Summer 25 - Transfer Window in Focus

The summer transfer window has well and truly closed and now we have a full understanding of the squad make up leading to January.

A busy window has seen the arrival of 14 new players to the squad and the departure of 14 faces too from familiar favourites like Ianis and Leon Balogun to squad players such as Adam Devine and Cole McKinnon. The squad looks currently younger, more athletic and younger. While big wages were cleared out of the club and on the whole replaced with better quality for less money. It would be easy to be impressed with the overall volume of ins and outs and the clearing out of the squad that’s been so sorely needed the last 2 seasons. But there are still areas of concern within the team such as one senior left back specialist with minimal first team experience.

In Kevin thelwells own words this was a summer of stability and shopping in markets best known to himself and Purdy with a lot of players coming in from England and relative leagues like France and Holland. Thelwell has made a possible rod for his back on promises of exploring alternative markets in future windows and developing scenes where quality and return of investment can be maximised. Thelwell was also quick to discuss the point of much unhappiness at the volume of loan players 5 to be exact. With only one of these Derek Cornelius having the option to buy. However Thelwell was quick to point out some of these will be a try before you buy option such as Aaron’s who enters into the final year of his contract next summer.

As always we still have some deadwood in the squad such rabbi Matondo, Kieran Dowell and others within the last year of there current contracts like John Souttar some of these issue will need to be addressed quickly in the coming months. However there still seems to be a sense of frustration that we never made a few approaches and in some cases knocked back domestic proven players which will ultimately sit with Thelwell, Purdy and the manager to decide if this was a good or bad idea.

Overall the squad looks better balanced with hungry young players like Meghoma, Moore, Djiga Edgar to prove to parent clubs there next in line to seasoned campaigners such as Tav at the back. A strong blend of young up and comers with experienced players should lead to a competitive squad for the season ahead and the root canal treatment that was needed performered with a few loose nerves. Questions will still be asked about selling both Igamane and Dessers and replacing them with Miovski and the unproven talent of Chemetiti .over 35 goals and assists taken from the team and replaced with inexperience and player who knows the league well but had a poor season last year. Selling our 3 left backs including club trained Robbie Fraser is a decision that still has most of us scratching our heads.

The manager has been supported by the new owners in a way we have yet to see in recent years with a net spend of £20 million and a blueprint for future success has been laid. With new faces comes the same expectations of success to feed us silverware that we’ve been starved of in recent seasons.

In summary this was a facelift to a bloated, aging squad with huge wages to a squad healthier in nearly every department. With the promise of more adventurous signings down the road was arguably a solid and not always sexy window that had to be done. It’s now down to both the manager and players to carry the weight of expectations ahead and deliver success something that Russell Martin will be feeling the impacts of turning results around quickly. A true gauge of the window will be made in time with the eye test to match the stats.