Ok so now the window has closed i'm wondering where the main teams stand compared to last season. Looking at Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Utd, City and Liverpool (assuming Everton drop away without Moyes and Fellaini), this is how the table finished last year: 1st - United - 89pts 2nd - City - 78pts 3rd - Chelsea - 75pts 4th - Arsenal - 73pts 5th - Tottenham - 72pts 7th - Liverpool - 61pts And the signings look something like this: United - In: Varela (20yo right back) and Fellaini. Out: Scholes, youth and some deadwood. City - In: Fernandinho, Jovetic, Navas, Negredo, Demichelis. Out: Tevez, Barry, Sinclair, Bridge, Santa Cruz, K. Toure, Maicon and some youth Chelsea - In: Willian, Eto'o, Schurlle, Schwarzer, Van Ginkel. Out: Romeu, Benayoun, Moses and a load of youth. Arsenal - In: Ozil, Flamini, Viviano, Sanogo. Out: 29 players total, mainly youth, lots of deadwood, only Gervinho, Coquelin and Santos had been anywhere near the team though and Santos was replaced by Monreal months ago. Tottenham - In: Paulinho, Soldado, Chadli, Erikson, Capoue, Lamela, Chiriches. Out: Bale, Gallas, Caulker, Dempsey, Parker, Huddlestone, Ekotto and some other youth/deadwood. Liverpool - In: Alberto, Aspas, K. Toure, Mignolet, Cissokho, Sakho, Ilori, Moses. Out: Carroll, Reina, Suso, Spearing, Downing, Assaidi, Borini, Shelvey, Carragher and a couple of other youth. I haven't included players who have been signed and loaned immedietly back to there clubs. But there are loan players included in the in/out. City seem to have strengthened there squad well. Chelsea have made a couple of good signings but we are yet to see if Eto'o can hack it, Schwarzer is back-up and Van Ginkel is for the future. United haven't changed much but with Moyes at the helm i can see them finishing with a significantly lower points tally. Tottenham have got in some good players and re-shuffled a big chunk of there squad with players AVB wants but i think they will feel the loss of Bale on there first 11 and may struggle against the big teams. Liverpool i just think where too far behind the other teams to start with to have made enough difference in one transfer window despite keeping Suarez. I think they will improve on last season but not enough to break into the top 4. And Arsenal have made a couple of good signings (one amazing signing) but have not neccesarily strengthend in all the areas needed. Who has had the best transfer window? And which teams transfers will make the biggest difference to the teams league standing/points tally? And would you swap our signings for the signings made by any of the other clubs?
City Sours got amazing money for Bale but unsure how well got hey have spent it Moyes has been a joke failing to be rebuild day's army
As transfers go, Man City have brought in the best collection of players, which will continue to make them a dangerous team. As strengthening goes then Spurs has done the best business in the transfer window. They have sold a player worth £45m tops for £85m and strengthened their first team significantly in most areas, but will need some time for the players to gel. Simularly to Arsenal, they too have cleared out their unwanted players freeing up wages. Arsenal brought the best player in the transfer window, grabbed a bargin with a player like Flamini in a position we needed and cleared out the deadwood and wage bill. But we are clearly low in numbers squad wise and it'll be tricky should we get some key injuries. Chelsea have brought a few good players but it's debateble whether it's going to make an impact for them, as they've already got a good squad. Decent. Man U have brought in a couple of good players but failed to bring in that creative player they were desperately after. Liverpool has been good and bad. They've brought in a few good players like Moses on loan, Toure on a free, Sakho from PSG and Mignolet, but also brought in a few unknowns which we don't know about. They will rely on Suarez again this year and I can't see their signings making a significant impact for them this year.
