can look forward to the season ahead.

COYP.

 

[Fanofzhiyi]

Gotta assume that if there was an offer worthwhile us doing so we would have accepted it earlier. On one hand Parish is getting criticised for not forcing a move and on the other he is getting criticised for trying to force one.

Liverpool knew all Summer a decent offer gets accepted if we can find a replacement. Whose to say Diomande wasn’t it, we had it lined up early, Liverpool didn’t bid, he (and probably other alternatives) cease to be a viable option?

Agree it all worked out though!

That is a great point regards Diomande. If Liverpool had paid the fee earlier rather than lowballing we could have had him and this whole scenario would never have been an issue

 

[Casual]

We’ve got a better squad, maybe weaker 11 (depending on Pino).
I’m not really interested in the click bait/money/politics of it all. Definitely don’t have a massive opinion on the transfer window, weeks before it closes.
I’m going Poland , Ireland, France this year to watch the FA Cup winners in Europe.

Well happy.

 

[becky]

I'm content.

Our squad hasn't been gutted, Eze has gone who whilst a sensation was liable to be absent in games. Pino looks an exciting replacement.

We've reinforced the defence with Borsa and Canvot, we have an experienced back up GK, plus we've added Uche who'll strengthen striking options but may also be a bit of a utility man.

A wild spending spree was never on the cards but we have the vast majority of the FA Cup winning team available.

My biggest concern was a slow start however we have qualified for our European competition and are unbeaten in the league, with 5 points from Chelsea, Forest and Villa. Three teams who'll be up the top of the table. Things actually look quite good. Thank fudge the Window is closed now, can look forward to the season ahead.

COYP.

Never knock a good utility player.... look at the service we got from Jeffrey Schlupp over the years. OK, not a player to ever dazzle, but never put in a bad shift (wherever he got put to play) and produced some lovely and unexpected goals in his time - usually when it mattered too.

 

[MrRobbo]

Transfer Window Post Mortem time.

The Window is a particularly difficult time on HOL with a range of views and emotions. Largely fuelled by speculative digital ‘ journalists ‘ on clickbait sites. And supplemented by all of us on HOL, trying to navigate our way through what is fact and what is fiction. What is certain is that I don’t know of anyone, myself definitely included, that has any ‘ inside ‘ info on the financials of the club or the way in which transfer business is conducted. So it’s all about opinions - although I think some are more informed than others if that makes sense.
So, for what it's worth, this is my view. I said all along I would reserve ultimate judgment until the Window has closed which it now has.

THE GOOD

We bolstered the squad. Glasner’s requirements were for 4/5 more players and 5 were duly signed.
Benetiz - has a decent pedigree and will hopefully prove an able back up for Henderson
Borsa - has been given some game time already. He doesn’t look anything exceptional at the moment but again, a useful back up to Mitchell, a player that previously had no cover
Pinto - the pick of the bunch. Young but with good La Liga experience and a full Spanish international. A different type of player from Eze but a lot will be expected from him as a creative type of player
Canvot - one for the future. I don’t profess to know anything about him but the club have ( for us anyway ) made a hefty investment.
Uche - will provide attacking options, but as above, I can’t offer any prior knowledge in terms of his ability

We got market value for Eze

We finally got Edouard off of the payroll. Ultimately an expensive flop, he was never going to progress into the kind of player that Glasner required .

Franco Umah generated some Academy related revenue with his move to Portsmouth


THE BAD

Throughout the Window, I didn’t feel comfortable that Palace had adequately replaced Dougie Freedman. While he didn’t always get it right ( Franca ), more often than not he came up with the goods. My interpretation of events is that Parish left it to DF’s staff to oversee the transfers and that they came up short. Hence, late in the day, the appointment of Matt Hobbs, ex Wolves.

Identifying Igor as Guehi’s replacement. Astonishing. Due diligence should surely have revealed a player with a track record of injuries that hasn’t even been able to displace an aging Lewis Dunk from Brighton’s starting line up. If this has Matt Hobbs’s fingerprints on this deal then it doesn’t bode well for the future.

