I think we managed the squad the correct way last season in the Championship. There are plenty of players who will join a relegated team on loan who are too good for the league, but probably not good enough for the PL, who can get you promoted with no long term commitment. We used the loan market very well last year I thought (minus Holgate). What you don’t do is then go and sign the players who did well in the Championship and are questionable in the PL, only really Fraser falls into this category for us, but you could argue that £20m on Downes could’ve been better spent elsewhere regardless of how good he was for us last season. Ultimately he’d been at a midtable Prem team and barely played which should’ve given an indication of his ability at PL level So yeah our squad next year should be strong for the league even with the likely departures, pocket the cash we get from selling the “stars” to hopefully spend for another PL attempt a year later and supplement the squad with loans
True, basically they both need to find some lasting confidence to apply their talents more usefully. Tbh, I rate both more than many of our summer’signings’.
