Summer transfer window 2023

Everton came into this window with essentially no budget but lots of needs as the team was weak almost everywhere important. He therefore had little margin for error. Thelwell has added three players with PL experience for effectively no money, raised a few £ selling kids & the Stones bonus and taken a punt on two Euro strikers, one somewhat established and one a developmental invesTrent, with almost zero upfront cash but slightly inflated full fees to work with almost no cash. We simply could not go for players where clubs wanted real cash up front which limited our options.

The biggest criticism is that we are struggling to shift high wage dross to create wage room for another loan but that kind of deal always tends to go the wire so we cannot say he has failed until the window fully closes (including Turkey mid September).

We are not in the position Forest are in where they can stump up cash upfront to buy a dozen mid price guys and hope a couple work. Nor can we take the risks Brighton and Brentford did a few years ago grabbing cheap youngsters from minor leagues/smaller teams and slowly developing them given we need immediate impact.

On paper Thelwell has done a decent job walking his very narrow line and still has 55+ hours left to improve on the job so far.

On the pitch we remain a mess and desperately need everyone fit, with DCL, McNeil, Danjuma, Harrison & the new Euro strikers bagging goals.
 

Absolutely, on the whole it is a short term approach. You get the feeling that the hope is Dobbin turns out good.
You have to remember as well, we are either skint, or unable to spend money because of rolling losses. Our hands are seriously tied this summer. We have addressed the striker situation, for this season, now cross fingers and hope we can hold on and stay up.

I'm assuming the rest of the plan is, hope Onana has a decent season, sell him and use his money to make some of these loans permanent, or go out and buy fresh and start again. Cause we have an even bigger rebuild job needed next summer.

A lot is going to rest on Dobbin, plus Chermiti and Beto succeeding, and Onana having a storming season.
In the last twelve months we have signed Garner, McNeill, Onana, Chermiti and Beto who are all 25 or under.

That doesn't sound short term.
 


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