January Transfer Window Fail

[Jack2jack]

Would a decent window have helped, possibly yes, problem with that is, they would have to hit the ground running, and get up to speed quickly. Also quality players cost money.
Thing is you wonder how much say Cooper has in transfers, if he's out of the process, then chances are any new recruits won't get a look in.
Best time to sort this out is in the closed season, also depends greatly, if we (cough) go up or not.

 

[Skippyjack]

Well, our purchases haven't been great, Palmer, Gyokeres, Arriola, Morris have been a disaster.. Freeman, Hamer, Whittaker must be dog manure in training, Lowe, Woodman and Bennett have been ok, Hourihane has been disappointing, Guehi is the only bright spot in our team.

 

[Baron Goblet]

Jam, Ry, Fred and Morgs have I would argue been good as has Smithy

 

[PSumbler]

Easy to say in hindsight, but at the time our January transfers looked fairly decent, no?

Conor Hourihane - many fans from around the Championship thought that this was potentially signing of the season and a real coup
Jordan Morris - he showed promise when he was played and would have featured a fair bit but for his injury
Paul Arriola - Cooper didn't give him a chance and he was sent back early
Morgan Whittaker - Young, but criminally under-utilised by Cooper
Ben Hamer - Cooper was never going to drop Woodman for an extended period of games
Kieron Freeman - not used by Cooper?

Gibbs-White leaving was obviously a massive blow though.

At the time it looked like we'd brought in a decent mix of experience and youth, especially with the position we were in at the time...it was enough to get excited about, giving us a bit more depth for the run-in.

It's been a mixture of bad luck and mismanagement.

I agree with most of this bar Arriola I believe was imposed on Cooper by our owners connections with a certain US club and Freeman was just a pointless piece of business that served no purpose

 

[PSumbler]

Well, our purchases haven't been great, Palmer, Gyokeres, Arriola, Morris have been a disaster.. Freeman, Hamer, Whittaker must be dog manure in training, Lowe, Woodman and Bennett have been ok, Hourihane has been disappointing, Guehi is the only bright spot in our team.

Bit harsh to label the signing of Morris a disaster?

 

[JackSomething]

On paper it looked like a good to great transfer window, albeit missing the striker we obviously wanted and needed. With hindsight, Hourihane has been a disappointment and Morris' injury means we never got to see what he was capable of.

Hard to blame the manager or recruitment team for it, some deals just don't work out and you can't predict serious injury.

 

[STID2017]

And we kept hold of Ayew, when the logical financial move would've been to get a fee and save £80,000 a week.

Huh?

There was no choice or he'd have been gone.

Possibly, plus without him we would be languishing down the table, as no way would we have signed anyone within a million miles of his quality

 

[Magic_Michu]

On paper it looked like a good to great transfer window, albeit missing the striker we obviously wanted and needed. With hindsight, Hourihane has been a disappointment and Morris' injury means we never got to see what he was capable of.

Hard to blame the manager or recruitment team for it, some deals just don't work out and you can't predict serious injury.

Spending £700k+ on a striker who we have come out and said is a signing for the future.

That is bizarre considering we were desperate for a striker. And how many teams in our league can pay that sort of money for ‘one for the future?’

 

[JackSomething]

On paper it looked like a good to great transfer window, albeit missing the striker we obviously wanted and needed. With hindsight, Hourihane has been a disappointment and Morris' injury means we never got to see what he was capable of.

Hard to blame the manager or recruitment team for it, some deals just don't work out and you can't predict serious injury.

Spending £700k+ on a striker who we have come out and said is a signing for the future.

That is bizarre considering we were desperate for a striker. And how many teams in our league can pay that sort of money for ‘one for the future?’

I suppose it depends how highly they rated him. If they truly believe he could become a quality player, then £700k could look like an absolute bargain in the future. Sell him for McBurnie money in a few years and our recruitment team look like geniuses.

Perhaps they also hoped he could come in and make an impact this year, despite saying he was one for the future (they'd have wanted to take the pressure off him by saying that). It looks like they only signed him when all the other options fell through, so perhaps it was Whittaker or nobody. Also, perhaps they saw Morris as providing the needed goals in a similar way to Lowe, not a true striker, but someone who would net a few.

I'm not arguing that we didn't need a try number 9 type, but it didn't happen in 2 successive transfer windows for whatever reason. If we could afford Whittaker, I'd rather they take that punt than bring in nobody.

 

[Dr. Winston]

considering we were desperate for a striker.

Were we though?

That's the narrative Cooper is trying to spin, but let's be honest, our style of play has had far more to do with our lack of goals this season than the personnel. Despite being a defensive team that consistently counters at glacial pace our primary forwards have still notched 30 goals between them. Maybe they and others would have contributed more if Cooper had given them the chance.

As far as I can tell this lacking a striker stuff comes largely from Cooper having a paddy because we didn't sign another of his u17's.