[RUMOUR] Transfer Deadline Day - Rumours/News

Because, for me (and I appreciate others will have their own way of looking at it), we didn't buy the defensive upgrades that we needed. Sure we got reinforcements. But I wanted upgrades and for us not to go to the Udinese 'well' once more. Thats not to say we didn't try but ultimately I'm disappointed we didn't succeed.

 

I actually think we had the best window out of all the clubs. Followed by West Brom and Leicester, which is exactly what my brother and I were talking about yesterday and the independent have ranked it the same.

Swansea bringing in Bony and Sanches is good but they still lost Llorente and Sigurdsson which is a bigger loss. Plus Sanches is a kid, people are putting way to much pressure on him. He has a lot of ability and huge potential but he hasn't done anything yet. I can see him being a major flop just as much as him tearing the league up, it really is 50/50 with him.

Palace have a good starting 11 but once injuries and suspensions hit, they will be in trouble. Their depth is rubbish so is their manager.

Brighton and Newcastle have had a shocker and will make up the bottom 2. I can see Rafa quitting in the next few weeks to save his rep.

Bournemouth will be in trouble this season as they haven't done much. Ake, Bergovic and Defoe might not be enough. A couple of injuries and they will be struggling.

Huddersfield are an unknown entity, signed lots of players no-one has heard of. Started well, can they keep it up, who knows. Out of all the promoted teams though, they look the most likely to stay up.

Burnley could also be in trouble. Signed Wells from Huddersfield which is bad move from Huddersfield's point but good for Burnley. Don't know if they have enough to stay up though. Again once injuries and suspensions start coming, they look weak depth wise.

Stoke have improved their defence massively and have had a good window in that sense. Attacking wise though, they look poor. Basically West Brom 2.0 and will look to win games 1-0 from set pieces ans shut up shop.

Overall we have had the best window, not only because we have improved our starting 11 but depth wise, we have enough quality to see us through injuries and suspensions as and when they come. We have a manager that actually seems to know what he is doing and speaks English. We have pace all over the pitch now and teams will know if they commit to many men forward we can really hurt them on the break.

This is the best squad we have ever had and we really are moving forward.

Stay relatively injury free and there is no reason why this team can't finish between 9th-12th this season which is a massive improvement on last season.

Bottom 3 for me this year

20th: Brighton
19th: Newcastle
18th: Bournemouth, Palace, Huddersfield, Burnley, Stoke or Swansea

 

Well we don't know what they're like yet. Fermenia looks a great addition considering he's a free.

My view is we have some pace in defence, that's a positive.

 

Compared to who? Chelsea? Everyone rejected them yesterday.

So because we didn't get Gibbs, we were better off buying no one? Would you have been happier?

It seems to me we are suffering with an inflated sense of entitlement. We've strengthened and may have uncovered a gem for £3m or it's just a back up until January.

I'm happy with our business, just have to get the pointless international break out of the way before we can get back to business.

 

Go back to school & retake your Maths GCSE's & add some business & economics classes whilst your there. You are right about the world has gone bonkers though.

 

Off the top of my head, I would swap him for any of these:

Marcos Alonso
Milner
Baines
Azpilicueta
Shaw
Van Aanholt
Rose
Monreal
Brunt
Gibbs
Bertrand
Rojo
Davies (Spurs)
Fuchs
Kolasinac
Robertson
Ake
Blind
Schlup
Pieters

The questions I would ask, to evaluate whether we have done well:

Have we signed a quality, reliable left back, who can block crosses and doesn't lose his head on the pitch? Probably not, and left back probably remains our weakest position. probably disappointing.
Have we signed wingers who suit Silva's formation? Richarlison looks excellent. Not sure about our quality of depth however, and question marks remain around the other signings, and whether we will have to play Amrabat moving forwards. Mixed, but probably positive.
Have we signed a 10-15 goal a season striker? With Gray, maybe. Early signs aren't great, but he took a while to start scoring at Burnley in the PL and ended up playing well. Cost a lot. Mixed - unsure.
Have we signed a good replacement for Gomes? Sherlock praised Karnezis, and that is probably good enough for me for this season. However I cannot help but feel that we might have signed Udinese's third/ fourth best keeper and he might not be a long term replacement for the number 1 spot. Quite positive.
Have we sorted out our centre midfield? An emphatic yes. Very positive.
Have we improved the pace/ distribution in our central defence? No. Fairly negative.

