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

[yido_number1]

Hind sight is 20 20 but we have massive holes in this squad in both quality and also in bodies.

Hope we move early and have deals lined up.

 

[barry]

Hind sight is 20 20 but we have massive holes in this squad in both quality and also in bodies.

Hope we move early and have deals lined up.

We won't, and some here will still make excuses.

 

[Dillspur]

Hind sight is 20 20 but we have massive holes in this squad in both quality and also in bodies.

Hope we move early and have deals lined up.

Feels like regular sight could have seen that..

 

[Albertbarich]

Hind sight is 20 20 but we have massive holes in this squad in both quality and also in bodies.

Hope we move early and have deals lined up.

There is no hindsight needed. It was obviously a ridiculous window at the time and it remains so now.

we MIGHT have got away with it if we weren’t in Europe but with the Europa campaign it was so obvious we were massively light on quality, experience and numbers.

 

[cliff jones]

Interesting to look back at so many happy clappers back in late August. A few of you came seriously unstuck, just like our great Club will always do under Real Estate Dan.

It's a big couple of weeks ahead.

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

A couple few observations -

1. Way too early to evaluate this window. I really like Gray and Odobert (and Bergvall who really arrived this summer). But they need time to settle and continued development to reach their best. It might not be until the end of next season that we know whether they will hit the heights that we all anticipate.

2. Really odd seeing so many comments and high ratings for the outs this summer. The bar is so low on this, that it's like an underground cable. We did the bare minimum and got players out of the club - sometimes paying them to leave. I can't recall any really "great" deals we got on the outs - so it feels a little odd to reward the bare minimum with a high rating.

3. I think the club could help itself if it was better at managing expectations. If this was simply a window to step back, and plan for the future with a new cycle - then I think most people would agree we've done that. If this was a window to push on from last year, and make a run at the league - then I think most people would agree we have not done that.

Always nervous to look back at posts in these types of threads - pretty happy with this response in retrospect.

 

[spursfan77]

It has been a poor transfer window.

lol at the disagrees

 

[Snarfalicious]

We will never be fully happy with a window. It’s just really how it goes. Add in to that unreasonable expectation with a squad that needed serious surgery, it’s no surprise folks are a little underwhelmed.

I have viewed these past couple windows as more of a reset and building from the ground up. A squad riddled with underperforming high-earners, players that couldn’t stay fit, bad fits for Ange’s style, etc. We have had so many of those types (and in some cases, still do), and it’s why when we’ve seen players leave we have celebrated as opposed to have any sort of concern as to what their exits may mean (Kane excluded).

Rome wasn’t built in a day, the foundation is super strong, and if we can rid ourselves of the last remnants of our failure of the past few seasons, we are going to be in a position of significant strength in the market moving forward. I feel like things are going to start getting good for us and soon. Have some patience. What’s another year if it means we are actually on the right track in building something truly special?

I kind of still feel this way, as well. The last bit in particular. But, as is always the case, it’s time for the club hierarchy to care enough about being successful on the pitch to do something about it in the transfer market. If they really put the effort in, the next two windows could really see us turn a corner, but history tells us they’ll find ways to leave us short and underwhelmed.

 

[Tucker]

Always nervous to look back at posts in these types of threads - pretty happy with this response in retrospect.

Yeah, mine was pretty prescient too.

I think it’s been a failure as far as actually strengthening the first team goes. As I said in the Eze thread, whatever the plan was at the start of the window, it clearly fell to pieces a few weeks ago once it was obvious we couldn’t twist Palace’s arm on Eze, and once we allowed Mendes to fuck us over again with Neto. Gone was the decisivness that we all lauded last summer as we quickly moved from targets to another and got deals done, like Vicario.

We’ve signed three young players, and while I think they are all really exciting prospects, they aren’t the finished article, and will need patience from both the fans and coaching staff. It’s good to see us signing young players like this again, but they don’t improve the first team in a significant way at this point in time. They might prove to in two or three years, but we want to compete now, no?

Solanke will probably be a decent signing, it was the one position of need that we actually addressed this summer in a meaningful way. I look forward to seeing him get into his groove once he’s back from injury.

We still have some real gaping holes in the squad however. We’re going into the season with no recognised back up at goalkeeper, we’re a knock to Vicario away from Austin starting. We’ve no suitable fit for left back cover given Davies is now more suited to playing centrally in this system. Presumably, we’ll see VDV shoe horned there some games, or Spence who looked completely lost when played on the left in preseason.

Most disappointing of all, we haven’t gone out and got that game changing winger that everyone and their uncle agreed was the key to us progressing this season. Odobert looked good, against Everton, let’s see if he can do it week in week out in more competitive games.

The long and the short of it is, we haven’t given the manager the tools he needs to compete for the top four this season. I’m fully behind the manager, but it won’t take much for the fans to turn on him I feel. We already saw this starting to creep in when we had that bad run of form at the end of the season, and when we drew with Leicester last week. We’ve heard through ITK that Ange was happy with the shift to signing youngsters when key targets fell through, but will the club extend him the same patience if we’re sixth or seventh come March? History tells us they won’t.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we were never going to address everything this window, but it’s very disappointing that we’ve only signed one senior player. I’m sure there are plenty of people who are willing to give the benefit of the doubt for this window, but you all need to back that up with patience for the manager when the chips are down later in the season.

 

[yido_number1]

Depending on Bergval I think we will regret not having competition for Maddison and back up for Udogie.

Annoyingly we identified the needs and if we got the players we wanted we'd have been a force. I think you need to temper expectations for this season and stick with it.

This was me, kulu has over taken Madison, no left back signing not hurt us too much other than udogie playing too much.

Id actually say cm and forward options are killing us.