Rating the 2023 Summer Transfer Window

[Yorkie]

Honestly don't know what to tell you if you think our nosedive is more accountable to not signing a third choice CB than losing say Nick Pope. You can all but pinpoint the moment our season's gone to shit as when he went off against Man Utd. The transfer window had fuck all to do with that either way.

[The College Dropout]

On 15/12/2023 at 10:39, ponsaelius said:

Again you've got to look at the Hall deal as a bonus. We only signed him because we could do it as a loan deal. He doesn't count towards the PL squad because of his age and he's versatile. I think if Hall doesn't come in we just sign 3 players this summer.

It’s not a bonus. We have committed funds to sign him. 

 

11 hours ago, Fezzle said:

There's a very obvious way to play them both as inverted wingers mind

Maybe I’m stupid but how?

[SUPERTOON]

Aye, not sure the Hall deal can be looked on a a bonus at all. We have to pay 35 million for him in the summer, as of now it doesn’t look a great deal.

[The College Dropout]

3 hours ago, Whitley mag said:

Fair enough but Milan fans said he’s not a great passer and by all accounts had 1 good season. We then proceeded to pay 50 million an Italian record on a player, when let’s be honest players from that country don’t have a great track record of adapting to PL football.

 

We could have had a genuine number 6 in Kone, or a far more technically gifted player in Kephren Thuram. Instead we went down the route of a player who looks like he gets around the pitch, has a good engine but does that offer anything different to Joelinton ? I’m not sure it does to be honest and for 50 million I think they’ve had our eye balls out.

I think he is better technically than Joelinton. He would be our second best midfield technician passing wise. But I agree with the overall point. 
 

Hindsight is 20/20.  But imagine we had a Paqueta type in there with what we already have. Then a Palmer or Kudus on the RW. We suddenly look a proper top 6 team imo. 
 

Almiron, Barnes, Gordon, Murphy, Joelinton. That’s not a top 6 winger pool. And it’s light on depth considering one of them is needed in midfield often. 
 

Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton, Willock, Longstaff, Anderson and Miley. It’s still 1 injury or suspension away from lacking quality on the ball as we’ve found out. 

[Kid Icarus]

Nothing's changed with my view on our last transfer window. There's no extra 1 or 2 players we could have realistically signed that would mitigate the injury and suspension situation we find ourselves in. 

 

 

[The Prophet]

12 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

It’s not a bonus. We have committed funds to sign him. 

 

Maybe I’m stupid but how?

 

Regarding Hall, by all accounts we'd hit the amount we could or were willing to spend last summer. We only went signed him because he was available on a loan-to-buy.

 

Next season he'll have had the benefit of a full pre-season under Howe and hopefully more minutes on the pitch. He should be pushing to be a regular starter.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by The Prophet

[Upthemags]

2 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Nothing's changed with my view on our last transfer window. There's no extra 1 or 2 players we could have realistically signed that would mitigate the injury and suspension situation we find ourselves in. 

 

 

Diaby cost basically what Barnes did - I don't say that to say he'd have us in CL form over Miggy's form, but it's a step too far to say another player or 2 couldn't have helped us massively

[Whitley mag]

21 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

Honestly don't know what to tell you if you think our nosedive is more accountable to not signing a third choice CB than losing say Nick Pope. You can all but pinpoint the moment our season's gone to shit as when he went off against Man Utd. The transfer window had fuck all to do with that either way.

I never said 3rd choice it should have been someone to replace Schar who had pace. Even with Botman our defence looks like it’s running in treacle at times.

[Kid Icarus]

Just now, Upthemags said:

Diaby cost basically what Barnes did - I don't say that to say he'd have us in CL form over Miggy's form, but it's a step too far to say another player or 2 couldn't have helped us massively

 

Aye but you can't realistically plan for a player with an exemplary injury record breaking his toe and being out for 4 months like. 

 

You can definitely say if we'd signed X player we'd have been better off in hindsight, but I don't think there's any foresight that the club didn't have but should have had for the situation we're in. There's no player where you think 'well we should have seen that coming' imo.

