An Excellent Window! Here's why...

[StartingPrice]

This is a very valid point, but in a way what we have now works. If Redknapp were to be left to do his thing, by all accounts he would have let Modric leave, I personally believe he also would have let other players go for a smaller amount than what we received. At the same time I believe he would have spent a lot of money - not lots on a few players, but a bit on a lot and we'd end up with an inflated squad draining resources.

Having Harry wanting to spend and Levy wanting to do what's financially best for our club gets us what we want in the end... it unfortunately takes too long to get there which hampers us.

Next summer will be interesting to see how they do. I can understand why things took so long to happen as I agree that we did have to sell before we could buy. Now the squad is the right size, apart from Bentley and Jenas to sale, I feel we're in a position to buy early. If the same thing happens next summer (also providing Harry is still here next summer) then questions will need to be answered and the structure will have to be shaken up.

As I said, further into my post, if it continues the way it is, and they continue to muddle through, I can live with it...so long as the team is still visibly improving on the pitch.

I also think a lot of the Redknapp nonsense about Modric and keeping unhappy players was just posturing, probably for Modric's benefit. He had already said, before the window opened, that Levy must not sell any of our top players (I think there was evena threat of resignation if Levy did), and he has made it clear since the TW window closed that selling Modric would have been a disaster not just on the pitch but also in the message it sent out - so he clearly does have sime understanding of what was at stake.

 

[Caboose]

As I said, further into my post, if it continues the way it is, and they continue to muddle through, I can live with it...so long as the team is still visibly improving on the pitch.

I also think a lot of the Redknapp nonsense about Modric and keeping unhappy players was just posturing, probably for Modric's benefit. He had already said, before the window opened, that Levy must not sell any of our top players (I think there was evena threat of resignation if Levy did), and he has made it clear since the TW window closed that selling Modric would have been a disaster not just on the pitch but also in the message it sent out - so he clearly does have sime understanding of what was at stake.

The Modric saga is something we'll never know though, he did say that he didn't want to sell any of the stars at the start.. at the end he was saying we should probably sell him. I can see the argument that he was doing it to keep the player on his side. Alternatively at the start of the summer he may have been of the thinking, like us fans, that Modric was on a long contract, was happy and wouldn't be swayed. Once he realised how badly Modric may have wanted out he may have thought it was better for bother parties to sell him and may have had a replacement in mind. I believe he probably would have sold him, you say he wouldn't and that's just us reading between the lines and neither of us are right or wrong.

Whatever the real thinking was the final quote from him - and what you were rightly saying during the window - selling Modric would have sent out the wrong message and we've retained a fantastic player who is part of a very very good team and we're stronger for it.

Your point about the timing of transfers is correct, and if this continues on it has to be looked at and resolved.

 

[ardiles]

Our three senior signings have been great/good so far. In addition, keeping Modric was also very important.

However, I think that we should have signed one more striker. If Adebayor sustains an injury between now and January, we might face some problems. I think its imperative that we acquire a top striker in Jan.

Keeping King fit for our important games has also been a big factor in our recent positive results in the league.

 

[sasa_moto]

Our three senior signings have been great/good so far. In addition, keeping Modric was also very important.

However, I think that we should have signed one more striker. If Adebayor sustains an injury between now and January, we might face some problems. I think its imperative that we acquire a top striker in Jan.

Keeping King fit for our important games has also been a big factor in our recent positive results in the league.

This. Levy got away with some mistakes in transfer windows, but he really should buy backup for Ade in January, and chalenge for the title. We have great backups everywhere bar target striker.

 

[talkshowhost86]

You make good points but the bottom line remains....everybody here knows in their gut that Arsenal and Pool are ahead of us now and will finish there at the end of the season. We have lost any mental edge and are back to square one.

Shocking window.

:grin:

 

[eddiebailey]

It was a good window, but we have been lucky in having King fit for every league match since the window closed. If he was out we'd be down to Kaboul and Bassong at the moment. ...

January we will need to sign another striker and let Pavman go as has been discussed heavily.

So overall all transactions were exactly what were needed, but I still feel we were one or two light from a perfect window.

