January Transfer Window - The Verdict.

[Dave]

I 100% agree with all of that and it is certainly a possibility. As is "the right players weren't available at the right price/at all/went elsewhere".

But that's not a completely separate thing to what I posted. The right players might have been available to somebody better at the job of trying to sign them.

[paul_e]

Negotiating the signing of a footballer isn't like a more tattooed version of the Argos catalogue, where you flick through and say yes to the ones that you want.

It's a complicated mesh of competition, research and negotation on about five different fronts. Some people will be better at it than others. And I feel that if we had the same quality of person in those roles as we do managing the team then January would probably have panned out differently.

I just find it very surprising that people are looking at the patchy records of Lange and Purselow over the last few years and have decided that there it's impossible that somebody else could potentially be doing a better job.

All I'd say is that I don't think think it's impossible that their records were made worse by previous managers. We've been told many times that our transfers are handled by a committee and the manager is part of that. If Lange was recommending players and Smith/Gerrard said no what can they do?

We now have a manager who we know is good enough to deliver trophies and we can already see the impact he's having on the pitch and at the training ground. Given how meticulous he is in his planning (a theme in pretty much every player interview in the last few months) it's not a stretch to think that our shortlist of players he'd accept in January was very small. A handful of 10-15 players that Emery knows about and thought could improve us very quickly.

Duran will have been different because, as Emery himself has said, there was no expectations on him for this year, he was, in my opinion, just on the upper threshold of the same policy that has seen us signing players like Iroegbunam, Azaz, Feeney, etc as youngsters who can join us, improve and them either join the squad or move on for a profit.

The summer coming will be different because he'll have had the time to work with the scouts and make what he's looking for clearer, he'll have provided more options of players he likes and the scouting team will be using that list to find targets that will fit. If our signings in that window are poor/disappointing then we can start to question the scouting setup but for now I think it's only fair to give them a chance with a manager guiding things who is genuinely exceptional.

[Beard82]

I think it is really difficult to judge how good or otherwise Lange is - I think some of our spending over the last 4 windows has been poor but it’s difficult to know who made the decisions on which.  Ings and Bailey had panic on it - but Bailey at the time I thought was good business but I have pretty much given up on him.

Beundia gets a pass - he’s pretty good but a long way off perfect.

The signing under Gerrard were mostly poor - but not sure who was behind them.  Kamara is obviously class, and maybe so is Carlos, but the rest were either very shit like Olsen, or talented but struggling like Digne and Phil.

[Mellin]

I 100% agree with all of that and it is certainly a possibility. As is "the right players weren't available at the right price/at all/went elsewhere".

But that's not a completely separate thing to what I posted. The right players might have been available to somebody better at the job of trying to sign them.

That's why I said it was a possibility. As is my point. We don't know. Who cares. 2-0.

[Risso]

I think it is really difficult to judge how good or otherwise Lange is - I think some of our spending over the last 4 windows has been poor but it’s difficult to know who made the decisions on which.  Ings and Bailey had panic on it - but Bailey at the time I thought was good business but I have pretty much given up on him.

Beundia gets a pass - he’s pretty good but a long way off perfect.

The signing under Gerrard were mostly poor - but not sure who was behind them.  Kamara is obviously class, and maybe so is Carlos, but the rest were either very shit like Olsen, or talented but struggling like Digne and Phil.

I think Digne has mostly been decent, and I’d be perfectly happy with him as one of our two left backs under Emery next year. Coutinho had just started to get back to what he’s capable of under Emery as well. I hope he’s still here next season and does what we know he can do.  Olsen can most definitely do one though, and I’m not sure Dendoncker has much of a future.

[RamboandBruno]

I think it is really difficult to judge how good or otherwise Lange is - I think some of our spending over the last 4 windows has been poor but it’s difficult to know who made the decisions on which.  Ings and Bailey had panic on it - but Bailey at the time I thought was good business but I have pretty much given up on him.

Beundia gets a pass - he’s pretty good but a long way off perfect.

The signing under Gerrard were mostly poor - but not sure who was behind them.  Kamara is obviously class, and maybe so is Carlos, but the rest were either very shit like Olsen, or talented but struggling like Digne and Phil.

I think Digne has mostly been decent, and I’d be perfectly happy with him as one of our two left backs under Emery next year. Coutinho had just started to get back to what he’s capable of under Emery as well. I hope he’s still here next season and does what we know he can do.  Olsen can most definitely do one though, and I’m not sure Dendoncker has much of a future.

I thought it was possibly telling that Chambers got the nod over Donk at half time.

[Brazilian Villain]

I thought it was possibly telling that Chambers got the nod over Donk at half time.

Wasn't it simply that he wanted to go 3 at the back, with Chambers on the right, to nullify the threat from Chillwell.

[RamboandBruno]

I thought it was possibly telling that Chambers got the nod over Donk at half time.

