Parker - In or Out

[burnley007]

The bookies don't seem to fancy our chances under Parker.
They tend to know what they are doing.

[KRBFC]

I think it would help if he wasn’t obsessed with playing square pegs in round holes.

A centre half at left back, a defensive midfielder playing as an attacking midfielder, an attacking midfielder at striker, a ball winning midfielder as our most advanced player, a left winger on the right and a thoroughbred upfront.

[burnley007]

I think it would help if he wasn’t obsessed with playing square pegs in round holes.

A centre half at left back, a defensive midfielder playing as an attacking midfielder, an attacking midfielder at striker, a ball winning midfielder as our most advanced player, a left winger on the right and a thoroughbred upfront.

A £13m centre back by the way.
Our summer recruitment was dreadful.

[willsclarets]

But do you really believe things will improve? If so, what is that based on?

If you don’t believe things will improve then is it better for the board to hold their hands up and accept they got the wrong man or do we drag this out, tread water for a while just for the sake of giving him time.

I’m torn between both

To a certain extent its just impossible to know. Sometimes you get (although at a completely different level to parker) someone like klopp, who it's easy to say now was a no brainer to back, but loads of Liverpool fans wanting him to get the sack early on. There's a lot of money at stake, fans pay a lot of money to watch, the pressure to deliver quickly at any level is huge. But it doesn't necessarily make sense to make a big change if things don't happen straight away. You wouldn't do that at a big company under new stewardship.

The only thing I believe as you put it, is that our risk/reward of keeping parker is better than getting shut at this point by some margin. What I'm seeing at the moment, besides our defensive record, doesn't mean I'm brimming with confidence but neither with dread. Things can click quickly in a game or two, especially with a few extra players back in the fold.

Do you think the reward of sacking parker now outweighs the risk? You can see from this board how emotive the conversation is, but taking a step back from being a frustrated fan some of the comments on here are crazy to me. Just look at the thread predicting points from the last 8 games, most going for 20 ish. We got 13. And so, in the space of 6 weeks we've gone from "those games should put us comfortably top" to "he has to go, now". We win 3 on the bounce or something, and the whole board will flip like a switch.

We are a hugely reactive bunch, but you can't run a football club like that.

[ClaretPete001]

The second paragraph is exactly where Parker is going wrong. We don't have players who can play in this formation, so why are we playing it? The managers job is to put the players in the best position, and best formation, to win. Parker isn't doing that. Guardiola at Man City has set the trend for managers micro-managing every player's every move on the pitch; but he's good enough to do that. Most managers aren't.

I was a big advocate of Parker but am now having doubts but after spending £90 million last season and allowing two Championship strikers to go on loan I don't feel inclined to blame him for the fact that we do not have a Championship ready striker fit and are reduced to suggesting sticking a centre half up front against Millwall. Surely, that is the real problem?

I suppose he could try a centre-midfield two and put Hountondji and Foster up front but I don't know if that would get you top two. As it is, he could have tried Jay Rod and Hountondji up front in a 4-4-2 yesterday but how many people on here would have gone for that..?

We had the same after the game against QPR but they did similar to Sunderland yesterday.

I have my doubts playing a 4-4-2 or a centre half up front would have made a difference yesterday. Amdouni playing up front probably would have.

[Shaggy]

A £13m centre back by the way.
Our summer recruitment was dreadful.

It want good, also Kompanys premier league recruitment was awful and is going to send us in a downward spiral down the league unless we can somehow get promoted with parachute money.

[gandhisflipflop]

It feels like the next month or so is pivotal not only to this season, but for the next few years as a club. We all know the longer we stay in this division the harder it is to get out of and we fall back to our natural position of becoming a Preston type championship club so the board have some big decisions to make, do you stick or do you twist? If you stick, are you sticking in the hope it gets better or the belief? I think that is the conundrum.

[burnley007]

It want good, also Kompanys premier league recruitment was awful and is going to send us in a downward spiral down the league unless we can somehow get promoted with parachute money.

I'm not sure I can agree with that. We made big profits on most of Kompany's signings. I just can't see any profit on the players brought in this summer.

[ClaretPete001]

I'm not sure I can agree with that. We made big profits on most of Kompany's signings. I just can't see any profit on the players brought in this summer.

We didn't there are a number of VK players still at the club including Eur 23 million worth of Obafemi and Tresor who have barely played a game between them.

