Summer Transfer Window - The Verdict

[kippaxvilla2]

What is your verdict on the transfer window?

For me it was a bit meh and confusing and concerning.

At the start of the summer, I recall (paraphrasing) Purslow saying we needed four PL ready players for key positions.  There was at that time no mention of Grealish leaving and we were safe in the assumption that these players would be in addition to him staying.  By those maths, the £95m spent would have been gross.  Instead, we are now told that the three bought in were to replace him.  So something doesn't add up.  In addition, the failure (unless something drastically changes) to sign a proven box to box midfielder will haunt us this season.  I have nagging feeling that the purse strings are now being pulled with another realisation that we cannot compete at the top table if we are always going to lose our best players.

The squad is slightly better I would argue but my early summer excitement has all but vanished and my expectation is another mid to lower mid table finish.

[Toronto Villa]

Ask me again tomorrow

[Ads]

We have a pair of box to box midfielders in McGinn and Sanson.

[brontebilly]

Squad depth has certainly improved. Tuanzebe, Young, Buendia, Bailey, Ings are all superior than their predecessors in the squad namely Engels, Taylor, Barkley, Trez (injury) and Wesley. You could argue from the squad that started last season Ramsey is a better bet than Hourihane too. So there was been a huge change in personnel. Heaton going too. We have already seen the benefit of Tuanzebe, Young and Ings particularly so far in our 4 points gained.

But Grealish leaving has been a huge blow. The spin that he has been replaced by three players is garbage as the new arrivals simply replaced others.  There doesn't appear to be much evidence of a coherent plan so far on what to do with the Grealish sized hole in the team and how we play. The Luiz/McGinn partnership last season after a promising start floundered badly without Grealish and this critical issue in the team hasn't been addressed. The early injury to Watkins has avoided what is likely to be a complex conundrum on how to fit both Ings and Watkins without turning midfield into a sieve.

For me, this international break is critical as a mini pre season to bed in new players, new coaches and a new team really. I do think we are in for some weeks of struggle before things improve.

[ChicagoLion]

I am confused by our transfer activity.

[Scott Nielsen]

I believe our owners have pressed the pause button. The plan was built around Grealish staying (that's how Bucks succeeded and I expect we were following the same blueprint). Now that he isn't, plans are being re-assesed and re-drawn and that'll take some time.

I suppose we'll know next summer what it means in regards to our future ambitions but for now I just don't think they want to continue to invest heavily until they know what they want to do going forward.

[LeonW]

I think this is too early to answer. We haven’t seen the team with all the new players settled in and playing yet (including Sanson), even in a rotational way.

[tony scott]

As it stands strikers improved midfield difficult to judge a little on the negative ,defence same keepers negative, it seems like our coaching will need to improve. We know our owners are minted, however they will be looking for a return, I might be wrong but perhaps they are cutting back on investment.

[LeonW]

As it stands strikers improved midfield difficult to judge a little on the negative ,defence same keepers negative, it seems like our coaching will need to improve. We know our owners are minted, however they will be looking for a return, I might be wrong but perhaps they are cutting back on investment.

Could it be a Joe tax in play? Apart from Ings (which appears to have been agreed beforehand anyway) all the players we signed permanently were pre Joe departure.

[richtheholtender]

As it stands strikers improved midfield difficult to judge a little on the negative ,defence same keepers negative, it seems like our coaching will need to improve. We know our owners are minted, however they will be looking for a return, I might be wrong but perhaps they are cutting back on investment.

That's the thing unfortunately, In order to compete at the very top you have to kiss goodbye to the idea on returns on investment. Its just degrees of losing. Not until you're really established at the top as a brand anyway. You either invest big and make it or you don't at very best you hope to be a spurs or a Leicester, in which case you still need to spend more to catch them. The frustration is that it always appears we get ourselves in to a great position where one more could kick us on and the door opens if we get in to Europe. But these owners have history of always leaving us one short and as I said in the transfer thread yesterday, that needs to change at some point. It might as well have been this window when the gap between us and the rest is so small because I really dont think arsenal we be as poor again or that Everton will invest so little.

[LeonW]

As it stands strikers improved midfield difficult to judge a little on the negative ,defence same keepers negative, it seems like our coaching will need to improve. We know our owners are minted, however they will be looking for a return, I might be wrong but perhaps they are cutting back on investment.

That's the thing unfortunately, In order to compete at the very top you have to kiss goodbye to the idea on returns on investment. Its just degrees of losing. Not until you're really established at the top as a brand anyway. You either invest big and make it or you don't at very best you hope to be a spurs or a Leicester, in which case you still need to spend more to catch them. The frustration is that it always appears we get ourselves in to a great position where one more could kick us on and the door opens if we get in to Europe. But these owners have history of always leaving us one short and as I said in the transfer thread yesterday, that needs to change at some point. It might as well have been this window when the gap between us and the rest is so small because I really dont think arsenal we be as poor again or that Everton will invest so little.

Is it not a case of reaching where Leicester are first and then going up to the next level?

[richtheholtender]

As it stands strikers improved midfield difficult to judge a little on the negative ,defence same keepers negative, it seems like our coaching will need to improve. We know our owners are minted, however they will be looking for a return, I might be wrong but perhaps they are cutting back on investment.

