Transfer window ..

[Super_horns]

Well are you happy with the business of your team?

We started ok getting 4-5 players in including full backs and a couple of wide players .

However despite getting 40 million for Richarlison we have no more strikers or central defenders .

Most of our fans are disappointed and fearful for our chances now .

 

[Nilsson]

 

[markwwfc1992]

Very happy with ours. The majority of our fans are declaring it as our best ever transfer window... certainly the most expensive. The only downside was selling Barry Douglas with no replacement. We were banking on getting Zinchenko but it failed on the last day, and our plan B to get Victor Moses was too late. I think our 23 man squad will look something like:

Rui Patricio
John Ruddy
Will Norris

Leander Dendoncker
Conor Coady
Willy Boly
Danny Batth
Ryan Bennett
Matt Doherty
Ruben Vinagre
Jonny Castro

Ruben Neves
Joao Moutinho
Romain Saiss
Morgan Gibbs-White
Pedro Gonclaves

Adama Traore
Diogo Jota
Bright Enobakhare
Helder Costa
Ivan Cavaliero
Leo Bonatini
Raul Jimenez

 

[silkyman]

I was happy enough. Would have liked to have possibly seen a midfielder in, as they were clearly in the market for one, but adding to the attack with a guy who knows the premier league we’ll, is a good move.

The squad is young and has another year’s experience now and it’s not like City squeaked over the line last season.

A more experienced young squad with a player in in a position Pep has been trying to add to for more than 12 months will do for me for now. Mendy will be like a new signing, too.

And as for the old vitally important Net Summer Spend trophy... Currently at about £25m.

 

[SALTIRE]

Over the moon, and some youngsters have been bled in well too meaning if injuries occur I wouldn't be too bothered seeing Jones, Camacho or Nat Phillips coming in for a bit.

Sturridge too seems a new player and has linked up with Shaqiri and Keita very well - he's had a great preseason. If he gets his usual injuries then so be it, we don't need him now and will cope fine; but if he can stay fit and sharp (yeah a big ask I know) then I can see him getting 10-15 goals in the season.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

We needed to trim down some dead wood, and we managed to do so whilst getting decent money for them. Afobe, Gradel, Federici, Grabban all sold. Various young or fringe players loaned out, the unhappy Arter moved on.

We needed to keep hold of as many of our better players as possible. Lewis Cook, Ake, King etc. We kept everyone, renewed some important contracts, ensuring maximum resale value for whenever a few of them inevitably do move onto bigger things.

In terms of signings, it's no secret we've needed defensive improvement for a long, long time. We'll have to see on Lerma and Rico, they're a leap into the unknown for the club. They could both be total flops. But on paper they tick various boxes, being a defensive midfielder / right back, and a left back / wing back respectively.

At the other end Brooks is a pretty sure-fire bet who will slot into our stack of creative options without any trouble.

About 47m of expenditure for about 20m in receipts, so 27m-ish net, is liveable.

Pretty happy. A centre back would have been nice, and we chased a target all summer to no avail. But that one aside we got everything we wanted.

 

[markwwfc1992]

Interesting to see the most expensive player signed in each position, especially in the striker department. Mitrovic wasn't considered good enough for an average Newcastle side and Afobe lasted 5 days before dropping back down to the Championship.

 

[Jamie_SFC]

We started well but it fizzled out. I'd give us a 4/10.

Failed to shift big money flops like Boufal, Carrillo and Clasie out permanently, that's £40odd million wasted in just transfer fees there and then we have Forster hanging around on his £70,000p/w. It makes Gunn look like a pretty pointless signing, he has to be number one this season.

I wanted us to sign two CBs, our fans can go on about Yoshida's improvement but the fact that him or Hoedt will partner Vestergaard is a massive indication on how far we've let the standard drop.

We've needed a target man since we let Pelle go, still 2 seasons on from that and we're yet to replace him or Mane. That's disappointing.

Stuart Armstrong looked good in pre-season, I personally didn't think much of this signing but he's given me some hope that he may be able to get some much needed goals from our goal shy midfield. Always looking to attack with the ball.

Surprised we kept hold of Bertrand, hopefully last season was a bit of a wake up call for him.

Elyounoussi is the Tadic replacement, didn't really see much of him in pre-season.

Danny Ings on loan, only real benefits are that he's a Saints fan and it probably pushes Shane Long further down the pecking order but 14 games in 3 years....

Very envious of Fulham and Wolves this transfer window.

 

[HarvSFC]

View attachment 9374

Interesting to see the most expensive player signed in each position, especially in the striker department. Mitrovic wasn't considered good enough for an average Newcastle side and Afobe lasted 5 days before dropping back down to the Championship.