[Blyclaret]

The bookies don't seem to fancy our chances under Parker.
They tend to know what they are doing.

If Parker went. What would you have to moan about. Life can be sad sometimes.

[Stan Tastic]

Parker replied: "Definitely. That long pause in the game. That may have been a factor. At that point, with a young team who had maybe not seen that before./quote]

The more experienced Millwall team, who maybe had seen that before, didn't forget how to play well.

[warksclaret]

Why are posters crying out for Hountondji to get a start. OK one turn and shot yeterday, but so out of his depth, and lacking football intelligence in pressing, finding space, challenging for an aerial ball, etc, etc. When he came back to defend corners he looked positively scared in the challenge and hes a big guy. I honestly think Costello on loan with Accriongton would offer more. Can anyone see this player even making the squad of any of the other Championship sides

[Foshiznik]

I was a big advocate of Parker but am now having doubts but after spending £90 million last season and allowing two Championship strikers to go on loan I don't feel inclined to blame him for the fact that we do not have a Championship ready striker fit and are reduced to suggesting sticking a centre half up front against Millwall. Surely, that is the real problem?

I agree with alot of your post, in particular the lack of a quality striker but I'm not sure i would call Obafemi or Churlinov - "Championship strikers". Amdouni is the only loan departure who might have made a difference (without signing someone else ofc) but he was never going to stay.

[Foshiznik]

Why are posters crying out for Hountondji to get a start. OK one turn and shot yeterday, but so out of his depth, and lacking football intelligence in pressing, finding space, challenging for an aerial ball, etc, etc. When he came back to defend corners he looked positively scared in the challenge and hes a big guy. I honestly think Costello on loan with Accriongton would offer more. Can anyone see this player even making the squad of any of the other Championship sides

I am extremely glad you aren't working in our scouting/recruitment team.

[dsr]

I was a big advocate of Parker but am now having doubts but after spending £90 million last season and allowing two Championship strikers to go on loan I don't feel inclined to blame him for the fact that we do not have a Championship ready striker fit and are reduced to suggesting sticking a centre half up front against Millwall. Surely, that is the real problem?

I suppose he could try a centre-midfield two and put Hountondji and Foster up front but I don't know if that would get you top two. As it is, he could have tried Jay Rod and Hountondji up front in a 4-4-2 yesterday but how many people on here would have gone for that..?

We had the same after the game against QPR but they did similar to Sunderland yesterday.

I have my doubts playing a 4-4-2 or a centre half up front would have made a difference yesterday. Amdouni playing up front probably would have.

I don't know if playing Hountondji and Flemming up front (the best available at present IMO) against West Brom or anyone else would win games or score goals, but the way we are playing at the moment will do neither.

We scored at Hull with 2 up front. Sheffield Wednesday gave us the first goal by giving the ball to Antony when unmarked, and we created and scored another when 1-0 up. The Plymouth goal was a free gift of a penalty, the Leeds goal was another free gift, but we created goals against Portsmouth (2) and Blackburn. That's all for the last 11 games - 4 goals created by our passing skills, four from opposition mistakes. And it's not as if we're having near dos. We deserve nothing better than what we're getting.

The point of the centre half up from wasn't that he should start the game there, but when it's 0-1 and 10 minutes to go, passing it around and waiting for the gap to appear in the penalty area is not going to work. We need to actively chase a goal, not wait for the defence to mess up.

If I thought there was a serious chance that Parker's tactics would work, I wouldn't be so keen for change. But it's the same tactics as Southgate tried in the Euros, and it didn't work for him - and he has Kane playing the lone striker and plenty of talent behind.

[Spijed]

The one worry I have is that we'll just become another Watford hire & Fire them type of club.

[ClaretPete001]

I agree with alot of your post, in particular the lack of a quality striker but I'm not sure i would call Obafemi or Churlinov - "Championship strikers". Amdouni is the only loan departure who might have made a difference (without signing someone else ofc) but he was never going to stay.

I don't think I mentioned Churlinov did I? I think I said Amdouni and Obafemi.

We paid Eur5 million for Obafemi and Eur3.5 million for Churlinov so if they are not Championship strikers someone has dropped a grollock. I think they would give us options.

Amdouni is under contract with us - the decision is not his to make.

[ElectroClaret]

I am extremely glad you aren't working in our scouting/recruitment team.

You're glad our scouting/recruitment team secured the services of Hountondji?

OK.

