well for a lot of owners of the big offenders the fines are so small they dont really need to do any sneeking. Its the equivilant of fining you or I 5p. I agree, its just money for uefa, which they will definatly spend on grass roots football or something, it wont end up members swiss bank accountsindeed, stupid rules only put in to give UEFA more money. ban them from the competition then, let us see UEFA do that and shoot themselves in the foot. Yeah right
FFP have really only hurt smaller clubs. The big ones find ways to sneak past
I agree with pretty much everything here, but it's going a bit far to say a player who has scored a hat-trick in a CL semi-final is "not close to CL quality".In usual circumstances, this would have been a very good window, but given the context (the first big chance to back Conte, a chance to use our CL status to pull away from Arsenal/United, and heavy spending by our rivals), I think it's been fine but a little disappointing tbh.
Going into it, the priorities were:
- Get rid of all the deadwood.
- Sign a top CB who can help with our ball progression issues.
- Sort out our wingbacks.
- Bring in an upgrade on Winks/sort our creativity issues in midfield
- Bring in top competition for the forwards
- Kane back-up
We didn't achieve many of these.
We got rid of our deadwood but failed to sell, or even loan with an obligation, any of them, meaning we'll be back here next summer with Ndombele/GLC/Winks/Reguilon/Rodon etc.
We didn't sign a top CB, we signed a Barcelona back-up who, whilst displaying the traits we need from the position, will be competing with Davies for the LCB spot, rather than displacing him. What's more, even if he does do well, we didn't get an option on the loan for some reason. If we don't manage to get Bastoni or someone of similar quality next year then we're going to look very foolish because there were plenty of options. Look at Chelsea - they needed a revamp so they signed one of the best defenders in the world in Koulibaly and one of the best young defenders in Fofana. The failure to sell and replace Tanganga was also a shame as he's not CL quality but is now serving as a back-up to Dier, who has had his problems with long-term injuries in the past.
We sorted out one side of our wingbacks. Perisic is a fantastic signing which was done early and shows our backing to Conte. No complaints at all. At RWB, though, despite a lack of top-end options on the market, we've still ended up with a rotation between Emerson and Doherty, two of the most criticised players in the squad and two players most of this forum just assumed wouldn't be here right now at the end of last season. The weakness of the right-hand side was exploited by West Ham on Wednesday as they targeted that area with the press, and it'll be targetted by other teams too.
In midfield, Bissouma is a good signing. Prem proven, good age, fits into Conte's system, for a good price. He's isn't, however, a particularly different profile to any of the current group, he doesn't give us an opportunity to switch to 3-5-2 in certain games, and he doesn't help solve our creativity issues. Now, many will argue Conte clearly doesn't want to try the 352, but I don't see how adding more tactical flexibility could be a bad thing, especially given the obvious limitations of the 3-4-3 which have been evident once again this season. Eriksen was there on a free, Paqueta went to West Ham, Maddison was likely attainable - there were plenty of options, and I would have liked to see one more added in this area.
On the front line, Richarlison is an overpay but I can see why we went for him and he'll be a good signing, with the ability to cover Kane and Son whilst providing top shithousing. It's a shame we didn't go for Jesus imo but Richarlison probably fits us better at this moment. On the right-hand side, I think we all would have liked competition for Kulu brought in because, whilst our four main forwards are an excellent group (one of the best in the league if not the best), as soon as we get injuries we're back in a position of starting Lucas and Gil, who are huge downgrades and not close to CL quality. Again, there were plenty of options and I'm disappointed we didn't get anything over the line.
Overall
7/10 for me. An excellent start, with a clear plan, solved some of our main issues (LWB, competition for forwards, replacing Winks). Failure to get rid of our deadwood, however, seemed to stunt our ambition a bit in the second half of the window and we're now left with many of the same issues we had last season (poor RWBs, no top LCB, lack of creativity from midfield). Started bright but ebbed out and, given the equally good business done by our rivals, I suspect it's going to be another tight battle for 4th this season. The apparent willingness of Conte to sort these issues over multiple windows is, though, a MASSIVE positive, so fingers crossed.
hm is this thread open and operative?
some itk here
rock solid from cabinessence on ftl
Don't expect any big money signings in Jan. DL knows he's got to get some more signings in, but despite the £150m (of which I thought only £100m had been drawn down?), there's not a lot of money sloshing around. Money has been used not just for the new signings but also to pay for Romero and Kulu (earmarked) which was why they were loans in the first place, till he could arrange the £150m from some Yanks. Apparently that money is exposed a bit to money rates which have gone against him. Was hoping to get some in for Lo Celso but he's injured apparently? Still paying for NDombele with no sign of recouping anything at present. Might get some bits and bobs from the other loan players. Every cup is important to us because of game receipts, so not happy we're out of the League Cup. Current form is being put down to injuries to Kulu and Rich (and now Son). Conte only interested in winning, so don't expect him to play youngsters unless he has to or change his method much. Helmet and shin pads on and gumshield in
My guess on Spence - gamble by Paratici.Wonder what 'big money' even means these days? 30+ million? 50+? Or are we going for opportunistic loans for good players and pushing back the payment like we did with Romero and Kulu?
Also does make you wonder why we dropped 15m on Spence if we're now tight for cash and looking for another RWB. Were the club gambling on Conte using him?
I think Spence has very big talent and potential, but since he's not being used surely that money would've been better used on a deal for a RWB Conte actually wants now?
The way we've handled that position strikes me as very messy and incoherent.
Totally if we did 5 bents it deals we would all be happyThis is where Fabio has to earn his money.
We don't need to spend big money, it just needs to spent wisely (eg Kulu and Bentancour)