Losing out on Manor Soloman. I think he would have been a useful option from the bench. No world beater but has EPL experience.

Doing the majority of our business so late in the Window. Maybe partially explained in para 1 above. I’m not blaming the club 100% on this because they can’t fully control events. But I classify it as ‘ Bad ‘ because it’s not ideal to have to integrate players so late in the day.


THE UGLY

The whole Marc Guehi episode.

I’m not going to rehash known events. But instead consider the potential implications.

Relationship breakdown between Glasner and Parish. Already strained I think and now possibly beyond repair to the extent where Glasner will seek his fortune elsewhere at the end of his contract.

Relationship breakdown between Guehi and Parish. Parish went back on his word to let Marc go after the Villa game. Of course Parish has to put the club first but he should not have made any firm commitment to the player until a replacement had been confirmed.

Relationship between Guehi and Glasner. If Glasner really did threaten to walk, then he effectively scuppered Guehi’s move. How will Marc react to this ?

Of course it shouldn’t be forgotten that Guehi is still under contract to CPFC. Nothing has changed in that respect. And moves break down all the time. However, this one feels different. I hope that once his head has cleared Marc can resume being the consummate professional that he is while he is still a Palace player.


Conclusion

I suppose retaining Guehi could be considered as ‘ Good ‘. But not in the context of which it happened.

The transfer market is complex. It’s a minefield in which you can easily make expensive mistakes. With the players we have signed, it’s hard I think to evaluate how successful the Window was. We got the numbers, have we got the quality ?

I’m going with a rating of 6/10

As you said, the biggest difficulty is not knowing what it true and what is complete false.

There is chat online that the Manor Soloman loan was to cover of the potential that we might not get the Uche deal done. So when Uche signed we let Solomon go. Feels a bit messy, but sounds like we have learnt that deals fall through last minute, and getting a back up lined up is important.

The other chat is that Igor wasn't a like-for-like Guehi. The plan was to buy Pavlovic, and loan Igor as extra cover considering that Pavlovic would be new to the league.

What I think we might be able to all agree on (?!) is that Parish isnt a bad guy, and has the clubs best interests at heart. I think he also respects and highly rates OG. They are both pragmatic guys that will talking though all of this daily/hourly. I find it hard to believe that Parish would just sell Guehi without having a OG approved plan in place.

Hopefully one day we know the truth!

 

[MabbsWasKing]

Agree with most of what has been said here. Disappointed to see Ebs go…particularly to Arsenal(Sansom, Nicholas, Wright)…..but he clearly wanted to move to a bigger club with more chance of winning top honours and who would deny him that chance as he reaches the latter half of a relatively short career. Anyway I have loved watching him.
Seems we have reinforced where necessary and I liked Pino’s start.
The MG thing looked a debacle but my view is that is just down to sensationalist media and social media. The Board tried to do what was right for the club at all times and in all probability weren’t in a position to buy an MG replacement, for ffp reasons, when they didn’t know for sure they would be selling MG. They couldn’t and wouldn’t force MG out the door to somewhere he didn’t want to go eg Newcastle and Liverpool came in very late. It sounds like the Board, OG and MG had some pretty grown up discussions and whilst trying to do what is right for the player, who wanted the Liverpool move, did what was right for the Club.
A lot of you will disagree but I am quite proud that my club and indeed MG handled this difficult situation properly, a lot would have ridden roughshod over player or manager, and am looking forward to seeing Mark’s trademark football intelligence against Sunderland.
I do hope, though that Mark gets a great move in January or the summer to a top club….please not Arsenal.

 

[JHB]

Standing back the transfer window is simply part of the start the season. Taken as a whole we’ve started well. Unbeaten after three potentially tough fixtures. Team looks organised and we are one of only three unbeaten EPL teams this season. Won some silverware and qualified for the group stages of the Europa Conference. The first eleven has seen one major change with Eze leaving but that is less than last year when both Olise and Anderson left. Overall the squad looks ok if a touch light.

