The Transfer Window - How was it for you? Vote now!

[brisbanespur]

My concern is that if we may have to wait on Le Celso and N,dom to go perm or not before we make a move in the summer, we could end up with the usual last-minute rush.

Overall the players that have gone out on loan/sold were not delivering so replacing them and perhaps giving some younger players a chance cannot be any worse, so at least the club were proactive I will give it a 7/10

 

[sausage]

I think it's too easy to underestimate a few factors:

a) Three players who offered nothing, who Conte didn't want, have left (Dele, Tanguy, GLC) and won't be a distraction
b) With COVID, postponements, and general cashflow issues in football, it's been a really difficult window for lots of clubs
c) Our rivals for the top 4 could hardly be seen as having a better window.

Arsenal have lost Aubameyang, Maitland-Niles, Kolasinac, Chambers, and Mari. Signed no-one.
Chelsea have basically done nothing
Leicester have basically done nothing
City sold Ferran Torres and have "replaced him" with a guy who won't join until the summer
United have lost Martial, VdB, and Diallo - plus, it seems, Greenwood (for the short term at least), and signed no one
West Ham have basically done nothing
Wolves have lost Traore and not brought anyone else in basically until summer

Liverpool signed Diaz, which is the only signing that any of the current top 8 clubs have signed apart from us.

Kind of crazy for anyone to look around us and think that we've had any less than a good outcome here, holistically speaking. Replacing 3 inert players with 2 new first team, highly-rated, talents is a big improvement for me over anyone else's business

 

[Guntz]

And to be fair I think those will be along with Torres for LCB.

I think it was a good window with it being January. Other than being out foxed for Vlahovic & Diaz, there weren't a ton of deals I'd wished we had done.

Diaz hurt a lot.

I genuinely think he's going to be world class.

 

[rossdapep]

To fully judge the window I think we need to see what we do in the summer.

If this has allowed us to have highly likely sales for Ndombele and Lo Celso then I think that should give us a great advantage in the summer when it comes to getting our primary targets.

I believe Kulusevski and Bentancur are solid options with a lot of potential.

I think Kulusevski has more about him than Lo Celso, so will contribute more in attack.

I think Bentancur has more intensity and discipline with his play, so gives is more than we were getting with Ndombele.

Therefore we've upgraded in terms of contribution and what Conte needs. And I think we've given ourselves a better chance of top 4.

I think it's been a mild success. And like I said, if this window has allowed us to go hard on a CB, RWB and another CM in the summer, with those been our primary targets then you have to say it's been a productive one.

 

[Spurs_1981]

I've gone for good, although like Trix, I'm hovering between average and good. The key aspect for me is that we are clearly attempting to back Conte and that is the priority in my view.

I can only presume the two incomings are players Conte can work with but the significance of removing players he has identified as having no future is a fantastic marker and a sea change in approach.

Combined with the lack of activity from our rivals for top four overall I'm taking this as a net positive.

 

[scat1620]

I'm delighted.

 

[soflapaul]

Gave it a good for three reasons although average is arguable. (thought there should be a great and a terrible option though)

• Short term it improved the midfield with respect to Conte's style of play. The players we added will likely contribute more than who we lost.
• Our competitors for #4 are no better than they were a month ago
• Long term we're better positioned to bring in players in the summer because of the deadwood.

If we push on and make fourth while playing good football, Spurs will be a more attractive option for those that we target next year as they will see a project that just may be worth being a part of.

 

[Tucker]

Hard to assess a window when we haven’t seen how the players work out for us.

We’d have all agreed that summer 2019 was a great window at the time. That didn’t work out so well.

On the face of it though, we have added two players who look like they have real quality.

We’ve moved on players too and that bodes well for getting new ones in during the summer.

 

[WiganSpur]

It's an okay first step towards building a squad Conte likes, but there are still question marks about our recruitment as a whole.