I think we've got a few quality players, and the rest are gambles. We will see how well we have done in a couple of months time, but I'm not sure I'm as positive as you are.

 

Don't really understand why any of our fringe players (Watson/Mariappa etc) didn't get snapped up by upper/middle Championship clubs, not even any notable outgoing loans to speak of. Probably means our wages are too high.

 

I always take the view that a supporter with no internet and who doesn't buy a newspaper either, plus might have gone on a long summer holiday in the middle of nowhere, would probably arrive back and be quite pleased with our transfer dealings..

but

those of us who follow every rumour here so closely probably end up feeling slightly disappointed with things, because so many names get linked who never materialise.

Somebody here could, and probably will, come up with a decent-looking starting eleven of players we thought we might be signing!

I think Markoa$ makes a very good point when he reminds us that firstly we haven't had to sell any of our assests. Several other clubs around us in the table have had to.

Although yesterday might feel a little underwhelming, at least we got our main buys in for the start of the season, and most have already established themselves in the side already.

I know nothing about the two defenders who joined us yesterday, so we must wait and see. I agree both seem a little underwheling, but who knows? We recently had a thread about players who've surprised in a positive way.

We now have 2 keepers of high calibre, two more left-backs than Newcastle have been left with, a pool of centre backs that hopefully Silva can buck our recent trend and actually find his best combination from and stick to it. We have an excellent midfield axis in Doucoure-Chalobah, an exciting talent in Richarlison and three strikers who we know can get goals at this level. I think our bench will be stronger most weeks this season than last year (injuries permitting).

It's not perfect, but it's not bad either.

 

Watson is Vice-Captain so I imagine the club want to keep him for this season.

 

At the end of the day what really matters is that we kept Amrabat, our best player (don't you dare sell him to a Spainish club Gino).

 

We've had a great window, what's actually been achieved is very impressive imo

Consider Palace: new manager, complete change of playing style, FDB left with trying to achieve it with a Sam Alardyce squad of cloggers

Us: new manager, change of playing style, club goes put and gives the manager a complete squad refresh

 

Fair point, but that does not ever stop a club selling a vice captain, it is pretty meaningless anyway. Gomez has been captain on a few occasions when the need has arisen.

As much as BW has been a great servant & great attitude, he is getting on & has hardly any game time, nor realistically likely to this season. Harsh but he's probably better off the wage bill in these circumstances. He would be perfect in the Championship & especially as he is the sort of battling player that wants to play.

 

Here's the list of all those linked, courtesy of Bhappy, if you fancy a go:

https://bhappy.wordpress.com/2017/05/22/the-list-2017/

 

Thank You!

 

The only slight negative about this window is we didnt sign a top level CB.

Im hoping that Silva can use defensive organistaion to overcome our weakness in personnel in this area.

 

Eh? I haven't compared our deadline to Chelsea's? I have clearly said that I think we have had a good window. But I am disappointed with yesterday as I had hoped we would go out and get some undoubted quality for the defence. Someone who isn't a punt. I will give as much time to Zeegelar and Wague as everyone else and they may be a success but they are not proven quality right now and thats what I believe we needed. They haven't succeeded where they have been previously - one can't get in a Udinese defence that has been struggling last season and so far this... and the other hasn't played much football throughout his career, was deemed not good enough by Blackpool and his previous club's fan's have been pretty scathing about his abilities. I hope this club can be a turning point for both of them but there's no sense of entitlement when you see teams around us buying proven players yesterday and the few days before the window shut. And again, as I have said in my previous post, I am not having a dig at Gino etc for yesterday as they may well have tried to get quality but not been able to pull deals off. Doesn't stop yesterday being a disappointment for me for the above reason.

