Best window ever

[ajspurs]

The annoying thing is that this really was a couple of signings away from being a great window. I'm not even talking about Berahino or Witsel.

Central midfield is clearly an area that Pochettino wants to strengthen. Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Ribiot, McCarthy, Bender, Kramer, Witsel - all players we apparently at least sounded out. Cabaye and Song would have undoubtedly strengthened our midfield (even if some fans might question how well suited they might have been). Even Cambiasso at 35 would have been a good addition.

I know Dier has put in a couple of decent performances, but I'm still not convinced he's the answer to our DM position - certainly not as the only DM option. I don't rate Bentaleb or Mason that highly (at this stage of their careers), so an experienced and/or more accomplished player alongside them would have made the world of difference.

I admire the club for going after Berahino, but he wasn't worth that money and we should have looked for more realistic options. Not world-beaters, but players that would be happy to play a sub role, or fill in for Kane when he's rested/injured. People might say we don't need 'filler', but we do need actual strikers as options. Crazy to think we couldn't find one single striker that fitted the bill at an affordable price. Or maybe 'incompetent' is a better word for it.

I think Trippier, Wimmer, and Alderweireld look like good signings that have improved our defensive depth and quality. Alli could be a special player for us, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Pritchard (not a new signing but feels a bit like one). No idea about N'jie, but he seems fast and with an eye for goal - certainly the sort of opportunist signing I appreciate. Excited to see how that turns out. Son is the star signing of our transfer window - he'll make a big difference and an even bigger impression on the way we play. Hard to call this a total disaster when we bring a player like him in.

However here we are without addressing our most important positions. All teams need back-up options if they have one striker. Not sure Chadli and two other attacking midfielders fit the bill at all. And the most important position in the whole team (in my humble opinion) - central midfield - has been depleted instead of strengthened.

We're now left hoping that Alli instantly adapts to the Prem and proves to be quality, and that N'jie is a capable alternative as a striker. A huge lack of experience throughout the club also leaves us hoping that the mental frailties we saw at Old Trafford, against Stoke, and at Leicester, were blips rather than telling indications of a fragile youth team.

Not a terrible window, but when it comes to addressing the key areas it was pretty woeful. If the Berahino's and Witsel's of this world are too expensive, make sure you bring in the Austin's and Cabaye's at the very least.

These deficiencies leave us incredibly vulnerable in pivotal areas, and I suspect they will ultimately cost us a top six status and our current manager.

Bang on mate. I'll be honest, I still can't believe we let so much go without replacing adequately. Even if we kept Stambouli, at least we could get a better assessment of how good a player he could actually be. The thing is, we have to hope that Son and N'Jie do indeed change the way we play quite a bit because for a long time now I've thought that we've needed more of a cultured or consistently good passer and sprayer of the ball in midfield and one who can pick out forward passes. Either that or a solid defensive midfielder who can potentially allow players ahead of him to be more expressive. It's the improvement of that central midfield that I really thought would be the key or catalyst to playing better flowing football.

It hasn't been an awful window mainly thanks to Son and N'Jie IMO but I just don't feel like we have the required solidity or attacking flair to be where we want to be. Well I guess only time will tell if that is truly the case with some of the additions we're yet to see but like I said before, we have to really hope that with those more direct wingers it really positively changes the way in which we attack. I would have felt more confident if we had a Cabaye in the middle to help us further attack those teams and aid potential better flowing football or even a Wanyama to help us be more solid against other teams.

 

[dontcallme]

I still think this window was a step in the right direction.

For years there's been a feeling that many of our young players are every bit as capable and ready as the middle of the road players we've been signing.

Tom Carroll's performances for Swansea last season was better than Paulinho and Stambouli for us. So selling them and promoting Carroll is fine by me. We needed a quality centre back and Alderweireld fits all the boxes. Prem experience and has played with our first choice centre back before.

It seems Fredericks and Yedlin weren't ready for us this season so buying a Prem ready right back who could potentially become our first choice makes our options in defence pretty solid.

Pritchard can easily take Lennon's place. Son and Njie add real pace which we were lacking and in Son's case can start playing pretty quickly.

Our signings need to move away from middle of the road players to players with high potential or those ready to step in straight away. Poch showed last season that he wants to play hungry, willing to learn young players ahead of the experienced guys not particularly performing.