Vestergaard didn’t cost £22.5m, that would have made him our record signing, but that isn’t stated anywhere.

 

[markwwfc1992]

Vestergaard didn’t cost £22.5m, that would have made him our record signing, but that isn’t stated anywhere.

Just copied it from the Telegraph

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/deadline-day-premier-league-transfer-signings-2018/

 

[HarvSFC]

As for our transfer window, heading into
it I thought first off that we needed to keep Gabbiadini, Lemina and Bertrand. Everyone else was expendable.

We got that bit right.

Then we needed to add a new goalkeeper, right-back, two centre-backs, two wingers and one striker.

Three out of seven, okay.

Overall, I’m okay with who joined. Elyounoussi looked okay in the Champions League apparently last year, so hopefully he can turn out to be another good purchase. While Vestergaard also seems to be rated. Armstrong and Ings were both a bit meh, but I’m hoping to be proved wrong and we did need more bodies in the attack after the last two borefest seasons. While Gunn was a bit of a surprise purchase. I don’t think we’ve had a young up and coming goalkeeper since a pre-injury Bialkowski, so it will be interesting to see how he gets on.

For those that went out:

Carrillo - Rejoins Pellegrino after becoming our record signing seven months ago. What an utterly dire signing he was.

Boufal - Has the talent, but doesn’t know how to use it and when he refused to come on when we were in a relegation battle he was done here.

Clasie - Don’t really care.

Tadic - The Tadic under Puel and Pellegrino was half the player we saw under Koeman. He was however vital to keeping us up in the final run-in and under a manager like Hughes who demands as much as Koeman does he may have rediscovered that form. Feel now that we should have added to Tadic in the squad, rather than replace him. But that’s what Southampton do.

Looking at the squad now, there are still some big problems in it. No doubt Hoedt and Stephens will get found out at the back again, while the old back post will be exploited once more by teams falling onto Cedric. There’s also serious issues out wide with Elyounoussi, Redmond and Sims our only out and out wingers. They’re going to be needed when the five at the back formation gets ditched. Disappointed we didn’t go back in for Promes.

 

[G.B]

I hope Mike Ashley dies before January tbqfph

 

[Stevencc]

We've had an abysmal window and are completely fucked.

 

[Stevencc]

Over the moon, and some youngsters have been bled in well too meaning if injuries occur I wouldn't be too bothered seeing Jones, Camacho or Nat Phillips coming in for a bit.

Sturridge too seems a new player and has linked up with Shaqiri and Keita very well - he's had a great preseason. If he gets his usual injuries then so be it, we don't need him now and will cope fine; but if he can stay fit and sharp (yeah a big ask I know) then I can see him getting 10-15 goals in the season.

You've had a very good window - the pressure is on now, anything other than second and a deep finish in Europe will be classified as a failure.

 

[Nilsson]

We've had an abysmal window and are completely fucked.

Read this: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...mourinho-wishlist-cash-fears?CMP=share_btn_tw
"United did have significant money available for summer signings and would have paid in excess of £100m for Raphaël Varane if the French World Cup winner had been available from Real Madrid. Woodward had breakfast with Real’s president, Florentino Pérez, over the summer but nothing came of it."

Woodward seems to think that there are no players in world football who'd improve us, who can be signed for a fair price. If he wants to overrule Mourinho on stuff like that, he needs to get a Director of Football. His football knowledge is clearly limited, the fact he has the ability to overrule Mourinho is worrying. The lack of structure at the club is a joke.

If you'd have told me at the end of last season we were going make 3 signings, 2 being Lee Grant and a young full-back I'd never heard of, I'd have gone full Jamie Carragher on you. But I don't think it's going to as bad as most seem to think; Fred looks like he's going to be a great addition to the midfield, Andreas Pereira has matured and was probably the standout player in pre season, and a now (hopefully) settled Alexis Sanchez should feel like a new signing.

 

[epic73]

So Liverpool fans, please continue to tell us about the importance of a low net spend.

 

[Stevencc]

Read this: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...mourinho-wishlist-cash-fears?CMP=share_btn_tw
"United did have significant money available for summer signings and would have paid in excess of £100m for Raphaël Varane if the French World Cup winner had been available from Real Madrid. Woodward had breakfast with Real’s president, Florentino Pérez, over the summer but nothing came of it."

Woodward seems to think that there are no players in world football who'd improve us, who can be signed for a fair price. If he wants to overrule Mourinho on stuff like that, he needs to get a Director of Football. His football knowledge is clearly limited, the fact he has the ability to overrule Mourinho is worrying. The lack of structure at the club is a joke.

