The Annual Summer "It's been a poor transfer window" Discussion thread - Apocalypse Now - 30th August 2024

[0-Tibsy-0]

The day hasn’t made me feel any more positive for this season, even though I acknowledge we have bought some extremely talented youngsters, to compliment our homegrown ones, who will improve over time and hopefully be first 11 worthy in a year or two.

 

[Trent Crimm]

I miss blue dildos in Stoke.

 

[Disco]

Many in this thread talking as if a player can't contribute till they're 24....

Gray, Bergvall and Odebert will be significant contributors THIS season

 

[jay2040]

RE the highlighted bit.. That sounds exactly like what our transfer plan was this window. A couple of younger players and a couple players who could come into the first team straight away (Solanke/Neto). For me the most annoying part of the transfer window isn't our lack of ambition, it's missing out on key players to teams who are trying to cheat the system.

Why blame others for missing out on players? If we wanted them we should have paid what was needed. We have the money. If we don't get the player then it's our fault.

 

[stevel]

Gray, Bergvall, Kulu and Spence can cover them easily, so yeah.

Agree, with Odobert coming in allowing Kulu to play central as an upgrade on Lo Celso. Spence should be an upgrade on Emerson and while I think Hojberg sometimes brought a calm head last season when closing out games that we might now be missing, Bergval and Gray certainly have a higher ceiling than him and Skipp, and attacking wise are definitely improvements.

So not only have we covered those minutes, but we've improved the quality of play on the pitch during those minutes, and for me will make us more exciting to watch.

 

[ajspurs]

RE the highlighted bit.. That sounds exactly like what our transfer plan was this window. A couple of younger players and a couple players who could come into the first team straight away (Solanke/Neto). For me the most annoying part of the transfer window isn't our lack of ambition, it's missing out on key players to teams who are trying to cheat the system.

I agree, but I actually think they arguably go hand in hand, as in lack of ambition and missing out on key players for various reasons. The only thing I will say is that I can't be sure of this because I don't know the ins and outs of the transfer itself, but considering what we needed so much in that front line, getting Neto over the line early (there was always a danger of a City or a Chelsea coming in and quickly agreeing a fee) should have been something that we really aggressively went after to get done ASAP after the euros. From the outside, it looks like we naively thought we had all the time in the world to complete the deal. The fact that Chelsea operate in the way they do should have made us show even more urgency to get it done sooner. I do understand that transfers are not easy though, but I think there also comes a point where you need to get these sort of deals over the line, especially when the need was as great as ours.

Even with the lack of cover in certain areas, I could actually look past that if we addressed certain other areas as well as we should have. Had Odobert been our first winger instead of Werner, and we managed to secure Neto also, that would completely change my outlook on the window, and we'd have addressed a much-needed area so well that I could feel more comfortable in saying we'll fill some holes this window, and we may have to save the rest for the next. We've made a few good signings for sure, but It doesn't actually feel like we've greatly addressed any area of concern comprehensively enough, maybe other than that of the striker.

 

[Retoanderik88]

I swear to god this is why levy used to leave it late.

Leave signings till the last 2 or 3 days - people get hyped at the presence of someone, then whinge its not earlier.

Sign at the begining - people whinge we didnt sign anyone else.

We've basically solved our midfield for the next decade in this window. Next window - a LB/LCB and if they're good and <23 then we've solved the back 4 for the next 4 or 5 years.

Great position to be in.

 

[Lord Commander]

It depends on what the goal is: to compete for 4-7 or for the top spots. If it is the former, then sure, the transfer window was decent enough, I guess. If it is the latter, it is nowhere near good enough. This squad simply cannot compete with the elite sides over the course of 38 games, which is something I thought the new stadium was meant to facilitate.

 

[Dr Know]

I’ll revisit this thread after we’ve played half a season.

 

[McFlash]

Plenty of them found in Newcastle these days.

Mate, remember the transfer thread rules.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

 

[Moorpheus19]

It's been a poor transfer window all round really. Not much excitement other than Chelsea buying every other player.

 

[dontcallme]

I’ll revisit this thread after we’ve played half a season.

Yep. I'm no oracle.

We had horrendous injuries last season. Better luck with injuries this season and that's already an improvement. Ange is also into his 2nd season so hopefully his methods are starting to kick in better.

We've sold players who the manager didn't play even when fit and we had injuries, the young guys are getting game time already which suggests the manager believes in them.

If Bissouma plays as he did last game with consistency then our midfield is greatly improved. Bentancur stays fit and even more so.

Or who knows maybe we're light as fuck and added a bunch of kids to the squad and immediate improvement is not on the way.

