Now's the time. How do you see it? How do you feel? Keeper- Most bizarre aspect of Deadline day for me. Not only is there adequate cover in the free agent market, we'd also qualify for an emergency loan if Pickford was injured. So why spend half of deadline day chasing keepers from all over Europe and fail when we should have been trying to land a CF. 0/10 Failure with precious time wasted. Defence- Got cover and 1st choice rb(Though probably no chance to sign him permanently). No Cover for LB means we can't now send Robson on loan. CBs Covered and kept our most valuable player. 7/10 CM- Got the numbers in just. Broke our transfer record. M'Vila put in the dark, Moyes reported as saying, by a very very reliable source, that a pre agreement wasn't signed. No M'Vila, No Guarantees he'll ever be ours. Heart broken 7/10 Forwards- Brought in a Loan we've no chance of buying and an injury prone old man who'll have limited game time. Sent our a talented big signing on loan and I have to question the Managers willingness to perservire to keep and try and get the best out of him. We have another forward out for 6 month, no replacement found for him or the player who left. 5/10 Striker- We've one senior Striker nursing an ongoing thigh problem and 17 year old kid. No back to goal CF limiting how we can play. Nobody brought in when it was desperately needed. 0/10 Complete failure. Overall rating of Window. Scored by simply calculating the mean of the above scores. 3.8/10(round up to 4 for the poll) So in short, another substandard inadequate window in terms of squad building, We've obtained some good players but I judge on the overall squad we have to work with. I was asked last night about 7 hours before the window closed what I thought and I said bang average, as the window closed that score obviously dwindled. Another relegation battle on the cards with a weak squad. One crisis to another as per, nothing changes. We deserve to go down. Push it enough and we will, like Wigan, sooner or later we'll go with this footballing model in place. No doubt when we hit mid to late season, that's when Moyes and Bain will get the sack and made the scapegoat by those who think Short walks on water. With just enough time for someone to come in and save us. And the whole ridiculous idiotic insane cycle will begin again. How do you rate it the window? Not to be confused with how you rate my rating of the Window.
I'm with you on 4/10. Not disappointed with any of the players that have been brought in but I can't see any logical strategy to who came or even to who we appear to have tried to get in. Striker appears to have been after-thought. There's no LB cover. The M'Vila situation is just plain strange. All in all, its done nothing to dispel the impression that I've had for a while that the club is hampered by some very poor decision making.
4 for me. With M'Vila a high 5/low 6. Back up keeper wouldn't have done anything to tje rating for me really. Striker is a massive blunder. Feel we needed another cm and a winger as well.
Given Mannone was injured before the end of the window I'll be shocked if we are allowed an emergency loan if Pickford also gets injured, it'll be our own fault for not getting enough cover in. Oh and I went 2/10, not enough quality in the signings and not enough of quality signings, we're far too exposed going into the winter.
4\10 just about right, can't believe we didn't get a goalkeeper to cover, (is there still a chance to get an emergency loan due to Vito's injury) As for forwards hope and pray Defoe stays fit. I admire Moyes faith in the young players and the average age of our squad must be the youngest we've had in years but I worry we are putting too much pressure on the likes of Asoro, but I do think Pickford will cope.
Ben alnwick our old ex goaly was available as well !. Disaster we did not get Bony on loan and even then we were short on strikers. A goalkeeper and striker were top priority, and yet again we will have to panic buy in January, the Lens situation is strange that we are going to buy him in Jan but not now ?
I gave a generous 6. Hopefully what has come in live upto expectations. Woefully thin on numbers i agree. A strker and a gk would have bumped it up. Ive disregarded the mvila thing in my rating as i havnt got a clue whats gone on. I am admittedly moyes biased.
Despite the fact that I think the man should be banned from opening his mouth in public and spewing forth his miserable, dour ramblings, I have a fair amount of confidence in his ability to somehow drag performances out of our inadequate squad. Like Bri refers to, I hope he doesn't get scapegoated if things start to go badly.
I'm not overly impressed by our performance in the window, but I'm not also overly concerned about our current state of players. We picked up some quality (Manquillo and N'Dong). I believe that we have some youngsters in the wings ready to come in and take their chance and I also think Moyes sees that too. At some point we need to start bringing them on or they will leave and he is doing just that (Gooch). Defensively we look strong and that is a good thing especially as I cannot see O'Shea getting a game in the back 4 this year. Midfield is looking better and will be very good when Catts and Kirch are available. I was disappointed about the M'Vila saga. Forward wise I like what we have but we could definitely have used one more to help in the middle. I'm actually glad Lens has gone because I thought he was a lazy twat who did not show his true talent here (very similar to Sissoko for the mags). All in all I'm still a happy camper with the squad we have and feel comfortable saying they will get us to 12-15 in the table by seasons end. I must get rid of these rose tinted glasses, lol.