[ClaretPete001]

I don't know if playing Hountondji and Flemming up front (the best available at present IMO) against West Brom or anyone else would win games or score goals, but the way we are playing at the moment will do neither.

We scored at Hull with 2 up front. Sheffield Wednesday gave us the first goal by giving the ball to Antony when unmarked, and we created and scored another when 1-0 up. The Plymouth goal was a free gift of a penalty, the Leeds goal was another free gift, but we created goals against Portsmouth (2) and Blackburn. That's all for the last 11 games - 4 goals created by our passing skills, four from opposition mistakes. And it's not as if we're having near dos. We deserve nothing better than what we're getting.

The point of the centre half up from wasn't that he should start the game there, but when it's 0-1 and 10 minutes to go, passing it around and waiting for the gap to appear in the penalty area is not going to work. We need to actively chase a goal, not wait for the defence to mess up.

If I thought there was a serious chance that Parker's tactics would work, I wouldn't be so keen for change. But it's the same tactics as Southgate tried in the Euros, and it didn't work for him - and he has Kane playing the lone striker and plenty of talent behind.

I don't think referring to Southgate helps anyone. He is the second most successful England manager in our history much better than Capello and above Ericksen, Bobby Robson et al. All England managers have had issues including Alf Ramsey. But I can see the frustration is similar.

And I'm not really talking about short term problems or the last 10 minutes against Millwall. The desperation is caused by the financial situation and the issue is there is no balance in the squad and a lack of firepower.

That was true prior to the start of the season as it is now. You can call for change but it doesn't mean anything will get any better.

There is a clear plan and when we get Foster back and have Flemming fit and available a 4-2-3-1 will make more sense now and in the future should we go back into the PL. You have a choice you either put a plan in place and back it or you just desperately knee jerk around looking for some kind of salvation when things go wrong.

In reality, we probably aren't good enough for a top two spot. Too many of the new signing like Pires, Hannibal, Hountondji and Anthony look fairly ordinary at this level. Laurent, who is 29 came from Stoke.

I get what you are saying and I also fear this is not going to turnaround. All I am saying is that Parker is not the real problem here.

[boatshed bill]

Pointless to sack him, it's his team and we need some stability.
i have never believed we'd get promoted this season and still don't expect us to.
Sign Championship (standard) players and that's where you end up, it's as simple as that.

[Swizzlestick]

Well it was Parker who signed the ordinary players. The numbers differ but we have committed a lot of money signing Humphreys and paid a decent amount for Hannibal. The loans appear to be safe choices rather than choices that could impact on the team meaningfully. Were we even in for Rak-Sakyi for example? I agree a lot of quality has walked out of the door, which Parker has had to deal with, but he’s been responsible for most of the incomings.

[ClaretPete001]

Well it was Parker who signed the ordinary players. The numbers differ but we have committed a lot of money signing Humphreys and paid a decent amount for Hannibal. The loans appear to be safe choices rather than choices that could impact on the team meaningfully. Were we even in for Rak-Sakyi for example? I agree a lot of quality has walked out of the door, which Parker has had to deal with, but he’s been responsible for most of the incomings.

I don't know how much input Parker had on the signings. If you recall the firesale happened after the start of the season.

There are some pretty harsh comments being made on here

[CoolClaret]

Well it was Parker who signed the ordinary players. The numbers differ but we have committed a lot of money signing Humphreys and paid a decent amount for Hannibal. The loans appear to be safe choices rather than choices that could impact on the team meaningfully. Were we even in for Rak-Sakyi for example? I agree a lot of quality has walked out of the door, which Parker has had to deal with, but he’s been responsible for most of the incomings.

Has he though?

I highly doubt that Parker signed anyone other than advocating for Worrall, Laurent & Anthony.

[warksclaret]

I am extremely glad you aren't working in our scouting/recruitment team.

I dont profess to be up to the role. But really-Hountondji, Sambo, Bastian, Delcroix, Churlinov, extending Jay's contract, and the jury still out on Tresor. Not exactly top drawer recruitments

[Swizzlestick]

Certainly think he’s been more than an ‘advocate’ considering we’ve pivoted to signing more UK based ‘solid pros’ ahead of prospects from abroad. I’ve no idea what the transfer team structure is now, but certainly looks like Parker has had a big say in them since he’s been here.

