Is there a pattern emerging in our transfers?

As the transfer deadline fast approaches, there seems to be a bit of a pattern emerging at Blues, and I’m not overly sure what to make of it.

While Craig Gardner and the recruitment team have excelled in attracting a host of players to the club (three windows ago they basically replaced an entire squad in one go, which is no easy task), it’s only when you look at the players leaving that you start to ponder.

A lot of these players are not lasting very long. Why is that?

Hansson, Dykes, Yokoyama, May, Leonard, Peacock-Farrell, Sampsted, Gardner-Hickman, plus the early termination of loans to Cashin and Koumas, as well as rumours that Neumann, Kyogo and Willumsson could depart before Monday does beg the question:

Are the recruitment team failing?

Each player on that list can be discussed on their own merits, of course, but on a broader scale there could be a few ways of looking at this.

A. Were they signed with the short term in mind, specifically for League One and simply getting us back to the Championship?
B. Did we simply not get the players we thought we were signing?
C. Were they simply not given a proper chance to have any impact?
D. Or, simply, were they bad calls, players that should never have been signed in the first place?

If the answer is A, then kudos to the recruitment team, as they have managed to get players out of the door at an equally impressive rate, while seemingly not taking any financial hits on those players.

If the answer is B, then fair enough. If players do not perform, it will always raise questions about recruitment, but without it necessarily being the fault of recruitment. However, if it really is ten transfers over just three windows, then the questions are justified.

If the answer is C - which some may argue is the case for the likes of Hansson, Yokoyama, Leonard, Sampsted and Cashin, then the questions are not aimed at recruitment at all. Another summer signing, Kanya, who has hardly kicked a ball, was mentioned specifically in Chris Davies’ latest press conference. In response to a question about Willumsson leaving, he said:

“We’ve got Kanya who hasn’t played, to be fair, through my decisions.”

With that kind of talk about a player who has been here for six months and played just 23 minutes of football, many will say this appears to be a pattern as well.

Only time will tell if the majority fall into D.

In reality, there will be players who fall into all of these scenarios, but there could be some interesting debate when people feel that most fall into one.

It’s certainly worth keeping an eye on, as regarding the new influx of players as continued repeats of massive churn over transfer windows could prove very costly indeed.

We will be doing a special podcast focusing on the ins and outs of the transfer window next week. Myself and Andrew will go over the new recruits and departures, debating whether or not the squad goes into 2026 stronger. This is the link to our channel, please follow, like and share. Watch our full analysis and weekly podcasts over on the BCFC Fanzine YouTube channel: Subscribe to BCFC Fanzine on YouTube