Sport
PREMIER LEAGUE NEW BOYS IN TRANSFER GAMBLES
All three of the newly-promoted sides have made solid starts to the Premier League season, Watford still unbeaten after a run of three consecutive draws and Bournemouth and Norwich both collecting four points from their opening trio of games.
It is interesting to note the differences of approach that the new boys – particularly Watford and Norwich – have taken in the transfer market this summer as they attempt to avoid immediate demotion back to the second tier. Whereas Norwich have kept the bulk of the squad that earned them promotion from the Championship via the play-offs last term, adding just three new players to the ranks, Watford have undertaken something of an overhaul, with a total of 11 signings completed at the time of writing.
There is rarely a clearly defined right or wrong with such things. While Tottenham Hotspur were heavily criticised for their decision to spend the money gained from Gareth Bale’s big-money move to Real Madrid in 2013 on numerous different players, it was not the methodology that was inherently wrong but the application of it. Indeed, had all of those purchases worked out as well as Christian Eriksen, Spurs would presumably have received praise for replacing Bale with several stars rather than just one or two big-names.
It is for that reason that comparisons between Watford and Queens Park Rangers are somewhat premature. QPR’s scattergun tactics in the two seasons following their promotion in 2011 was held up as one of the reasons for their struggles but, again, the major part of the problem was the suitability and appetite of the players in question rather than the fact that quite a few were signed.
What is clear, however, is that Watford’s 11 newcomers will require time to settle in England and gel with their team-mates; it is a slight risk to cohesion, too, that the players are of 10 different nationalities and were brought in from seven different leagues around Europe. With points in the Premier League often hard to come by, the first chunk of the campaign cannot really be written off for bedding-in purposes.
However, results so far – draws with Everton, West Brom and Southampton – suggest that Watford will be competitive and difficult to play against this term, with Etienne Capoue, Valon Behrami, Sebastian Prodl and Allan Nyom already showing that they will add value to Quique Sanchez Flores’ side.
Alex Neil’s Norwich outfit have taken the opposite route, Robbie Brady, Youssouf Mulumbu and reserve keeper Jake Kean the only current squad members who were not at Carrow Road in 2014-15.
The advantages of such continuity are manifold: firstly, there is no need to worry about whether the collection of individuals will successfully be moulded into a cohesive collective unit, while virtually everyone in the dressing room is already aware of the manager’s tactical requirements.
Some may point to Burnley’s relegation last season as proof that failing to sufficiently add to a squad can be fatal, but Swansea, Wolves and Leicester are among those to have succeeded in their first campaigns in the Premier League with the nucleus of the team that prospered in the Championship still in tact. Norwich’s existing crop, moreover, had more top-flight experience than Burnley’s, with the Canaries participating in the Premier League for three years between 2011 and 2014.
Signing too many or too few players can be damaging, but there is no approach that is foolproof and guaranteed to work. Only time will tell which of Watford or Norwich adopted the better policy in the transfer market this summer.