I'm of the opinion that a Cambiasso would do wonders for the team but Poch doesn't appear to want that.

I can understand why we didn't get Schneiderlein, who would have been perfect for us, and it is disappointing that we didn't get Berahino.

But overall I think this was a positive window.

 

[poc]

Still the best window ever?

If I look at the business we actually did do instead of panicking about what we didn't then yes. We bought what we needed and got rid of what we did not. Could it have been better? Yes, but compared to previous years I still think this is better.

 

[tttcowan]

Well that backfired didn't it... 1 knackered striker... Oh dear oh dear.

 

[Xeeleeyid]

WTF is this??

Shipping out players is not a positive thing if you are not bringing a replacement. Selling Soldado would've been good if we brought another striker to replace him. But we didn't. And now we have 1 striker. 4 competitions with a single striker. Not even a League Two team is in that situation. The same goes for the DM. I would've preferred to keep Stambouli and Soldado instead of this.

Firstly, I've been researching N'Jie and it seems he is primarily a striker and played most of his minutes for Lyon up top. I wouldn't say he's a BPL proven striker, but from what I've read and seen, he is definately a forward, not a winger/midfielder.

Secondly, Soldado contributed nothing last season. Really, Chadli would contribute more upfront than he did and carry more goal threat.

Why keep Stambouli? If we performed better without a DM than WITH Stambouli last season and he couldn't displace Mason & Bentaleb, what does that say? Now Dier is playing twice as well as he ever did as a DM, so what would be the point in keeping him, even without a DM signing?

 

[tttcowan]

All this "we did well to clear the deadwood",
You could see this coming a mile off, the reason being player prices have gone through the roof. Levy has always had figures in his head for how much he will sell players for. We do normally get good deals on who we do sell. And clubs met those valuations. Problem is he sold them and yet when he went into the market to buy he couldn't get anyone for what he considers a fair price because as I said, player prices have gone up. Bale for 80 million or whatever it was is looking like a bargain the way the market is now.

Frustrating to see but completely expected.

 

[TaoistMonkey]

We've been burnt too many times before. Lets just see what happens before we get too excited.

hmmm

 

[hodsgod]

I miss you already Bobby Soldier

Not as much as he missed the goal!

 

[tiger666]

I miss you already Bobby Soldier

For sucking thousands out of the club a week while contributing nothing at all?

 

[hellava_tough]

With the players who were available and 'gettable', we should have done a lot, lot better this transfer window.

We could have signed Cabaye, Cambiasso, Lambert (even as a 3rd choice striker), Alex Song, Dzeko, etc.

Okay, individually some of those players are better than others, but they'd all find a role to play in our squad.

Oh well.

 

[eddiebailey]

My concerns are:

1. We do not have striker cover. I am not sure N'jie is a natural striker and he is certainly not a Premiership ready one; he had barely begun to make his mark in La Liga. Son and Chadli are not strikers.

2. To set up your defence the way Poch does you need really solid central midfielders. A Soton friend told me not to read too much into Alderwerield's performances last season, because Schniederlin had even made Lovren look good. Worryingly Alderwerield has said much the same thing, that he misses playing behind Schniederlin.

3. It is all very well saying we were able clear out the deadwood because we have young players coming through, but that only works if Poch rates those players. I am not seeing any evidence that he rates Carroll and Veljkovic, who have skillsets I feel we need. If he does use them he will want them to transform themselves into his type of player, as Mason did. I still do not think we are seeing the best of Mason as a result, and I do not think we are seeing the best of other players, such as Lamela, Eriksen or Townsend. I feel there is more potential in the squad than we will see under Poch, who seems intent on banging square pegs into round holes.

4. We lack experience, and Poch does not seem to see the value of leadership on the pitch. If anything it seems he would prefer to work with young players who will do as they are told, rather than senior players who might challenge him, and I think that has been evident in our transfer policy (and of course chimes well with Levy's policy of buy cheap, sell high). There is something of the control freak about him, who does not want to let go even once the game is under way and he is no longer really able to influence things.

 

[matthew.absurdum]

My concerns are:
I am not sure N'jie is a natural striker and he is certainly not a Premiership ready one; he had barely begun to make his mark in La Liga.

