Transferometer: January 2022 Edition

[Away Toon]

2 hours ago, Doctor Zaius said:

5.5. Trippier and Bruno are quality. Targett and Burn are decent and plug gaps. Wood, im very much not sure about on terms of quality but the fact that Burnley have went and spent half of his fee on a Dutch international who scored 20 goals in the Bundesliga when Wood had scored three goals for them all season really does not bode well. They spent the other half on a Croatian international too.

 

The fact is though, we really needed to bring in another attacking player. An injury to the notoriously fragile ASM and were fucked. Goals have been an issue all season but we've not signed any attacking players that would start in our first 11.

 

I understand that the January window is difficult, I understand that they've 'tried their best' whatever that means but they've also been blessed with an enormous budget. I'm not convinced they had the infrastructure in place or identified the correct targets. Scratching around for Lingard who was never going to happen or a French kid with half a season on Ligue 1 under his belt says it all.

 

Have they don't enough to keep us up? Im not sure they have. Theyve given us a chance but with the resources available to them, I expected more and I think PIF would have should we go down. 

 

We don't have enough goals in us and it'll be touch and go as to whether we stay up imo.

 

 

 

As above, perfectly put. I wouldn't go as high as 5.5 though, there was a chance to bring in players and make sure we had no chance of getting relegated. Although we will no doubt be better defensively, we haven't bought any more goals so there is still a serious risk that we go down. We have also allowed Burnley to upgrade their CF so we better hope his goals don't make the difference.

[Shearergol]

Scunny have just signed a striker with 6 goals in 86 games, 1 in his last 36. Context I guess

[Yorkie]

Post, @midds 

 

This was our 'back six' at one point this season:

 

Krafth    Schar    Lascelles     Ritchie

 

             Shelvey     Willock

 

The scale of upgrade in that department is absolutely enormous. 

[relámpago blanco]

Just now, Away Toon said:

As above, perfectly put. I wouldn't go as high as 5.5 though, there was a chance to bring in players and make sure we had no chance of getting relegated. Although we will no doubt be better defensively, we haven't bought any more goals so there is still a serious risk that we go down. We have also allowed Burnley to upgrade their CF so we better hope his goals don't make the difference.

It remains to be seen if Burnley have upgraded.  It's actually unlikely they have, it's a chance they had to take.  

[Awaymag]

So when Bruce was manager, most if not all NUFC fans said the squad was mid table but it was bad management that kept the team from performing.   We have now added 5 players, which to be honest will all come straight into the 1st team.    We should be safe, I hope we are.

[Shearergol]

1 minute ago, Awaymag said:

So when Bruce was manager, most if not all NUFC fans said the squad was mid table but it was bad management that kept the team from performing.   We have now added 5 players, which to be honest will all come straight into the 1st team.    We should be safe, I hope we are.

The Bruce impact is irreversible on a lot of them 

[Chris_R]

We've got 2 genuinely world-class players in Trippier and Bruno. Couldn't GAF that Trippier is 31, that's nothing these days especially for a defender. Ashley Young is still playing PL fullback at 36. Azpilicueta is 32. Thiago Silva, admittedly DC rather than a fullback, is 37 and still going strong. Age need not be a barrier and Trippier looks after himself from what I can tell and can serve us for a few years yet.

 

I'm slightly disappointed that after getting one world class player in defence and one in midfield, we didn't also get one up front. That would have guaranteed we stop up, IMO. That said, Burn looks decent and will augment our defence which is fragile as fuck. Targett likewise.

 

Wood is an odd one. He seemed a genuine panic buy but I think we HAD to panic. If we'd not got 4 points in the last 2 games, we might not have convinced Bruno to join us. I think he'll get goals, he's got a good record of 1 in 3 in the PL and I'm not worried about his slow start, it's not like he's old enough that his legs will have gone over the last summer or anything silly like that. He's just had a dry spell, hopefully that means he's due to bang a few in. That said, he was overpriced at £25m given his age but he's already contributed to 2 good results.

 

So overall 7/10. We've given ourselves a good chance of stopping up, but fallen short of a guarantee.

[toon25]

I'm a real fan of the Dan Burn signing. Good price for a good player and a good pro that can deliver and that can play in the preferred style of the manager.

