macphisto

Agreed, not necessarily saying Bowen but one or two players like Burn and Trippier, arguably our two best pound-for-pound transfers under PIF. Players with top level experience bought for the here and now. Definitely a market there for one or two experienced players who just don't "fit" at another club where we'd get 2-3 years of service. A very high risk market to operate but shouldn't be quickly discounted.

Great post, I also wonder if the lack of senior management and a more direct line to PIF played a part by either not being able to persuade PIF to be a little more flexible with the budget or slow in authorising moves for certain players. Who knows but it must have played a part somewhere along the line.

We can say he's changing things but it's more that we're just reverting back to what we did before last summer. Going a few windows without new players, prior to last summer, has maybe made some of us forget how young some of our players were when we initially signed them. Botman, 22 Livramento, 20 Hall, 18 Minteh, 18 Osula, 21

That's just based on one transfer window. One where we had no senior management in place. We can't go off one transfer window in terms of trends.

Complete opposite for me. Let them mature where they're in a settled environment, getting games, slightly less pressure and then move when they're ready. Far too many players make the big move before they're ready.

I'd also question his advisers, just let him develop where he's comfortable and then look to make the big move when he's 24 or 25. I'd go with Rogers ahead of Cunha.

According to the Athletic, it's likely Rogers will leave Villa this summer. What a sad state of affairs, you would think he'd want to play in the CL this season with Villa and then assess his options. He's only 23.

Good shout about Savage. Might be mixing it up by a few years as he was slightly later but I didn't think too much of Wes Brown.

I was thinking of him but you could argue he had a decent early career but maybe that's because the others pulled him along.

Livramento is a good player in comparison to others. Apart from a very select group of players, all players have limitations. Worldwide, at this moment in time, there really is lack of quality across the board.

100% agree, indeed would I be right in thinking he was the worst of the Class of 92? Would have been interesting if Keegan had tried for one of the others.

Agents are out for themselves and have to protect their whole roster of players. Mess a club around and you could be harming future players. This is all before even mentioning that agents often act on behalf of clubs in a deal and you also have very murky relationships where certain agents work very closely with particular clubs; just look at Newcastle under Shepherd and our relationship with Paul Stretford.

Biggest challenge for Wilson is to improve our relationship with agents. If we had good relationships then we wouldn't have even got to the stage of considering some of our targets nevermind bidding for them. Can happen to one or two players but it was a systematic failure last summer.

Are they that great anyway? Bournemouth have never had Europe before qualifying this season and Brighton qualified for the second time after this season. Good for them both, they're well run clubs but once you're established in the Premier League then it's not too difficult to stay mid-table like they have for the vast majority of their time. They're not that much different to Palace, Brentford and Fulham too in that regards. Yes they've done well in the market but people also forget their failures.

I'm quite positive as we've done well in the transfer market since Howe has been here and I would take one bad window every few years (never going to get it right every time). My main reason for being confident is that I don't think the league is that great and it won't take much to get back up there. Yes, we'll have holes in the squad, but then so does everyone else. All this talk of £20-£30 million pound players, you can get one or two of those players but to base your recruitment around that price range is not going to get you Champions League football.