so we happy?

I think this window went quite well, weve definitely moved forward as a team, weve got 2 class strikers, fi ne replacement for vorm, and on last seasons showing a major improvement on michu, ok we needed cover at rb and cm but it didnt happen, we look stronger at the back, with fernandez and an impressive showing from amat.montero is also giving us better options than last year add into the mix kis improvement since coming back,...yea im quite happy, well done both huw and garry

 

Yes, very happy. Not perfect, but no team is. We've done well replacing players that left with better players. And we seem to have more team spirit as well.

 

Based on performances so far

Definite improvement in Siggy on the the Michu / deGuzman of last season (but overpriced in my view)
Gomis looks like a good addition but needs more game time to get used to PL & Swans.
Fabianski an improvement (don't need bog roll when there's a corner any more!)
Montero looking good but need to convince ... he's only played a few minutes really so unfair to decide.
Fernandez another we've seen little of and even if he did play for Argentina he'll have to be very good to outperform Chico (don't bother slagging him off, usual suspects, he was brilliant for us) also very expensive.
Kinsey? Not sure
Loan player Carroll looks like a good signing and we'll see if he gets game time, reminiscent of Joe Allen much will depend on how Monk sees the DM position developing and if Leon has a his place back when fit. Is Carroll better than Canas? Canas under Monk was quite awful , under Laudrup quite decent.

The players who have come in are more dependable but can play a good passing game, but none are what I would describe as exciting - even Montero who is effective because of his speed and strength rather than inventiveness or trickery (as said maybe too early to tell). I don't consider any as creative as those who left. Are they better? We'll have a better idea after 10 games and know for sure towards the end of the season. For now the changes have to be considered a success.
I do think we've paid top whack and have been used by a couple of players to drum up interest elsewhere.

From within
Ki has improved significantly and hopefully will continue to play well and Ash is back on form
Jazz and Tiendalli seem inspired and Amat has shown what most have always known - no frill dependable.
Bartley has done well but Jonjo and Taylor have failed to make any sort of impact so far.
Bony, possibly because of rumours linking him with other clubs, hasn't shown the form of the end of last season but still works hard and makes space for others.
Dyer's finishing has moved up a notch otherwise he, Rangel and Routledge are carrying on where they left of.


So pretty good.

However we needed to replace Ben, needed a DM & someone to push Rangel .... and still do.
I do think we've paid top whack and have been used by a couple of players to drum up interest elsewhere.
Happy ... 7/10

 

Just a quality LB missing imo. apart from that the transfer window went very well....

 

Not a bad window overall.

Tottenham got better value at current market prices in the Davies/Sigurdsson swap, although we definitely got the better player. We have also upgraded significantly in goal, upfront and out wide. Montero looks excellent, Gomis also good, and Fabianksi has added command to the penalty area, even if his distribution leaves something to be desired.

Midfield is where our problems begin. Ki is plainly a lesser player than De Guzman, and our lack of interest in a strong defensive midfielder could cost us in the long run, especially with Britton getting on. We're also weaker in the fullback positions. Rangel is hitting veteran status and we don't have a single decent right back to cover him, which is the same as it was last year. On the left, Taylor is an even bigger downgrade on Davies than Ki is on De Guzman, and is already struggling this season. Given that LB is one of the key positions identified by Monk as being in need of strengthening before the window closed, it's hard to avoid putting that down as a black mark.

 

I dont think Ki is a down grade. I think Ki is a better player in midfield than De-guz. He ran the midfield against man utd and west brom and as his name says he will be a key player this season. Im well impressed with his performance since his return and his attitude is looking good...

 

Ki was almost totally anonymous against West Brom.

 

Not sure I would agree with that assessment.

Additionally, on Planet Swans, the player ratings as judged by the forum members themselves had Nathan as MoM, followed by Gylfi and Routs. Next came (jointly) Ki and Ash.

 

Sticking this here so I can refer to it....

