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Author Topic: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.  (Read 67940 times)

Offline eamonn

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #825 on: March 29, 2023, 12:21:33 PM »
I bet he'll sign a new contract in the next few weeks. The clichéd thing, isn't it, when a player shows a bit of form and is more than halfway through his deal? I mean, I loved Hendrie, but that was probably his best skill...

Offline placeforparks

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #826 on: March 29, 2023, 12:40:46 PM »
Not trolling, genuinely interested if people have changed their minds a little?
Imo there was a lot of ott responses to January, and the fact that we have now one of the best managers and coaches in the league mean we can rely on him to improve to the team.
Seems very clear that Emery has set transfer targets and won't fuck around with average players and is happy to risk having a smaller squad than players who will never play anyway hanging around.
Just having time off made me think that end of January there was so much negativity about the window and what it meant that, actually, it's pretty alright

Yes, it seems feasible, as many suspected, that we were told our first choices would not be released mid-season, and Emery wasn’t interested in buying anyone he didn’t rate as highly while the possibility of getting his first choices in the summer remains.

it's pretty clear that guendouzi fell into that category and marseille wanted to hold on, with an eye on champions league qualification.

emery strikes me as a considered manager who is assessing what he has got, who can adapt/mould to how he wants to play, who is surplus, and who he wants to bring in.

this summer will be a big window for ins and outs.


Offline Tony Daleys Shorts

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #827 on: March 29, 2023, 12:58:50 PM »
I think the crux of our relative inactivity in January was player availability for one, but more importantly was that Emery had the self belief and confidence to know that his coaching skills and tactical nous would bring out significant improvement in those current players, who were willing to buy into the new regime.

A few months in it'll be becoming clear to him, that the likes of Mings, McGinn & Watkins fall into that bracket and can be cemented into next seasons plans, so do not necessarily need a direct replacement.

Come the Summer he'll have a far clearer idea of the players needed and in which position, to improve the squad, personally I'm glad he kept his powder dry and I've every confidence we'll start next season with a squad primed to make the jump up to top 8 as a minimum.

Offline dave shelley

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #828 on: March 29, 2023, 12:59:15 PM »
We're lucky that Ollie must be one of the most robust CFs around.

He's been here nearly three years and in that time all he's missed is one game in 20/21 when he was wrongly sent off for diving v Man. United, two games at the start of 21/22 and this season all I can remember him missing is Brighton away because he was ill.

Considering the injuries we've had to likes of Bailey, Carlos and Kamara in last 18 months we've had very good fortune with him but you can never get complacent and we certainly need another attacker in the summer if we're serious about playing 50 games in a season again.

Charlie Aitken springs to mind.  His non-injury record was phenomenal.  Similar athletic attributes to Ollie.

Offline Mellin

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #829 on: March 29, 2023, 01:06:56 PM »
We didn't buy the sub-standard shit that was available (for once) and will be better for it.

Offline nigel

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #830 on: March 29, 2023, 01:19:11 PM »
We're lucky that Ollie must be one of the most robust CFs around.

He's been here nearly three years and in that time all he's missed is one game in 20/21 when he was wrongly sent off for diving v Man. United, two games at the start of 21/22 and this season all I can remember him missing is Brighton away because he was ill.

Considering the injuries we've had to likes of Bailey, Carlos and Kamara in last 18 months we've had very good fortune with him but you can never get complacent and we certainly need another attacker in the summer if we're serious about playing 50 games in a season again.

Charlie Aitken springs to mind.  His non-injury record was phenomenal.  Similar athletic attributes to Ollie.

My father in law was Charlie’s accountant, he was saying that Charlie was ahead of the times with nutrition and diet. He really looked after himself

Offline Hookeysmith

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #831 on: March 29, 2023, 01:30:59 PM »
He is coming up to 81 in May - not sure why but i thought he was older than that

Offline Beard82

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #832 on: March 29, 2023, 01:36:13 PM »
In principle - our inactivity was seemingly a considered gamble.

Possibly still too early to know if it pays off.  Being thin on numbers could still cost us, and well have to see how the summer goes to see if waiting to get too targets was worth it

But agree - so far so good - fingers crossed

Online paul_e

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #833 on: March 29, 2023, 01:41:34 PM »
In principle - our inactivity was seemingly a considered gamble.

Possibly still too early to know if it pays off.  Being thin on numbers could still cost us, and well have to see how the summer goes to see if waiting to get too targets was worth it

But agree - so far so good - fingers crossed

That's how I look at it. I suspect we had a very small list of players we were interested in and could sign without creating problems and from that Moreno was the only simple choice because he was replacing a loan that could be terminated and had a buyout we could meet pretty easily.