That's the thing unfortunately, In order to compete at the very top you have to kiss goodbye to the idea on returns on investment. Its just degrees of losing. Not until you're really established at the top as a brand anyway. You either invest big and make it or you don't at very best you hope to be a spurs or a Leicester, in which case you still need to spend more to catch them. The frustration is that it always appears we get ourselves in to a great position where one more could kick us on and the door opens if we get in to Europe. But these owners have history of always leaving us one short and as I said in the transfer thread yesterday, that needs to change at some point. It might as well have been this window when the gap between us and the rest is so small because I really dont think arsenal we be as poor again or that Everton will invest so little.

Is it not a case of reaching where Leicester are first and then going up to the next level?

Indeed but to reach Leicester we need to invest more. We aren't going to catch them while they continue to strengthen and we stay still (at best). We need to catch arsenal, Leeds & Everton first and I don't believe this continually leaving us one short (it's been the striker the last 2 years) will enable us to do that. We need to stop putting plasters on areas to get in and around europa, once we've done that we will then need to go again.

[LeonW]

As it stands strikers improved midfield difficult to judge a little on the negative ,defence same keepers negative, it seems like our coaching will need to improve. We know our owners are minted, however they will be looking for a return, I might be wrong but perhaps they are cutting back on investment.

That's the thing unfortunately, In order to compete at the very top you have to kiss goodbye to the idea on returns on investment. Its just degrees of losing. Not until you're really established at the top as a brand anyway. You either invest big and make it or you don't at very best you hope to be a spurs or a Leicester, in which case you still need to spend more to catch them. The frustration is that it always appears we get ourselves in to a great position where one more could kick us on and the door opens if we get in to Europe. But these owners have history of always leaving us one short and as I said in the transfer thread yesterday, that needs to change at some point. It might as well have been this window when the gap between us and the rest is so small because I really dont think arsenal we be as poor again or that Everton will invest so little.

Is it not a case of reaching where Leicester are first and then going up to the next level?

Indeed but to reach Leicester we need to invest more. We aren't going to catch them while they continue to strengthen and we stay still (at best). We need to catch arsenal, Leeds & Everton first and I don't believe this continually leaving us one short (it's been the striker the last 2 years) will enable us to do that. We need to stop putting plasters on areas to get in and around europa, once we've done that we will then need to go again.

But that’s the thing; Leicester are successful because they’re smart with their investments. They got loads for selling Kante, Maguire, Mahrez, etc but held off if their options to replace them weren’t great and been patient with doing so. They’ve got a league and FA Cup on the mantle piece which is something we could only dream of right now.

We’ve got a higher ceiling IMO but right now, we couldn’t even get ESR and JWP through the door, neither of whom any of the elite sides were in for.

We spent loads under O’Neill and it didn’t work and we had little resale value on the majority of the signings.  That was over 10 years ago and it’s harder now with the ever widening gap. NSWE are rich but their not a sovereign wealth fund. Perhaps the right deals aren’t there right now. They know we need more. We can all see it as supporters.

If we go too far we’ll end up like Everton who seemingly have no financial muscle at the moment until they shift their deadwood (hence their low budget summer) or Arsenal who are regressing despite their spending.

[Rigadon]

The transfers we've done (in/out) don't look like a club going after CL.  They look like a club waiting to see what happens.   

[richtheholtender]

As it stands strikers improved midfield difficult to judge a little on the negative ,defence same keepers negative, it seems like our coaching will need to improve. We know our owners are minted, however they will be looking for a return, I might be wrong but perhaps they are cutting back on investment.

That's the thing unfortunately, In order to compete at the very top you have to kiss goodbye to the idea on returns on investment. Its just degrees of losing. Not until you're really established at the top as a brand anyway. You either invest big and make it or you don't at very best you hope to be a spurs or a Leicester, in which case you still need to spend more to catch them. The frustration is that it always appears we get ourselves in to a great position where one more could kick us on and the door opens if we get in to Europe. But these owners have history of always leaving us one short and as I said in the transfer thread yesterday, that needs to change at some point. It might as well have been this window when the gap between us and the rest is so small because I really dont think arsenal we be as poor again or that Everton will invest so little.

Is it not a case of reaching where Leicester are first and then going up to the next level?

Indeed but to reach Leicester we need to invest more. We aren't going to catch them while they continue to strengthen and we stay still (at best). We need to catch arsenal, Leeds & Everton first and I don't believe this continually leaving us one short (it's been the striker the last 2 years) will enable us to do that. We need to stop putting plasters on areas to get in and around europa, once we've done that we will then need to go again.

But that’s the thing; Leicester are successful because they’re smart with their investments. They got loads for selling Kante, Maguire, Mahrez, etc but held off if their options to replace them weren’t great and been patient with doing so. They’ve got a league and FA Cup on the mantle piece which is something we could only dream of right now.

We’ve got a higher ceiling IMO but right now, we couldn’t even get ESR and JWP through the door, neither of whom any of the elite sides were in for.

We spent loads under O’Neill and it didn’t work and we had little resale value on the majority of the signings.  That was over 10 years ago and it’s harder now with the ever widening gap. NSWE are rich but their not a sovereign wealth fund. Perhaps the right deals aren’t there right now. They know we need more. We can all see it as supporters.

If we go too far we’ll end up like Everton who seemingly have no financial muscle at the moment until they shift their deadwood (hence their low budget summer) or Arsenal who are regressing despite their spending.

I agree to an extent but the only thing I would say is that Leicester had their team complete. We have a great big kante shaped hole in front of out back four that needs filling. I don't mind if that player costs £2 million or £50 million  (prefer the former obviously) but that needs addressing. Leicester addressed their issues when they brought those players in.