[CoolClaret]

Certainly think he’s been more than an ‘advocate’ considering we’ve pivoted to signing more UK based ‘solid pros’ ahead of prospects from abroad. I’ve no idea what the transfer team structure is now, but certainly looks like Parker has had a big say in them since he’s been here.

No, it doesn't look that way at all.

Anthony, Worrall & Laurent, yeah, probably Egan as backup, but for the other signings, I highly doubt it.

[Swizzlestick]

No, it doesn't look that way at all.

Anthony, Worrall & Laurent, yeah, probably Egan as backup, but for the other signings, I highly doubt it.

So that’s four you’ve reeled off there off the bat and you find it difficult to believe he had involvement in any of the other transfers?

[CoolClaret]

So that’s four you’ve reeled off there off the bat and you find it difficult to believe he had involvement in any of the other transfers?

Yes, I find it very difficult to believe that SP was the main man behind the Houtondji, Pires, Hannibal, Hladky, Sambo, Green + the other signings.

[Foshiznik]

I don't think I mentioned Churlinov did I? I think I said Amdouni and Obafemi.

We paid Eur5 million for Obafemi and Eur3.5 million for Churlinov so if they are not Championship strikers someone has dropped a grollock. I think they would give us options.

Amdouni is under contract with us - the decision is not his to make.

I mean you said "2 Championship strikers", not any names to be fair. If it was our choice regarding Amdouni he would still be here, as would Odobert, O'Shea, Berge, etc.but we aren't naive enough to not know that players have most of the power.

[beddie]

I am extremely glad you aren't working in our scouting/recruitment team.

He’s right though. Unfortunately the lad looks way out of his depth.

[Foshiznik]

I dont profess to be up to the role. But really-Hountondji, Sambo, Bastian, Delcroix, Churlinov, extending Jay's contract, and the jury still out on Tresor. Not exactly top drawer recruitments

Of course, but that would also ignore all the hits they've had which i would say far outweigh the misses.

[ChorltonCharlie]

I don't think referring to Southgate helps anyone. He is the second most successful England manager in our history much better than Capello and above Ericksen, Bobby Robson et al. All England managers have had issues including Alf Ramsey. But I can see the frustration is similar.

And I'm not really talking about short term problems or the last 10 minutes against Millwall. The desperation is caused by the financial situation and the issue is there is no balance in the squad and a lack of firepower.

That was true prior to the start of the season as it is now. You can call for change but it doesn't mean anything will get any better.

There is a clear plan and when we get Foster back and have Flemming fit and available a 4-2-3-1 will make more sense now and in the future should we go back into the PL. You have a choice you either put a plan in place and back it or you just desperately knee jerk around looking for some kind of salvation when things go wrong.

In reality, we probably aren't good enough for a top two spot. Too many of the new signing like Pires, Hannibal, Hountondji and Anthony look fairly ordinary at this level. Laurent, who is 29 came from Stoke.

I get what you are saying and I also fear this is not going to turnaround. All I am saying is that Parker is not the real problem here.

How is there a clear plan? Parker hasn't even started a game with that formation you allude to. He's playing two box to box midfielders in advance of Cullen. His two wingers stay really wide and the striker whoever it is gets isolated and feeds off scraps.

You're call our new signings ordinary, who look no different quality wise to the other players. Maybe the common denominator is the head coach? You know the guy who's paid a lot of money to improve players and send them out on the pitch looking like they know what they're doing.

[Swizzlestick]

Yes, I find it very difficult to believe that SP was the main man behind the Houtondji, Pires, Hannibal, Hladky, Sambo, Green + the other signings.

We will never know but I’m fairly sure Parker will have had a big involvement in the Humphreys, Hannibal and Sarmiento signings, in addition to the four you mentioned. That’s a big chunk of the transfer business. Anyway, we are where we are and he needs to find some solutions quickly.

[warksclaret]

Of course, but that would also ignore all the hits they've had which i would say far outweigh the misses.

Never said we have not had some hits-there have been a number. Sadly most have been sold

[Goliath]

Of course, but that would also ignore all the hits they've had which i would say far outweigh the misses.

All the hits seemed to coincidence with Kompanys arrival.

Who are the hits without Kompany, Cornet is about the only one I can think of?
I can see how they ended up giving him so much control now. They are clueless.

[Foshiznik]

He’s right though. Unfortunately the lad looks way out of his depth.

