Winter Transfer Window Review 26

This window was unusual and Palace are now in a way win now high fee transfers but then also cashing in on the Captain. Let's go through it ...

Normally, it’s hard to judge a window until time passes. I feel that this window was mostly about increasing the chances of winning the conference league. Only signing players who should contribute to the first team immediately, and not having to adjust to the Premier League.

Marc Guéhi

Honestly, I was expecting lots of talk of him leaving without him actually leaving. Once the offer was there, it kinda had be accepted. £20m for a player with 6 months left. That said, it was £35m in summer, and Palace quoted Chelsea £65m 12 months ago before they recalled Trevoh Chalobah, as reported in The Athletic. Ultmatley as a Palace fan, I am grateful he was the captain on the pitch that won the FA cup and the Community Shield. The summer before, Fulham overpaid for Andersen. That lessens the blow as Palace got £50m as a combined fee. Still should have been more as Marc is a great captain and an amazing player. Sometimes events just don’t go your way.

One of the improvements in his game this season that really impresses me how much better he is at attacking. He has always been a center back who can dribble past a forward. In the Premier League this season, he has crossed the ball 10 times, and last season he put 13 in the box. Getting 2 assists from the center back. Last season, his goal plus assists per 90 was 0.15, but this season it’s 0.2. As the forwards have been misfiring, that is a good stat. Stone’s contract with Man City is running out, so Marc will be his replacement. I think the reason they tried to sign him Janaury and not the summer was improved attacking stats. I can see Pep using Marc as a defender who joins the midfield while attacking the low block, similar to Stones.

Riad is back from injury

Riad simliar journey to Richards. Coming from a big club and having a couple of loans. He is still learning his trade, but should be good enough to start regularly in the Premier League. He is more advanced in his career than Canvot. I think Canvot needs game time to learn. He has all the attributes to be top-class. Sometimes he is just too sloppy on the ball or makes the wrong choice or should be confident with his first touch.

Riad has now returned from injury. Having an MCL and then an ACL injury right after each other is horrible. He is a forgotten man. Due to what happened to Ferguson, people might be writing him off. He should be the starting CB.

Missed a trick

I totally get not signing another young CB to develop. Riad and Canvot will be good players, but both need minutes. Splitting the training time and minutes with another player in the same boat might hurt their development. But if any of the back three get injured or suspended. Palace will have to use Canvot or Lerma. It would have been safer to bring an old hand to help out. I wouldn’t have minded bringing in Pinnock as bench, break glass in an emergency player. He is a local lad and also be like a coach to Canvot.

Mateta

It’s not a transfer window without some Mateta drama. Feels like every window he almost left. Including one when he was on loan, and there was talk of it being cancelled. I don’t know what’s going on in the background. It doesn’t sound good when he was dropped from the squad, players are posting goal celebration photo’s with “together” on them. Also, Mateta has unfollowed teammates and people with Palace connections. Posting stories in a huff. I don’t mind him leaving. I just had such a bad taste. He is a cult player. Not just for Palace but for the league as a whole. He is a streets won’t forget or modern day Barclays man. He had such a legacy at the club even before the FA cup run. I don’t want to spoil it. He can sign for Italain club in the summer, and hopefully, after his operation, he can make amends. But it’s probably too late for a lot of fans.

Jorgen Strand Larsen

Last season, he hada purple patch that got Newcastle offering £50m to sign him and was in the Athletic alternative team of the season. In that season he did …

• 25% conversion rate was only beaten by Chris Wood (33%).

• 14 goals (0.49 per game)

• Zero Penalty goals

• Started all 6 of the Wolves win streak, scoring six in that run

This season has been rough like all Wolves players. With Cunha and Aït-Nouri both leaving, they assisted him 5 times last season. It wasn’t just them that left but also Semedo, Guedes, and Sarabia. They all assisted him once last season. Only two players who assisted him last season remain. Toti Gomes (1) and Bellegarde (4). Wolves didn’t replace them with players as good. They have been a mess and signed a big-money forward in Tolu Arokodare, who was sharing minutes with Jorgen. Anything that could have gone wrong at Wolves has gone wrong this season.

Big fee and cost of capital

I wonder if the reason Palace is paying big fees is due to paying in installments. The new main stand could be taking up a lot of cash. If Wolves would like the money now, then they can go to Macquarie Bank. Specialist lender and borrow against the installment. As this is a specialist. I don’t think it would be a good rate. Teams that want the cash now will prefer deals that cash upfront, and to agree to deals with installments, then the value must be higher. I think this is why Manchester United often overpays.

