The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - THE BIG POST MORTEM

[Stoof]

Reverse avatar curse during a transfer window worked. No Dan James for you all. You're welcome.

*Refreshes avatar for the season*

See you in January.

 

[TheAmerican]

Tanganga provides depth to CB and both Lucas and Gil provide competition (depth) at rw, so keeping all those seems to be a decent option until we may revisit those positions in January. My only concern is the lack of bringing in a ball-playing midfielder as we have witnessed very poor ball progression* at the start of this season. We have been overran at times with our 2-man midfield and not having that ability to switch the a 3 man with an attacking player may lose us points in some games. We saw a switch to a 433 against Chelsea but that formation saw us press the wings and (for the most part) abandon the middle of the field. We don't really have a good option to change a match against low blocks (Wolves, Forest).

 

[ukdy]

8/10 for me. Brought in some fresh faces, proven PL players and emerging talent, who will have been heavily vetted by Fabio and Antonio (their effort and attitude as well as their skills).

Fringe, unwanted or surplus players have either been sold or moved on loan, anyone still here in their regard is only because we couldn’t find them an exit door, or they wouldn’t walk through it. But I know the club is trying. Look at all the outgoings they last 2/3 windows. This is also to correct missteps from DL and Hitchen running that dept.

We got going early doors, which meant all during the ‘closed period’ we’re being proactive and identifying targets all across the spectrum.. more of this will happen, we’ve got the finances to back it up, and the tlent acquisition, coaching and scouting teams have also been overhauled.

You can always have had a better window, we could have bought Haaland for example. But for where we are and where we want to be, this is great progress.

Time to build on it, and continue in this fashion. That’s what big clubs do. Build from a position of strength.

Without getting too ahead of myself, Kane and Antonio will have been waiting to see what the club did this Summer before considering their futures.. I think the club showed ambition and professionalism, new contracts could be signed!!

 

[codspur]

I'm happy with the window and now it's a watching brief with Zaniolo and Bastoni to see if good things come to those who wait.

Masive thanks to @Archibald&Crooks @Rob @chrissivad @Stoof et al for their hard work and to @Trix @Hotspur88 @What Lies Beneath @Hercules @Grey Fox for taking the time to share.

Lastly to all you bi polar bitches for making me laugh, nod agreement and want to punch my screen in equal measure

COYS

 

[vegassd]

It feels like a 7/10 window with how the end dragged out and that we're still a couple light, but I'm happy with the signings made and I'm very concious that it's more the feeling than the reality of it. If Bissouma, Lenglet and Spence can bed in and contribute to the level they're capable of then it rapidly becomes a 9/10 window as we'll have improved what's on the pitch fantastically, it's just that we've barely seen them kick a ball in anger thus far and so don't feel the weight of their contribution as yet in totting up a rating. Richarlison and Perisic have already shown what they're able to bring to the team, and it's all good things, so A+ for getting those lads in.

This is always the proper way to judge a transfer window. It's not about net spends or Carlos Kickaballs, it's about improving production on the pitch. We're all free to make our own judgements as of today, but the proof will really be in the pudding as we saw with our "Juventus rejects".

Lenglet will be the interesting one for me. That's clearly a position that can be upgraded on and if he can perform like he did at Sevilla then it's a big positive for us. I'm personally not too concerned about him being a loan. His situation with Barca is obviously a bit sketchy and if he fits well with us I think he will be a viable Bastoni alternative.

It would be hilarious if Spence becomes our RWF backup and has a blinder of a season. Clearly not the ideal situation, but Conte has worked magic with less so that's another position to watch. Gonna be an interesting season one way or another.

 

[mil1lion]

I like to think about where we were this time last year and include the January window. Overall Paratici has done a fantastic job.