1 game up front and he's been written off. Many didn't even give him that. A player with whom English is his second language (that's assuming he can speak English fluently/well which i don't know), playing in a new country, new home, uprooting family, potentially kids moving school, more physical league than Ligue 2, definitely of a higher quality, at a club that was a basket case for his first 3 months with the revolving door of players in and out, and playing out of position in a mish-mash side or making 5 - 15 minute cameos.

I'm assuming no one expected the second coming of Kylian Mbappe, but what did they expect with the influence of the circumstances i've outlined?

[Foshiznik]

All the hits seemed to coincidence with Kompanys arrival.

Who are the hits without Kompany, Cornet is about the only one I can think of?
I can see how they ended up giving him so much control now. They are clueless.

I give way to you as you clearly have more in the know knowledge than i do. I genuinely thought the recruitment team would have had quite a big say in our recruitment, but you could be right.

[CoolClaret]

How is there a clear plan? Parker hasn't even started a game with that formation you allude to. He's playing two box to box midfielders in advance of Cullen. His two wingers stay really wide and the striker whoever it is gets isolated and feeds off scraps.

You're call our new signings ordinary, who look no different quality wise to the other players. Maybe the common denominator is the head coach? You know the guy who's paid a lot of money to improve players and send them out on the pitch looking like they know what they're doing.

He looks like he's improved CJ leaps and bounds tbf to him.

The problem is in the final third - everyone knows that. We are absolutely toothless there right now, but I still think we need to reserve such harsh judgment until we get some of our injured, more creative players back. I'm pretty confident we will be better going forward when we have more options available!

[CoolClaret]

All the hits seemed to coincidence with Kompanys arrival.

Who are the hits without Kompany, Cornet is about the only one I can think of?
I can see how they ended up giving him so much control now. They are clueless.

VK brought Lee Mooney with him as the main man in the recruitment team and he remains at the club and appears to have quite a large influence in our transfer strategy.

[jlup1980]

How is there a clear plan? Parker hasn't even started a game with that formation you allude to. He's playing two box to box midfielders in advance of Cullen. His two wingers stay really wide and the striker whoever it is gets isolated and feeds off scraps.

You're call our new signings ordinary, who look no different quality wise to the other players. Maybe the common denominator is the head coach? You know the guy who's paid a lot of money to improve players and send them out on the pitch looking like they know what they're doing.

Agree 100%.

People keep banging on about a number 10 but we aren't even playing a formation to accommodate one!!

The biggest issue is the two box-to-box CM's are sitting far too close to the wingers and causing the disconnect between the striker and the rest of the team. It's been most obvious when Hannibal has been on the pitch. He's usually about 5 yards from Koleosho. It's like we're playing with a semi-circle of players behind the striker, none of whom is allowed within 30 yards of the striker!

[Sleeping Cat]

In. It's still early, lots of changes to the squad and players missing. Plus, it's only the second loss of the season. Maybe too many draws, but with a few players back those draws easily become wins.

[Goliath]

VK brought Lee Mooney with him as the main man in the recruitment team and he remains at the club and appears to have quite a large influence in our transfer strategy.

Maybe so I don't know the ins and outs. But going from signing Esteve, Beyer, Zaroury, Benson etc to then signing Joe Worrall, Jadon Anthony ans John Egan suggests the change of manager had a big effect on recruitment.

[gandhisflipflop]

VK brought Lee Mooney with him as the main man in the recruitment team and he remains at the club and appears to have quite a large influence in our transfer strategy.

And he still fills me with dread when I think back to when he was discussing survival chance percentages if we signed x player

[NL Claret]

Towards the last few weeks of the window there were many fans who thought we were short up front with Rodriguez (who doesn’t seem to stay fit), Foster (who we know can miss large periods through mental or physical fitness) and Houtondji (who was completely untried and unproven).

It was also glaringly obvious that the likes of Amdouni and Weghorst weren’t hanging around. And Parker will obviously have been privy to this too.

Therefore, they should have planned much better and made sure they had all bases covered in this key area.

You make it sound so simple.

[CoolClaret]

Maybe so I don't know the ins and outs. But going from signing Esteve, Beyer, Zaroury, Benson etc to then signing Joe Worrall, Jadon Anthony ans John Egan suggests the change of manager had a big effect on recruitment.

They were done with less than a week to go before the window slammed shut when we had sold a ton of players and desperately needed bodies through the door.

[NewClaret]

All the hits seemed to coincidence with Kompanys arrival.

Who are the hits without Kompany, Cornet is about the only one I can think of?
I can see how they ended up giving him so much control now. They are clueless.

