Well done Levy and co.

[walworthyid]

I'm pleased with the window and glad that we showed some intent. I'm not too excited by Sissoko at that money and must be honest and say I haven't seen that much of him. He looked good against us and in the euros and was very direct. We've certainly been lacking a bit more dynamism at times and hopefully we now have that in Sissoko, son and Kevin but only time will tell.

A lot of people are talking about mane, yes he has looked good, but he is not prolific and can be very inconsistent.

 

[TH1239]

Sissoko and Wanyama are going to be big hits for us. I think Janssen will have a bit of an up and down season, depending on the volume of his playing time. It's a very difficult transition from the Eredevisie to the Prem. As for Nkoudou, signing Sissoko takes the pressure off him a bit, as Sissoko can play right wing forward, thereby allowing Nkoudou to settle in the country and learn in cup matches.

I think if we had just tweaked things a bit and brought in Batshuayi instead of Janssen and Boufal over Nkoudou, we'd genuinely have had a chance to win the title outright, and would've had our strongest squad in history. Now, our title chances are still there, but it'll take perfect health and career seasons from a few players (not impossible). We can't always get what we want though, and what we have is better than not having Sissoko and having sold Son to Wolfsburg with no replacement.

In the end, Poch earned the club CL with his molding of the squad and with that comes 30 million pounds. He deserves the right to spend that any way he wants (and I'm glad it wasn't on Zaha!).

 

[Mr Pink]

Totally agree with OP, great window.

I dont get the people who moan on about the fee for Sisokko. In the current climate it's not even ridiculously over priced.

I also think a lot of people are going to be surprised on just how good this guy can be. Pace, power, high energy, he"ll create more space for the likes of Eriksen and Lamela.

If Poch can get this guy performing consistently we'll have a serious player.

 

[The Long Suffering One]

Dembele and sissoko both running at an opposition is exciting. Counter attack will be awesome.

Sissoko and GNK running at you is like having 2 Manes chasing after you..

 

[The Long Suffering One]

Hate the fact that the internationals are played immediately after deadline day.. will have to wait almost 2 weeks to see our newbies in action..

 

[GetSpurredOn]

Lloris, Vorm, Lopez
Walker, Trippier
Rose, Davies
Alderweireld, Carter-Vickers
Vertonghen, Wimmer
Dier, Wanyama
Dembele, Sissoko
Lamela, Son
Alli, Carroll
Eriksen, Nkoudou
Kane, Janssen

Walker-Peters, Winks, Onomah and Harrison as depth.

I'm happy with that. Plenty of flexibility in that senior 23 too, Dier/Wanyama can drop back into defence, Dembele/Sissoko can play higher up, Alli/Eriksen can drop into CM, most of the AM can rotate across right, left and centre, plus Son can play higher up and Kane can drop deeper of required.

Suddenly we can field something like this.

Lloris, Walker, Rose, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Dier, Dembele, Lamela, Alli, Eriksen, Kane.
Vorm, Trippier, Davies, Wanyama, Sissoko, Son, Janssen.

People will question the fee for Sissoko, but in truth that's the market we're in now. Was Bolasie worth £25m(ish), was Stones worth close to £50m etc etc. Also there'll be suggestions that Sissoko isn't that good, but we had repeated ITK that Poch had final say on all targets, so you've got to assume he see's something he wants there. Personally I think that one final signing pushed us from being stripped down too far, and not having sufficient quality/depth, to being a very astute window.
I feel a lot happier going into the rest of the season now, than I did when I thought Nkoudou and Lopez was then end of our incomings.

 

[onthetwo]

Just woke up and seen we spent £30m on sissoko.

What the actual fuck.

they havent checked their bank account yet....it will be a mixture of foreign currencies and IOUs probably including Tesco vouchers.

 

[olliec]

You aren't getting it are you?
I've asked you who in our best XI would you improve on from last year and you've not answered me.

It seems to me when people say this they don't understand football and what makes a successful team and squad so it pisses me off.

Who could we sign that is better than Lloris?
Which RB or LB in the world would you pick over ours who would realistically come to us and that we could afford?
Why would we change our CB pairing who work so well together?
CM I would argue Wanyama or Sissoko are slight upgrades on Dier as well as he did he's still very young and is learning that position.
The attacking 3 is the only other place I could see us improving but again Eriksen and Alli got double figures goals and assists and Lamela is key to our play so very very hard to find better players than them without breaking the bank and then you can't displace / upgrade Kane really.

So why say 'we haven't improved our starting eleven ' when that is really irrelevant as it was nearly impossible for us to realistically do so and we've completely cleaned out all the deadwood or players who potch feels can't cut it and upgraded back-ups in all other areas.

Yes, but you have not taken into consideration what happens if any of these players drop form and we have nobody decent for backup. However now we do and can actually play country attacking football with pace! Interesting to see how the new players gel.

 

[degoose]

Best transfer window ever.
We've cleared out virtually all the players we don't need and have signed everything we do need.

Our absolute priorities were and ST and DM, we got the top scorer in Dutch league and a proven prem player and international captain in early (Janssen and Wanyama).

