It’s very rare in this division to have as little player turnover in the summer as we did, which meant that we had a big headstart on other clubs who were getting new signings embedded and new tactics on board. The way we play requires great understanding between the players which was already built in.
If we had Onyeka and Esse to call upon from August instead of January…crikey.
But if they'd have signed in the summer would we have been like the other clubs in getting players used to the tactics etc, and we'd have just been one of the pack rather than having a decent gap at the top? Was it that familiarity that allowed us to get that head start on everyone?
I thought at the start of the season that our smaller squad would start to bite around Xmas with lots of fixtures as well as suspensions and injuries and that's when we'd need the extra players. Thankfully we got those in January before the small squad ended up being an irreversible problem and we've kicked on (and arguably we got the likes of Onyeka because of our great start putting us in such a good position for promotion - I don't think we'd have got him in August or if we'd just been sniffing around in the play-offs).
Whether by luck or judgement, our transfer strategy this season seems to have been timed brilliantly.