 

But in the context of his signing - and indeed the others that have been made - I just hate the Chris Wood signing, I have to say.

 

As Ronaldo said earlier, I don't want to be negative, but if he was the only attacking signing that was brought in its just a bit shit.

[Guest HTT II]

You can’t say Bruno is world-class man just yet surely  unless you’ve seen him play week in week out, I do hope fans aren’t setting themselves up for a fall here regarding him. He will need time to settle, adjust and then there is still dross all around him…

[Jesse Pinkman]

Haven’t we lost from a winning position like 8-10 times? I think people underestimate our main weakness is our shite defence which has been strengthened considerably. 
 

Also Howe always goes on about mentality. If you notice all the players we have bought are fighters. Introducing 5 new fighters into the team will be huge.

 

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Jesse Pinkman

[Vinny Green Balls]

19 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

The Bruce impact is irreversible on a lot of them 

The Bruce impact is irreversible on a lot of you.

[oldtype]

You don't score more goals solely by buying a striker, you score more goals by buying midfielders and wide players that improve your possession and your build up play. I feel that we've done that. It just wasn't realistic to expect the club to go get a world class striker somehwere in January when nobody wants to sell, especially not to us. 

[Colos Short and Curlies]

We’ve given ourselves options, especially in the middle now, which should allow others to contribute more. Sum of the transfer window is greater than the parts!

 

We can double pivot with Bruno and Joe to allow Willock or Miggy more of a 10 role or go flat three with Shelvey depending on the  opposition.
 

ASM has more stability behind him and down the right we have a different threat with Trippier and Fraser or Murphy throwing them into the middle.

 

We’ve also brought in players who haven’t got 19 games of fear in them this season, as they are more on the defensive side then  it will help to cut out the nerves at the back, we should see a bounce back from Dubs as well.

 

Would have brought HBA in for 6 months or maybe tried for Perez back.

 

not going to fault the Wood signing. A striker better than Wilson was going to be tough this time round and the relationship he has with Howe would have made it unlikely to get someone on par with him. So we’ve got an alternative type instead for cover and then plan b.

 

yes there are disappointments in missing out on a few ambitious blunts but for who we could realistically go for I’m giving the window a 9 for the impact I think the signings will have on others as well as personal improvements 

[Gallowgate Toon]

I'd go 7. Lingard or Mavididi would've made it 8+.

[Heron]

If you think about it;

 

Targett, Trippier, Wood and Burn all have PL experience, speak English and have experienced British culture, etc.

 

Wood, Targett (?) and Burn have all been in relegation threatened sides before. 

 

Burn is a Geordie and supports the toon.

 

Then Bruno is just absolute quality (apparently ) 

 

We've been leaking goals and losing points from good positions, so surely shoring up the defensive elements of the team suggests a likelihood of seeing out more games and getting more points on the board?

 

Our confidence with the ball will grow in knowing that we'll likely not leak goals or will retrieve posession a lot better and higher up the pitch and in doing so we can force teams back and make them make costly mistakes.

 

This is a style we've already began to see be implemented and is what Howe did at Bournemouth. 

 

I think these signings are incredibly smart for mid-season tbh. There should be minimal time required to bed in 4 of the 5 and Joelinton alongside Bruno will also help endlessly. With such a big shake up required mid season I think this has the potential to gel very quickly and whilst some players will have had their noses put out, it's sadly (for them) time to accept their luck has ran out.

 

This is our turning point. 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Heron

[cubaricho]

11 minutes ago, Jesse Pinkman said:

Haven’t we lost from a winning position like 8-10 times? I think people underestimate our main weakness is our shite defence which has been strengthened considerably. 
 

Also Howe always goes on about mentality. If you notice all the players we have bought are fighters. Introducing 5 new fighters into the team will be huge.

 

 

 

 

21 points dropped this season from winning positions.

 

And I think you're totally right about the mentality side of things. Bringing in five new fresh energies and moving on the losers like Lewis/Clark/etc will do wonders for the team morale/positive mentality.

[huss9]

7/10

really needed a pacy striker or goalscoring midfielder.

going another couple of months with wood as the main man, and gayle as a non-existent back up.

