Better window than our rivals?

[Scutch]

Taking into consideration which areas needed upgrading at each individual club, I don't think we've done too badly at all. I'd say our dealings have probably been the best. Arsenal desperately needed a defensive midfielder and although Flamini will be deployed there, he's no Song, Vieira or a Khedira. The majority of their fans were quite rightly delighted with Ozil, but still there were mutterings that an attacking midfielder was the least of their requirements. The fact they stopped there was great I have to admit, with rumours of a triple Real Madrid deal on the cards, it was quite a relief all things considered.

Chelsea didn't really need any reinforcements, but brought in quite a few midfielders. They certainly won't slip out of the pack this season - if any club was absolutely nailed on for a top 4, it will be Chelsea. Disappointed that they got Willian but time will tell if that was a good move for all parties. The fact Mourinho didn't use a striker in the game against United and still get a result shows how much faith he has in them - ie not a lot. Add to that Lukaku leaving on loan and that puts a lot more pressure on the others performing well, Eto'o certainly has a lot to do now.

Liverpool have made some good signings - no world beaters but safe all the same. Mignolet is a good addition but I wouldn't say he was a better goalkeeper than Reina. I like Sakho from what I've seen of him but I would put money on him taking a while to settle in the Premiership. Aspas was very poor against United so the jury is out on him at the moment, but with Victor Moses coming in they have pace straight across their attack now. Sturridge will be a huge threat this season, even more so when a certain Uruguayan comes back into the side. Their excellent start to the season will be huge boost for them and I can see them challenging the top 4 no question.

Manchester City have replaced Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli with Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic. Whether that works out remains to be seen, but I've been impressed by Negredo for a few years now and Jovetic has huge potential. Whether that will be seen at City is debatable because I don't think he'll get the opportunities. Navas was another good signing but City are in a transition period at the moment with a new manager and system, so I wouldn't at all be surprised to see them struggle quite a few times this season.

Finally, Manchester United. Well, I don't know many of their fans who are happy with their dealings in the transfer market this summer. Fellaini is a good buy, but this is arguably the biggest club in the world. They can attract and buy almost any player yet Moyes has gone for a midfielder he's worked with before. Could be a great move, but IMO United needed more than Fellaini. Apart from their win against Swansea where they played very well, they've been poor. No creativity at all in the games against Chelsea or Liverpool and in the match at Anfield the team selection from Moyes was baffling not only from a United point of view, but from a neutral too. On more than 3 occasions, several of the United players were chasing the same ball and being dragged out of position. Very unlike them.

Ultimately, I think we've had a brilliant window when taking into account the clubs around us and what they've been doing too. Admittedly, a shiny new left back would have been perfect, but even the Champions couldn't grab one of those. The difference being they left it too late, whereas we didn't seem to be interested in anyone other than a player that didn't want to join.

Arsenal
In
Yaya Sanogo (Auxerre) Free
Mathieu Flamini (AC Milan) Free
Emiliano Viviano (Palermo) Loan
Mesut Ozil (Real Madrid) £42.5m

Out
Andrey Arshavin (Zenit St Petersberg) Free
Francis Coquelin (Freiburg) Loan
Denilson (Sao Paulo) Free
Johan Djourou (Hamburg) Loan
Craig Eastmond (Colchester United) Free
Kyle Ebecilio (Twente) Free
Vito Mannone (Sunderland) Undisclosed
Sebastien Squillaci Released
Sanchez Watt (Colchester United) Free
Jordan Wynter (Bristol City) Free
Jernade Meade (Swansea City) Free
Andre Santos (Flamengo) Undisclosed
Gervinho (Roma) £7m
Marouane Chamakh (Crystal Palace) £4.5m

Chelsea
In
Andre Schurrle (Bayer Leverkusen) £18m
Mario van Ginkel (Vitesse Arnhem) £14m
Mark Schwarzer (Fulham) Free
Willian (Anzhi Makhachkala) £25.6m
Samuel Eto'o (Anzhi Makhachkala) Free
Christian Atsu (Porto) £3.5m

Out
Yossi Benayoun Released
Florent Malouda (Trabzonspor) Free
Paulo Ferreira Released
Ross Turnbull (Doncaster Rovers) Free
Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid) Loan
Marko Marin (Sevilla) Loan
Oriol Romeu (Valencia) Loan
Wallace (Inter Milan) Loan
Christian Atsu (Vitesse Arnhem) Loan
Victor Moses (Liverpool) Loan
Romelu Lukaku (Everton) Loan

Liverpool
In
Kolo Toure (Manchester City) Free
Luis Alberto (Sevilla) Undisclosed
Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo) Undisclosed
Simon Mignolet (Sunderland) £12m
Aly Cissokho (Valencia) Loan
Tiago Ilori (Sporting Lisbon) Undisclosed
Mamadou Sakho (Paris St Germain) £12m
Victor Moses (Chelsea) Loan

