Doherty isn’t very good so if Atletico want to pay his wages but let him rot on the bench then that’s on them. Reguilon struggling to get game time there also shows Spurs were right to let him leave on loan. The saving grace for Reguilon is that he could come back in the summer and be suited to a different system under a new manager though where as I can’t see Doherty being good no matter what formation or system is played.
It’s great the player’s coming and that he seems buzzing to do so, it would’ve been far better if we were saying this within the first week of the window knowing we didn’t unnecessarily drag it out and overpay.
Doherty leaving doesn’t bother me in the slightest, he’s an awful footballer. But another loan move means that come the summer, we’ll have almost a team of players returning, many of which have no future here, which could put any new incoming deals on hold whilst we try circling through the mess of past transfer failures.
Doherty's a good squad option, though, given he's HG (in the league, anyway) and can play both flanks - the latter is why Conte reportedly rates him Until the end of the season, anyway
He's had a mare with injuries, unfortunately. Missed most of the season with a groin tear of some description.
This is a huge concern of mine too and it was without question our biggest failing of the summer. I get that Jan is a difficult month to move players but at the very least I'd hoped for a few loans with obligations rather than the straight loans we've got stuck in as you say. Come June, we'll have all of Ndombele, Lo Celso, Winks, Doherty, Rodon and Reguilon back on the pay roll, as well as Sanchez, Sessegnon, Royal and Tanganga seemingly without a long-term future at the club and certainly not getting regular game time. That's 10 outfield players to shift and we won't have a DOF to shift them.
It’s definitely not ideal to say the least. One or two might have some interest over permanent deals from their loan clubs but I’m not hopeful on being able to shift others, it’s likely just going to need to be further loans. This is also on top of the possibility of selling Kane too if he doesn’t renew. Grim.
it’s frightening when you think about it like that. Shifting 5-6 senior players would be a monumental challenge in 1 window, even with a DOF like paratici taking control of it. But as we know with transfers, many of them happen very late on, so it’s also likely we won’t get the early interest we’d hope for, as clubs play poker in order to get the best deal at a later stage. Trying to do that much business so late on is basically impossible, let alone 9 or 10 that CK mentions above. That’s 2-3 windows’ work at least. - Plus any other dross we’ve accumulated in the mean time that gets added to the “not wanted” list.
Anyway, looks like Porto will be our last deal. how to we rate this one? it’s a 5/10 from me. Very underwhelming in terms of shifting players, and we’ve failed to address a CB which we’ve probably needed for 18 months+ now. looking at the business other clubs have done, and look to be still doing, I don’t see if getting any where near CL football this season.
I'd tend to agree. I think Danjuma was a smart move especially as Lucas looks broken beyond repair at this stage. Gives us a versatile option in attack and allowed us to let Gil go out for more regular game time which, whether we like it or not, he just isn't going to get under Conte. I'm pleased that we were firm with him and Spence and only accepted basic loan deals. If, and it's a big 'if', Porro hits the ground running as Kulu and Bentancur did, I think our chances of top 4 increase exponentially. It also in a weird way helps us out defensively - although I do agree we've chronically neglected the position and talk of Skriniar's move to PSG collapsing (i.e. this month, he's agreed in principle to join them in July) rubs a bit more salt into that wound - one of the reasons we are so poor at the back is that our WBs, Perisic included, just don't do enough to stretch the game and make opposition teams think twice before committing men forward. We had the element of surprise last season but teams have very quickly worked out that the likes of Sess, Doherty and Royal are extremely easy to defend against, so they feel at liberty to overload the midfield with players who would otherwise be dragged out wide and as a result, we are under relentless pressure through the central channels (our other issue is that we are targeted relentlessly down our left flank when Perisic plays as he simply hasn't got the legs or defensive brain to help whichever of Lenglet or Davies is playing there, but that's a discussion for myself and DH to have another time). But weighing in the failure to shift a single player permanently will come back to haunt us in the summer, no question.
I'm not bothered by our centre-half or attacking options, to be honest. We needed a left wingback though and it doesn't even appear to have been a consideration.
3.5/10. Delighted to sign Porro (assuming no last minute hiccups) but the manner in how we’ve done it was embarrassing, costing us more than it should have. Danjuma looks very handy but I fear he’ll just take the role Gil had and we’ll barely see him. Gil and Spence’s loans not being well thought out. Even if successful, both likely return with Conte having doubts about them seeing as they’ve not proven themselves in the Premier League. One of Skipp or Sarr not being loaned. One’s guaranteed to rot in the stands, one’s barely going to play under this manager, despite him “rating them”. Other academy players needing loans and not getting them, unless late moves arise. With just a £7.5m outlay this window, why have we not targeted a much needed CB? Even regardless of the £7.5m, why have we not targeted a much needed CB? I’ll be interested to hear the board’s response to the THST, as they said they’ll answer questions after the window shuts.
I think the issue in almost every key position is that the squad is ridiculously bloated. Ideally we needed a new CB, but we also currently have 6 senior CBs on our books plus 1 on loan and only 1 of them is genuinely good enough for our aspirations. Similar problem at RWB, we have 3 and 2 of them are definitely not good enough while the third remains an unknown. We've just signed a fourth. We have 5 CMs competing for 2 spots but at least there, we know that all of them are either more or less good enough or have the potential to become that. We have another 3 CMs out on loan who definitely aren't good enough. We have 3 players competing for RW, 3 for LW. We have two LWBs, one of whom is actually another LW in disguise, the other must have won a raffle of some sort to become a footballer. The inability to shift players is killing us at the moment and it isn't a new problem, dating back to when the likes of Soldado, Paulinho, Nkoudou, Janssen etc. just hung around for years on end without a solution, sometimes even sitting taking a wage without even having a squad number! The same is happening again but by my reckoning on a far larger scale.
Me too. It's a dumb move - particularly to lose him against Emerson. I'm sure there must be logic there somewhere but it's well hidden!
To be fair the choice of having to keep Emerson or Doherty is like asking if you want a slap in the face or a kick in the bollocks. Neither’s desirable. Based on how the season’s gone so far, Conte’s largely favoured the Brazilian so it’s not a huge surprise Doherty is the second casualty for Porro’s arrival. Mind you, he’s a better LWB than Sessegnon, in fact, Emerson probably is too!