Key

Bold = New signings/Sold players and extended contracts
Green No. = U-21, no need to register in the 25
Underlined = Home Grown
Sky Blue = Injured
Red = Possibly leaving (According to the rumours)


Monk's Current First Team Squad

1) Łukasz Fabiański (GK....29-30yrs old) - Free
2) Angel Rangel (RB....31-32yrs old)
3) Neil Taylor (LB....25-26yrs old)
4) Federico Fernandez (CB....25-26yrs old) - £7-8m
5) Ashley Williams (CB....30-31yrs old) - Signed a 3 year contract extension
6) Leon Britton (DM....31-32yrs old) - Injured until ?????? (at least late October)
7) Nathan Dyer (RW....26-27yrs old)
8) Jonjo Shelvey (CM/AM....22-23yrs old)
9) Wilfried Bony (ST....25-26yrs old) - Most probably not off
10) Gylfi Sigurdsson (AM....25-26yrs old) - £10m
11) Wayne Routledge (LW, RW, AM....29-30yrs old)
12) Dwight Tiendalli (RB/LB....28-29yrs old)
13) Jazz Richards (RB, LB, DM....23-24yrs old)
14) Jordi Amat (CB....22-23yrs old)
15) Kyle Bartley (CB....23-24yrs old) - Signed a 3 year contract extension
16) Tom Carroll (CM....22-23yrs old) - LOAN - 1 year
17) Jefferson Montero (LW, RW, AM, ST....25-26yrs old) - £4m
18) Ki Seung-Yeung (CM/AM....25-26yrs old) - Signed a 3 year contract extension
19) Bafetimbi Gomis (ST....29-30yrs old) - Free (allegedly paying him £4m a year)
20) Marvin Emnes (ST/AM/WG....26-27yrs old) - Injured until September at least , Undisclosed (approx. £1.4m)
21) Gerhard Tremmel (GK....35-36yrs old)

Remaining squad members;

22) Curtis Obeng (RB....25-26yrs old) - 3 years and not one appearance for the Swans...cost £200k and is in his final year
23) Alan Tate (CB, RB, LB, DM, GK....31-32yrs old) - final year of contract
24) David Cornell (GK....23-24yrs old) - Season long loan?....in the final year of his contract
25) Rory Donnelly (ST....22-23yrs old) - Will we actually manage to loan him out this time? He cost £100-200k and is in his final year also. - Out with an ankle injury until at least November.

26) Lee Lucas (CM....22-23yrs old) - Youngster we will be looking to loan....needs to make his mark soon, in his final year of contract

Development squad players at front of the queue

27) Modou Barrow (RW....21-22yrs old) - Undisclosed (£1m + ?, 3 year contract)
28) Jay Fulton (CM....20-21yrs old)
29) Josh Sheehan (MF....19-20yrs old) - Taken on US tour. Any good?
30) Stephen Kingsley (LB....20-21yrs old) - Undisclosed


Team A

------------------------- 1) Łukasz Fabiański -----------------------------------
-------------- 4) Federico Fernandez --- 5) Ash Williams ----------------------
2) Angel Rangel ------------------------------------------- 3) Neil Taylor------
------------------ 8) Jonjo Shelvey ------ 6) Leon Britton ---------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Nathan Dyer ---------- 10) Siggy ----------------- 11) Wayne Routledge
--------------------------- 9) Wilfried Bony -------------------------------------

Team B

-------------------------- 21) Gerhard Tremmel ------------------------------
----------------- 14) Jordi Amat ------ 15) Kyle Bartley ---------------------
12) Dwight Tiendalli -------------------------------------- 13) Jazz Richards
--------------------- 18) Ki ---------- 16) Tom Carroll -----------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27) Modou Barrow ------- 20) Marvin Emnes ----------- 17) Jefferson Montero
-------------------------- 19) Bafetimbi Gomis --------------------------------

 

Didn't get a defensive midfielder but Carroll likened by some to Joe Allan. As I saw Joe as Leon's long term replacement perhaps Carroll is the answer. No wide player but Emnes will be back soon hopefully. Kenji Gorre laid on some crosses for the under 21's last night and Barrow scored, possible step ups. No left back but hey ho January will be here quicker than you think. Rest of business I am more than happy with.

 

I'd say the quality coming in is of a high standard but I believe 3 games in is too early to judge whether they are "upgrades"....nethertheless this is my thoughts so far;

Fabianski for Vorm - So far has been a lot more solid/dependable/domineering than Vorm. His shot stopping hasn't been tested properly yet (Made a very good save against West Brom though)

Fernandez for Chico - Impossible to make a judgement as I haven't seen him play. On the face of it his pedigree points to an upgrade....he'd have to be going some to improve on Chico though, we'll see. He represents an extra £6m invested in this position.