On the one hand, we managed to get rid of the players Conte didn't trust (albeit all on loan or for fairly average fees). On the other, Paratici was once again forced to go back to his mates in Italy to do him a favour and, whilst Bentancur and Kulu could be solid signings, it doesn't exactly show huge levels of pre-planning or indeed creativity in the market from Paratici yet.

I was hoping we'd be employing a new more data-focussed scouting system when he was brought in, but thus far most of the signings have been opportunistic and based on previous relationships with clubs or agents.

Summer is massive so I sincerely hope we have our targets and are willing to go in for them nice and early.

It takes a while to implement that kind of scouting structure. AG said a few weeks bad that Paratici was looking to revamp certain areas. Right now he's probably playing to his strengths by using his contacts.

 

[Snarfalicious]

I’m happy with it. Wish the Lo Celso and Ndombele moves had more of a finality feeling to them, but we can just hope they impress and recoup some value come summer time. Gil gets much needed experience, too.

As for what we did to improve the squad/outlook: Hugo’s contract is huge because it spares us having to find a starter. Hoping we sign a free agent in the summer or someone on the cheap (Johnstone?). As for the Juve-2, I’m really excited about Kulusevski. See him being a really versatile addition and he’s so, so young still. Think Bentancur will slot ride in seamlessly which is so important (please don’t get hurt tomorrow).

Would I have loved a RWB and a striker? Yup, or course. But, I think we are in really good shape going towards the summer, and if a couple of free agents pan out, we could really do some damage in the transfer market.

 

[ajspurs]

I think average but I also don't think it's as black and white as 'we should have filled this and that position so why didn't we'. Teams have obviously found it difficult. West Ham apparently had money to burn yet didn't sign anyone, we had more money to burn than we spent, United didn't sign anyone despite losing an important player for them and Arsenal need a striker more desperately than us and didn't get a single player let alone a striker.

We were also close to a really top signing in Diaz but felt we were maybe unfortunate to have Liverpool lurking. The Traore one is one I don't quite understand and the time it took on that was frustrating, but maybe we had less control over the outcome of that than it seemed too.

Basically I feel it was an average window on the surface but maybe good when taking all circumstances into account. Like others have said, we've gotten rid of players who Conte didn't want to play and brought in two who can come straight into the starting 11. Add to that Romero who will feel like the cliche of a new signing. I think we're in decent shape.

I just really hope Ndombele and Lo Celso play really well on their loans as I'm sure getting them both out early in the summer could be massive.

 

[Strikeb4ck]

Very disappointed.

Watch more Serie A than Prem and don't really rate Bentancur at all, doubt he will add much to our team. Kulusevski is an interesting prospect, I think he will do well so I'm fine with that move.

We shifted some deadwood which is great, but no guarantee they won't just all be back here in summer and then we're back to square one.

Top 4 is soooo gettable, I think we needed one or two big signings and it would have opened the door to a different caliber of player this summer. We also seemed to have very little structure when it came to recruitment goals, and in the end it was just Paritici reaching out to his old coworkers to actually get something signed.

Also, we're still a Kane injury away from disaster. I think this is mind boggling incompetence from us the last 2-3 years.

Basically, I think we have a worse squad and thinner squad than what we started with. I also think we showed very little ambition in a year where a nice finish to the year would have set us up for a great summer. And finally, we haven't actually really sold the deadwood, we just loaned them out.

3/10 for me.

 

[SpartanSpur]

Agree. It will be interesting to see what Conte says when asked about the transfer window because from his comments over the last month he didn’t exactly pull any punches and complained about the quality of the squad compared to the other teams. I suspect he’s happy about the players who left but I can bet he’s not entirely satisfied about the amount of players coming in. We were told he wanted a wingback, centre back, central midfielder and a striker. He got the midfielder. Let’s see.

I suspect he's feeling much like a lot of us. Happy with the backing received on outgoings, happy with Lloris new deal, happy with the 2 incomings, but ultimately a bit annoyed at no RWB and/or Striker.

I think he'll play up the difficulty of January when asked and possibly point to the summer.

