Supporters have longed for drama at the death of the transfer window for as long as I can remember. Fans almost have an intrinsic sense of FOMO built into their footballing psyche and can’t bear the thought their club isn’t tirelessly jostling with its competitors right until the window’s last breath.
Clubs are almost punished by their faithful for their efficiency and meticulous planning, should they dare to have all their business wrapped up any earlier than the final day.
Perhaps it’s a craving for a sense of anticipation- one that concocts the frantic, the nail-biting, and the kid in us- that drives it but many fans are always chasing “what’s next?” and some clubs seem bound to obey them.
In any case, there are often good bits of business on the final day, those where unusual opportunities present themselves, and there are always disastrous bits, those where adrenaline and the transfer dopamine take over. So who did what?
Winner: Middlesbrough
On the face of it, losing a striker in January in a deal worth in excess of £15m can be simultaneously both great and terrible business.
Argument A: it’s a brilliant fee. Strikers are often overpaid for at this point in the season and to extract that kind of money from a player who has hit 11 goals in 29 games but has generally failed to hit the levels he did last season, is shrewd.
Argument B: it’s incredibly hard to replace such a player especially on deadline day.
For Boro, there seems no downside. Not only did they bring in such a fee for Latte Lath but added real quality in the form of Kelechi Iheanacho, a striker who hit around the same goals/90 last season as Latte Lath has this campaign.
He brings intelligent movement, effective link up play and that goal scoring touch all of which are useful to a team like Boro. Samuel Illing Junior was also a useful addition for them, a somewhat unknown quantity in England but having earned moves to Juventus, Villa and Champions League Bologna he’s evidently got
Loser: West Bromwich Albion
Albion are losers in the literal sense that their first-choice goalkeeper, Alex Palmer, has departed for the chance to play in the glitz and glam of the Premier League- for me this could also be a loss of their promotion hopes.
Palmer has been in and around the Albion first team for a decade, and establishing himself for the last few seasons. He’s been a mainstay and showed his worth as the rock behind Albion’s recent reputation as a hardened side. Whilst Josh Griffiths- the likely replacement- is following a similar path with some impressive loans down the pyramid, he’s a partial risk given he’s played just 10 second-tier matches.
Fees vary but some reports suggest the deal’s worth as little as £2m which feels minimal for someone as important as Palmer. Albion have already lost some of their defensive nous in the transition from Carlos Corberan to Tony Mowbray, albeit not entirely by their choice, and I have concerns over their defensive unit with ageing and often unavailable centre-backs.
Whilst their attacking additions are exciting, I’m not certain they’ll provide enough to cement them as a serious contender to make it to the big time and the short-term nature of Armstrong’s loan for me makes it a net negative.
Winner: Wycombe Wanderers
Losing your manager midway through a promotion charge never feels ideal. For Wycombe, many feel Matt Bloomfield is at the heart of almost every reason for the Chairboys' start to the season, one that has taken almost everyone by surprise, given Bloomfield’s development of players within the squad.
What’s perhaps worse than losing your manager midway through is losing multiple key players. It looked that way earlier in the window but the re-signing of Caleb Taylor on loan perhaps stopped the rot.
What’s so impressive about Wycombe’s deadline-day business is generally that there wasn’t much of it. Throughout the month there were murmurs regarding Joe Low which would have seen a double blow to their backline- Taylor having initially returned to West Brom for the first few weeks.
The more poignant interest though came in regards to Richard Kone- Wycombe’s leading goalscorer and star man. They stood firm in the face of multiple bids as high as 5,6 and 7 million pounds in the hopes of securing a spot in the Championship for just a second time in their history.
They also added Adam Reach on a free, a player renowned for his moments of quality and one may arise to make the difference between one point and three, and in turn, the difference between promotion and stagnation come the end of the season. A nervy day I’m sure for supporters but one in which they come out hugely positively.
Loser: Carlisle United
It’s been a pretty turbulent last 18 months or so for Carlisle. Retained faith in Paul Simpson, a man who had experience guiding them out of League Two, was misplaced and they quickly fell into a second successive relegation scrap.
Where January and deadline day is concerned is arguably an even bigger displacement of trust and decision making. It never felt like Mike Williamson was the man to guide them away from danger, not least in the way he’s renowned for wanting to play but to give him the entire transfer window before sacking him on the final day is outright incompetence.
11 players have been added under the pretences they’d be under Williamson’s control. Results have not been good enough, that’s unquestionable but I simply don’t see where the logic is here in making a decision so late on.
Even with the respective quality they’ve added- Elliot Embleton, Joe Hugill, Paul Dummett- there’s still potentially a clash of style within the squad and whoever comes in will have a near impossible job.
Winner: Hull City
Hull’s window had largely been a tale of youth acquisition on a temporary basis, deals constructed to bring in Louie Barry and Joe Gelhardt on loan- both players with strong youth reputations in the game and Barry certainly a coup given they pipped half the league to secure him.
Kyle Joseph was a tidy pickup from Blackpool, a promising forward with a good frame and still room to grow, his career somewhat still in its infancy. They also turned to the continent to borrow Eliot Matazo from Monaco and Lincoln from Fenerbache, the former already demonstrating his quality.
With such a young core already in place, it was important they also added some toughened, experienced heads. Selles’ Reading success was built on a youthful foundation but figures like Harlee Dean, David Button and Andy Yiadom would certainly have been instrumental in the dressing room.
John Egan certainly fits that bill, a 2nd tier veteran, having been promoted out of this division on multiple occasions and racking up over 400 career appearances. He’ll bring not only a wealth of knowledge to the environment at Hull but also offers a quality option at centre half, where the Tigers are certainly short. Great business.
