Premier League clubs are rattling through the summer transfer like nobody’s business. Their total outlay is believed to be around £1.5 billion already and the transfer news is coming thicker and faster than ever.
Established Premier League clubs aren’t shy about spending money. Their level of risk is mitigated by incoming fees for the expensive players they sell to one another, and by the confidence that comes with being rooted in the market for years.
It’s a different story for promoted clubs and this summer is no exception. Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Hull City are at varying stages of their Premier League journeys and face very particular recruitment challenges this summer. They have their primary goal in common. They need to stay up.
Coventry City
Last season’s Championship winners are effectively Premier League newcomers. When they were relegated 25 years ago, the top division was not the same financial behemoth it is now.
Coventry were promoted with a team that was too good for the Championship under manager Frank Lampard but by no means ready to survive in the Premier League. Like many promoted teams before them, the Sky Blues are in the midst of a major recruitment test.
The Sky Blues turned midfielder Frank Onyeka’s loan deal permanent and are close to doing the same with goalkeeper Carl Rushworth. After defender Aurele Amenda, signed from Eintracht Frankfurt, and former Burnley winger Loum Tchaouna, Rushworth will become Coventry’s record signing.
Coventry won’t be able to upgrade in every department this summer. With the goalkeeper position sorted and Tchaouna added to a solid attacking midfield unit, left-sided defenders and a striker should now be the priorities.
Ipswich Town
Ipswich are back in the Premier League having been promoted, promoted, relegated and promoted again in the last five seasons.
Former manager Kieran McKenna admitted at the beginning of last season that they were not where he wanted them to be. They got it right in the end but Gary O’Neil, his successor in the dugout, could do with a running start this time around.
The Tractor Boys have laid out fees for eight new signings so far this summer, the largest for Brazilian striker Emersonn from Toulouse and highly-rated young Leicester City winger Abdul Fatawu.
Issa Diop, Chuba Akpom and Daizen Maeda should prove shrewd additions with top-level experience, while the acquisition of Kjell Scherpen from Union Saint-Gilloise could pave the way for goalkeeper Alex Palmer to return to West Bromwich Albion.
Ipswich are likely to allow a few more players to leave this summer, which might enable O’Neil to be tempted to bring in an experienced central midfielder given half a chance.
Hull City
The play-off winners split the difference between their fellow promoted clubs. They were relegated from the top division 10 seasons ago; the residual financial benefits of Premier League football are long gone but the imprint remains.
Getting promoted almost by accident isn’t always a recipe for Premier League disaster but it’s quite clear that the Tigers have their work cut out in the transfer market this summer.
Of their four confirmed new signings, only Ecuadorian midfielder Oscar Zambrano, 22, is under the age of 30, but Jack Butland from Rangers and Matt Targett from Newcastle United might both be players other clubs wish they had taken a punt on.
Rayo Vallecano’s Senegalese defender Nobel Mendy is reportedly next in the door for the biggest fee of all. Along with Butland, Zambrano and Hidemasa Morita, the centre-back addition hints that Hull are focusing their efforts on providing manager Sergej Jakirovic with a sturdy spine.
That kind of focus is essential, not only for Hull but for Coventry and Ipswich too. All three teams have gaps and weaknesses as well as the clear strengths that put them where they are in the first place.
They’re not going to be able to plug all those gaps. For promoted teams the transfer window is about extracting maximum bang for the buck and maximising their chances of surviving and thriving in the top flight.