Summer Transfer Window - The Verdict.

[ozzjim]

8/10 for me. I still think we are a couple of players light, especially when you consider volume of games and the injury record of some of those we are now quite reliant on. We can speculate over and over on why we've left ourselves a bit short, I suspect it will be a combination of things. It will either look clever or silly come January, hopefully the former.

I do think the narrative at the start of the summer coming from the club in whatever format was that we had significant sums to spend have been tempered along the way. With the sale of Coutinho I reckon we will have bought back in £55 ish million, with a net spend around £30-40m. Either we're keeping our finances in check for a big go at something down the road, or we've had to cut our cloth a bit more carefully.

As ever, time will tell and as ever on deadline day to me we feel a player or too light. Losing both of our natural 10s in Coutinho and Buendia and our natural leader in Mings is a hole in the squad. I think the sale of Philogene after pre season has surprised me the most as he could have been a versatile option in Europe and to get some minutes out of legs in the league in the last 20 mins or so, especially with the added on time. Over 6-7 games some players will be playing a full extra 90 minutes this season in the zones where injuries occur, so having quality alternatives is going to massively favour squads like Man City and Chelsea as the season goes on.

Positives are Pau, who looks incredible on the ball but needs to keep switched on defensively behind him, Diaby is clearly top drawer and we've kept Kamara and Luiz. Duran looks much more ready despite having no pre season which is odd, and Konsa has come on leaps and bounds with the ball. Hopefully Traore, Ramsey and Moreno are all fit soon.

Some great additions, would have loved to see 1-2 more.

[brontebilly]

I just don't understand the rationale behind selling all the decent products of our Academy.

Hard truth is that Emery doesn't rate them evidently but we have gaping holes in our squad and lots of games this season to keep these guys interested and make a more informed judgement next summer.

I think gaping holes in the squad is a bot of an exaggeration

For starters, Olsen started a PL game last weekend!

[tomd2103]

Think it has to be viewed from where we were at the end of last season.  Key areas for me at that time:

2nd choice keeper - was an obvious one, but they have persisted with Olsen.  I've got to admit I'm stumped with this one as he yet again had a couple of errors last night that probably would have been punished against better opposition.

RB - though we needed another option there after Ashley Young went.  It is now clear that Konsa is viewed as an option there and Chambers could cover in an emergency.

CB - Torres the big addition in that area.  Mings getting injured was a blow, but Torres has come in as a direct replacement.  If Konsa does start at RB, Carlos will likely play.  Chambers and Lenglet are back up options.

LB - Digne has started well and Lenglet can cover that area.  Hopefully Moreno will be back soon and that area looks covered.

CM - Kamara and Luiz are the first choice partnership.  Tielemans has been added as back up along with Dendoncker.  Again, an area that looks covered.

AM - Need J Ramsey back as soon as possible as him and McGinn are so suited to those positions.  Thought we might add another option to play in that position, but haven't.  Tielemans didn't look comfortable there last night. 

RW - I thought this was an area we needed to strengthen as Bailey and Teaore are too inconsistent.  Diaby and Zaniolo can both play there, so it will be interesting to see if both of them start.  Cash did well playing there against Burnley.

No. 10 - A key area that needed to be improved as although I like Buendia, he was too inconsistent last season.  Diaby and Zaniolo can both play there, so I think that is an upgrade.

ST - the contentious one!  Watkins did really well under Enery last season, so the reality was that we were probably looking at competition for him at best (ie, we probably wouldn't be able to attract the next level of striker). They obviously rate Duran, but from what I've seen of him so far, I think it's a big ask for him to lead the line if Watkins is out for an extended period of time. 

So on the whole, I think it's been a good window really.  We've strengthened the options in a few areas and improved the starting XI in a couple of others.  Not replacing Olsen and bringing in another striker maybe very costly decisions and we just need to keep everything crossed that Emi Martinez and Ollie Watkins avoid injury.

[john e]

Rightly or wrongly I do think and believe we were in for big money type players like Ferran Torres and João Félix but Villa aren’t where they want to be at the moment

And I think that’s the key,
we’ve only just entered the top seven European positions for the first time in 13 years, so we won’t be a recognised force for young players coming through and growing up in Europe

It’s just a fact of life, although money talks better players will always have more options and right at the moment we aren’t seen as a perennial European contender
When that changes and I think it will, we will be in a lot better place to bring home or first choices

[nigel]

I happen to think Duran will be fine.
Yes, he’s young, and raw, but he doesn’t seem fazed.
The two goals he’s scored have both been really well taken, especially the Hibs goal, which was top drawer.
He’s no lightweight, either, and, although we haven’t seen it, I think he might very well have a bit of an edge to his game, so can’t see him being pushed around.