Out
Danny Wilson (Heart of Midlothian) Free
Jonjo Shelvey (Swansea City) Undisclosed
Suso (Almeria) Loan
Pepe Reina (Napoli) Loan
Jay Spearing (Bolton Wanderers) Undisclosed
Stewart Downing (West Ham United) Undisclosed
Oussama Assaidi (Liverpool) Loan
Daniel Pacheco (AD Alcorcon) Undisclosed

Manchester City
In
Fernandinho (Shakhtar Donetsk) £34m
Jesus Navas (Sevilla) £25m
Alvaro Negredo (Sevilla) £28m
Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina) £20m
Martin Demichelis (Atletico Madrid) Undisclosed

Out
Kolo Toure (Liverpool) Free
Wayne Bridge (Reading) Free
Roque Santa Cruz (Malaga) Free
Carlos Tevez (Juventus) £7m
Karim Rekik (PSV Eindhoven) Loan
Jeremy Helan (Sheffield Wednesday) Undisclosed
Maicon (AS Roma) Undisclosed
Scott Sinclair (West Bromwich Albion) Loan
Denis Suarez (Barcelona) Undisclosed
Abdul Razak (Anzhi Makhachkala) Loan

Manchester United
In
Guillermo Varela (Atletico Penarol) £5.4m
Marouane Fellaini (Everton) £27,5m

Out
Scott Wootton (Leeds United) Undisclosed
Angelo Henriquez (Real Zaragoza) Loan
Nick Powell (Wigan Athletic) Loan

Tottenham Hotspur
In
Paulinho (Corinthians) £17m
Nacer Chadli (FC Twente) £8m
Roberto Soldado (Valencia) £26,5m
Etienne Capoue (Toulouse) £12m
Vlad Chiriches (Steaua Bucharest) £9m
Erik Lamela (Roma) £30m
Christian Eriksen (Ajax) £12m

Out
Nathan Byrne (Swindon Town) Free
David Bentley Released
John Bostock Released
William Gallas Released
Steven Caulker (Cardiff City) £9m
Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders) £6m
Tom Huddlestone (Hull City) Undisclosed
Jake Livermore (Hull City) Loan
Scott Parker (Fulham) £5m
Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) £85.3m
Massimo Luongo (Swindon Town) 400k
Tom Carroll (QPR) Loan
Benoit Assou-Ekotto (QPR) Loan

 

[vicbob]

Agree totally, most sensible pundits seem to think we have done the best business this summer. Fantastic business and puts us in a strong position for the next few years. An announcement on the stadium would really round things off!

 

[Rout-Ledge]

It's clear to me that there is one clear loser in this window: Manchester United.

They made a cockup of every transfer they've been involved in.

Fabregas: making weak bids for a world class player who was never going to leave Barca

Rooney: this whole thing was just a complete mess. United have admitted privately that he never asked to leave. He's played well wehen called upon and the comments about needing to keep him incase RVP got injured was a terrible Moyes move.

Herrara: Just a total shambles.

Fellaini and Baines: Embarrassingly low joint bid followed by an embarassingly high final price for Fellaini that was actually more than his initial buyout clause. Just woeful.

1/5

Chelsea have bought good players in positions they already have good players in. They've let Lukaku go again, which is odd, and it seems as if Mata, their best player, is being frozen out.

A strange window for them.

2.5/5

Arsenal could've doen with strengthening in three or four positions. Giroud is looking like a top striker at the moment but he has no real competition. Podolski is not a great player.

As usual with Arsenal, they have a team of inconsitent players who on their day look like they could win the league. It's always tempting for Wenger to leave his squad laregly as it is and hope that they can finally produce over the course of a whole season. We'll see.

They've signed one World Class player. There aren't many of these, certified 100% cast-iron top top players about so to get one is a coup, and he will make them a significantly greater threat.

3/5

Manchester City: For a team with all the money in the world, they've made no World Class signings. Curious. They've brought in some very good players though, and have a squad very much capable of challenging for all honours if they start to click. Remains to be seen if they will of course.

3.5/5

Liverpool: A definite transfer window winner, if a modest one. They've strengthened in a few positions, most notably defence. But of course the real headline for them is holding onto their one currently World Class player: Luis Suarez. They look lightweight in the middle so they may struggle to keep the pace with the big boys all season but they're a genuine threat with a seriously mean frontline of Suarez, Sturridge and Coutinho.