Siggy for Michu - A superb player and fits our team perfectly. He was totally wasted out on the Spurs' left wing and I hope we don't ever make that mistake with him. He's a natural no.10 and links up the midfield, wingers and Bony perfectly....Whether he's an upgrade on Michu is a very difficult question. Michu was a World Class finisher and worked his bollocks off for us, some of his passing was top drawer too....I feel a lot of Jacks diminish Michu's achievements far too easily, going on about last season (he was injured FFS!). Let's not forget that the whole world was talking about how good Michu was, not just us...he forced his way into a world class Spanish squad FFS!
So I won't say Siggy's an upgrade, but he's not a downgrade either...they are just different types of players. I'd say Siggy is a suitable replacement and has made a great start to the season.
Re: the money
It wouldn't matter if Siggy was playing like Messi in his pomp, we still got done on that deal. £8m bid was accepted from Palace so that is what he should have cost. LB's being chased by clubs with CL aspirations were changing hands for a lot of money. If we sold Ben for £12-15m and got Siggy for £8m it would have been fairer. If we'd conducted the Vorm business fairly and our cut of his transfer fee was £1.5-2m, I make us £5.5m-£9m down on the deal. Nevertheless I'm satisfied we got Siggy.

Tom Carroll (Loan) for Canas - They are totally different types of player. I enjoyed Carroll's cameo against West Brom and my hunch is he'll prove useful. Regardless, Canas was a DM and in my opinion the DM position is a position that we are weak in. So I'm going to have to say, promising as he is, he represents a downgrade to the balance of the squad.
If we paid up Canas' 2 years wages, that will have cost us £1.1m....I have no idea what Carroll's loan fee and wages are but after a year's development in the Prem we won't benefit from any added value he might accrue.

Jefferson Montero for Pablo Hernandez - Hernandez, when he was fit and had played himself in, was mercurial. Our most creative player....but he was plagued by injuries and when he was coming back from injury he could be very frustrating indeed, 90% pass completion to the opposition on times
Montero, I was in favour of signing at the start of the summer. Didn't know if he would adapt, there was a risk there...he is electric. Very exciting player and to me, even though it's far too early to reach conclusions (he could get an injury next week and repeat the whole Pablo saga) I reckon he is a significant upgrade. Not in terms of quality, I suspect that Pablo at his best does as much damage as Montero at his best, but in terms of the likelihood of being a threat consistently over the whole season(s).
Money was rumoured to equal out but since then all we've had in terms of info is that Pablo left for a "small fee".

Bafetimbi Gomis for Leroy Lita/Vazquez (Vazquez wasn't our player so Lita is more accurate IMO) - Massive upgrade here, no doubt. Don't come cheap though.
His agent was putting about that he required £100k a week (no clue whether that included any signing on fee or not) and was touting him around the Premier League. Widely reported that West Ham and Newcastle were interested and that Newcastle offered him £75k a week. Impossible to know but I'm going to speculate that we will have had to agree at least a deal of 80k a week....if we go on the conservative side and say that this includes the signing on fee we can conclude that he will be paid at the top of our pay scale (I'll guess 50k a week, as I read a report claiming that was Bony's wages once) and the signing on fee is the balance....30k a week over 4 years = approx. £6m
His contract runs out when he is 33. Expensive, and risky, but (in my campest voice) I like him.

Marvin Emnes for Pozuelo - Emnes has proved a useful substitute in a variety of positions and he could be successful here but to me this deal represents a downgrade. Pozuelo had a lot of natural ability, a lot (that's why larger clubs than us had been watching him)...a little wild, undisciplined, sometimes took the wrong option....but he was young and could be coached. He had lots of potential ability wise and transfer value wise.
Money: Emnes cost £1.4m ish? Pozuelo was signed on a free and was let go, as far as we know, for virtually nothing. Bad business IMO

Youngsters
Barrow's the one that excites me (cost £1m or so). Who knows on Kingsley but I'm impressed at what he achieved in Scotland given that he's so young.