It will be interesting to see if villas boas can get his new signings to gel together and with last season's squad and get them playing the way he wants them to before even christmas. I think that eriksen is a great signing for them, top top player but the problem with making so many changes is bringing too many new personalities into the changing room at once. Its basically a new spurs in an attacking sense and i think it will take them a while to get them to click. The other 3 with new managers will once again take time to integrate their ideas. And i really don't know how liverpool will do this season, for them a good season would be competing for champions league spots and finishing 5th
Chelsea for me then us. Not sure about Negredo but for me Tevez was a better player to have in your squad. Also Fernandinho is decent but he's no OZIL. Yaya Toure is looking past his best (despite the freekick) and David Silva has'nt been his old self for a while. Im not convinced with City's squad.
Chelsea and City have both had good windows, Chelsea I think needed a striker though. Liverpool havnt bought in any big names but I think they've done quite well, plenty of depth in their squad now
The squad on paper is probably the best, but it comes down to the manager. Give Wenger that squad and see what he can do with it. We've just got Ozil in and see how much better we'll be playing now. You have to know how to use the players you have.
2nd half of last season when we reinforced our attack... [table="width: 500"] [tr] [td]POS[/td] [td]TEAM[/td] [td]PLD[/td] [td]W[/td] [td]D[/td] [td]L[/td] [td]F[/td] [td]A[/td] [td]GD[/td] [td]PTS[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]1[/td] [td]Manchester United[/td] [td]18[/td] [td]12[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]36[/td] [td]15[/td] [td]+21[/td] [td]40[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]2[/td] [td]Arsenal[/td] [td]18[/td] [td]12[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]32[/td] [td]15[/td] [td]+17[/td] [td]39[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]3[/td] [td]Chelsea[/td] [td]18[/td] [td]11[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]36[/td] [td]20[/td] [td]+16[/td] [td]37[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]4[/td] [td]Manchester City[/td] [td]18[/td] [td]11[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]28[/td] [td]15[/td] [td]+13[/td] [td]36[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]5[/td] [td]Tottenham Hotspur[/td] [td]18[/td] [td]10[/td] [td]6[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]30[/td] [td]20[/td] [td]+10[/td] [td]36[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]6[/td] [td]Liverpool[/td] [td]18[/td] [td]9[/td] [td]6[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]40[/td] [td]17[/td] [td]+23[/td] [td]33[/td] [/tr] [/table] We're not that far behind, I think we can be well within the mix. Although the quality of the top 6 now means that anyone can finish 5/6th, and I don't know how long we can keep our current form going. So, I still think we'll miss out.
Im not sure. When you look at the City team that won the league three players really stood out: Kompany (long term injury) David Silva (looks off the pace) Yaya Toure (past his best?). The players they have added are all talented but none of them are what I would call 'World Class' Fernandinho - A decent playmaker but for me NOT worth the £30 Million. (Willian was the better player at Shaktar) Negredo - Had a great 2012/13 but he's never been the most consistant of strikers. Jovetic - When we were linked to him I was saying that..the guy is very talented but annoyingly inconsistant. Also I think Aguero, Tevez, Dzeko and Balotelli is a more dangerous lineup of forwards than the current crop.
I think Liverpool are going to shock a few people this season and getting Suarez back will only improve them
The thing it's hard to tell so far as we're only a few games into the season. We will get a better idea by christmas time.
If we had conducted ourselves on Deadline day like Man Utd have done, the media would be all over us. Can't believe they ended up signing just Fellaini for almost £30m.
Without looking, I don't know what other sides did but shouldn't January signings be included here? Certainly should for us as our form picked up immensely with the introduction of Ford and Studge. Obviously, I am going to be seen as biased towards so I will add that I still think we'll finish sixth, the position I predicted back in June
I think over the summer as a whole, Chelsea did the best business, by bringing back Mourinho. The guy is a winner, and because of that, Chelsea will win the league.
Man City have done some good business but their weak link for me has to be their manager. The guy is nearly 60 and had just semi-success in Spain and has only been considered good enough for one season at a top club - he's never been touted for a top English, Italian or German club before ? The oilies aren't know for their patience and having already lost at Cardiff how many more slips before the owners get restless ? I don't see Chelsea losing at Cardiff...