Last season for example our forward options were Son, Kane, Moura, Bergwijn, Gil and Scarlett. After Jan it was Son, Kane, Kulusevski, Moura, Bergwijn, Scarlett with Gil on loan. Now it's Son, Kane, Kulusevski, Richarlison, Moura, Gil. We also have Perisic who can play forward. It's getting there but it's a process.

Our midfield has changed from Hojbjerg, Skipp, Winks, Lo Celso, Dele, Ndombele with Sarr on loan. It's now Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Skipp, Bissouma, Sarr. The key here is they all fit well in a midfield 2. We also have the exciting Devine coming through who may surprise some people.

The only area we didn't improve as much was defence. We still have the same back 3. If we could just get another Romero level left centre back we'll look so strong. We still went from Gollini to Forster in goal, Rodon to Lenglet at centre back and for wing back Reguilon, Sess, Emerson, Doherty to Perisic, Sess, Emerson, Doherty and Spence.

The process is working though and there's still the young players to grow. We need to keep that loan system working and keep signing players from the lower leagues. We have Lankshear now along with Scarlett and Parrott. It gives that higher chance that 1 will be a great success. We also have Ndogie for left wing back next season and the long term.

It's so difficult to get this much done in such a short space of time. It took Klopp a good couple of years so we will be no different. The previous windows and lack of direction have made hard work of it. We're now getting players to fit the profile the manager wants. In the past we would just sign a player towards the end of the window and let the manager work out how to fit them in.

This league is massively competitive now, a lot of clubs are spending big money. We have a strong squad now where we finished last season with a strong team and started the last one with some good players who didn't function as a team. I'm very confident in this group working under Conte. This will be a great season I'm sure. We just need to keep it going next year and complete the squad overhaul.

 

[EastUpperDK82]

I'm very happy with this window. 9/10... Good planning, quick to get players in, several positions stregthened and some for the future as well. Yes, we need 1 more quality CB... and maybe another RWB & attacking player. But that's it... the World Cup will give us better options in january. And we "only" have to play 2.5 months before it opens.

We have a net spend of just over 140 mil. this window... so the 4 loans (Regi, Winks, N'Dombele, Lo Celso) could perhaps have given us more space if somebody would buy them ?‍ ... that's why we should be careful with panic buys...

But it doesn't change the fact that our main targets for some positions didn't want to come or were difficult to get. We were never going to buy 1 player for 70-80-90 million to lure the selling club... just to get the player now.

Net spend​

All that spending and selling equates to the final net spending table, which sees Chelsea (£228.4m) reign supreme - narrowly ahead of Erik ten Hag's spending splurge to reinvent Manchester United (£202.4m) and struggling West Ham (£164.2m)

Nottingham Forest (£157.3m), Tottenham (£143.1m), Newcastle (£123m) and Arsenal (£98m) are next up - all spending considerably more than the remaining clubs. Meanwhile, only four clubs registered a profit with negative net spends: Brighton (-£80.8m), Leicester (-£60.9m), Manchester City (£50m) and Leeds (£9.6m).

 

[SCUMmucs]

I get peoples disappointment with this window right now.

However, having witnessed enough players coming in and excitement over them quickly turning to disappointment, the biggest success this window is we only sold players we wanted to. This means all new signings can be bedded in to a top 4 team Hopefully we will see these new players come in and make the difference later on in the season when burnout will start to play a bigger factor.

Lets not forget in the land of optimism! Who knows Gil might actually live up to his hype (I don't think people appreciate how highly rated he is). Sarr might turn out to be the midfielder we need, these guys are essentially also new signings for us this season.

After everything though, its funny that Djed has the most pressure to succeed. That RWB position was a strange situation this summer after signing 2 LWB.

 

[brasil_spur]

Agree with others on here - it was an 8/10 window.

We didn't over pay for any players, in fact if we'd waited until the end of the window I think it's fair to say that Richarlison would have been touted as being the same sort of price as Antony, so I reckon we did well getting key players done early.