I've gone high, partly because I'm an irrepressible optimist, can't help it. The list out is impressive, if only in size, a poor return on a large outlay, but we had to quit ourselves of unwanted and fairly high upkeep players. <so our balance sheet should be healthier and give us a chance at spending more in the future. Regardless of how we rate the players that have come in they all seem to have a common theme. They appear for the best part to come with some positive descriptions regarding distribution/passing thus hopefully in a month or two when all the dust has settled, when the PL begins to take shape - then hopefully when our senior, injured, players are back to help we MAY (hopefully) see a confident passing football team that will win enough games to give Moyes and Short something to build on. As I said I'm a glass half-full person and would have loved another CF (and GK) but still give a 6 KTF
I struggle to judge the window overall (5 or so I`d guess). I think the real issue we face as a club is how we break the cycle of relegation scrapping - for me that is the biggest drag we have on any recruitment issues. Given the gaps in the squad you have to think (well I do anyway) that Moyes impressed Short in terms of they way he rebuilt by sale and re-investment at Everton - I guess we face more of the same. I guess he has seen something in the youngsters which encourages him that we might be able to develop - sell on and reinvest (they`ll need game time for that too) Short is blamed by many for refusing to invest - I think the problem is he has, over the years, been persuaded by managers to invest but then they have invested badly on his behalf - (this link gives a table showing highest net premier league investment over the last 5 years - we`re 8th... [http://www.transferleague.co.uk/pre...tables/premier-league-table-last-five-seasons]. Seems to me that the "lack of investment" argument does not hold true over the medium term - Short has invested; the managers have bought badly... The fact that Short is not prepared to keep spending can`t really be a surprise - he is worth something £1.2billion (according to The Sunday Times rich list) - you don`t get that wealthy by continuing to make financial mistakes - equally he`s not one of the super rich owners (Abramovich £13 billion; Glazers £5 billion; Mansour £31 billion) [I may have confused £ with $ signs but the general point is the same...] who use their clubs as status symbols and as a way of advertising their other business interests so care less about losses. We`d all love for him to spend whatever it takes to get whichever player DM wants in but it`s not our money it`s his (likewise it`s not his club but ours...). Even if he did then until we move away from the fight for survival I just don`t think that bringing in players is as simple as we imagine it to be. So in my view we face a further few seasons yet of wheeling and dealing to try and crawl away from the bottom - will that work or will others just go beyond us - only time will tell. As an aside though - as someone who was at work all day yesterday - big "Thank You" to everyone posting on the deadline day thread - made keeping up to date easy (albeit disappointing!)
I have it a 5. Defence and midfield look decent. Januzaj is the creative player we have needed for a long time. We have cleared out a lot of wages too. On the downside were short up top and in goal. I think the signing we have made improve us overall. We don't see training Lens may have been a disruptive influence and Asoro might look fantastic. We just don't know but letting Lens go and not signing a Striker seems odd to me. On Mvila I have seen reliable sources say both things: we have signed a pre contract with him, and we have not signed a pre contract with him. I guess we find out in Jan. The target now is to get as close to 30 points before Jan as possible.
A low 5 from me Much the same as above from me. I think Moyes team organisational skills will see us ok - plus think Watmore and Asoro will bring us goals along with JD. We must pick up a keeper though just in case
I gave a 4, we actually got 2 players in which is a bonus, I was expecting 1.. Nowt much else to say, I think Bri's words in the OP reflect my thoughts perfectly..
I think you've probably done just enough, to either see you through to January, maybe the full season with a bit (or a lot) of luck. I'd say a 5, could have been worse and should have been better. Considering you lost your manager half way through though, I'm bumping that to a 6.
I'll tell you when I've seen the new lads play! This N'Dong may be as good as M'Vila for all I know (or better?) in which case not getting M'Vila is neither here nor there. Only time will tell.
I`ve gone for 6. Can`t disagree with any of what the others have already mentioned about the GK and striker side of it. 5+ for strengthening the defence and MF. Hopefully the Dong will be a good acquisition, boosted to a 6 for hanging onto Kone. The Kaboul & Kone thing was a distraction we didn`t need. Not enough info to comment on M`Vila. A lot left undone but that`s what we`ve got. Up to Moyes now.
As above, plus We did ship out a load of dead-wood. The keeper thing we should be able to resolve. Getting a good striker in is never easy, and it was clear we weren't busting the bank for one........but we should have done better. Certainly a lot better than this time last year, now lets see what Moyes can do.