Playing regularly and with a chance to build understanding Kaboul and Bassong would still be a decent partnership. In fact I doubt any other premiership team has a fifth choice centreback as good as Bassong.

Selling Crouch without bringing in a replacement has left us light up front. Whatever Pav is he is not a lone frontman. If this can be addressed in the January window with an understudy and potential successor to Adebayor then I will be well happy.

I think in all other positions we are well covered and have youngsters coming through to bolster the squad.

 

[StartingPrice]

The Modric saga is something we'll never know though, he did say that he didn't want to sell any of the stars at the start.. at the end he was saying we should probably sell him. I can see the argument that he was doing it to keep the player on his side. Alternatively at the start of the summer he may have been of the thinking, like us fans, that Modric was on a long contract, was happy and wouldn't be swayed. Once he realised how badly Modric may have wanted out he may have thought it was better for bother parties to sell him and may have had a replacement in mind. I believe he probably would have sold him, you say he wouldn't and that's just us reading between the lines and neither of us are right or wrong.

Whatever the real thinking was the final quote from him - and what you were rightly saying during the window - selling Modric would have sent out the wrong message and we've retained a fantastic player who is part of a very very good team and we're stronger for it.

Your point about the timing of transfers is correct, and if this continues on it has to be looked at and resolved.

That's the bottom line.
I'm not saying Redknapp was justkeeping Modric onside...more I hope he was, as otherwise he completely contradicts himself, not once but twice :grin:

Our three senior signings have been great/good so far. In addition, keeping Modric was also very important.

However, I think that we should have signed one more striker. If Adebayor sustains an injury between now and January, we might face some problems. I think its imperative that we acquire a top striker in Jan.

Keeping King fit for our important games has also been a big factor in our recent positive results in the league.

Yeah, meant to inlcude that in my post as another reason why the window could have been better.

 

[dontcallme]

I think it's been a good window, not an excellent one.

1) Keeping our players was important. Modric did a Berbatov but hopefully now he has no choice but to stay until January he can start to play again.

2) I don't think we've considerably strengthened at all. I'm scared to mention Friedel as it will start another dull Gomes focused thread but if Brad is better this season it's not going to be by much. Full strength I wouldn't have Parker in the team (Sandro, Modric, Bale, Lennon and VDV). Adebayor is the only real strengthening and it's a loan signing so not a long term solution.

3) We've sold the players we should have but surely we would have got offers earlier.

We're two games in and HR now has the job to gel our new players asap. I can't believe for a second that the Parker deal was so complicated that we had to wait until the end of the window to sign him.

I stand by my first point. Holding onto the players was important and once the window was over Modric would start to play again and be a valuable asset.

My second point is bit more difficult. I'm one of those who rates Gomes highly so not really against Brad but didn't see it as first team strenghtening. Parker is little more difficult. On paper I still like Sandro, Modric, Bale, Lennon and VDV as a unit. Parker is considerably better than the other central midfielders we have/had and I see him playing a big part so was probably more important than I gave his signing credit. Adebayor is an improvement and a short-term solution. Nothing wrong with that though as it might be enough to put us ahead of Arsneal, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Point three remains the same and I still think we could have signed Parker in time for the first two games. When you're winning people forget these things but I think we should have wrapped the signing up earlier.

A good window, possibly a very good one but not a great one.

 

[eddiebailey]

The point about Parker was that Levy did not want him, too old and not sexy enough; it was only after Diarra fell through due to wage demands that Levy was prepared to pursue Parker.

This is the problem with chasing ambitious signings and letting everything go to the wire; if another club had come in for Parker sooner we would have been left empty-handed.

Harry and Levy need to agree realistic targets who will improve us incrementally and focus on those, rather than forever chasing the star signing who is going to "take us to another level" (as they say on here).

 

[bubble07]

Very good window but we could have realistically done a bit better by selling Pav and upgrading him with Leandro and selling Bassong and upgrading him with Cahill. Then it would have been perfect

Maybe those deals could be done in January

 

[guate]

Even after we lost our first two games I always thought this was a good transfer window as 'Arry and D.L. brought in the exact type of players we needed in Adebayor, Parker and Friedel.
Could it have been better, of course, just like everything in life there's always room for improvement, unless you're talking about Halle Berry who IMHO is as close to perfection as any woman could be.
I see that a few of the negative posters seem to have dissapeared of late............I wonder why?