Overall

We've replaced what we've lost with good quality but it has cost us. I can't say we are stronger as a squad as we haven't fixed the long standing squad issues, namely;

GK - Quality young back up keeper (Maybe we will recruit one when Tremmel leaves next summer....or maybe Tremmel will stay?)
RB - Young long term replacement for Rangel. Tiendalli has started off well this year, but he has had good spells before....last season he played more games than he has played yet and IMO proved to not be up to it. Not slagging the guy off, he's capable of good performances at this level. He's just not the answer.
DM - Long term replacement/competition for/partner of Leon

We've also got a new issue;

LB - Last year Taylor was Ben's back up. This year Jazz is Taylor's.....this, on the face of it represents a downgrade....I hope Jazz steps up and proves me wrong, I really do

1 more minor issue that we had last year and this;

WG - We have 3 senior wingers when ideally we would have 4 (I realise the feasability of this might depend on budgets). The situation is slightly better than last year though as we have young Barrow who is a left footer who can play on either wing as well as up front...last season we had Lamah (who wasn't as bad as some make out!) but Barrow is ours so that's better....also we have an improved, older, Alex Bray. Last season we had Gwion Edwards who we made £700k on.

 

I know it isn't perfect but lamah is a free agent apparently, worth a short contract just to fill the gap

 

Noooooooooo!

 

Wish the Board had landed the targets Monk gave them but overall I'm more optimistic now we know Wilf is staying.

Lone - your comment about Ki being "almost totally anonymous" v the Baggies beggars belief. Are you referring to someone else? The guy played a masterclass role in front of the back four, tracking back and making tackles, winning the ball then distributing it effortlessly. He won almost everything in the air. I know everyone is entitled to their opinion but that one is completely out of step with the media's view of the game and virtually everyone here too - even Ki's critics.

 

Very pleased.

Siggy looks world class. Ki totally rejuvenated. Gomis and Fab big upgrades.

All players looking fit and up for it (e.g. Tiendalli).

Could hardly have been a better window or start to the season.

 

I am very happy the team looks stronger than ever with some depth on the bench, especially when we get Leon and Emnes back. Just found out our back up striker Gomis has the record for fastest hat trick in a champions league match, now thats not bad for depth

 

A triple edged window this one.

We've recruited well imo, concentrating on quality over quantity. I would have liked a few more, especially at left back where we are thin. Would have been nice also to have signed a RW and DM but I feel we have adequate interchangeable quality to cover both positions: Routledge, Dyer, Emnes, Montero covering both wings, Ki, Carroll, even Shelvey covering DM. Would have been great to get in a few more but I'm very happy.

A huge bonus for us was that we survived the media onslaught screaming for Bony's exit. Every day there were uncountable reports hunting Bony down and linking him with Liverpool, Spurs or Arsenal. It is testament to Monk that Bony stayed and testament to Bony that he shrugged off all this extra pressure and showed loyalty to Monk.

After all it was Monk who took Bony under his wing when he arrived, it was Monk who organized personal training sessions for Bony to help him back to fitness, it was Monk who arranged and organized the staff necessary to provide a personal medical/physio regime for Bony and help him over a high ankle injury, it was Monk who trained with Bony, the two of them on their own when the training fields were empty. Monks actions, as a player and as a rookie for me shows that Monk, even now, is more of a man-ager than his predecessor will ever be.

We've also shed the burden of excess baggage which, imo, would have weighed us down and into the championship. The surplus has gone and current form suggests we are leaner, meaner, lighter and sharper for it.

Personally I'm very happy with who we are right now, Swansealona has gone, long Live Swansea City.

 

I like this. I thought he was OK when here, never outstanding but definitely not awful. I wouldn't mind him back here in a support role but not as a first team starter. Good call Swan

 

"After all it was Monk who took Bony under his wing when he arrived, it was Monk who organized personal training sessions for Bony to help him back to fitness, it was Monk who arranged and organized the staff necessary to provide a personal medical/physio regime for Bony and help him over a high ankle injury, it was Monk who trained with Bony, the two of them on their own when the training fields were empty."

And who was it gave him that role? It's getting like the beatification of St Garry. All needs now is to heal the sick and it will be official.

 

Stating the facts bob. Sorry your Dane turned out to be a dud, there's another fact for you