Significant news in this:
- Okkels. Fee lower than reported. Aberdeen buy option gives us our money back. (He’s been one of their better players in their last two matches. If they don’t want him, someone in Europe likely will, at the lower fee. We likely won’t lose much on him after all).
- Gibson. Fee 7-figures, but lower than reported.
- Bowler. We did a good job finding a taker and setting up the deal, given Forest had no interest in doing so.
- Osmajic. More than one club enquired about paying us a loan fee for him. A sign he’ll be a saleable asset, at a good fee, in one of the next few windows, given he has more than bigger club suitor already.
- Contracts. PH hasn’t wanted to push contracts for the remaining players. But PR believes they'd all likely sign if he did. So PH has the option to retain 1 or 2 if he decides to. Suggests players happy and into what PH is doing. One exception doesn’t want to discuss (I assume it's Best, but could be Woodman).
- Forward planning. PH sounds much more organised than Lowe. PR had made calls to set up Gibson and Maghoma deals before the window opened, so we could do them quickly and quietly in the first few days. Porteous already identified as no.1 target for RCB so was easy to move quickly when needed. There is a regularly updated list of targets in every position which PH approves.
Plenty of interest in here and lots of other clubs fans would appreciate this sort of transparency.
What a shame about the tone though. We're much improved in the last 4-5 windows with Osmajic, Thordarson, Frokjaer, Kesler-Hayden, Greenwood, Maghoma, Holmes, Millar, Gibson, all found at relatively low cost and under the radar of other clubs.
Continue this improvement in recruitment and we'll be finishing 8th instead of 16th again before we know it!