Brennan Johnson

It was good to get one signing early. The main complaint from Spurs fans of his time there was that he would go missing in games but pop up with goals. That sounded great when he is main goal threat that rest of the team would create for but now Larsen has been signed and described as fox in the box. It just makes me nervous that forward three won't be creative enough.

He hasn’t shown a lot so far. Only getting 0.15 xG per 90 compared to the other 10s, Sar 0.4, and Pino 0.21. I was very excited when he first arrived, and now I am nervous that he could be a squad player rather than a key player. With that fee, he should be a key player. It’s still early days.

I feel that he is a confidence player. That needs a couple of good games to get going. At Spurs, he was their top goal scorer last season and scored in the Europa League final. He had a 7 and 4 game run of scoring every game. The seven-game run started against Coventry in the League Cup. Just get the one goal that may start a streak.

Evann Guessand

Villa fans are happy to see him leave. He’s only been there since August. He has been a part of their second eleven. Playing in seven Europa League games and starting six in the Premier League. Scoring against Basel and Go ahead Eagles. I don’t think they have given him enough time to settle in the Premier League. Might be a bit similar to Pino. Although Pino has had a lot of minutes. He was the number one target in the summer. Getting 12 goals and 8 assists for Nice in League Un. In the Glasner system, he can score goals. He will be more central and more direct.

CAM depth

This massive plus in the window. In the league, Palace are the 3rd lowest scorers with the same amount of goals as Burnley, only Wolves and Forrest have scored fewer. Now that Marc has gone, we cannot rely on defense to be as good. Currently, the 7th best in the league. Now at the 60-minute mark, Palace can swap out the 10s. Start with Sarr and Guessand, then a tired team would have to deal with a fresh Johnson and Pino. Playing against a low block, then let’s not start Sarr as he struggles without space to run into, start Pino, who can be creative in tight spaces. Palace are 6th in the league for first halves and 15th for second halves.

No Projects, but none on form

This looks like signings for now, as all are from the Premier League. High floors and maybe less high ceilings than project signings. Canvot, Uche, and Esse are recent project signings. Players that could become really good players with high ceilings, at the same time, they could fail. They have low floors. This is Glasner’s last months, and Palace could win another trophy. Introducing a new project signing may not get any game time and have no mark on this season. Could be amazing in future seasons.

But at the same time, the club needs a lift. If Palace signed a project player who was a high, maybe it would lift the other players. The three new signings aren’t on song, and fans of clubs that have sold them are happy to see them go. Maybe they have a chip on their shoulders and want to prove them wrong. Just feel that the club could use a lift.

No Rightwing backs

This is a risk. Our form is currently so bad, only joint bottom of the league in the last 6. A massive part of that is the hole left by Muñoz. He is two players on the field at once. This is the issue to find a backup; you need a player with his unusual skill set who would be willing to be his backup. The next manager comes in most likely similar style but might not use wing-back as aggressively. Then Palace are stuck with that player for a couple of seasons. It’s the way I would have gone about it, but I can see strengthening in attacking midfield as more important.

Time to settle

This is a strange window. On one side, it’s short sighted bring in Premier League players. All mid twenties for a manager that normally takes a couple of months to install new players. Not to say they won’t play straight away, but Glasner is such a system manager that it can take a while for the player to excel.

Conference League knockout stage squad

Players can not be cup-tied in UEFA competitions. Palace can add three players to the squad on 5th February, but also has to remove three players. Riad was included in the initial squad, but Doucouré wasn’t. Esse is out on loan, and Marc is gone. So that’s two, so that leaves one. Caleb Kporha has included as senoir player but could only be replaced by home grown player (same with Clyne and Mitchell). Palace could remove Remi Matthews as you only need to include two keepers, but that is dangerous if one gets injured and then you wouldn’t have a bench kepper. Mateta, if the bridges are truly burnt. Or possibly Uche, but I would like him to get minutes when games are over.

Terrible transfer window take

Seen quite a few neutrals refer to this as a terrible window for Palace. I can see why, from the outside, that looks this way. Spend lots on a player that divides opinion, the captain leaves, the manager has a sulk, lets everyone know he isn’t renewing contract, don’t sign a defender, bring in a player struggling at Villa, bring in an expensive striker that isn’t playing for Wolves, cult striker forces a move to Italy, move falls apart due to a knee issue everyone knew about, looks likely to sign another 10 but falls apart and then have really bad commication with the players & his repusentives. It has been a tough month. I am hopeful that now things will improve and I can look back at the window as turning point in the season.