We then needed a 3rd goalie especially as Lloris is injured, a pacey winger and a direct strong pacey versatile attacking midfielder, we got all of those today (Lopez,NKoudu,Sissoko).

Yes Sissoko was overpriced but so was Mane,Stones, pogba was nearly £100million for goodness sake!!! I'd have been much more pissed off has we not got sissoko and he'd gone to Everton and done really well for them.

What the game against Liverpool showed was that we lacked a couple of pacey attacking players to really make them think, N'kodu and Sissoko are exactly that and from potch's post match comments they are exactly what he thought we needed and what he wanted.

Top top stuff. Levy gets enough shit from people but we now have a squad with 2 quality players in every position, a top young manager, the best training ground and development on what will be one of the best stadiums in Europe.

Perhaps we can dare to do now and start winning things again?

COYS.

I honestly think signing Sissoko will be the difference between us for example coming top4 and not and/or reaching at least CL quarters and or a cup final.

Thank you for actually having a positive point of view, makes a nice change to some of the insanity and backwards thinking i have read on here recently.

 

[onthetwo]

Best thing about the window IMO was the sense that Poch told Levy who he wanted and we got them, aside perhaps for the longer shots such as Isco.
COYS!

 

[buttons]

One of the best demonstrations of how we have improved the squad, if not the first X1, is to look at the team we played v Dortmund (away) last season, compared to what we could play this year in the same circumstances:

Last Season / This Season

Hugo / Hugo

Trippier / TripPier
Toby / Toby
Wimmer / Wimmer
Davies / Davies

Carroll / Wanyama
Mason / Sissoko
Onomah / Onomah

Chadli / Nkoudou
Son / Son
Eriksen / Jansenn

Don't think I've forgotten anyone but the point I am making is we can make big changes to our first X1 without significantly weakening the side.

Good window. In the end.

 

[DanielCHillier]

This is all well and good but what was our NET spend ?

 

[Ribble]

We're still desperately lacking someone to push Eriksen.

Er, we just bought N'Koudou who usually plays in the same position?

 

[Speedy]

Here a clip of what we just spent £30m on

https://mobile.twitter.com/smiley_nufc/status/771062586745978880/video/1

 

[spids]

I also think Son could also be like a new signing this year. Shame he missed preseason at the olympics.

 

[spids]

Let's put the fee for Sissoko in perspective ...

Pogba £92 million
Stones £50 million
Bolasie £28 million
Kodjia (Bristol C to Villa) £15 million

 

[Freddy Adu]

Admire the optimism OP, but calling Wanyama an international captain is proper desperate clickbait. He's Kenyan ffs.

 

[degoose]

This is all well and good but what was out NET spend ?

Get him boys, comments like that obviously show he's an Arsenal fan.

 

[Gassin's finest]

From the F365 Transfer window Winners and Losers: http://www.football365.com/news/transfer-window-winners-and-losers-3

Daniel Levy

Only Daniel Levy. Only Daniel Levy could sanction a £16m bid for a player whose club have already valued him at £30m. Tottenham’s offer for Moussa Sissoko in the early hours of Wednesday was predictably dismissed.

What was Tottenham’s response? They simply dropped interest in the player. They were not linked with any other players, seemingly content with their business.

That was until Everton made a £30m bid in the evening, and the north London club decided to match their offer. Within a matter of hours, their valuation of one player had rocketed by £14m.

Tottenham eventually got their man, but it was no secret that Sissoko was available throughout the summer. The Deadline Day chase for a Championship midfielder stank of desperation. Levy lowballing no longer works when Crystal Palace and Watford are both spending £50m apiece. The chairman can no longer afford to negotiate deals as if this were 2010. Football has changed; Premier League football has transformed.

On one hand, it was completely out of character with the rest of their business. Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen had both arrived early in the window, bolstering the squad in preparation for Champions League football.

On the other, it was in keeping with a disappointing summer. Wanyama and Janssen are good signings, but the club have failed to capitalise on Champions League qualification. They have not signed a single player who would not have joined them anyway. Liverpool made the same mistake two years ago, and they paid for it.

Moussa Sissoko

“Everyone knows, I often said it when I was young, Arsenal is the club of my heart. The beautiful Arsenal. We will see. I cannot tell you if I am going to go to Arsenal” – June 7, 2016.

“Arsenal made me dream when I was a youngster. Patrick Vieira was my idol. I saw myself in him” – February 2, 2015.

“If Arsene Wenger calls, I’ll have a man-to-man discussion with him and then we’ll see. Arsenal has always been the club of my heart” – January 11, 2015.

“When I was young, Arsenal were my favourite team. My idol, Patrick Vieira, played there. I have always loved that club. I still love that club” – December 22, 2014.

Good luck at your new club, Moussa. You might need it.

 

[DanielCHillier]

From the F365 Transfer window Winners and Losers: http://www.football365.com/news/transfer-window-winners-and-losers-3

That article cites Liverpool failing to capitalise when they got CL football a few years ago, but fails to mention that they sold Suarez, the very player who dragged them to that second place finish. We haven't sold a single player who was part of our first team. Also, not bothered by the quotes about Arsenal, for any young football player, you always follow the club that your idol plays for.