- Jun 18, 2012
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Good window, but not great imo. Needed a quick AM / inside forward, clear for all to see.
Agree, hamstrung by the disastrous Sissoko purchase last year, hardly a rumour on him leaving at all yesterday,
Good window, but not great imo. Needed a quick AM / inside forward, clear for all to see.
I have no doubt that he is going to be one of the best centre backs in Europe (if not the best) in a few seasons time.Sanchez is a signing that's been majorly overlooked mainly because many of our press and pundits don't watch a lot of football outside of this country, but trust me he's one of the top 5 signings across Europe this summer.
Also, can I just give a little shout out to Arsenal's transfer window, and the reaction of their fans.
Cheers lads, kept me amused
Very Happy with what we bought
Not Happy with what we didn't buy.
Overal we are stronger than before window opened
Kane has some competition/help at long last.
We have the best back 5 anywhere.
Lets do this.
I am guessing that in the end there had to be a certain flexibility in terms of our targets although it is pleasing that with Sanchez and Aurier, they do seem to fit into the Poch 'template'. Llorente was likely a fairly last minute decision so it's interesting whether Poch just decided to be more flexible and go for an older, more experienced player or whether he couldn't turn down the opportunity to sign someone of Llorente's quality or it was down to several factors.On the one hand, it's a testament to the club and the progress we made that the players we bought were of quality, pedigree or high potential, all of which would have rejected offers from no doubt bigger teams.
On the other hand I'd be interested to know what our strategy was outside of Sanchez and Aurier - was Llorente always to be hijacked? Were we confident in doing that? Ducks were allegedly in a row, but Barkley made it all the way to a Chelsea medical before pulling out.
Step back and overall it ended up as a solid window, upgrading certain squad areas with quality rather than bodies - but I just have a nagging feeling that it didn't quite all go how we intended. We are fortunate Llorente picked us over Chelsea, expect this became our alternative a couple days ago when it was apparent we weren't getting a WF (about the same time Sissoko said he was staying)
We are also fortunate Barkley pulled out of Chelsea giving us another chance in January.
I just hope Poch is happy with all this and was part of the discussion and decision making, and is fully on board and understanding of the windows events.
Great post. I don't really think Sanchez is a player of abundance pace, though. I'm not holding that against him at all, I just think some are exaggerating this aspect of his game. He has, I believe, more or less the same pace as Vertonghen/Alderweireld. If he is even a bit quicker, that would be great, but we truly shouldn't expect him to be a phenomenal sprinter.