Transfer Window, success or not?

[Brammie Steve]

Why didn't we find that mythical tree from which proven strikers are plucked by every other squad in the country apparently?

Most fans seem to have implicit faith in its existence.

[MackworthRamIsGod]

5 hours ago, Dimmu said:

Okay, Marriott and Martin fan boys. Take a step back and reflect the window as a whole. Are you happy with it or not? Was there someone you're excited about?

And yes, I just created another Martin thread. Nevertheless, I put some of the outgoings and incomings side by side, just to that it's easer to compare the players. Are you happy with the balance?

 

OUT                                                                IN

Carson                                               

Hamer                                                Marshall

Lowe

Malone                                               Te Wierik

Anya

Bogle                                                  Byrne

Huddlestone                                     

Josefzoon                                          Ibe

Bennett                                              Jozwiak

Martin                                                Kazim-Richards

Marriott                                             

 

Our goalkeeping department changed in U23 as well as Ravas & Mitchell was replaced by Idem & Sykes-Kenworthy. Also, our U23 signed Hutchinson, Ibrahim, Borkovic, Watson and Duncan, while Mitchell-Lawson went out. 

I think it's fair to say the business we made seemed to be based on financies and orienting to the future with young talents coming in. Lot's of cost cutting with big salaries running out, free and cheap signins, and Jozwiak as a only normal priced signing. 

Who am I missing? I left Clarke out of this as he would've been in both sections.

Dont go creating threads about Chris Martin, there are grown adults on here that cant cope with it.

I think mine got deleted yesterday, very bizarre beahviour from grown adults ?‍♂️

[Woodley Ram]

So close to being as good as we could possibly hope for, we have brought in a really good right back and keeper, 2 Decent centre backs and covered out wide attacking problem. The issue is ( and this enhanced due to injuries) we needed a focal point in attack and it didn’t happen who would have not only allowed us to attack but kept the pressure of the defence by making sure the ball didn’t come straight back as us. For me 7 put of 10 With a decent centre forward it would have been 8-9/10. CKR might yet up the 7/10 lets see, I think he might be better for our system then his record suggests

[ck-]

4 hours ago, TexasRam said:

** also don’t understand why we have brought players in who aren’t fit enough to start

 

Suspect it’s simply because it allows us to get better quality than we otherwise could. Bit of a gamble, but if it comes off it will look inspired. 

[stickywotsits]

I was so excited after the transfer window had shut that i only got 10 hours sleep...

[Cardinal]

The rule we should live by is Are the signings we make better than what's already at the club. In most cases I would say in this window yes, we have . However as many have mentioned this isn't the case in the striker department. Given it appears this is a vital position to how Cocu wants to play we really really needed to get the right player in. Unfortunately we didnt do that. Based on that I would have to say its a 50/50 window. 

[Rammy03]

5 hours ago, LeedsCityRam said:

After all that activity, we're likely to be in a much better place from a wagebill perspective & from a talent point of view, have upgraded in every area - apart from CF. 

I'm just concerned about the experience we have lost such as Huddlestone and Martin. Left back I feel we've made a mess of. We have downgraded in the CF position as well. A few of our signings are big question marks for me, good business from a financial point of view but whether they can improve us on the pitch remains to be seen. It's been a mixed window for me, started very promisingly but ended in disappointment. Are we stronger than what we were this time last season? I'm not sure.

[Yani P]

I would say mainly decent but totally shambolic at the end chasing strikers..still some exciting additions to look forward to hopefully.. 

[LeedsCityRam]

1 hour ago, Rammy03 said:

I'm just concerned about the experience we have lost such as Huddlestone and Martin. Left back I feel we've made a mess of. We have downgraded in the CF position as well. A few of our signings are big question marks for me, good business from a financial point of view but whether they can improve us on the pitch remains to be seen. It's been a mixed window for me, started very promisingly but ended in disappointment. Are we stronger than what we were this time last season? I'm not sure.

Think in Davies, Marshall, Rooney & now Kazim-Richards, we've got plenty of experience in the squad. We're wanting to have a young & emerging squad so wouldn't want too many more older heads. Also given Bird's development, it wouldn't have made sense keeping Huddlestone around & we're likely saving a massive wedge on wages too.