Wasn't it simply that he wanted to go 3 at the back, with Chambers on the right, to nullify the threat from Chillwell.

You are right BV, i was in the pub and reasonably intoxicated and obviously didnt have a xlue who was there playing where.

[tomd2103]

I think it is really difficult to judge how good or otherwise Lange is - I think some of our spending over the last 4 windows has been poor but it’s difficult to know who made the decisions on which.  Ings and Bailey had panic on it - but Bailey at the time I thought was good business but I have pretty much given up on him.

Beundia gets a pass - he’s pretty good but a long way off perfect.

The signing under Gerrard were mostly poor - but not sure who was behind them.  Kamara is obviously class, and maybe so is Carlos, but the rest were either very shit like Olsen, or talented but struggling like Digne and Phil.

I think Digne has mostly been decent, and I’d be perfectly happy with him as one of our two left backs under Emery next year. Coutinho had just started to get back to what he’s capable of under Emery as well. I hope he’s still here next season and does what we know he can do.  Olsen can most definitely do one though, and I’m not sure Dendoncker has much of a future.

Digne and Coutinho are on big wages aren't they and it's obviously not ideal to have bit part players amongst your highest earners.  As a result, I wouldn't be surprised to see us try and move both on in the summer, as freeing up that kind of money (would guess it would be £300,000 plus) would give us more options.

[brontebilly]

I thought it was possibly telling that Chambers got the nod over Donk at half time.

Wasn't it simply that he wanted to go 3 at the back, with Chambers on the right, to nullify the threat from Chillwell.

The Donk played in a 3 for Belgium, did ok too at the WC. Don't think Emery rates him all that much and he's running out of opportunities to impress..

[pauliewalnuts]

I suspect with Digne, if we got a brilliant offer we'd move him on, but otherwise I don't think we'll be focusing much attention on the LB position when there's work to be done elsewhere in the squad.

Much in the way that we probably didn't set out to sell Ings, but received a good offer and opportunistically took it.

[pauliewalnuts]

I think it is really difficult to judge how good or otherwise Lange is - I think some of our spending over the last 4 windows has been poor but it’s difficult to know who made the decisions on which.  Ings and Bailey had panic on it - but Bailey at the time I thought was good business but I have pretty much given up on him.

If you think back to that US Presidental address the nation style statement Purslow recorded when Grealish left, he talked about how they'd identified which parts of his game we'd be lacking in and found three players who would give us that back - Bailey, Buendia and Ings.

it sounded very much like they'd put a fair amount of thought into it - which is what you'd expect Purslow to want it to sound like - but then it's almost impossible to see Ings as anything other than a random, spur of the moment punt.

I think Purslow knows his stuff in general, but I am far from convinced of his sincerity at times.

[LeeB]

I think it is really difficult to judge how good or otherwise Lange is - I think some of our spending over the last 4 windows has been poor but it’s difficult to know who made the decisions on which.  Ings and Bailey had panic on it - but Bailey at the time I thought was good business but I have pretty much given up on him.

If you think back to that US Presidental address the nation style statement Purslow recorded when Grealish left, he talked about how they'd identified which parts of his game we'd be lacking in and found three players who would give us that back - Bailey, Buendia and Ings.

it sounded very much like they'd put a fair amount of thought into it - which is what you'd expect Purslow to want it to sound like - but then it's almost impossible to see Ings as anything other than a random, spur of the moment punt.

I think Purslow knows his stuff in general, but I am far from convinced of his sincerity at times.

I'm not a man for conspiracy, but on the basis of absolutely no evidence whatsoever I firmly believe Purslow had been sounding Gerrard out for the job over the summer and he'd indicated that Ings would be a good buy.

If you think about it, Ings profile makes more sense when grouped with the signings Gerrad made than what went before.

[eamonn]

I suspect with Digne, if we got a brilliant offer we'd move him on, but otherwise I don't think we'll be focusing much attention on the LB position when there's work to be done elsewhere in the squad.

Much in the way that we probably didn't set out to sell Ings, but received a good offer and opportunistically took it.

Given his age and the relative lack of impact he's had, we'd be lucky to get half back what we paid for Digne.

He looked quite tanned when he came on as a sub. Must have had a nice little holiday during the international break. Unai should have allowed him to go no further than Dublin, free of sunshine and beach balls.

[LeeB]

I suspect with Digne, if we got a brilliant offer we'd move him on, but otherwise I don't think we'll be focusing much attention on the LB position when there's work to be done elsewhere in the squad.

Much in the way that we probably didn't set out to sell Ings, but received a good offer and opportunistically took it.

Given his age and the relative lack of impact he's had, we'd be lucky to get half back what we paid for Digne.

He looked quite tanned when he came on as a sub. Must have had a nice little holiday during the international break. Unai should have allowed him to go no further than Dublin, free of sunshine and beach balls.

Maybe he went to Marbella to immerse himself in Spannish language and culture to get in the gaffers good books