I'm looking forward to the season, even if not over confident.

 

[Wearegoingtowintheleague]

With the window about to close.
Does anyone have a full list of our incomings and outgoings and money in/out

Before judging the window it would be good to have that full overview.

 

[nailsy]

You think players like VDV, Romero and Udogie are going to wait around to watch if these young players come into fruition? They are just as trophy starved as us!

There aren't many sides that could afford the fee we'd want for them. If they go we'll reinvest the money in new players.

Why blame others for missing out on players? If we wanted them we should have paid what was needed. We have the money. If we don't get the player then it's our fault.

Why assume players automatically want to sign for us? We're just one option for a player. Even if we matched the fee and even if we matched the weekly wage we're not offering a seven year contract, especially to a player with an injury record.

If we miss out to teams like West Ham or Villa I'll question our ambition. If we miss out to one of the financial dopers then I'm not going to blame the club.

 

[mackelman]

Turnover vs wages must be ridiculously healthy after this window. Take a bow Dan. Top of the table.

 

[Tezza1978]

Why blame others for missing out on players? If we wanted them we should have paid what was needed. We have the money. If we don't get the player then it's our fault.

With all due respect mate, that's absolute drivel.

As another poster pointed out - for the absolute premium, ready now players (not the handful of truly world class players, but the level just below to help us challenge for titles) we are near the bottom of the pile. Chelsea, Arsenal, United, City, LIverpool and another 8 European clubs are all ahead of us. You think its surprising that Sancho, Neto, Sterling, Chiesa have chosen clubs on that list? I don't.

 

[Finchyid]

The cherry on the top of this window…he’s finally gone

 

[Ghost Hardware]

The one thing I will say, if two 18 year olds and one 19 year old have the impact we will need them to have in order for us to get to where we want to be this season then we will have unearthed (relatively speaking) 3 world class talents and Lange, the data team and the overall scouting set up are geniuses.

Whilst Bergvall, Gray and Odebert (plus Yang although obviously he joins later) all look very good the impact we will need them to have if we want this season to be a success is significant for players so young. It’s a lot of pressure to put on their shoulders.

On the one hard this makes me incredibly nervous but on the other it also makes me very excited that we are willing to put so much faith in players so young.

Not that Barcelona should ever be used as an example of anything positive these days and the reason they started playing the likes of Yamal, Pedri, Gavi and Cubarsí etc is more to do with gross financial mismanagement dating back years rather then some utopian vision of rebuilding the perfect Barcelona with La Masia at its core. There still remains an undeniable fact that putting faith in such talented individuals, regardless of age, has born results. Truly Incredible results.

With that in mind, even if there were financial reasonings of our own at play, there is most certainly a lot to be excited about with the business we have done.

Was it enough? probably not, I guess we we are about to find out soon enough, it obviously wasn’t great but anyone expecting us to do “great” in a window is just setting themselves up for a fall. As per usual we are short and I’m not sure our business put us as favourites for top four but there’s no denying we have streamlined our team and placed ourselves in a strong position for future windows. The long term building blocks are most certainly there.

So much of the success of this window will come down to how well Ange integrates and utilises our youth signings. This is something we have very little experience of as last season he seemed very reluctant to turn towards our youngsters. In a first season tho it’s understandable if not a little exasperating at times. This season however he will have no choice but to.

Overall am I frustrated with the window? Very much so but at this stage I’m just going to focus on the positives. If I dwell too much on the “not nearly good enough” rhetoric I’ll just be wasting my energy as it would be very easy to get caught up in that train of thought as ultimately there is some weight to the argument.

The only real worry I have in the short term is how quickly the mood around the club might shift if we pick up a few poor results alongside a few lacklustre displays. Whilst putting faith in youth players is all well and good, not supplementing them with more seasoned professionals is a ballsy call especially when fans are already feeling a little discontent about a number of different issues, ticket prices being one of many constants.

As “frustrating” as it might be I think for now we have to just embrace the concept of a new long term “project” that is now firmly underway. This project may even out last the current manager but we are being completely rebuilt from the ground up with a new style of football and ethos at our core and that for me is a key vision to get behind.

Whilst we could be getting to our destination a little quicker, the path we have set out for ourselves is unquestionably the right one.

I say all that but if we get thrashed on Sunday no doubt I will be F’ing and blinding with the best of them but I will try to remind myself after the anger subsides that we are still in the early phases of a monumental rebuild and as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

 

[McFlash]

Turnover vs wages must be ridiculously healthy after this window. Take a bow Dan. Top of the table.