Take your point about Martin - hard to argue we've improved at CF but overall, I'd definitely say the squad looks better quality than this time last year - 4 positions have definitely been upgraded/bolstered (GK, RB, LW, RW). Also importantly, its pretty lean & has no more deadwood - everyone we have is someone Cocu wants around the team. Reduces potential friction & much more financially sensible.

I'm personally relaxed about the LB position - Lowe wasn't starting that regularly & made sense for him to move on given his contract coming up & realising maximum value. Buchanan is definitely raw (and currently much better at LWB than LB) but he's still very inexperienced & I expect him to improve his defensive side. In reserve we obviously have Forsyth but also Shinnie, who is often overlooked on here for that position.

[Abu Derby]

The jury is out on this, only time will tell. 

[JayRam1]

At this present time you would have to say it’s been a failure due to the results and performances.

[Parsnip]

4 hours ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

I think mine got deleted yesterday, very bizarre beahviour from grown adults ?‍♂️

I've read some of your posts and I refuse to believe that you're a grown adult.

[Parsnip]

It was a mostly brilliant window but what the hell happened in the striking department?!

It's the obvious question that hopefully the relatively unknown quantity of Colin Kazim can answer with some storming performances.

[Jourdan]

It’s been largely encouraging and a step in the right direction.

Marshall, Byrne and Clarke are already showing their worth and look to be good signings for this level.

Te Wierik and Jozwiak are the intriguing signings from abroad we’ve been asking for and hopefully they will find their feet and show their quality.

Ibe and Kazim-Richards are the signings where we have taken a big gamble and the signings I worry about. There are big question marks over the two of them. Ibe because of his recent history and Kazim-Richards based on absolutely everything.

The worry for us is that what we haven’t done - replacing Martin, for exanmple - could end up overshadowing what positive steps we have taken.

If we are not scoring goals and not creating creates, people will continue to dwell on the departures of Martin and Marriott, and in my case, the absence of a quality creative midfielder.

So it feels like a 6/10 but it could be a 8 if Ibe turns back the clock 5 years.

[Tyler Durden]

It's a mixed bag for me....Martin left but we didn't or haven't managed to replace him yet which is either cunning planning or catastrophic train wreck management. We did well to get Zoon out on loan for the season not convinced doing the same with Marriott was a good idea especially given the above with Martin but there are people far cleverer than me at the club who make these decisions and will live and die by them accordingly. Jozwiak looks a useful signing as does our new goalee who gives me 100 times more confidence than Roos or Hamer. Not convinced about MTW he looks totally out of place in the Championship quite honestly but let's see. Up to Cocu know to get them galvanised now and playing to their strengths. 

[RamNut]

The Summer 2020 requirements - Imo we needed a keeper and a new centre back pairing plus 2 Natural wingers - right footer on the right, left footer on the left.

5 new players were the priorities.

i would have been prepared to lose Lawrence, Marriott, malone, Rooney, wisdom, davies, Forsyth, huddlestone, Mitchell, Hector-Ingram, jozefzoon, anya, Bennett, Roos and possibly Mitchell-Lawson in order to fund signings,

i would have kept Martin (unless we had a better player in the bag). I might also have been tempted to keep george Thorne. I find it very hard to believe that George is broken. I might even play him in the u23s at centre back as a senior pro to guide the sprogs. Whether he would have been interested In that is now academic.

so what happened?

in the event we did not sell any of the players I have listed. So any incoming deals would have to be funded by other sales. 
I was disappointed That we agreed to sell bogle and Lowe. The fee seemed too low and it gave us additional recruitment work to do. 