While it is alarming to see us yet again leave transfer business so late and have a seeming lack of clarity on the plan we are ok.

If you’d offered me this start at the start of August I’d have bitten your arm off and we are in a better place than last year at sane stage.

 

[berlinpalace]

Some decent additions to the squad and, hopefully, by January we will have a better idea of where we are with Riad and Doucouré.

 

[lagoseagle]

Agree with everything said above, nice to see some positivity after much criticism here over the last few weeks.

I have always stood fully behind Parish. He has his detractors, yes Europa League deadline was a c**k-up, but who really expected us to win the cup back in March/April? He has performed nothing short of miracles with the club over the last 15 years. Give the guy some slack. There have been mistakes along the way, but I believe in him to run the club of our size with some sense and financial responsibility.

Guehi seems like a genuinely decent and humble chap, with strong support and guidance from his family. Yes he could have increased his earnings by moving, but who is to say he would have been a regular starter for LFC? In World Cup year, is it so bad to be the first name on the team sheet for a club sitting nicely in the league and in Europe? He only has to wait a few months before he gets a free pick of his preferred move for next season.

I liked what I saw of Pino. Direct running and hanging on the last defender to break the offside trap. If he gets good service (from Sosa? Mitchell hmm, not so sure), then he could stick away 10/15 goals this year. I'm also interested to see Uche in the flesh, he seems to have come a long way in a short space of time.

Its been a mess, but we should see the window as a success. And our squad is stronger now than it was a few weeks ago. We should be pleased and confident.

This season could be another high point in our history. COYP.

 

[pssguy]

I did say yesterday about 5PM can’t the Parish bashers at least wait until the window is shut? Mayhem, but our leader knows what he’s doing, he’s had enough experience now with transfer windows
And you’re right about Pino, just from that little cameo, he looks really sharp, quick of feet and mind 😎

Seem to remember some French guy scoring a couple of goals on his debut. I believe he just left us

 

[grumpymort]

Before the window started we needed a minimum 4 players most here will agree with that.

Number wise people who have gone out not including loans is 6. (I know some of them was useless etc but they still count)

We bring in 5. (Not all ready either for first team starts)

Those are just the numbers.

Now you got to look at out of those 5 who have come in who is competing for a starting spot 1-2 at the most.

We now are going to have to pay even more inflated price to find a Guehi placement of the back of we are going to get 0 for him or best case we get 20m in Jan (I don't see it happening he can sign a deal with like of Barca etc or keep options open until summer)

The window has been a complete mess.

Players have been available lots of action has happened from all different teams in the typical Palace fashion too much waiting not being pro active.

People can't keep using excuses like we don't have any funds we do but we have a person in charge who plays it safe all the time which is why I said it before he's not a good businessman all the other owners are wealthy because they know you have to take risks are times.

For me this shows again this club doesn't want to advance while SP is still allowed to be in control and it's one of the main reasons why I supported Tex everything he has said is spot on (Look how well his team is doing that he had control of and I believe had he had control at Palace the stadium situation would have been resolved many years ago he proved it with how he jumped into the club straight away did the academy another project SP had spend years on annoying residents in the area plus council didn't like him)

SP has taken us the furthest he can he needs to go and a lot of the staff as well are amateur level everything about this club is cheap not quality.

I believe had SP changed his ways after winning FA Cup and did what he said to manager OG would have considered extending contract no way now 100% he is gone so now we will have to go through the mess of another manager (Southgate or Dyche I expect at the top names both linked to us before)

 

[Nicholas91]

Before the window started we needed a minimum 4 players most here will agree with that.

Number wise people who have gone out not including loans is 6. (I know some of them was useless etc but they still count)

We bring in 5. (Not all ready either for first team starts)

Those are just the numbers.

Now you got to look at out of those 5 who have come in who is competing for a starting spot 1-2 at the most.

We now are going to have to pay even more inflated price to find a Guehi placement of the back of we are going to get 0 for him or best case we get 20m in Jan (I don't see it happening he can sign a deal with like of Barca etc or keep options open until summer)

The window has been a complete mess.