[murgsy]

Good window. Stronger than before. The reality is that not being moneybags or in CL - we will have gaps. I think we tried for Torres and Felix. Not sure Johnson was the answer.  Not sure who else available we could have got.

With some of the kids, I think UE is fair in opening up a chance for them to play regularly rather than bench warming.

With all the frustrations of missing a lot, Ollie remains or best striker. He seems to thrive on confidence of being seen like that. He struggled when Ings was in the frame.

A lot of goals will come from elsewhere this season, I think.

[Clark W Griswold]

One of the main areas for improvement was that ‘number 10’ creative player. We sorted that brilliantly with the Diaby signing. Another fresh face was required in the creative area as well, that was with the expectation of Buendia being around and only likely having one left from Bailey, Coutinho and Traore with a couple likely sold. We took a bit of a chance with the loan of Zaniolo, and that was good enough. So that area is covered. I wanted a good centre back to put pressure on the ones we had, job done with Torres. Mings gets injured but we still have 4, not really a priority to get someone but can’t hurt, Longlet comes in to cover so fair enough. I’d have preferred a tough nut central midfielder but we sign Tielemans, but for free it’s a very good addition also. Happy enough there. All very good so far.

We release Young which seems daft to say the least considering his experience and leadership going into a European campaign. He also been playing well, but the assumption is we’ve got someone younger and better coming in. Nothing happens !
I know there has been some debate about Olsen but for me he’s the worst I’ve seen, nothing against the guy he’s just doing his best but to not improve that area is absolutely beyond baffling. I was there watching him again the other night and it might have been the worst yet. We really have to pray that Martinez doesn’t get injured and plays every game.
If Watkins gets injured we’re relying on a rookie (who I do think looks promising but is going to struggle to cut it against the better PL defenders at the moment I think) or players playing out of position. If we weren’t going to replace Archer we should have just kept him and got Unai working on his all round game so that he might do some of the things Ollie does in his absence. So again, an odd one.

7/10, although as long as we don’t get any significant injuries we should still be in for a cracking season with a tactic genius and man management expert of a manager. Diaby and Zaniolo hopefully will give us that extra bit of spark and magic in the final third.

[jwarry]

According to The Times it looks like we’ve acquired 4/5 good players and stayed well within our FFP limits. 

[Clark W Griswold]

Not sure how accurate that is, I thought it was over £90m for Diaby and Torres. Plus any loan fees, and the incoming looks off, maybe £40m for the kids we’ve sold? Can’t think of anything else.

Saying that we’ve still done well in that regard, considering the current climate.

[Dave]

Not sure how accurate that is, I thought it was over £90m for Diaby and Torres.

They've also got Bournemouth receiving over £100m from players they've sold. I reckon it's actually around 1% of that figure.

[ChicagoLion]

Here’s a comparison to help with your verdict:

https://x.com/marshallavfc/status/1697740592434782272?s=46&t=GdM6cpVxe5IloByNCRheWA

This is good and shows that we have improved every part of  the squad significantly.
 Don’t think we can expect everything to be achieved in 2 windows, particularly as Emery had only been in place a short time before January window.
Surely the most important thing is continual progress.

[Gareth]

I think it’s been a good window - will be watching Sheffield United and Burnley closely this season as we will get a good idea whether Cam & young Ramsey are good enough as they will get those PL minutes that neither we’re gonna get here…particularly Cam as a striker isn’t gonna get into any groove playing 5/10 minutes here and there.

Back up keeper is still a concern, he showed on Thursday that there is a shot stopper in there but his feet are literally allergic to the ball :-)

[algy]

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.

Hmm. I think not being overly concerned about what happens in 2/3/5 years time was exactly the problem we had under MON that ultimately led to the 2nd longest period outside the top division in the club's entire history.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not too concerned with the exact accounting for it all, but it's pretty clear to me that it's we don't have some transfer income and don't get players on big wages off the payroll unless they're bringing at least as much value back in to the club ... I mean, that's how you end up like Everton are now and we were a few years before them.

All in all, though, I think the squad has been significantly strengthened this summer. Bit sad to see a few youngsters go, Ramsey & Archer in particular.

[Lastfootstamper]

But as olaftab says, that's for the accountants. Maybe Lerner should've employed one.

And we're a world away from doing what MON did. We've bought a Frenchman from Germany, a Spaniard from Spain, an Italian from Turkey, a Belgian from Leicester, and loaned another Frenchman from Spain. That's a well cast net.

[Drummond]

I think re FFP and net spend we also need to consider signing on fees, and wages which will be way more expensive in the new players than the ones we've let go.