I have been clear in my praise for the work we did through the window as a whole. And if you believe that the signings we made yesterday are upgrades to the defence, fine. And if you only believe we needed numbers to back up our current defence, also fine. But I wanted higher quality, only my opinion.

We addressed other areas of the team earlier in the window in great fashion but I believe that we are weak at the back and wanted First XI defender(s) bought in yesterday. Hopefully who we got will do the job but its an area that definitely needs addressing in the next couple of windows.

 

I think in assessing the relative success teams have had in the window, it needs to be done according to their standing, resources and expectation within the Premier League. No point comparing our window to that of Man City or Arsenal because their squads start in a much stronger place. The Independent effectively judge us pound for pound most improved, relative to our resources and strengthening of the first xi/squad, and I would agree. Others have bought well but had to sacrifice equally good players.

Splitting teams in to three groupings, I would rank transfer window performance in this order, based on how much they have strengthened their starting xi and squad at a net level:

Big Six: Man United, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal
Established mid table: Leicester, Everton, Stoke, Southampton, West Ham
The rest: Watford, West Brom, Swansea, Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Burnley, Palace, Brighton, Newcastle

Based on current squads I think this will be the table: Man United, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Everton, Arsenal, Leicester, Southampton, Watford, West Brom, Swansea, Stoke, West Ham, Burnley, Palace, Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Brighton, Newcastle

 

Also don't understand why we didn't go in for Guedioura

So we have gone from being 1 place above relegation to top 10 this season? That's progress!

Hope you're right, but been supporting this club too long to believe that after 3 games, as much as I would like to.

 

Matthew Briggs - Colchester to Chesterfield on a free. Now at the bottom club in the league table. Finally.

 

I agree with nearly all of this, except I'd be very shocked if West Brom finished below us. I also think that Palace will finish lower, due to a lack of squad depth and having a worse manager/ less motivation than Huddersfield.

 

Agreed. Harry Maguire cost Leicester £17m. Exactly the sort of ball-playing CB we want and there was the Hull/Silva connection.

Maybe that was just too much for us for a CB, maybe Maguire preferred the Lestah anyway (bigger club and Champions two seasons ago blahdeblah) and maybe Marco didn't rate him as highly as others.

Who knows ...

 

Why only back-up? I think he should be starting there.

 

From Ricky I'd have to go up the M.25 before going up the M.1. if I wanted to drive to Scum Town. Which I don't. Ever.

 

I don't know why but a lot of signings who go on to appear regularly in the first team tend to get written off initially as backup on here unless the fee is mega or the name is well known.

 

Whether we have had a good pre season and transfer window is based on my own expectations.

All I really wanted was to have a manager that I could understand, play quick attacking football, have depth in the squad, have a team that look like they want to play football, see a few goals, have a strong chance of survival and, basically, get my mojo back for football

job done on all counts for me....

 

When was this? I'd assume it would be Deeney Captain and Gomes Vice Captain, appearing he's had the armband when Deeney hasn't started.

 

Still massively impressed that we are managing to keep Gaitan and Lamela under-wraps until we announce them in the line-up against Southampton.

 

http://www.watford.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=500145

Both Vice Captains apparently.

 

Huh. Fair enough.

 

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/feature...uton-man-aaron-jarvis-misses-tesco-shift-sign

 

Being a MASSIVE club compared to Scum Town I presume Gino's keeping his eye on the Waitrose options ...

 

The Times reckons Watford had a net spend of £44.2m this window - only Citeh, Man Utd, Chelsea and Everton spent more. We're really massive now. Bournemouth spent £30.4m.

Anyone know what Luton spent?

 

The broke even by using Tesco club card points.

 

Dumb question - why do we have transfer windows?