Of course, because he was playing in the Ligue 1 not la liga

 

[14/04/91]

The 'deadwood' was predominantly made up of players signed less than 24 months ago! That's 7 players (and would've been 8 if Fazio had accepted) our 'transfer committee' brought in then concentrated on flogging because they weren't good enough. Astonishing.

And yet again we're unbalanced. The last 2 years have seen us collect Centre Mids but now we've decided we need a plethora of Attacking Mids. Eriksen, Chadli, Dembele, Lamela, Townsend, Carroll, N'jie, Alli, Pritchard, Son all play in the 3 behind a striker. Which you have to assume is the formation we'll play as he's not changed since day 1.

No DM is farcical. We've seen a shift from the double pivot of Mason & Bentaleb to Dier sitting as a DM and dropping into the back line if the full backs push on. So we're expecting him to play the whole season there?? Even if you include Dembele (who the coach seems to want to play further forward) we've only got 4 centre midfielders and one of those is a centre back.

And what can you say about having 1 centre forward in your squad?! It's shocking. Clearly we didn't fancy anyone other than Berahino and decided against signing a Plan B for the sake of it (as we've done previously - Stambouli, Fazio) so why didn't we get this deal done?! It was the one position we HAD to strengthen.
Son is a 2nd striker and N'jie is a kid who will need time in a new league.
People quote Chadli as 'filling in' but is this what we've come to?? Making do with a midfielder up front?
Certainly seems to be the case.

I'm sorry that the negatives of this window outweigh the positives imo but after 4 unimpressive games thus far, the holes in the squad worry me even more.

 

[Xeeleeyid]

With the players who were available and 'gettable', we should have done a lot, lot better this transfer window.

We could have signed Cabaye, Cambiasso, Lambert (even as a 3rd choice striker), Alex Song, Dzeko, etc.

Okay, individually some of those players are better than others, but they'd all find a role to play in our squad.

Oh well.

None of the players you mentioned above look suited to Pochettino's plans for high aggressive pressing and fitness levels. So are you wanting to buy players to appease fans but at the same time undermine the manager and his tactics? It's all very well saying he's good we should have bought him, but if they don't suit the tactics the manager wants to play then what's the point? We had all this with AVB and Lamela/Eriksen, where the club bought marquee signings to appease fans over the managers head.

Isn't it better we buy players that we know will suit and improve the tactics or buy nobody at all? The player I think.we may have a case in terms of not going for him is Hernandez in my opinion, I think he'd have been perfect, but maybe one of the conditions of buying Son was that we gave Leverkusen a free run at him.

 

[Flashspur]

Too early to judge IMO so lets chill and look at the situation in January. Yes we are short a CF but we'll make do with Son and Clint. We can play Chadli and Lamela as forwards as well. Its not a complete failure by any means as the wide forwards and defenders we have signed are quality. Dier is looking the dogs nuts and if we can keep players fit through the next 6 weeks tough fixture schedule who knows where we'll end up.

 

[bensayid]

Anyone here who thinks Chadli is a central striker is having a laugh! He's hit and miss at the best of times

 

[CowInAComa]

Of course, because he was playing in the Ligue 1 not la liga

But Berahino was lighting up the bundasliga last season.

 

[thebenjamin]

At least Pochettino hasn't been constantly warning about Kane's burn out since the end of last season, and even suggested he should miss the start of the season to get the proper amount of rest.

Oh, what's that? He did keep going on about Kane being tired? And the club still left him as the only striker at the club?

I see.

 

[cliff jones]

Anyone here who thinks Chadli is a central striker is having a laugh! He's hit and miss at the best of times

i like chadli even though hes a bit inconsistent. i also think he has the tools to play there. he my prove a lot of people wrong. but i agree suggesting he or son are ready is laughable. ive only peeked at njies youtube action but saw him breaking at speed in wide areas. we are taking a massive gamble.

the levyites say hold it till the window closes. now they say hold it till january or longer. i will always hope they are right. but lets see. our schedule is tough and middle of the road fans might turn given we like a cup at spurs and theres a good chance only the fa cup will remain by the time we can address the situtation.

 

[Xeeleeyid]

Anyone here who thinks Chadli is a central striker is having a laugh! He's hit and miss at the best of times

Well hit and miss is better than Soldado who was just miss.