We are a little light in attack from a squad perspective, but we've improved our squad a lot since the end of last season and frankly we were a top 3 team then. The challenge will be A) keeping everyone fit and B) being effective in rotating players as the games ramp up.

I think we'll know a fair amount from the line-up tomorrow, you would expect that as it's the 3rd game in 6 days we'll see several changes to the starting squad. If Conte is truly happy with the squad options we have then you'd expect to see 3-4 players being rested, IMO.

 

[StanSpur]

Good window and i like the Liverpool approach (or at least the approach BBC and Sky cant stop attributing to Liverpool) of only bringing in those that add value and waiting if they are not available immediately. We have had too many sitting on the wage bill in recent seasons for that reason so now they are either part of the first team over the next few seasons or not at all (barring the youth investment obviously). I do think we still lack the creativity in the middle to transition between a deep bank of 7 and the front three (but that has been the case since the days of Poch). I am less concerned about the RWB position as Royal has been playing well of late (although in this system that is where the creativity should sit and he does come up short at the moment here so may have lost my own argument!) and i think the CB position we do have cover in Sanchez and langlet as well as tangaga so i would rather wait for the Bastoni type signing here. Keeping Gil because there is no better alternative available also makes a lot of sense. All in a very good window in the fact we set targets, went early and didnt compromise, lacked the last day excitement but, no real shame there. I wouldnt be opposed to a 2 year deal for Ross Barkley if our centre mid looks a little light with injuries as there is a decent player in there albeit a bit Dele in recent years.

 

[kieranfitchett]

As conte has said multiple times the issues cant be addressed in one window, think this summer was about setting a platform to build from, we've strengthened in a few areas, finally have a Kane backup of sufficient quality versatile enough to still start games alongside Harry, strengthened CM (a point of weakness probably since we lost dembele and wanyama) and added depth in a lot of areas. Was it perfect? no, but a perfect window on paper in which we brought in big money signings for every positional need would probably have its own teething issues, we're on the right track.

 

[jurgen11]

Is this now a better squad than the one that got to the CL final ?

 

[kent brockman]

We have made very good and sensible signings at reasonable prices IMO, which all fit Conte’s jigsaw.
We have significantly improved our overall squad depth, but only added one automatic starter (Perisic).
Still a lot of work to be done, as all deficiencies in the squad cannot be addressed in one single window.
Top four and a cup is probably now the realistic target, but no chance to challenge for the league.

 

[BigSiss]

Overall a good window if not amazing. After our early good work I think the 2nd half was very influenced by the failure to sell Winks, Le Celso, Rodon or Reguilon. You might reasonably have expected £70m+ for them in the past and have also taken them off our long-term wage liability. As it is they could all be back at Spurs next summer. N'Dombele is a different matter and to get him away anywhere was positive. You'd hope that at least two of the others will do enough to command fees when their loans finish.

I also hope that we are keeping some powder dry for the winter window. We will have a good idea how we are managing by then and can hopefully react positively with quality 1st team additions like we made last January. COYS

 

[WiganSpur]

This is always the proper way to judge a transfer window. It's not about net spends or Carlos Kickaballs, it's about improving production on the pitch. We're all free to make our own judgements as of today, but the proof will really be in the pudding as we saw with our "Juventus rejects".

Lenglet will be the interesting one for me. That's clearly a position that can be upgraded on and if he can perform like he did at Sevilla then it's a big positive for us. I'm personally not too concerned about him being a loan. His situation with Barca is obviously a bit sketchy and if he fits well with us I think he will be a viable Bastoni alternative.

It would be hilarious if Spence becomes our RWF backup and has a blinder of a season. Clearly not the ideal situation, but Conte has worked magic with less so that's another position to watch. Gonna be an interesting season one way or another.

It's actually a really sensible deal we've done for Lenglet, as Bastoni's future is still very much up in the air. It's going to be a very interesting conundrum if Lenglet performs exceptionally and Bastoni ends up being available too.