[The College Dropout]

34 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

Regarding Hall, by all accounts we'd hit the amount we could or were willing to spend last summer. We only went signed him because he was available on a loan-to-buy.

 

Next season he'll have had the benefit of a full pre-season under Howe and hopefully more minutes on the pitch. He should be pushing to be a regular starter.

 

 

 

Most players are available on that unless the selling club need the FFP wriggle room now. 
 

Next season is all fine and dandy. But we needed a first choice LB for this season. Not getting one - was a calculated risk that hasn’t paid off. 

[Yorkie]

28 minutes ago, Whitley mag said:

I never said 3rd choice it should have been someone to replace Schar who had pace. Even with Botman our defence looks like it’s running in treacle at times.

 

Eh so now Schar's the problem? Schar has been absolutely brilliant this season (until of late... because of all the injuries).

 

I'm not even sure what argument we're having at this point but ultimately I think the transfer window was fine; we signed players who, with a fair wind, would've made a meaningful contribution this season. It hasn't worked out through no fault of our own and there's only this amount of scrutiny on it because of the extent of the injury crisis. No one would give a hoot about Lewis Hall (or at the very least just accepted that he's a signing for the future) had he not been thrust into contention due to everyone ahead of him in the pecking order getting injured. 

[The Prophet]

7 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Most players are available on that unless the selling club need the FFP wriggle room now. 
 

Next season is all fine and dandy. But we needed a first choice LB for this season. Not getting one - was a calculated risk that hasn’t paid off. 

 

It depends if it's financially advantageous to the selling club, usually in the way of a large loan fee.

 

I agree we might not feel the benefit of the Hall signing this season, but due to the structure of the deal, it seems s though it was him or one. Hence him being described as a "bonus signing".

[The College Dropout]

36 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

Aye but you can't realistically plan for a player with an exemplary injury record breaking his toe and being out for 4 months like. 

 

You can definitely say if we'd signed X player we'd have been better off in hindsight, but I don't think there's any foresight that the club didn't have but should have had for the situation we're in. There's no player where you think 'well we should have seen that coming' imo.

The Barnes injury is bad luck. But many questioned the transfer from the start. Both position and profile of player.

 

4 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Eh so now Schar's the problem? Schar has been absolutely brilliant this season (until of late... because of all the injuries).

 

I'm not even sure what argument we're having at this point but ultimately I think the transfer window was fine; we signed players who, with a fair wind, would've made a meaningful contribution this season. It hasn't worked out through no fault of our own and there's only this amount of scrutiny on it because of the extent of the injury crisis. No one would give a hoot about Lewis Hall (or at the very least just accepted that he's a signing for the future) had he not been thrust into contention due to everyone ahead of him in the pecking order getting injured. 

Disagree here. A lot of people wanted Burn replaced in the starting XI this season. Given the additional fixtures and Howe's reluctance to rotate - getting a player who would be 3rd choice LB is a calculated risk that hasn't paid off so far.

[The Prophet]

Many question every transfer and every transfer window. Not in a bad way, it's just the nature of the beast.

[Kid Icarus]

2 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

The Barnes injury is bad luck. But many questioned the transfer from the start. Both position and profile of player.

 

There's no gotcha here, saying as his injury means we have no idea whether he was a good signing or not yet. 

[nufcjb]

I wished we had brought in another striker in the summer. Wilson was never going to stay fut all season and Isak was going to be such a miss like he was last season. Only relying on these two was my main concern. A 3rd striker should be able to get us to the end of the season if we can get one in this coming window.

[Whitley mag]

3 hours ago, Yorkie said:

 

Eh so now Schar's the problem? Schar has been absolutely brilliant this season (until of late... because of all the injuries).

 

I'm not even sure what argument we're having at this point but ultimately I think the transfer window was fine; we signed players who, with a fair wind, would've made a meaningful contribution this season. It hasn't worked out through no fault of our own and there's only this amount of scrutiny on it because of the extent of the injury crisis. No one would give a hoot about Lewis Hall (or at the very least just accepted that he's a signing for the future) had he not been thrust into contention due to everyone ahead of him in the pecking order getting injured. 

