Summer Transfer Window - The Verdict.

[Sexual Ealing]

I am not interested in net spend, that’s for accountants. What I liked is that we paid top money to get the players we wanted such as Diaby.

Exactly right, the fixation that some people have on net spend is really quite sad. The only thing that matters is the strength of the squad and if anyone can say that it's not much better now than it was in May then I want what they're smoking.

+1

[kippaxvilla2]

So aggressive. I am going to get under the covers.

[Dante Lavelli]

Divock Origi was supposed to be in England today speaking to clubs, he would not have been a bad shout.

Forest got him too, did they not?

Not exactly a top striker though.  I think I’d prefer to gamble on Jhon and keep the money.

[Legion]

Still got 20 minutes or so left.

[Toronto Villa]

It's a fucking brilliant window and one of the best we've had. I understand the concern about striker but we have a number of players that can play there now. And Watkins stays happy too.

yeh I agree. Every player Emery has bought is solid. That goes back to Moreno in January. I want proper quality over numbers. And I would expect come January 2024 we will invest again to make that push to hopefully winning something and qualifying for a higher competition the following year. The kids we have coming through are really talented. And it also appears we won't have sold Philogene so hopefully he will continue to develop and contribute.

[Dante Lavelli]

Philogene staying would be great.  He’d be ideal for most European games and an option off the bench every week.  I reckon he’d get enough games to ensure his career progresses.

[Matt C]

Best window since Little era I reckon…

[LeonW]

Decent window but still leaves plenty of questions.

Diaby has hit the ground running in a big way which currently justifies the outlay we made on him as our record signing. Tielemans is a classy, premier league ready midfielder who on a free transfer could end up being a real bargain with his quality.

Torres, it’s unclear yet. His distribution is undoubted and will be a real asset but he’s going to be thrown into the deep end straight away defensively. We don’t know how ready both he and Carlos are for the premier league as we’ve not played anyone of note thus far with them as a partnership but with Ming’s injury we’re going to find out very quickly. We might not be as strong as think in this area. However, we’ve come a long way when we can say Lenglet is a back up for us.

Zaniolo - interesting to see what he does but apparently that deal was being lined up before Bunedia got injured. If that’s the case, then we haven’t replaced him even if the intention was that Zaniolo was to replace Coutinho.

Having Olsen as our second keeper is going to come back to haunt us. There is absolutely no way that we couldn’t have found and signed a better alternative.

Not having a back up or alternative to Ollie is baffling. I realize the striker market is a bit compressed at the moment but we could have found someone. Once we sold Ings in January there was need.

He’s only been here a few months but Monchi’s contacts book has so far extended to signing a player from a club he use to be at and who was playing in Turkey and trying to sign a 31 year left back from his old club who ultimately we didn’t land. Perhaps better on the sales front of the kids.

[AV84]

On a side note I'm glad we didn't sign anyone that will be off to the African Cup of Nations in Jan/Feb. Bar the usual international windows we should be uninterrupted all season.

[PaulWinch again]

Divock Origi was supposed to be in England today speaking to clubs, he would not have been a bad shout.

Forest got him too, did they not?

Not exactly a top striker though.  I think I’d prefer to gamble on Jhon and keep the money.

Yeah I’d agree with that.

[rob_bridge]

Pleased overall

Diaby looks top quality - empties the bars type player.
Pau is a very Emery type of player - sure he lacks some physicality but he looks like a good footballer.

Zanilo and Lenlget - very good loan options.

Tielmans still has a big question mark. Got that Dele Alli / Ross Barkley look about him at the minute.

Still would have liked to have seen a RB to replace Ashley Young who was excellent last season.

[edgysatsuma89]

Divock Origi was supposed to be in England today speaking to clubs, he would not have been a bad shout.

Forest got him too, did they not?

Not exactly a top striker though.  I think I’d prefer to gamble on Jhon and keep the money.

Yeah I’d agree with that.

Definitely.

[purpletrousers]

£33m, £50m with add ons plus a free is not really top dollar these days.  I am not saying we haven't signed great players but someone has paid £47m for Johnson today with 8 goals to his name.

More fool them (compared to us, obviously. He might turn out to be a great signing, but his fee has fuck all to do with that either way).

There is something really odd about this. So folk are complaining that we’ve made good money (with insurance of buy back clauses, finally acting like a big club), brought in very good players on a free (Tielemans), got a quite possibly great player (Diaby) at what looks like market-relative very good value;

What I’m seeing here is us doing very very very smart business, keeping net down means there is more in the kitty for timely/future opportunities.

We’ve seen this even before Emery with big Emi, strengthening not the most urgent area but when the great business is there to be done. It’s utterly weird after the O’Neil and Bruce dynasties of over paying for older players and underselling, to be so well run.

So if we have the squad we have with a relatively low net spend (look at the cost of our midfield it’s mindblowingly low) then this is to be celebrated not moaned at!

[PeterWithesShin]

Origi has managed to score a few important goals in the past but overall is pretty shite. Forest are welcome to him.

[Ian.]

£33m, £50m with add ons plus a free is not really top dollar these days.  I am not saying we haven't signed great players but someone has paid £47m for Johnson today with 8 goals to his name.

More fool them (compared to us, obviously. He might turn out to be a great signing, but his fee has fuck all to do with that either way).

There is something really odd about this. So folk are complaining that we’ve made good money (with insurance of buy back clauses, finally acting like a big club), brought in very good players on a free (Tielemans), got a quite possibly great player (Diaby) at what looks like market-relative very good value;

What I’m seeing here is us doing very very very smart business, keeping net down means there is more in the kitty for timely/future opportunities.

We’ve seen this even before Emery with big Emi, strengthening not the most urgent area but when the great business is there to be done. It’s utterly weird after the O’Neil and Bruce dynasties of over paying for older players and underselling, to be so well run.

So if we have the squad we have with a relatively low net spend (look at the cost of our midfield it’s mindblowingly low) then this is to be celebrated not moaned at!

Absolutely right.