Following our promotion from the Championship and subsequent comprehensive summer recruitment drive coming to a conclusion, a lot of the commentary from our own fan base was about what would become of the class of 2024-25 – the squad that had done all the hard work to get us into the Premier League.
Without a doubt, nobody was in any dispute that we would need upgrades in some, and many would argue all, positions when the celebrations started to die down after our play-off triumph at the end of May.
Fifteen signings and a reported (depending on who you believe) £160 million spent, and it seems as if we had an entirely new squad. Furthermore, after the departures of Jobe Bellingham and Tommy Watson, we saw Patrick Roberts moving to Birmingham in a season-long loan deal.
Then we saw Alan Browne confirming in his comments to the media that the feeling was many of our promotion winners would play little part this season and be moved on.
Yet what has followed hasn’t been quite to the script that we believed was going to happen.
Dan Ballard started the season, got injured in the second game against Burnley – as Dan Ballard does – but was back in the starting line-up at the weekend after playing most of the game at Old Trafford last week. Chris Rigg has started to force his way into the team in recent weeks, along with Enzo Le Fée, who was one of our promotion winners as an on-loan signing.
There is the ever-present Trai Hume, who hasn’t looked at all fazed by the Premier League, while Eliezer Mayenda started the season up front for us and will surely feature more as the season goes on.
Wilson Isidor brought something else to our attack when he joined the club a year ago but looked out of sorts towards the end of last season, yet still chipped in with an important play-off goal. For me, he has been the biggest surprise in how he has stepped up this season, with his pace, even at Premier League level, looking terrifying for defenders, and with his finishing, particularly at the Stadium of Light, he looks on top of his game.
Last Saturday against Wolves, we started with four regulars from last season: Hume, Ballard, Isidor, and Rigg, and had four more on the bench. You can say Rigg was the only one who had an iffy game in terms of his passing, but overall, none of the players from last season’s regulars who have begun games have looked overawed or out of place as the season has progressed.
Dan Neil, you feel, is likely to get a start soon, and I would never back against Luke O’Nien getting game time in some position – who knows which one – at some point this season… just because Luke O’Nien started out in League Two with Wycombe, and has proved he can step up a level each time he has been asked.
It doesn’t appear that we are going to be saying goodbye anytime soon to quite a few of our class of 24-25.
