Transfer window best since Sam’s first
With the transfer window about half way through we can safely say that the increased involvement of the Davids has brought much needed improvement and sanity to the whole process. We have spread our net wider and gone for younger, hungrier talent.
This has without doubt been the best transfer window since Sam’s very first where he had to reconstruct the entire team after relegation. It also seems as if the club are now after a “marquee” signing and some of the names mentioned look very exciting.
I’m not so worried about that; the players bought so far look hungry and all have something to prove. Zarate considers his last excursion into English football unfinished business, Kouyate wants to show he is the player the world thinks he might be. The hungry fledgling talents of Poyet and Cresswell excite me very much just by the desire they show paired with the fearlessness of youth.
Poyet and Cresswell are like peas in a pod in some respects. These are signings the fans of the clubs they have come from are mourning, they both signed quickly when we came calling (always a good sign) and they both come with good reputations from the division in which they played.. Both are qualified to play for England (Poyet has been here since he was two) and will want to get noticed by Roy or more likely Gareth as their careers progress.
Diego Poyet is a defensive midfielder who is very rarely seen in the opposing half, 83% tackle completion with good short and long range passing. Cresswell is a flying left back who loves to get forward, and is much further ahead than young Dan Potts in his career.
Kouyate is very strong and great at box to box runs with a great shot and finish. Zarate is in the mould of Sheringham as that number ten that hovers around the edge of the area.
These players will threaten even the most sacred players in the team, Nolan and Noble, Jarvis and Downing will all have to do well.
This in my opinion is the real effect of this window. The chaps out in Evian will be watching the new arrivals and realising the team no longer picks itself, the core of last year’s side must look to their laurels and push on or be dropped. They will see raw hunger wanting their shirt!
I don’t expect wholesale changes as Sam’s record shows that players must rip the shirt away from the current incumbents. I do however expect those same old hands to feel the breath of the new hungry arrivals on the back of their neck! Nobody will feel safe, nobody capable of strolling through games safe in the knowledge they get a game next week.
The exceptions to that rule are Masters Carroll and Cresswell. They alone sit unchallenged when fit, one is injury prone the other is new to this division. The window is not over, far from it but this is where we must make the last signings in my opinion.
Also the creative player we were promised have not yet arrived, the Berkovic, Devonshire, Benayoun or Brooking, the player that makes us less one dimensional. These are the areas left to work on.
That being said, well done chaps I am excited by the new season ahead, aware that we have made strides already and await the progress yet to come!
When I renewed my season ticket shortly after the prolonged Sam debate I was uncertain. However the Davids have seen the areas that needed help and are doing a great job of making this window devoid of the problems that haunted our previous ones. Gold Star!