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by huss9

[Heron]

33 minutes ago, HTT II said:

You can’t say Bruno is world-class man just yet surely  unless you’ve seen him play week in week out, I do hope fans aren’t setting themselves up for a fall here regarding him. He will need time to settle, adjust and then there is still dross all around him…

No, he's better than that.

[alexf]

The funny thing with Wood is as soon as he gets a goal I think people may relax a little more and warm to him. Unfortunately I don't think we are really set up for his style and if anything he will be the distraction/nuisance that will hopefully allow ASM and maybe Willock to pick up a few more goals.  Which means he will still be helping the team and making a difference. 

 

Early in the season, the concern wasn't really that we couldn't score goals it was we couldn't defend. So we often needed 3 or 4 to win a game which we definitely weren't good enough to do. 

 

If we can stop throwing away leads in the final 10 minutes of games we will be ok. Improved fitness levels have as much to do with this as well, because after 70 mins in games our players are visibly fucked.  I hope Howe and his staff have been able to improve this in the time they have had so far. The leeds result signifies this, however we still had 3 muscle injuries during the game I believe?

[mighty__mag]

59 minutes ago, toon25 said:

I'm a real fan of the Dan Burn signing. Good price for a good player and a good pro that can deliver and that can play in the preferred style of the manager.

 

But in the context of his signing - and indeed the others that have been made - I just hate the Chris Wood signing, I have to say.

 

As Ronaldo said earlier, I don't want to be negative, but if he was the only attacking signing that was brought in its just a bit shit.

 

In fairness,  I remember us signing Joselu and feeling like you are,but in the end I liked the hoss! 

[nufcjb]

We had problems in our team and the players we had were not capable of changing things. What we have done is get players who may offer alternatives to what we have but not entirely clear out the problems.

 

I gave a 7 because we got players in. Even without another striker or a Lingard or Alli. Had we got someone better instead of Wood, most of us would probably be happy. Just need to hope Wood proves people wrong and get us goals.

 

 

Edited February 1, 2022 by nufcjb

[xLiaaamx]

25 minutes ago, alexf said:

The funny thing with Wood is as soon as he gets a goal I think people may relax a little more and warm to him. Unfortunately I don't think we are really set up for his style and if anything he will be the distraction/nuisance that will hopefully allow ASM and maybe Willock to pick up a few more goals.  Which means he will still be helping the team and making a difference. 

 

Early in the season, the concern wasn't really that we couldn't score goals it was we couldn't defend. So we often needed 3 or 4 to win a game which we definitely weren't good enough to do. 

 

If we can stop throwing away leads in the final 10 minutes of games we will be ok. Improved fitness levels have as much to do with this as well, because after 70 mins in games our players are visibly fucked.  I hope Howe and his staff have been able to improve this in the time they have had so far. The leeds result signifies this, however we still had 3 muscle injuries during the game I believe?

That backpass Watford gave him was the golden chance to get off the ground perfectly. Gutted he didn't. Hope his goal on international duty at least puts some confidence back in him

[Theregulars]

Good, the squad is considerably better than it was a month ago. I think there was a lot of pragmatism as well as proper ambition, and the latter netted us two (what look to be) seriously good players. 
 

In the context - some commentators saying it would be impossible to attract talent, some saying new owners don’t know what they’re doing, league position, early phase of massive transition, skeleton senior staff, clubs less willing to do deals in January, unreasonably stiff commercial conduct (Manchester United)… it’s a really good first attempt from them and everything they’ve done made sense; I also think they impressed some players and other clubs’ senior staff in negotiations. 
 

I can see the argument that we’re a player light in attack. There’s going to need to be a contribution from one / a combination of Fraser, Almirón, Willock and/or Joelinton in attack; Wilson is going to be needed again; ASM staying fit is crucial and we’re going to need Wood to justify the move to sign him. 
 

I hope improving the overall side, which has been done, will improve how they attack as a unit. Like a lot of posters, I think we were a Lingard or similar away from making survival probable / having a brilliant window. As it is, a good window. 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2022 by Theregulars

[duo]

Better especially when you throw in Dan but really lacking in options in attack ?.

 

[Emotic]

Bruno is the key signing here. If he can command the midfield such that players like Willock, Shelvey and even Miggy or Fraser can get up the pitch without shitting their keks, they all have goals in them. The most money spent by any club in a January window, more than Ashley ever spent in 14 years, who am I to moan?