If you'd have told me at the end of last season we were going make 3 signings, 2 being Lee Grant and a young full-back I'd never heard of, I'd have gone full Jamie Carragher on you. But I don't think it's going to as bad as most seem to think; Fred looks like he's going to be a great addition to the midfield, Andreas Pereira has matured and was probably the standout player in pre season, and a now (hopefully) settled Alexis Sanchez should feel like a new signing.

It begins.

He won't see out the season.

I do like the look of Fred and am happy to see Pereira staying with the team this season - I hope he takes his chance.

I'm still pessimistic.

Sanchez and Pogba are going to have to play out of their skins.

 

[AnkleBiter]

We definitely spent more than I expected, and have kept all our best players, including signing the 3 loanees that were regular starters on permanent deals. We were weak in the creative department but have signed 3 wingers. How we do this season depends on how well these newbies from Ligue 1 do.

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

Underwhelmed. We took too long to address the managerial situation so the players (some of whom I'm not sure are ideally suited to the new system we're likely to see) will not have had long enough to adapt. The defence ought not to be a particular problem area, but moving back to a 4 man defence may have its challenges.

I'm not too bothered about Courtois leaving but know little about his replacement.

Midfield was a problem area and we've strengthened that with the addition of Jorginho and Kovacic, who both look astute signings, but we have no decent box-to-box alternative to Kante and we're still sorely lacking goals in this area. Indeed, I see goals as being a big problem in general for us. We squandered loads of chances last season and simply don't have enough reliable goalscorers in the side. It would be nice to have added another quality AM/Forward type who could have relieved Hazard of some of the burden of both creating and scoring goals.

The striker situation is also not particularly encouraging. I have doubts as to whether Morata can ever be our number one striker. Certainly he was found sorely lacking in the latter stages of the last campaign and, whilst I like Giroud, he's a useful option rather than an answer to the problem.

I'm pleased we've (seemingly) managed to keep hold of Hazard, Kante, and, to a lesser extent, William but I'm slightly worried that if we don't make progress this season then former, at least, will be on his way. And if we do lose any of these players in the next 2-3 weeks of the European transfer window it'll have to go down as a disaster, frankly.

 

[epic73]

Underwhelmed. We took too long to address the managerial situation so the players (some of whom I'm not sure are ideally suited to the new system we're likely to see) will not have had long enough to adapt. The defence ought not to be a particular problem area, but moving back to a 4 man defence may have its challenges.

I'm not too bothered about Courtois leaving but know little about his replacement.

Midfield was a problem area and we've strengthened that with the addition of Jorginho and Kovacic, who both look astute signings, but we have no decent box-to-box alternative to Kante and we're still sorely lacking goals in this area. Indeed, I see goals as being a big problem in general for us. We squandered loads of chances last season and simply don't have enough reliable goalscorers in the side. It would be nice to have added another quality AM/Forward type who could have relieved Hazard of some of the burden of both creating and scoring goals.

The striker situation is also not particularly encouraging. I have doubts as to whether Morata can ever be our number one striker. Certainly he was found sorely lacking in the latter stages of the last campaign and, whilst I like Giroud, he's a useful option rather than an answer to the problem.

I'm pleased we've (seemingly) managed to keep hold of Hazard, Kante, and, to a lesser extent, William but I'm slightly worried that if we don't make progress this season then former, at least, will be on his way. And if we do lose any of these players in the next 2-3 weeks of the European transfer window it'll have to go down as a disaster, frankly.

Do you know what formation you'll play with Sarri?

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

He favours a 4-3-3 I believe.

 

[epic73]

Would the defenSe be Luiz and Christensen/Rudiger in the middle with Azpi right or Moses right and Azpi with someone else in the middle?

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

I would think it'll be two from three from Luiz/Christensen/Rudiger in the centre. I think Rudiger was probably the pick last year so I'd go with him plus one of the others. I'd then probably expect to see Alonso on the left and Azpi on the right. Azpi has actually done really well at CB but I think he's probably more adept at playing in a back three rather than a two. Great player, anyway. Moses was linked with Wolves on the final day of the transfer window so I think he's unlikely to be a first XI player, especially as he's not really a full back (under Conte he was a former winger, coverted to wing back).

All slightly speculative on my part though. Sarri might have other plans.

 

[snortingfrogs]

Amazing window for us.

 

[mistermagic]

Pretty much agree with what Paranoid posted. If you were to get rid of Conte why not do it as soon as the season ended (if not earlier, caretaker managers exist you know!) and let Sarri know that he'll be the man in the hotseat.
Very complacent management from the Chelsea board there and I can't see Hazard carrying you to a top 4 finish. Also, why oh why doesn't anyone give Michy Batshuayi his chance. I'm surprised Dortmund didn't buy him as his stint there was a successful one while he offers more than Morata imo. He's now be loaned to Valencia.