I know it's rehashing the same points from before, but the last 48 hours (who'd have thought!) have shown why some were a little premature in writing off this transfer window and the coming season.
Ben Woodburn is a perfect example of where the work was being done. He was spoken to in May, Liverpool were already looking at putting him out on loan and league 1 was a possibility. Several clubs in league 1 and a few in the Championship expressed an interest. We were at the top of these clubs due to the way we have looked to develop young players recently, but no deal was going to be looked at until after Liverpool had completed their pre-season tours. On his return, everything started moving quickly and the deal was completed yesterday. There were some on here who were demanding that we should sign anyone just to get players through the door, and as time went on, the assumption was that we were missing out on our top targets. I can assure you that Woodburn was one of our top targets and worth waiting for. Do people really think we should have just gone for the lad from Oxford City (that we couldn't apparently afford!!) simply to get players in?
Elliott Moore is again a player that has been tracked for a long time. He has played a similar number of games to Rob Dickie when he arrived with us but at a higher standard and is also a natural leader. It's taken longer than expected to put this deal together but would people have really rather had Guthrie?
As Robinson said tonight, some times it's a case of waiting for the right players to come available and everyone holding their nerve. We will inevitably have lost out on some players, but others would have come through when not expected. Forde being someone who we put an offer to but would have maybe expected him to go to a few other clubs first before committing. Despite the concerns about something being fundamentally wrong with the club, he took one look and agreed to sign there and then! Maybe the training ground really is something special!! But joking aside, this is a player who has had success twice at this level, played in the Championship and had the opportunity to extend his contract at Rotherham. As far as I'm aware the other clubs he was looking at were all in league one, and yet we've snapped him up quickly.
It's not a case of "I told you so" but my biggest frustration is when people get hysterical because we're not picking up players the day after the season finishes. This week has shown that having patience and playing the long game is where you get success. We have the makings of a great team, and a very competent squad, with plenty of our own youngsters to boost our numbers. At this rate I'll have to put on more buses to go on the Positive Tour, feel free to jump onboard!!