January Transfer Window - The Verdict.

[OCD]

A lot of the points on here go back to managerial appointments and having to chop and change. Hopefully, Emery's here for a while and we can break the cycle.

[Rigadon]

Why are people expecting the coming summer to be significantly better than the last few underwhelming summers?

This is where i am now at also. Always seems to be "we tried" but its about the next window being "the big one" . Then we do this over and over.
Yes its clear our recruitment has not been good enough to date but our net spend of circa £40m over 4 windows does not overly scream ambition.

I do fully expect a sea of change now though for one reason and one reason only... Emery
Lange is toast. We will have a new DOF in charge of football sides and one that's picked by Emery, them two will then work together to move this football club forwards.

Purslow will stay quiet in the background like has done since UE came in and concentrate on the commercial side

My expectation is now that we aren't going to spend our way into Europe and our path, should we get there, is more in the smaller-club-managed-by-amazing-manager mould.  So be it, we have what looks like an amazing manager.  Let's hope he (or our better players) doesn't get pissed off with it before they can defy the odds.

[Risso]

A long range prediction that I hope will come back and bite me firmly on the arse. Next season, ie 23/24, the top 7 will be Man City, Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Spurs (in whatever order), with us no higher than 10th. I think we've missed a big chance to kick on this January, and however good Emery is, he won't be given the tools to improve us further.

[ROBBO]

Not sure why but I don't have a lot of confidence in Lange.

[OCD]

Not sure why but I don't have a lot of confidence in Lange.

Not sure Emery does either.

[SoccerHQ]

A long range prediction that I hope will come back and bite me firmly on the arse. Next season, ie 23/24, the top 7 will be Man City, Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Spurs (in whatever order), with us no higher than 10th. I think we've missed a big chance to kick on this January, and however good Emery is, he won't be given the tools to improve us further.

Spurs should be more vulnerable next season.

Think they'll sell Kane and Son looks like he's declining now so feels like they'll be in transition under whoever they appoint post Conte. Will be in Chelsea's position this time next year.

However it will be a long time before Chelsea and Liverpool are in as poor a state as now so imo that's a chance to finish above at least one of them we've wasted with lax transfer window.

I thought after beating us Liverpool would go on a good run but they've since lost meekly at Brighton twice and Brentford so don't have a feel of a team who's going to win 5-6 straight anytime soon.

And Chelsea have signed too many to get any sort of consistency. In the summer it will probably settle down.

We are only 3 points off 6th with a very winnable home game coming up (and plenty of winnable fixtures before the March international break). We can probably grind out some more wins but it all becomes a struggle if we lose Watkins or Kamara for a few weeks.

[boozey182]

Why are people expecting the coming summer to be significantly better than the last few underwhelming summers?

This is where i am now at also. Always seems to be "we tried" but its about the next window being "the big one" . Then we do this over and over.
Yes its clear our recruitment has not been good enough to date but our net spend of circa £40m over 4 windows does not overly scream ambition.

I do fully expect a sea of change now though for one reason and one reason only... Emery
Lange is toast. We will have a new DOF in charge of football sides and one that's picked by Emery, them two will then work together to move this football club forwards.

Purslow will stay quiet in the background like has done since UE came in and concentrate on the commercial side

There are probably a few realistic scenarios about what happened and what will happen.

Either Emery is quite content with what has just happened, in which case it's on him if things go massively wrong from here. His job isn't on the line, but he could lose a lot of goodwill from the owners and fans if things go badly, but will probably be given money to put it right in the summer. If things go pretty well from here, maybe even have a chance of European qualification, he'll be backed in the summer with money that he didn't spend in January and a bit more, and targets will already have been identified (a la Kamara and Carlos last summer) - we get in some 'next level' players and kick on from there.

Or, he's quite frustrated with the lack of results. Huge changes afoot, and he'll want to put his stamp on the recruitment side of things. Could be a fair bit of internal strife (Purslow on thin ice?), but you would imagine the owners will back Emery given that he is their man, and presumably he was promised a fair amount of control when he joined. He gets his team in, and the start from scratch in the summer. Potentially risky, as we're tethering everything to one man, but in the hope that he gets us making the step up next season. There will be no excuses then.

