Not much in it. He had an ok end to the season but he was never good. He will have been more expensive than Barlaser for basically the same output.Mowatt was better than Barlaser hence why Barlaser couldn't get in the team in front of him at the end of the season. Mowatt started poor but had a good end to the season.
Yes forgot Steffan. Probably a 7 or 8. Strengthened the argument for loans.
Without our loans last season we would have struggled and we will struggle this season without them. Look at the start we've made.
Of course we would have struggled last season without the loans but if we had used that £Xm and bought players instead then we'd have also not been promoted but we'd have started this season with £Xm more of players. We've replaced Steffen with Dieng. If we'd signed him last season we wouldn't have needed to do that this season. He is on £80k per week at City so he probably cost more than Dieng will cost us this season. The others were on less but would have cost us in wages and loan fees (Everton wanting £1m for Cannon is probably in the right ballpark being they were all similarly proven championship players).
When you say we will struggle though the likelihood is with or without loans we will be playing in the championship again next season so is it really sensible to be back in this position next season when we can invest in permanent transfers instead that might give us a better platform (or some big money sales to reinvest)?