 

[ardiles]

Interesting article about ITKs during the last TW..

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/523796227?-19389

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Interesting article about ITKs during the last TW..

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/523796227?-19389

That's well worth a read actually. Thanks for posting that.

 

[SpurSince57]

Very good window but we could have realistically done a bit better by selling Pav and upgrading him with Leandro and selling Bassong and upgrading him with Cahill. Then it would have been perfect

Maybe those deals could be done in January

How would this have been realistic?

 

[dontcallme]

Very good window but we could have realistically done a bit better by selling Pav and upgrading him with Leandro and selling Bassong and upgrading him with Cahill. Then it would have been perfect

Maybe those deals could be done in January

There's always room for improvement but no idea how simple signing Leandro in the summer would have been.

I always think when you have a big squad you need players who train well and are always sharp when coming into the side. Bentley and Pav will do all right when playing week-in, week-out but playing sporadically won't get good performances from them.

We could have sold Pav and brought in a harder worker like one of Wolves strikers. Problem is if Leandro was then ready in January then we'd find ourselves in an all to familiar situation of wanting to upgrade players we've only recently signed.

If Bolton continue to play poorly then I wouldn't be against Cahill and Klasnic if they're willing to sell in January.

 

[Spurger King]

The priority should have been strikers. By all accounts it looks like it was. The problem was the success rate of our efforts to bring strikers in.

Happy with the youth players we got, as well as Friedel and Parker, who although clearly not long term players, are extremely effective for this season at least.

Adebayor was a great signing, however I'm worried about the fact that he's only on loan. Hopefully we'll be able to sign him permanently, though as we all know, wages could be a huge stumbling block. The real worry is that we can't keep hold of him, and are left needing a quality replacement whilst the whole world knows we have no alternatives. Levy's careful one out, one in policy (probably implemented after the Berbatov fiasco) won't be applicable when he has no say in whether or not we lose a striker.

As for this season, we all knew that Pav, Defoe and Crouch were/are not good enough to lead the line. Defoe's done well so far this season, and I'm sure he'll score a few more, but the fact is that if Adebayor suffers a lengthy injury we will be left with two strikers that will struggle to get us into the champions league.

We needed to bring in two decent strikers. We got one. If we don't sign someone like Leandro in January we'll get to the next summer window with possibly just Defoe and Pav as recognised strikers in the squad. A lot of people would like to see the back of Pav, so that would leave us needing to bring in two high quality strikers again.

I know there are a lot of ifs and buts in this post, but my point is that we are still in an extremely precarious position as far as our current and future strikeforce is concerned, and for that reason I don't think this was an excellent window at all.

 

[StartingPrice]

Interesting article about ITKs during the last TW..

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/523796227?-19389

I said that Modric wouldn't be sold based on my analysis of Levy's character - that doesn't make me ITK, and I most certainly am not!

 

[AngerManagement]

That's well worth a read actually. Thanks for posting that.

great article and can't argue with a word he said in it

 

[ardiles]

I said that Modric wouldn't be sold based on my analysis of Levy's character - that doesn't make me ITK, and I most certainly am not!

At least your judgement on whether Modric would be sold or not during the last window was better than the guesses/predictions/hopes of some of the posters in that article. :wink:

Anyway, I was as adamant (albeit with fingers and toes crossed) as you in that Levy would be sticking to his guns about keeping Modric during the last TW. :grin:

 

[ThorntonSpur]

i think we have as many have said had a very good window.

we have not over spent like many would have liked us to do and i can assume that we have a tidy war chest if needed.

we improved key areas and probably did enquire for some targets that may have come if we had CL football.

so looking at players lke rossi if villareal flop this year in CL and perfrom poorly and we are say 4th and a good few points clear or arsenal he is the type who could be interested.

bolton will be one to watch if they are near the bottom and not scoring. pav in a swap deal for cahill for example could happen

on the whole i would not be surprised if we make one or two big signings in january and would not be surprised if we just buy someone like lewis at posh or fielding at derby and lean back.