Players have been available lots of action has happened from all different teams in the typical Palace fashion too much waiting not being pro active.

People can't keep using excuses like we don't have any funds we do but we have a person in charge who plays it safe all the time which is why I said it before he's not a good businessman all the other owners are wealthy because they know you have to take risks are times.

For me this shows again this club doesn't want to advance while SP is still allowed to be in control and it's one of the main reasons why I supported Tex everything he has said is spot on (Look how well his team is doing that he had control of and I believe had he had control at Palace the stadium situation would have been resolved many years ago he proved it with how he jumped into the club straight away did the academy another project SP had spend years on annoying residents in the area plus council didn't like him)

SP has taken us the furthest he can he needs to go and a lot of the staff as well are amateur level everything about this club is cheap not quality.

I believe had SP changed his ways after winning FA Cup and did what he said to manager OG would have considered extending contract no way now 100% he is gone so now we will have to go through the mess of another manager (Southgate or Dyche I expect at the top names both linked to us before)

This is exactly how I would look at things if I only wanted to be a Palace fan for the next 1-3 years.

I hope for a longer life than that and to support my club to the end of it.

We're doing quite well as things stand and are moving forward to an extent I never thought I'd see.

 

[Palacesince64]

Well at the end of a very long finger biting day it turned out to be a pretty good window if you ask me, considering all this Uefa shenanigans that's been going on.
Some great talent brought in.Still got Marc...wouldn't surprise me if HE wanted to stay looking at his friendship with the other lads. Hopefully Ollie, the best manager we've ever had bar no one will sign a new contract with us as some point soon. COYP!

I think you may have logged into the wrong site. Such optimism is not allowed here!

 

[Palacesince64]

This is the crux of it for me.

As much as a lot of Palace fans are blaming Parish, Liverpool fans are p1ssed with their board. Why wait until the last day of the window to get this sorted. Especially as it was for relatively small money and the player wanted to come.

IMO its Liverpools behaviour that has made this messy, not Parish.

The only potential criticism I can levy at Parish is to flat out refuse any bid after the start of the season. And inform all the relevant agents in advance (he either moves early or not at all).

That being said, a 40m bid comes in, Marc wants to go and you think you can get Pavlovic, its worth a try I guess.

It played out in the media as though everything is completely out of control, and OG is threatening to quit. But there may have been a meeting with OG, MG and Parish, agreeing on the conditions that would allow this to happen. And they gave it a go.

My thoughts entirely. Getting the right centre half at a fair price isn’t easy esp in this crazy window. Having failed to do so, the only thing Parish could have done differently was to call time on any Guehi deal when the season started.

 

[blackgirl3]

It's worked out

For this season at least. I trust Guehi will overcome his disappointment and have a great season after which he'll get where he wants to go next summer (if not January). Kind of hoping it will be Real Madrid to annoy the scousers.

There is going to be a loss of funds because of Guehi but if it was that important then the replacement should have been arranged sooner rather than gamble on the deadline day. Certainly Parish and team took their eye of the ball of the replacement - probably due to Freedman going and the UEFA situation.

So we are down money on Guehi. There is some wages saving. We will probably finish higher with him than without him which is worth millions. But Nketiah was never worth £30m so we are probably £10m down on him. Franca was never worth £18m. That's football, you don't always get every transfer right. Pino looks great as an Eze replacement and a £40m net gain there. And at least a bit of money came in for Edouard.

some time in the future, say next march MG signs a new contract with us after being given £10 mill signing on fee with a £45 million release clause that is just the sort of thing that SP will try and pull off😉

 

[Palacesince64]

I wonder if Marc might rethink the whole Liverpool thing. He was unlikely to break up the Dick van Dyke/Konate partnership although that might happen anyway in the summer. Liverpool wanted him not because he’s one of the best centre backs in England, but because he was available at a knock down price. Even then they were penny pinching and indulging in brinkmanship. They could have sealed the deal weeks earlier and even at the last minute could have done so if they’d agreed to loan Gomez. Nothing about their approach suggests they were desperate to sign Marc.