January 2023 Transfer Rumours, Discussions and Done Deals Thread

[Villan For Life]

We went out and made a gigantic fucking statement by appointing one of Europe's most decorated managers. I refuse to believe that this was the plan we sold him to get him here.

What if the players we wanted weren’t actually available? I’d rather sign players that will improve us than signing players that are just squad fillers. We’ve fallen into that trap many times before and the outcomes haven’t been positive.

[eamonn]

I would have had us in for Albrighton. Too good to be playing in the Championship, he's like a slightly younger version of Ashley Young - can defend but offers more going forward than Ashley can now. And he'd have loved being back here too.

[pauliewalnuts]

I find it hard to believe just having Watkins and Duran was the plan, or surely we wouldn't have sent Archer out on loan? The fact we also did that just makes it even more imponderable.

Pretty sure when looking back to NSWE came in, four years later, this is not how it was meant to be - we don't need 9 subs anyway / it's too early for us to get into Europe / Traore is like a new signing / Ings was shit anyhow / etc etc etc. Against the background of a minimal net spend for two seasons.

It just doesn't feel right to me. It is starting to smell like it did when Randy started arguing with his wife and we know how that ended.

[Legion]

It doesn't make sense at all.

[Dave]

We went out and made a gigantic fucking statement by appointing one of Europe's most decorated managers. I refuse to believe that this was the plan we sold him to get him here.

What if the players we wanted weren’t actually available? I’d rather sign players that will improve us than signing players that are just squad fillers. We’ve fallen into that trap many times before and the outcomes haven’t been positive.

What if those very specific players aren't available in the summer either? Or the summer after that?

At some point do we consider other players?

[Toronto Villa]

And to cap it all off Chelsea are spending £120m on a player that before the WC none of us would have thought was worth what they are paying.

[Beard82]

We went out and made a gigantic fucking statement by appointing one of Europe's most decorated managers. I refuse to believe that this was the plan we sold him to get him here.

I think he was very much involved in how today played out. While it’s disappointing and I won’t sugarcoat that, I read somewhere that last Jan, under a lot of pressure, Arsenal and Arteta shipped out a bunch of dross and only added a couple of players. They then made some astute investments in the summer along with promoting some of their talented kids to step up. Brought back Nketiah from Leeds who has been a very good back up to Jesus. I’m not saying we are about to be Arsenal but trying to be optimistic, we appear to be doing a bit of what they did. We now need to really ramp up in the summer. Won’t shock me to see the back of Lange in the reorganization. We are going to look very different come August.

Yeah - I think he has been involved in the decision making and would be ok with how it has panned out.  Not necessarily what he wanted - but ok given the option.   Im sure if he had kicked up enough fuss we would have forked out for what he wanted.

Hopefully, for once these gambles pay of and we finish comfortably top half and can push on without losing any key players in the summer

[PeterWithe]

Seems like most teams in Europe are falling over themselves to sell players to PL teams for big money, but we cant identify any that can improve our squad?

[pablo_picasso]

Last winter Arsenal got rid of a lot of players. They signed a young back up keeper and a player from the MLS. They then lined up their deals for last summer.

Last winter Newcastle signed a few players, paid a bit over the odds but saw immediate benefit.  They then lined up more deals for last summer.

This just shows that different approaches can work

Is there an example of a club choosing to spend half a season with one senior striker and it going well?

Didnt West Ham have a Champions League spot chase last season with only Antonio?

No, they also had Yarmolenko, Benrahma and Bowen, who scored over thirty goals between them.

All wingers. The question was about a senior striker...

All three of the played centrally for West Ham last season. Case in point- Yarmolenko playing as a centre forward when West Ham beat us in March.

Either way, if we had a load of wide players who could fill in at centre forward (as West Ham did last season) I'd probably not be all that worried.

But we don't, we're two injuries away from Buendia being our starting striker.

But they are wingers who were played up front when the only recognised senior striker West Ham had got injured or suspended.

As for us, Bailey has played up front for us & Traore did pretty well playing up front for Lyon. Again, Im not saying its ideal, neither am I saying they will bang them in for fun for us while playing up there, but they are wingers who can & have covered in as striker. Just like West Hams wingers did when they inly had one striker...

[Drummond]

I find it hard to believe just having Watkins and Duran was the plan, or surely we wouldn't have sent Archer out on loan? The fact we also did that just makes it even more imponderable.

Pretty sure when looking back to NSWE came in, four years later, this is not how it was meant to be - we don't need 9 subs anyway / it's too early for us to get into Europe / Traore is like a new signing / Ings was shit anyhow / etc etc etc. Against the background of a minimal net spend for two seasons.

It just doesn't feel right to me. It is starting to smell like it did when Randy started arguing with his wife and we know how that ended.

Does it really? We've just committed to one of the top managers, and his team, on long contracts. We've committed to building a whole new complex and stand over the next couple of years too.

We've missed a couple of targets it appears, but that's hardly an indicator of them losing interest.

[Toronto Villa]

We’re not going to know until the summer of course and the risk is we fall away and don’t get into Europe when the opportunity is right in front of us. That’s the risk. Chelsea I expect won’t continue to be shit. Fulham, Brentford and Brighton I expect to come back but there are clubs below us that have made moves to improve. This won’t be easy to maintain our current form. After Leicester it is Man City and Arsenal. We will have a good idea on things then. Will be interesting to hear Emery talk about this on Friday.

[Villan For Life]

We went out and made a gigantic fucking statement by appointing one of Europe's most decorated managers. I refuse to believe that this was the plan we sold him to get him here.

What if the players we wanted weren’t actually available? I’d rather sign players that will improve us than signing players that are just squad fillers. We’ve fallen into that trap many times before and the outcomes haven’t been positive.

What if those very specific players aren't available in the summer either? Or the summer after that?

At some point do we consider other players?

The January window is always difficult. Sides in the CL won’t sell and weaken their squads and that filters down. The summer window is more fluid.

[Drummond]

Seems like most teams in Europe are falling over themselves to sell players to PL teams for big money, but we cant identify any that can improve our squad?

It's our first team that needs improving, not the squad.

[Toronto Villa]

Seems like most teams in Europe are falling over themselves to sell players to PL teams for big money, but we cant identify any that can improve our squad?

PL clubs will pay the most stupid money for average players out of sheer desperation.

[pauliewalnuts]

Our net spend for two seasons is barely anything.

It's not going to happen for us just because we want it to. It feels like we're getting to that way of thinking.

Someone said 'young and hungry' earlier. Christ. Remember that?