3/5

 

[DEFchenkOE]

What I would say is that you cannot categorically say that any of those teams are much stronger than us after the window. It's all debatable which is a good thing imo. I don't think that Chelsea, Man C, or Man U have much better first 11s than ours, I think we've closed the gap to them this season. What Man U and Man C have are proven goalscorers in this league in Aguero and RVP, those strikers can make goals on their own and are consistent.

If you look at all those signings, only 5 have EPL experience:

Fellaini
Flamini
Mignolet
Moses
K Toure

So for the rest there will be an adjustment period, it could come down to who settles the quickest to see who has the advantage overall. But imo there is not much between the top 6. I will feel confident that we can beat any of them at home and take points of them away.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

What I would say is that you cannot categorically say that any of those teams are much stronger than us after the window. It's all debatable which is a good thing imo. I don't think that Chelsea, Man C, or Man U have much better first 11s than ours, I think we've closed the gap to them this season. What Man U and Man C have are proven goalscorers in this league in Aguero and RVP, those strikers can make goals on their own and are consistent.

If you look at all those signings, only 5 have EPL experience:

Fellaini
Flamini
Mignolet
Moses
K Toure

So for the rest there will be an adjustment period, it could come down to who settles the quickest to see who has the advantage overall. But imo there is not much between the top 6. I will feel confident that we can beat any of them at home and take points of them away.

Don't forget that we're relying, completely, on our new signings to become our best players.

Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, City and United already have settled top class attacking players in their sides: Suarez, Hazard, Mata (even if he's not getting games) Aguero, Cazorla, Van Persie.

Who do we have beyond the new signings? Defoe? Adebayor? Lennon?

Eriksen and Lamela have the potential to become amazing players for us, but don't forget that as things stand the only genuine class-above attacking player in our side from last year has gone.

Expecting us to cruise to a higher finish than the sides around us could be dangerous.

 

[Shea]

We've made the most impressive overall incoming signings but then we also made the biggest most hurtful outgoing signing - Bale was like a one man team last year

There's also a lot of truth in the notion that too many new signings at any one time can unbalance a team and we will have another period of transition as the players learn each others game and develop compatibility and understandings

Liverpool and Arsenal both had good windows as they kept their team in place, and added quality. Liverpool would have been growing as a team from last year anyway - they did well not to lose their star player unlike us and they have made one or two key signings. Sturridge and Couthino will both be settling in from last year and when Suarez returns they're going to be very strong

Arsenal already looked capable of cutting us to ribbons with just a couple of passes on Sunday and now they have Ozil to further increase their creativity - that being said they're a little reliant on a single striker

Chelsea I dunno - I don't feel like they really needed Willian and I have no clue how close Eto'o is to the Eto'o of old or if he is another big name from the past who will not sure his best form in the PL

Utd's window was not impressive at all and I also don't really feel like City have significantly improved what with the loss of Tevez for all their solid incoming signings there was none to make me jealous in the way Arsenal signing Ozil made me think if only

We had at least as good a window as anyone else - just in different ways. I think ours may take longer to truly show its worth as we're having to adjust our whole style of playing having lost the player our team was built around and so many new players will take time to settle and gel

Arsenal and Liverpool added quality while remaining consistent so may have more immediate success from their upgrades (Liverpool's upgrades are more from the Jan window and the fact they kept Suarez but their signings this window were also solid if not spectacular and gives them a stronger squad to make them more than a team that can beat anyone on their day to one that can compete over the whole season)

Hopefully we'll be able to solve the Soldado puzzle sooner rather than later so that our creativity players know how to read his runs and create chances for them because I have no doubt he will finish

 

[Kendall]

I think Liverpool did their best business last year when they signed Countinho and Sturridge. They are now well settled and big members of that side, enabling the newer players to come in and settle. They're the team to beat to fourth for me.

 

[IMissTheWaddler]

Out
Nathan Byrne (Swindon Town) Free
David Bentley Released
John Bostock Released
William Gallas Released
Steven Caulker (Cardiff City) £9m
Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders) £6m
Tom Huddlestone (Hull City) Undisclosed
Jake Livermore (Hull City) Loan
Scott Parker (Fulham) £5m
Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) £85.3m
Tom Carroll (QPR) Loan
Benoit Assou-Ekotto (QPR) Loan

you forgot Luongo for £400k. Every penny counts!

 

[DiamondLites]

Arsenal got 4.5m for chamakh? good lord, that alone puts our business to shame

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Don't forget that we're relying, completely, on our new signings to become our best players.

Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, City and United already have settled top class attacking players in their sides: Suarez, Hazard, Mata (even if he's not getting games) Aguero, Cazorla, Van Persie.

Who do we have beyond the new signings? Defoe? Adebayor? Lennon?

Eriksen and Lamela have the potential to become amazing players for us, but don't forget that as things stand the only genuine class-above attacking player in our side from last year has gone.