I guess the worst case scenario is that this is all Emery's making, and he gets it all wrong, we end up finishing 14th or lower and he doesn't know how to fix it in the summer. We get off to a terrible start next season and he goes - we start all over again next October. Personally, I think that is not very likely at all, but who knows?

For what it's worth - I think there is money there. I think we'll continue to do pretty well in the league, particularly against the better teams, and we'll finish 8th or 9th. The in the summer we will spend big on 3 or 4 players that will come into our first team. A forward, a winger and a midfielder (Thuram, Williams and Guendouzi would be the dream) and we'll be a force to be reckoned with next season - our best season since 95/96.

[mallo]

With Ings gone, we've lost a decent goalscorer. Will Traore / Coutinho be able to provide the same goals in a subs role? Not so sure. If Bailey takes penalties maybe he'll get the goals - he is on 4 with no pens. I think we've left ourselves vulnerable for no real reason - surely £15M for Ings was not to get us out of debt.

[Clark W Griswold]

Not sure why but I don't have a lot of confidence in Lange.

It might be unfair to say it since i don't know the guy but he just looks like a bit of a twat doesn't he?

[Dave]

A long range prediction that I hope will come back and bite me firmly on the arse. Next season, ie 23/24, the top 7 will be Man City, Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Spurs (in whatever order), with us no higher than 10th. I think we've missed a big chance to kick on this January, and however good Emery is, he won't be given the tools to improve us further.

Spurs should be more vulnerable next season.

Think they'll sell Kane and Son looks like he's declining now so feels like they'll be in transition under whoever they appoint post Conte. Will be in Chelsea's position this time next year.

Will need a new goalkeeper as well. I fully expect Pochettino to rock up there again in the summer.

[rougegorge]

A long range prediction that I hope will come back and bite me firmly on the arse. Next season, ie 23/24, the top 7 will be Man City, Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Spurs (in whatever order), with us no higher than 10th. I think we've missed a big chance to kick on this January, and however good Emery is, he won't be given the tools to improve us further.

I am of a similar mindset; I wouldn't look past those teams. There is often one outlier that breaks things up - e.g. Burnley, Wolves and maybe Brighton this season, and maybe that could be us next season.

However, we should try to get to 7th this season as that may well get a European place. Assuming we don't have a calamitous second half of the season, finishing 8th-10th is good considering where we were in November, but it really is no guarantee of moving onwards and upwards next season, so why not really aim for higher with some rewards as well?

[ChicagoLion]

A long range prediction that I hope will come back and bite me firmly on the arse. Next season, ie 23/24, the top 7 will be Man City, Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Spurs (in whatever order), with us no higher than 10th. I think we've missed a big chance to kick on this January, and however good Emery is, he won't be given the tools to improve us further.

Spurs should be more vulnerable next season.

Think they'll sell Kane and Son looks like he's declining now so feels like they'll be in transition under whoever they appoint post Conte. Will be in Chelsea's position this time next year.

Will need a new goalkeeper as well. I fully expect Pochettino to rock up there again in the summer.

Just heard about Contes health problems, could be even sooner.

[Risso]

Just heard about Contes health problems, could be even sooner.

He's having his gallbladder removed, he won't be joining in with 5 asides for a few weeks, but he'll be right as rain after that.

[DrGonzo]

Wasn't great.  The only hope I really have from it is that the players we have beeen linked heavily with are all out of contract in the summer and we have tapped them up.  There seems to be a lot of investment in the youth side of the club which would please me if it becomes a sustainable model.  We like to swear about the big boys chucking cash around and calling it the death of football but then all seem keen for Villa to do the same.  Not a criticism of any particular poster, you understand, I'm as guilty as anybody of wanting to splurge £150m on 3 world class players.

[Risso]

We like to swear about the big boys chucking cash around and calling it the death of football but then all seem keen for Villa to do the same.  Not a criticism of any particular poster, you understand, I'm as guilty as anybody of wanting to splurge £150m on 3 world class players.

That's the industry we're in though. We don't currently have a recognised youth team player in the squad with a single second of first team experience, so we're miles away from that paying dividends. I think Iroegbunam is worth having next season, but nobody other than him is likely to get much of a chance I'd suggest.