Schar had a stellar season but absolutely should have been upgraded in the summer in my humble. A physical, pacy centre half, DM and versatile attacker with play making ability were the standout needs to improve the first 11.

 

I’m not arguing injuries haven’t impacted the season of course they have, but one look at Brighton away and Liverpool at home suggested the signings of Barnes and Tonali hadn’t dramatically improved our level. If anything the evidence, though limited showed a midfield of Tonali and Bruno looked completely unbalanced.

 

Further evidence such as Dortmund at home and even yesterday showed we’re crying out for a no 6 who protects the back 4. The gaps between midfield and defence are horrific, one pass can undo us and teams are at our back 4.

 

So in summery you completely blame injuries and whilst I accept that’s been a factor, it doesn’t change my view that both our blue chip signings were the wrong players we needed in the first instance.

 

[The Prophet]

Personally find it difficult to assess 

whether Tonali and Barnes were good signings when we've seen so little of either.  On paper Tonali made perfect sense, Barnes perhaps less so, but given they've both played a limited amount of games the jury is out on both.

[Stottie]

Unfortunately, rating our window depends on how much you buy into the theory that "it's just Harvey Barnes". If you think he's meh, then the window is meh. If you think he's good, which better numbers for Leicester than Moussa Diaby has managed for Villa do strongly suggest, then he was a good signing. Aside from some short sub appearances, Barnes has only really played one full competitive game for us, the 1-0 home win against Brentford, You'd have to be very trigger happy to dismiss him for his performance one game.

 

For whatever reason, he does seem to be a Marmite type player and until he's banging them in for the Toon, I doubt any naysayers will be converted.

 

It should be obvious, but Sancho, Mudryk, and Antony prove that it is possible to spend a fuckton on a winger who does not produce very much. If anything, the surprise should be that Doku has hit the ground running. Most of them don't seem to.

[Deuce]

Getting extremely tedious reading through Football at the moment. Far too many FM-addled brains around here…apparently we were supposed to sell half our starting XI and replace them with world class signings all in a single offseason.

[Jagten]

I interpret the Barnes criticism as frustration that we didn't buy elite upside, and that we concentrated the skillset of our wingers, i.e. none of them are very good in 1v1s. Tonali was/is, for me, the greater question, re profile and value. 

[Gazzaschicken]

Diaby hasn't even been that good for villa imo bailey has been their best wife player and he was injured most of last season and didn't look great.

 

We aren't man city where we can make 2 high quality signings only we bought Barnes who is unlucky with an injury but his prem record speaks for itself and no doubt he will come good (just like Gordon has).

 

Tonali is an unbelievable signing but we got unlucky with the ban. And livramento is a future England starting right back.

 

Hall is still young and just needs to get up to speed, livramento had a full season in the prem with Southampton remember and is 2 years older than hall so we can't compare at all.

 

We had a good window but our squad is years off being in the same position as city where we can just cherry pick 2 players.

[Thumbheed]

I don't know which one of you had the foresight to know that we'd have the below injured or out on near enough the same period of time and should have recruited accordingly but whoever you are, you're wasted on us simpletons at NO. 

 

Pope

Burn

Targett

Botman

Longstaff

Joelinton

Willock

Wilson/Isak

Barnes

Murphy

Anderson

Tonali

 

Out of interest, to those who think we are paying for less than ideal recruitment; what or which positions could we realistically have recruited that would have negated the impact of the above? 

 

Second question would be if we started the season with the available squad we had now, then where do you think we would/should be? 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Thumbheed

[rebelrouser]

15 hours ago, madras said:

What sort if background check would have found it ? And no body thought we were getting him mega cheap.

I remember reading an article that said we got him cheap but a little research suggests that was the market.  I would think private investigators might go around asking about players and doing some digging in the future.  

[MrRaspberryJam]

Just now, rebelrouser said:

I remember reading an article that said we got him cheap but a little research suggests that was the market.  I would think private investigators might go around asking about players and doing some digging in the future.