Maresca among sacked managers proved right in transfer tussles this season | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca had a point about Chelsea defenders if they cannot do their homework for Liam Rosenior, while Thomas Frank needed a different Spurs forward.

While some sacked Premier League managers look really quite daft after having their transfer plans overruled by clubs this season, others who were subsequently axed were actually proved right first.

The lesson: even a broken Graham Potter is right once every nine months.

Nuno Espirito Santo wanted Adama Traore (not Omari Hutchinson)

Having long since already publicly criticised the club’s transfer business by that point, the decision of Nuno Espirito Santo to omit record signing Omari Hutchinson from Nottingham Forest’s Europa League squad was a dig at the hierarchy with a veil so thin as to barely even exist.

Hutchinson found himself caught in the crossfire of a bitter civil war which soon cost Nuno his post at the City Ground.

But there can be little doubt as to who won the numerous individual battles between Nuno and Forest’s Global Head of Football, considering Edu himself is on the brink due to gross underperformance.

It was an atrocious summer transfer window. Almost £200m was spent to fortify the squad for European competition and Premier League consolidation, but only Igor Jesus has really made a significant first-team impact.

Four different managers have not seen enough in James McAtee (£22m) or Dilane Bakwa (£30.2m), while Arnaud Kalimuendo (£26m) has already left on a loan which will likely be made permanent.

The signing of Hutchinson seemed to push Nuno over the edge. His preference to reunite with Adama Traore, who has since joined the Portuguese at West Ham, was documented at the time by John Percy of the Daily Telegraph:

It would certainly have been a more cost-effective move than the deal for Hutchinson, who has one goal and five assists in 21 games after joining for £37.5m.

Enzo Maresca wanted a centre-half (not his P45)

He was not a perfect manager, nor ever really the best fit in this Chelsea power structure, but Maresca did often have a point.

The seeds for his January sacking were sown back in August, if not earlier. Maresca’s instinct upon losing Levi Colwill to injury was to demand another signing, at which point Chelsea relatively understandably pointed at all the shiny toys he had been given over the previous year.

But his view was simple: “We build with Levi in the middle. Now Levi is out, the only one who can do that job well is Tosin. Also, we have players who, unfortunately, like Wesley Fofana or Benoit Badiashile, have some problems and this is why I said that the club knows exactly what I think about central defenders.”

The Burnley draw backed Maresca up. Some have identified substitute Tosin as one of the suspects who failed their marking assignment, while Fofana’s “problems” were evident around the time he was needlessly sent off at Stamford Bridge.

Seven players have been used at centre-half by Chelsea this season and none have particularly convinced. Maresca will seethe when they invest heavily in that position over the summer while he waits patiently for Pep Guardiola to sod off.

Graham Potter wanted Mads Hermansen (not John Victor)

Although he did not register many wins – in both a literal and figurative sense – as West Ham manager, Potter did not endure an entirely negative nine months in charge.

He beat Arsenal and Manchester United. He was able to see his face superimposed onto a great many controversial and abhorrent public figures. He got to work with Niclas Fullkrug for a bit. It wasn’t all an entire waste of time.

Potter also advocated for the signing of Leicester keeper Hermansen, his priority target to provide competition to Alphonse Areola.

It is unclearly precisely what happened in the days and weeks before Hermansen eventually joined, but West Ham were certainly hammered for leaving poor John Victor ‘in limbo’ after reaching a verbal agreement to sign him before pulling out of the deal.

Potter and his recruitment team soon got their wish in the shape of Hermansen, who they proceeded to drop after he conceded 11 goals in his first four appearances.

But Nuno has built his survival push on the back of the Dane shot-stopper, who has played just seven times in the Premier League this season yet kept all three of the club’s clean sheets.

Thomas Frank wanted Bryan Mbeumo or Antoine Semenyo (not Mohammed Kudus)

Spurs were desperate to adorn their new manager with an Eberechi Eze or Morgan Gibbs-White, too. But those moves fell through more due to a combination of inaction and mad Greek billionaires than Frank being overruled.

It was Simons who ultimately took on the burden of central creative fulcrum who could probably do a job in the Championship.

But there was also uncertainty over which path Spurs would take down their right-hand side.

The suggestion is that Frank was appointed too late for his first-choice target Mbeumo to be tempted away from Manchester United.

And their attacking restructure could have included Semenyo instead if they hadn’t inevitably blinked at being quoted £70m by Bournemouth in the summer.

It was too late when they tried to revisit that interest come January, with Semenyo bound for Manchester City. Both he and Mbeumo rank in the top 10 for combined Premier League goals and assists this season; the injured Kudus is well off that pace.