Expecting us to cruise to a higher finish than the sides around us could be dangerous.

I don't expect us to cruise to a higher finish than any of the top sides around us. I think it will be tight. Even if we put out a team without any new signings it's still not a bad team:

Lloris​

Walker - Kaboul - Vertonghen - Rose​

Sandro - Dembele​

Lennon - Holtby - Townsend​

Adebayor​

​

I know that all new signings will probably be thrown in immediately but incase AVB does want to play a team that's familiar with English football then that's still a top 6 team I think.​

Then to think we could drop Chadli, Lamela, Eriksen, Paulinho, Soldado, Capoue, Chiriches into that team, I'm happy with our options.​

​

Liverpool will be dangerous especially when Suarez comes back, I've said all along Coutinho is an incredible player and will be one of the best players in the league this season if he stays fit.​

 

[tom4s]

Imo we shouldnt compare ourselves too much with the Chavs and ManC, due to their financial doping. They have splashed their cash in their usual idiotic manner, and as usual all their victories count as hollow victories in my book

I think we have done better than The scum, Pool, and ManU.

My order:
1. Us: Great window, strengthening overall.
2. Pool: Keeping Suarez and strengthening in defense and squad depth. Lacking a CDM apart from Lucas though.
3-4. Manu: Embarassing window for them, but Fellaini is a nice player i guess.
3-4. Scum: Özil is a major coup, but apart from that they failed to threngthen where they needed it most. A few injuries will show that.

 

[IMissTheWaddler]

Arsenal got 4.5m for chamakh? good lord, that alone puts our business to shame

and £7m for the 47 year old Gervinho

 

[TaoistMonkey]

We did what we needed to do in the window with great success. I love the fact that we can field two very strong teams. We can go in to cup games and still take them seriously without risk.

I bloody love our squad.

 

[Spursh]

We have had an excellent window. Apart from LB, I'm very happy with our squad. Potentially the strongest I've seen in my lifetime.

Even with Fellaini signed, Man Utd still have issues at CM, and are lacking that real creative playmaker.

Chelsea do look strong, but their CM is also a touch on the weak side. Lampard & Ramires isn't quite dynamic enough for the big games.

Ozil has papered over the cracks of a poor window for Arsenal. Yes he is a superb player, but he only strengthens an already strong area of their squad. They are still lacking good CB cover, a couple of DMs, and a top striker.

Liverpool and Everton have had good windows, and essembeled decent squads. They have the quantity, but do they have the quality? I'm not so sure.

Man City's squad is probably the strongest all-round, but I don't think they are as good as they think they are. Even with their one or two weaknesses, Chelsea are still the team to beat IMO.

 

[GutBucket]

Amazing window for us, all those players with net spend at 0 (actually we made 3m). I still wish we pushed a little more with another LB, young versatile striker and/or a creative LW.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Amazing window for us, all those players with net spend at 0 (actually we made 3m). I still wish we pushed a little more with another LB, young versatile striker and/or a creative LW.

With Baldini in, I expect we will address any issues we have in the January window. We finally seem to have a plan for our player recuitment now.

 

[Kendall]

The main way I comfort myself with the window is to imagine if Bale had stayed and had a Podolski-esq injury in the first game and ending up looking like the side that played Inter away last year.

We've mitigated the risk of having all our eggs in one basket at least.

 

[robin09]

United didn't improve.

Arsenal's squad is wafer thin, splashed all their cash on Ozil.

Liverpool look solid, but not too exciting. Keeping Suarez was their best business.

Chelsea haven't got a CF, but will be the team to beat as elsewhere they're very strong.

City are strong, but they struggle to gel with such a turnover of players every year. And egos!

We've got a chance to get in amongst it. But we need to make sure the players gel as quickly as possible.

 

[kaz Hirai]

Don't really care about LB as I'm happy to give young Rose a chance.

not too fussed about another striker as we kept Defoe and Adebayor

I do wish however we signed a Bernard/Willan type to play from the left. Some unpredictable magic that can cause havoc in the final 3rd.

I think as a whole our squad is probably the 3rd strongest in the league behind City and Chelsea but the starting 11 is probably 4th, slightly above liverpool's a little below Arsenal's

 

[DEFchenkOE]

United didn't improve.

Arsenal's squad is wafer thin, splashed all their cash on Ozil.

Liverpool look solid, but not too exciting. Keeping Suarez was their best business.

Chelsea haven't got a CF, but will be the team to beat as elsewhere they're very strong.

City are strong, but they struggle to gel with such a turnover of players every year. And egos!

We've got a chance to get in amongst it. But we need to make sure the players gel as quickly as possible.

Sorry to inform you, but they do have Eto'o, Torres, and Ba. Not a bad trio let's be honest here.