So the price freeze is only a price freeze until April 29th. Think mine was £330 last season, it will remain that until 29th. After that, it goes up to 'full price' which is as yet unknown.
Everyone makes poor decisions at times. But transfer windows have made more sense when there's been a CEO in place, whereas Conway's two summers have defied all logic.
Updated: So the price freeze is only a price freeze until April 29th. Think mine was £330 last season, it will remain that until 29th. After that, it goes up to 'full price' which will be £405. Thanks to Box Office for clarifying.
The January window made little sense* under Khaled. We wasted most of it with inactivity when we were in desperate need of the squad being strengthened, extended the loan of our own midfielder to another club in a position we were desperate to strengthen, and then resorted to loan signings, in contradiction of our often-quoted transfer policy, in the last 2 days of the window, arguably in positions that weren't the priority in terms of squad needs. Thankfully, the loanees have actually added something, but let's not kid ourselves that they were anything other than acts of desperation at the end of the window. * - It made little sense until you factor into account the likelihood that there were no funds available to do anything other than this.
So, with this context, it did make sense. He had to generate funds, which wasn't an issue that his predecessor had to encounter, as they emptied the bank account. The extension of the Kane loan will have provided some funds, as will the the sales of Sibbick and Williams. But he had to wait until those sales completed before we could make any signings. If he'd have managed to get the defensive midfielder he wanted (Trybull), it would've been a pretty good window. But he didn't do too bad a job, given he had one arm tied behind his back. Though I would've been tempted to try and sell Brittain or Styles to give more money to play with and perhaps get more done early in the window.
But when did we last achieve profits on player trading? Although it's always 'undisclosed' I would have thought it was Pinnock, Lindsay and Moore who were all sold immediately after promotion from League One. Jacob Brown was flogged in 2020, but it's pushing it a bit to describe this as a profit on that particular trade as no fee was paid for him in the first place. As for Chapiin, I simply have no idea if money was made on him. So the point I'm making is that 'profit', as defined by the margin between cost price and selling price, has been greatest following a successful season in League One (notwithstanding the impact of Covid).
Not recalling Kane is an example of opting not to make your strongest squad of players available at a time when we were in desperate need of doing so. On-field performance relegated to a secondary category, and likely at a lower overall investment than trying to sign a new player later in the window, as there was only the additional wage contribution of him returning to consider. I doubt the loan fee would have made a significant difference either way. It was a quick, instant fix at the start of the window that didn't rely on outgoing players needing to be moved on, and we opted to do something else, most likely with one eye on the fact that his 'shop window value' was better with him playing for Oxford than for us. I also suspect that Kane didn't want to come back at the time, and I'd be surprised if he's part of the squad that starts next season.
I think Herbie Kane's reputation has enhanced by simply not being in our side. Would he have brought the experience or leadership that we need? Is he the sort of midfielder that we need as an alternative to Wolfe / Gomes? Also, if he didn't want to come back, is forcing him back really going to make much of a difference to our results? The failure to bring in a DM was the big issue.
The majority of the voting public were wrong when electing this government. And on brexit. They aren’t wrong in this subject. But still.
I thought someone might respond as such! However, at least we've not been fed a pack of lies regarding the club and its owners' motives. Oh, hang on a minute....
I think Kane wouldn't have cost us as many goals as Palmer and Benson have recently from falling on their ass and/or shitting out of a challenge.
I can think of two goals from that. Sheff U, which was the second of a two goal defeat, and lets face it, we'd lost as soon as we went one down. Then Fulham, which still required a curler into the top corner from 20 yards, so was hardly a gift of a goal. And can be argued that Kitching should've got closer. Of all the things that went wrong this season, not recalling Herbie Kane to be our saviour would be pretty low on the list for me.
I believe budgetary constraints were the major blocker. Not sure the desperation is correct either. These things are often dictated by the parent club in the case of a loan and it's pretty common for most of the activity to be at the end of the window.
Thought Kane was brought in as Mowatt`s replacement if he went in the Jan window, so should have started this season in the squad and not gone on loan to Oxford.
But at the start of the season, he wasn't fit. People were complaining about his performance against Bolton in the League Cup, then apparently he looked well off the pace in an u23s game which ended as a 7-0 thrashing (or similar scoreline). So the loan made sense. Then in January, we effectively sold the clause in January that would've allowed us to recall him. This was consistent with what Khaled had said about needing to generate funds. Unfortunately, while Quina and Bassi have improved the side, we didn't get the central midfielder that we really needed. But I'm not sure Kane would've brought what we needed either. He was being kept out of the side by Romal Palmer and Aapo Halme at some points last season.
The three players he mentioned weren’t rated by the coach of the time. One was sold in February of 2020, the other two released later that summer. They weren’t part of the coach’s plans. Which goes for Sibbick and Williams in the last window too. And Chaplin last summer. That’s football.
How many were fit, to me it was another ploy to get our wage bill down and nothing to do with performance of a cup game and U23 game or most would be packing their bags for another club.