Offline chrisw1

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #834 on: March 30, 2023, 09:54:13 AM »
Not trolling, genuinely interested if people have changed their minds a little?
Imo there was a lot of ott responses to January, and the fact that we have now one of the best managers and coaches in the league mean we can rely on him to improve to the team.
Seems very clear that Emery has set transfer targets and won't fuck around with average players and is happy to risk having a smaller squad than players who will never play anyway hanging around.
Just having time off made me think that end of January there was so much negativity about the window and what it meant that, actually, it's pretty alright
Not really.  I still feel we left ourselves very short and an injury to a key player - particularly Ollie - could have derailed our season.  Obviously we're not party to the negotiations, but if it was down to saving a few million on a player we want long term then I don't think the gamble was worth it.  I think the opportunity is now and to retain our best players we need to start pushing up the league.  I felt our lack of activity put that at risk.

Of course with hindsight we may manage brilliantly with no serious injuries and finish 8th.  But for me that's like a gambler saying see, I told you it would be red. 

Offline Pat Mustard

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #835 on: March 30, 2023, 11:09:06 AM »
Not trolling, genuinely interested if people have changed their minds a little?
Imo there was a lot of ott responses to January, and the fact that we have now one of the best managers and coaches in the league mean we can rely on him to improve to the team.
Seems very clear that Emery has set transfer targets and won't fuck around with average players and is happy to risk having a smaller squad than players who will never play anyway hanging around.
Just having time off made me think that end of January there was so much negativity about the window and what it meant that, actually, it's pretty alright
Not really.  I still feel we left ourselves very short and an injury to a key player - particularly Ollie - could have derailed our season.  Obviously we're not party to the negotiations, but if it was down to saving a few million on a player we want long term then I don't think the gamble was worth it.  I think the opportunity is now and to retain our best players we need to start pushing up the league.  I felt our lack of activity put that at risk.

Of course with hindsight we may manage brilliantly with no serious injuries and finish 8th.  But for me that's like a gambler saying see, I told you it would be red.

Finishing 8th is not really much of an incentive for us to have spent money on non first choice players in January though.  The argument for those of us who were happy with what we did is that by the end of the window we were already largely safe from relegation, but that Europe was still a push - the way this season has panned out has been really odd, and why we have largely been marooned in 11th place.  We were too far above the relegation zone to be involved in the battle, but Gerrard's start to the season left us with too much catching up to do to have anything but a remote chance of finishing 7th (which might still not even have been enough).

This summer we need to spend every penny we have getting the best possible players in to improve the first team.  Moreno was an easy deal to do, and we did sign Duran as well so it's not like we have no options to replace Watkins, just one who is raw but who now should get a decent amount of minutes this season and be all the better for it come August.

Offline coreyfeldman

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #836 on: March 30, 2023, 11:45:44 AM »
Not trolling, genuinely interested if people have changed their minds a little?
Imo there was a lot of ott responses to January, and the fact that we have now one of the best managers and coaches in the league mean we can rely on him to improve to the team.
Seems very clear that Emery has set transfer targets and won't fuck around with average players and is happy to risk having a smaller squad than players who will never play anyway hanging around.
Just having time off made me think that end of January there was so much negativity about the window and what it meant that, actually, it's pretty alright
Not really.  I still feel we left ourselves very short and an injury to a key player - particularly Ollie - could have derailed our season.  Obviously we're not party to the negotiations, but if it was down to saving a few million on a player we want long term then I don't think the gamble was worth it.  I think the opportunity is now and to retain our best players we need to start pushing up the league.  I felt our lack of activity put that at risk.

Of course with hindsight we may manage brilliantly with no serious injuries and finish 8th.  But for me that's like a gambler saying see, I told you it would be red.

I really don't see it as being as simple as "just saving a few million quid" though. Signing players who you don't really want, just in case someone gets injured is also a massive gamble in of itself, and also not all that tempting for the incoming player given that they know they probably won't play unless x gets injured and will be replaced in the summer anyway. That makes it so hard to bring people in under these circumstances, and as has been proven time and time again, bringing in players for short periods to be at all effective is incredibly rare. Unless you get Joao Felix for £900M for 5 months.

All transfer strategies are risk, the idea of a safety net of 'cover' is false.

Offline Risso

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #837 on: March 30, 2023, 11:47:40 AM »
We haven't been able to name a full bench for weeks, and with Cash out it's going to be further depleted.

Offline coreyfeldman

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #838 on: March 30, 2023, 11:50:31 AM »
We haven't been able to name a full bench for weeks, and with Cash out it's going to be further depleted.

doesn't answer any of the pertinent points though does it. Yes we currently have a very small squad, but there are mitigating circumstances in that we're clearing our years worth of shit and a new manager is figuring out what/who he needs to bring in. January window is a fucking shitshow for getting quality in, we know this, so we have to wait until the summer.

Online Drummond

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Re: January Transfer Window - The Verdict.
« Reply #839 on: March 30, 2023, 12:20:04 PM »
We haven't been able to name a full bench for weeks, and with Cash out it's going to be further depleted.

Yep, it's had a terrible effect on results too.

 


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