Another one is Spence, he's going to have to take his chance in the cups but I think he might end up usurping Doherty and Royal.

I'd be very interested to know who we'd target for the central role after we missed out on Bremer. I'm hoping Skriniar is still an option with a year left on his contract.

 

[Hoddle1982]

Obviously time will tell if this was a good window or not. Time will tell if Conte is happy with the squad. This is crucial.
It’s very early in the season, but the way Conte isn’t using/trusting the bench already is worrying.
I feel after a couple of bad results Conte will go back to blaming the lack of options.
Have we really backed Conte? Could/Should we have done more?
I believe so.
On the face of it I do think it’s another opportunity missed.
Where did all that money ‘invested’ for transfers gone?
Yes, we did good business early, but we needed 1/2 more.
We have such a crazy schedule that we’ll get more injuries and need more rotation.
Another forward had to come in as Conte obviously doesn’t rate/trust Gil.
I reckon Son, Kane and Kulusevski are going to be run into the ground this season.
A couple of injuries up there and we’re fucked.
Central midfield looks good. No complaints.
LWB is sorted. Perisic is top quality.
Now to my two main issues CB and RWB.
For a team in the Champions League and wanting to push on our CB options are not good enough.
Romero, Dier, Davies, Sanchez, Tanganga, Lenglet.
That set of CB’s isn’t closing any gap.
5 of those are good back-up players and not good enough at the highest level. Needed either a top quality CCB or (preferably) a LCB starter. Lenglet was the cheap option and can’t see him making much difference.
This area is a massive fail in my opinion and will cost us this season.
RWB is farcical in we obviously needed an upgrade on Royal/Doherty and had all summer to sign one.
We spent weeks/months looking at Spence, signed him, then continue to play Royal who clearly isn’t good enough.
Spence may in time become first choice, but Conte has already said it was a club signing so I don’t expect him to be a regular starter anytime soon.
Another massive fail.
Now this might(hopefully) be a very successful season and we achieve great things.??
And that Conte is happy with this new squad and it’s happy days.
Time will tell.
COYS

 

[totty]

12 hrs since window closed, this is a 8/10 window for me, strengthening in depth, solving the LWB position and getting rid of wages from the 4 that Conte doesnt rate.

Yes, a Bastoni would be nice but once Lenglet came in, that boat has been shelved till next summer.

The RWB situation wasnt gonna get solved with new signing as there simply isnt anyone out there available that would improve the position, and we already have 3 first teamers there. Hence Antonio has to work his magic with what we have.

Signing Adama or James wouldnt replace Bergwijn. Gil /Perisic/Richarlison are adequate covers for the LWF position, glad that Adama/James didnt happen.

A playmaker that can thread a thru pass woulda been the cherry on the cake, problem is Leicester wasnt gonna sell Maddison neither does Roma with Zaniolo. £35m for Paqueta hardly makes sense too

 

[daryl hannah]

I’d say 6/10. Pleased with business but we needed to go further. We’re not going to achieve anything with Gil and Moura on rotation and for me, that’s the biggest disappointment. However, NOT pursuing Dan James is perhaps the best thing we’ve done this window.

Disappointment comes a little bit from being told in January that THIS was THE window and we were going to have a BIG one. I do t think it was THAT big.

Slowly but surely the team is progressing in options, but I don’t want to die without seeing us win something with Kane & Son and that’s why 14 years’ worth of calls for “patience” each time we qualify for the CL has worn very thin.

Kane may be off soon, Son’s legs could go (lose a yard of pace) and people will look back and say “yeah, but nice stadium, though, right?”

 

[hughy]

Is this now a better squad than the one that got to the CL final ?

I'd say this is the best squad we've had in my lifetime. I still think our starting 11 between 2016-2018 shades this one though.

 

[Dennism]

Think it has been a good window. The last thing we need to do is panic and bring in players of lower quality who we then can’t get rid of.