 

[Dov67]

finally getting the dead wood out of the door, players who will play a minimal or no part at all in the remainder of the season was an success.

I dont follow Serie A, and so wont pretend I have any idea how good or bad our new signing will turn out to be. They could be anything from a literal game changer to a couple of new Jedsons.

I was super excited when we bought Ndombele and GLC, so what the hell do I know anyway.

Really we cannot judge this window in isolation by only looking at ourselves - what’s more important is how we have done relative to WHU, Man U and the goons, and on that score I suspect we have come out slightly on top as they have not improved at all (unless Aubamayang was creating as stink in the dresssing room).

Overall, reserving judgement but a little underwhelmed to be honest

 

[McFlash]

Good, for me.
Would've been nice to get 3 in but was always going to be tricky to do in January.
I like the look of the 2 we've got and what they should bring to the squad, in both mentality and ability.

Happy to have cleared the decks a bit too, even if Gio and Tanguy are only loans, at least they're in the shop window and not wasting away on our bench.

Bottom line for me is that appear to have backed the manager, so let's hope Fab spends the next few months getting everything lined up for a productive summer.

 

[werty]

A little underwhelming. I have no idea how good Kulusevski or Bentacur are so will have to reserve judgement on them, but we didn't improve on our weakest areas and we missed out on our two main targets.

 

[Spurs 1961]

Voted poor as we failed to get any, well any we were ’told’ about, top targets. We have cleared out some wages giving spaces for early summer deals but as most are on loan this is not done and dusted.

 

[Tezza1978]

A solid 7.5 out of 10 for me overall. Particularly given its January. (In terms of outgoings I'd say 8.5!). Conte has been backed with 2 quality players and the deadwood pushed out.
I can't see Conte being anything other than reasonably happy with that window - not delighted, but he knows the big moves will happen in the summer

 

[Nerine]

I fail to see how anyone can class it as “bad”.
It just isn’t. And hasn’t been.

The only thing that’s been bad, is how some fans of this club, and apparently football, have appeared completely inept at being able to see a bigger picture that’s beyond the headlines and regurgitated fashionable “takes” from the minority that find any single, weak, archaic angle they possibly can do to put the boot in, then being called out on it, and ultimately failing to back up any of the nonsense when questioned on it, essentially just rendering their opinion completely void in the process.

Seriously, what are you angry about?

Football is transient. It always has been. Always will be.

Tiresome Levy comments, boring ENIC comments, lambasting Paratici, moaning about the players, the signings, mentioning net spend, making “hilarious” “jokes” referencing previous failings, impatience, it just goes on and on.

Half of them don’t even know what they’re angry about because they get it so unbelievably wrong, don’t consider any other viewpoint, can rarely back up their claims, demonstrate an inherent lack of understanding of goings on and react with chemical impulse to the slightest whiff of bad news by loading it into their spunk cannons and ejaculating into the path of anyone that will listen, salivating at the prospect of potentially having their position ratified.

Sure. Have an opinion. It doesn’t mean that it’s correct or that anyone should give it the time of day. Repeating it ad nauseam, won’t make it any more accurate or noteworthy, and the sheer reluctance to consider that any other position is “wrong” is further indictment that the “opinion” (stolen from someone else no doubt) is complete trash. You can’t take someone with that standpoint seriously.

That’s been the negative of this window. Not the work done on the team.

This is a great forum, but fucking hell sifting through the drivel has been very tiresome.

[/Rant]

 

[Bulletspur]

We had too much do to bring the club back to where we were 3 - 4 year ago, so it was never going to be done in one Window. If you look at the big picture, no one envisioned that we would get rid of the calibre of players that we had, not holding out for the big bucks before letting them go. Conte has just pulled off the band aid, something that previous regimes were either reluctant or afraid to do.

So the way I see it, Conte by letting players go, has paved the way by freeing up wages and will be in a better position to attract the players that he wants, without now having to think about the outs, as we have done over the years.

So I look at this window as being part of a bigger plan, where we were successful as we will now be ready for the summer transfer window