I think we’re starting to see just how good Kompany was at this level now.

I don’t mean in terms of getting results, I mean in terms of attracting players and playing a very attractive style of football.

Oh for Muric’ dinks over the top to Tella, Benny’s screamers now.

It was always going to be near impossible for SP to replicate but I hadn’t quite expected we’d go this conservative/boring so quickly.

[NL Claret]

I mean you said "2 Championship strikers", not any names to be fair. If it was our choice regarding Amdouni he would still be here, as would Odobert, O'Shea, Berge, etc.but we aren't naive enough to not know that players have most of the power.

The players came to Burnley to play for Kompany and themselves. They didn’t come to play for Burnley FC.

What makes me laugh about Amdouni is that he was singled out on here last season, he leaves as he had no intentions of playing in the championship and now posters are saying he shouldn’t have been allowed to leave. 2 issues, one, why keep a player who doesn’t want to be at the club, two, having over spent on rubbish in the summer 2023 the club needed to get some money back (at some point) to pay the debt and not fall foul of financial rules.

It will take a while for the club to recover from the transfer window of summer 2023. Some of those who should come under scrutiny are no longer at the club, or in other words could not get out of the club quick enough. Those who sanctioned the signings are probably still at the club and regretting their naivety.

[KRBFC]

The only thing I believe as you put it, is that our risk/reward of keeping parker is better than getting shut at this point by some margin. What I'm seeing at the moment, besides our defensive record, doesn't mean I'm brimming with confidence but neither with dread. Things can click quickly in a game or two, especially with a few extra players back in the fold.

Do you think the reward of sacking parker now outweighs the risk? You can see from this board how emotive the conversation is, but taking a step back from being a frustrated fan some of the comments on here are crazy to me. Just look at the thread predicting points from the last 8 games, most going for 20 ish. We got 13. And so, in the space of 6 weeks we've gone from "those games should put us comfortably top" to "he has to go, now". We win 3 on the bounce or something, and the whole board will flip like a switch.

We are a hugely reactive bunch, but you can't run a football club like that.

The only problem is, financially can we afford to not give ourselves the best shot at promotion? I don’t know the answer to that.

I don’t see much improvement coming unless he has a huge change of approach but I also think it’s too early to sack him, I don’t see him as the long term man, if you can’t create chances in this league imagine if he somehow got promotion, we’d barely score a goal. I guess I’m in the just tread water boat.

[NewClaret]

The players came to Burnley to play for Kompany and themselves. They didn’t come to play for Burnley FC.

What makes me laugh about Amdouni is that he was singled out on here last season, he leaves as he had no intentions of playing in the championship and now posters are saying he shouldn’t have been allowed to leave. 2 issues, one, why keep a player who doesn’t want to be at the club, two, having over spent on rubbish in the summer 2023 the club needed to get some money back (at some point) to pay the debt and not fall foul of financial rules.

It will take a while for the club to recover from the transfer window of summer 2023. Some of those who should come under scrutiny are no longer at the club, or in other words could not get out of the club quick enough. Those who sanctioned the signings are probably still at the club and regretting their naivety.

I honestly don’t think anyone at the club will be “regretting their naivety”. They backed a manager with signings he wanted to make, a manager who had just taken us up
in remarkable style, having made some fantastic signings the window prior.

I think they’ll think they did the right thing in backing him and would do the same again with Parker if he got us up.

I agree with you about Amdouni.

[Goliath]

The players came to Burnley to play for Kompany and themselves. They didn’t come to play for Burnley FC.

What makes me laugh about Amdouni is that he was singled out on here last season, he leaves as he had no intentions of playing in the championship and now posters are saying he shouldn’t have been allowed to leave. 2 issues, one, why keep a player who doesn’t want to be at the club, two, having over spent on rubbish in the summer 2023 the club needed to get some money back (at some point) to pay the debt and not fall foul of financial rules.

It will take a while for the club to recover from the transfer window of summer 2023. Some of those who should come under scrutiny are no longer at the club, or in other words could not get out of the club quick enough. Those who sanctioned the signings are probably still at the club and regretting their naivety.

Like Tarkowski, Keane, Heaton etc. They all came to progress their careers to, what's the difference. Nationality?
Let's go back to signing just British based players then in that case.

I don't care what the motive of the player is, I just know I'd prefer to watch Zaroury and Benson type players over Jadon Anthony.