However Wigan's problems created a source of players for other clubs.
If we were to lose bogle and Lowe then i would have wanted both Wigan full backs - byrne and Robinson. If we couldn’t get Robinson then i wouldn’t sell Lowe. 

centre backs - I wanted a pairing of hard Serbian centre backs, but in the end this probably just wasn’t the right transfer window to solve our central defensive problems. We had no money and the market was restricted. even though we are still stuck with a make do defensive king pin on loan Te wierik and Clarke were probably as good as we could get on our budget in this window.

wingers again this was a tough window. Very few wide men moved. we got one on a free and blew all our budget on another right-footed left winger. I’m not sure about him. We’ll have to wait and see.I Think I would rather have offered a few hundred k for Cal Roberts. I agree with taking a gamble on ibe.

strikers We simply didn’t have the dosh to compete for hugill, dykes, Or Keiffer Moore. And none of the other strikers who moved are better than Martin. We dropped a big bollok here. This wasn’t the time to lose a key player with no cash to buy a replacement. Almost forgot - the best tip was @Curtains suggestion - Kyle wootton. Another one worth the gamble of a few hundred k.

Goalkeeper - marshall looks ok, but I would rather have blown our budget on Thomas Kaminski - a 27 year old keeper with a Belgian League winners medal - who went to Blackburn for an undisclosed fee, and that might just elevate them into genuine promotion contenders.

i like the look of some of our u23 recruitment. It’s interesting that we obviously felt there was a gap in the talent coming through. Hutchinson has looked good. Duncan is an interesting signing - although could suffer the same fate as Marriott. And Watson looks promising on first sniff. 
 

szmodics was the other Attacking midfield player I think was worth bringing in, Simply because I don’t think holmes has been fit for ages. (Didn’t he go off into the play off semi-final?) But we’d also have to ditch Rooney to have room in the squad. 

[Marriot Ram99]

It's been 5 out of 10 for me with the potential for a 7 or 3 depending on how things go, if we had kept Martin or signed Dursun then a 7, we could have also done with a left back for me. If we had signed Baba Rahman, kept Martin or signed Dursun and signed Wilson it would have been a 9 for me, still not a 10 as I think we also lack a box to box midfield of quality and a rock at the back, not sure on Te werik so far. 

[RamNut]

                    Kaminski

byrne.    Evans.   Clarke.    Robinson

              Williams   knight
roberts.         Sibley.            Ibe

                      Martin

 

                       Roos

wisdom   Davies.  Bielik.  Buchanan

                Bird       shinnie 
holmes      Szmodics       Lawrence

            Waghorn / wootton

                   

P.s I forgot joe williams from Wigan. 

 

 

[Comrade 86]

1 hour ago, Beetroot said:

It was a mostly brilliant window but what the hell happened in the striking department?!

Trying to piece together the timelines I think it was something akin to...

Serdar Dursun - Darmstadt are open to selling the player, who wants to move himself, but they are concerned they need a replacement in before any deal can be made. We make two offers, firstly @ £900k, then at @£1 million. Both are rejected, We go back with an improved offer still below the £1.8 million asking price which may have been considered if not accepted but Damstadt fail to secure a replacement before the deadline. It may have only delayed matters though as there is some chatter that we will be for the lad in the January window.

Charlie Austin - Bit a tart isn't he? Gave it the, 'I'm hungry for football. I'll drop a league and take a wage cut if it means regular game time' which at the 11th hour turned into, 'Errr.. I've changed my mind. Now I'd rather sit on the bench and take my full 70k a week'. 

Keinan Davis - I'm actually gutted for the lad here too. I think Villa were open-minded to him going our on loan but they did tie him into a 4 year deal beforehand and never really seemed that fussed about whether he was going out or not, despite it being in question that he will be anything more than a bit part player for this season, at least. Went nowhere in the end while Sammatta ends up at Fenerbahce. 

Colin Kazim-Richards - Was obviously our #1 target all along. Has been training with the squad for weeks, after all which kind of proves the point. Fair play. Unleash the Colin. Do it now! 

 

[Sparkle]

Decent signings in Marshall and Bryne  - promising signings in Duncan and jozwiak - intriguing signings in Ibe and Richards 

no idea signing in Dutch Mike 

biggest loss was obviously Martin especially this season without having a purpose built replacement ( we have previously had Waghorn Marriott Vydra Blackman Jerome Bent etc etc to replace him, staggering isn't it ) but he actually left we didn’t want him to and bringing in someone as good or better seems very difficult