Bloom: We knew we'd have opportunities in the transfer market

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Albion signed nine men's team players during the summer window.

2024-09-05T06:00+01:00

Yankuba Minteh signed for Albion from Newcastle United. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Tony Bloom has reflected on a busy Premier League transfer window in which Albion signed nine first team players.

Ibrahim Osman (Nordsjaelland), Yankuba Minteh (Newcastle United), Mats Wieffer (Feyenoord), Amario Cozier-Duberry (Arsenal), Malick Yalcouye (IFK Goteborg), Brajan Gruda (Mainz 05), Georginio Rutter (Leeds United), Matt O’Riley (Celtic) and Ferdi Kadioglu (Fenerbahce) all arrived at the Amex during the summer transfer window.

“Certainly at the start of the window we knew there were going to be opportunities,” the chairman said. “We knew there was going to be quite a few incomings, quite a few changes. We probably didn't envisage quite as much.

“You never quite know how a transfer window will transpire – the players you want to bring in, are they going to be within budget? Are they going to be available? But I think the circumstances have allowed this. The PSR issues of other clubs is well known, perhaps other bigger clubs on the continent haven't quite got the budgets to compete with some of the Premier League teams.

Ferdi Kadioglu joined us from Fenerbahce in the last week of the transfer window. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

“Some of the players which perhaps wouldn't have been available to us in the past became available. The way our transfers have worked in the last two or three windows, we may have lost some key players that we haven't always been able to replace straight away.

“We’ve managed to bring in lots of first team players and on top of that we’ve invested a lot in younger players.

“Some of them have gone out on loan, as well as players already here like [Facundo] Buonanotte, who did really well last season. With the players we've brought in, we didn't think he would have the opportunity so much this season, so he's got a great loan at Leicester City.

“Ibrahim Osman, who's a great talent, has gone to Feyenoord where Minteh was last season. He had a tremendous season.”

Ibrahim Osman is on loan with Feyenoord for the 2024/25 season. 📷 by James Boardman.

That large amount of transfer business came at a significant cost, an outlay Tony doesn’t foresee happening again in the near future.

“Going forward, we probably won't see anything like that in the next two or three transfer windows, because if we do lose some key players in future windows, we will hopefully have players coming through.

"That might be with the younger players within the squad at the moment or players that we've invested in the last couple of years coming through, or academy players who have come through.

“Some of them have gone out on loan and we hope they'll come back in the next one or two seasons and have a big chance of making our first team.”