… and who ‘lost’ it?
Taylor: Gary O’Neil will do very well to keep Wolves up after their rather quaint policy of moving out important player after important player. Fulham have lost Aleksandar Mitrovic, which is always going to hurt, and Brentford have found out the hard way, via Johan Bakayoko of PSV Eindhoven and the near-obsession with Nottingham Forest’s Brennan Johnson, that it is tricky for a club of their size to get the big-money players.
Crafton: Wolves. They have accepted becoming a team battling to stay in the division and that is a dangerous admission to make. And, obviously, Everton remain Everton.
Shephard: Wolves have lost a whole heap of talent in Ruben Neves, Matheus Nunes, Joao Moutinho and Raul Jimenez and don’t have the funds available to replace it to the same extent (even with those incoming from Nunes’ move to Manchester City). They have brought in young talent in the shape of 18-year-old Enso Gonzalez and Manchester City midfielder Tommy Doyle (on loan) but remain a weaker prospect this season than last.
Matheus Nunes (Tony Marshall/Getty Images)
Spiers: The primary aim of a transfer window is to improve your squad. Sheffield United and Wolves, due to financial constraints, appeared to make their squads worse, which is quite the feat. Both did some decent late business but “you worry for them”.
Miller: Sheffield United. Almost regardless of who replaces them, losing your best two players in Sander Berge and Iliman Ndiaye is never going to be good news, particularly when you’ve just been promoted. You can also file ‘Wolves selling everyone’ under ‘not ideal’.
Stafford-Bloor: Crystal Palace. Where are the goals going to come from? Wilfried Zaha’s departure has been an agonisingly protracted process, but the club still don’t seem to have prepared for it. Jefferson Lerma will make them tougher — and more devious — and the young Matheus Franca could be anything at all, but there’s so little attacking threat to this team. Thank goodness they kept Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze because — as nobody should need reminding — Odsonne Edouard and Jean-Philippe Mateta managed just seven Premier League goals between them last season.
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