Foster made some very strange decisions but trying to reshape the squad in January to the degree he did (and was allowed too) is right up there as one of the worst. Wright scar Edwards butcher et all might not be good enough going forward long term but killing what we had in collectiveness and spirit without quality was poor management to say the least.
I agree strongly with this, although at the time I wasn't super opposed to everything that happened.
Each individual decision could be defended in isolation, e.g. "Butcher not ideal at this level". But there was the cumulative impact of alienating multiple senior players and bringing in particularly young loanees.
Also, much of it was poorly thought through strategically. Sell a CB - Gillesphey - and try to move on Scarr too, but only bring in a loan (Phillips) who we'd never sign on a perm at the end. Leaves you two CBs down at the end (plus Galloway out of contract), madness!
Same for centre mid. 3 loans recalled and sells Butcher on top. Bring in two particularly young loanees and one permanent (known to be serially injured). One unlucky injury to Gyabi and we're painfully short.
I don't think players like Gyabi and Devine are anywhere near as bad as some make out individually, but the whole January revamp left us with a younger, inexperienced, injury prone squad, lacking in playmaking midfielders.
I can only guess that Foster wanted to be able to spend more ASAP? So rushed the process of phasing out players he perceived to be not good enough.