This was Graham Potter’s first summer window and I believe he has addressed the main areas of concern, that being our central midfield. We have signed exciting Portuguese U21 star Mateus Fernandes and French U21 youngster Soungoutou Magassa. Both these players are young and they fit the style we are trying to use. My only concern here was why it took until the season had started to bring in two central midfielders when we knew this was the area we had to upgrade. Also we have Freddie Potts who can play in the defensive midfield role and has been asked to stay rather than have another loan move.
Ruthless Clear-out and Squad Depth Concerns
All together we have signed seven new players, and I do believe that was a very good window especially when it seemed like we couldn’t spend much due to FFP. For the first time in a while we have got rid of our older players and were more ruthless in our transfers. Even though we have lost a lot of experience, I believe it is good to get these players off our wage bill. My only issue with the amount of players that have left in our squad is we might be a bit short in areas if we get a few injuries especially around AFCON. So if this is the case, in the January window we may be in need of a few more players.
Promoting Youth and Finding Hope
A positive from this summer is definitely seeing Callum Marshall, Freddie Potts and George Earthy get promoted to a first team player and not sent out on loan. All three players have shown much promise and I see Potter as a manager that gives youth a chance when he can.
My overall views of this window are positive, the outgoings had to happen and from what I saw against Nottingham Forest, our new players and new midfield are doing well and I’m a lot more hopeful now than a week ago. I see our squad as stronger than the end of last season. I just really wished we had done our signings earlier as I don’t believe we would have conceded 11 goals in three games.
Building a Younger Team and European Ambitions
I think now we have a team to build on and a much younger team which is a huge plus for the next couple of years. I think we signed the players we did right at the end of the transfer window because our owners saw that the defence and midfield we had could potentially put us in a relegation battle. I am hopeful for our season now after watching the game vs Forest. I just hope we play like that more often than not and that Summerville has an injury-free season and he’s like a new signing in himself. If this is the case we may see ourselves in a European push hopefully, but we may need a few more squad players in January.
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