Transfer Window, success or not?

[Dimmu]

Some great posts here so far! Time to ruin it now...

Couple things that I've thinking about this. Firstly, we very often hear how Cocu had mediocre first season with PSV and then it all clicked. With us, it's different though. We don't have the resources or pulling power of PSV nor is the Covid helping financially either. Therefore, this season will be another one where we are just building the team. IMO the transfer window has been excellent. At last we have wingers who'll actually sprint and bother the defenders, trustworthy goalkeeper and even Byrne is upgrade to Bogle. It's clear our team is not what Cocu wants, I'm pretty sure he would've wanted a striker, who has longer contract than just a year, but Kazim Richards is stopgap for now. Very sensible deal, as the finances are obviously very tight. If Ibe gets to the level we know he is capable of, we have only couple positions to upgrade to have become an excellent team.

Which gets me to point number two. Looking at our squad, IMO we are lacking only two good centre backs and striker to be the excellent team. Te Wierik might grow to be one of the them and we can always hope that Brighton don't have a plan for Clarke, who is good enough. 

Thirdly, I don't mind having another season of nothing to play for as long it's promises better future. We won't get relegated and as surely, we are not good enough to get promoted either. It's a poo thing especially for matchdays but it'll take another year to have a team to challenge again. Our youngsters hopefully will become good players at this level, and we should enjoy watching them develop. It's a different thing to be able to play at this level than be efficient every time stepping on the pitch. One year more might just be what is needed for Sibley, Whittaker and Buchanan to become key players what Knight already is, and Bird is getting close to be.

Fourthly, I absolute loved the clear-out. There's basically none left who is not contributing to team. And that's excellent from psychological point of view. Personally, I prefer tightknit group and I'm sure our financial department agrees. Multiple other factors support this from the sport psychological perspective: Talent might win games, but teamwork wins leagues. Smaller group will help for that as it boosts the motivation and limits the so called Ringelmann-effect. Also, the roles are noticeably clear in the group. Only Knight and Rooney have swapped their playing positions but it's very clear what is needed from everyone. We also have leaders on the pitch and with such a massive clear-out, the team cohesion can really start to build on. Many of our players are young and with long contracts which offers the stability the beforementioned cohesion can really build on. 

I think I had more to say but maybe that'll do for now.