Rate the window - Summer 2019

[Batman]

changing to 3/10

[Nordic Saint]

Surely Stephens has to go out on loan now that Danso has arrived, he is so far down the pecking order that unlikely he'll ever get a game here.

 

I agree to a certain extent but he's not as much of a defensive liability as Vestergaard is.

[trousers]

changing to 3/10

 

[ALWAYS_SFC]

changing to 3/10

 

After 1 game:lol:

Alpine was/is less negative than you:scared:

Get a grip ffs

[trousers]

After 1 game:lol:

Alpine was/is less negative than you:scared:

Get a grip ffs

 

Fret ye not. I'm sure Batman would have over-reacted in the opposite direction had we taken our first half chances and won the game....

[woodsaint]

Surely Stephens has to go out on loan now that Danso has arrived, he is so far down the pecking order that unlikely he'll ever get a game here.

 

Straight into the starting lineup

[sadoldgit]

changing to 3/10

 

You really are a reactionary aren’t you? One game and 2 of the signings haven’t played yet.

[Heisenberg]

Battle for the Saints no.1 super fan already hotting up...

 

Think you super fans will be busy if you're going to spend another season getting hysterical about every post that don't say "saints are the bestest"

[aintforever]

You really are a reactionary aren’t you? One game and 2 of the signings haven’t played yet.

 

Or the fact that Adams coming in is the only change to the starting XI shows what a sh!te window it has been.

 

I thought this was supposed to be the summer of rebuilding?

[VectisSaint]

You don't take a player on a season long loan, to train for the future! RH knows his market, and thankfully, he is the manager, and not you.

 

Season long loan with exclusive option to buy though. No one can honestly say or think that KD after about 20 Bundesliga games and St the age of 20 is better than what we already have, even Ralph. Dream on if you think he is going to be the answer to our prayers this season, however good he turns out to be.

[Lighthouse]

Season long loan with exclusive option to buy though. No one can honestly say or think that KD after about 20 Bundesliga games and St the age of 20 is better than what we already have, even Ralph. Dream on if you think he is going to be the answer to our prayers this season, however good he turns out to be.

 

He’s 6’3" so as long as he isn’t tectonically slow and gormless, he’s got two advantages on Vestegaard already. Not saying he will be the answer but I’d like to think he’s an improvement. Van Dijk? No. Lovren or Williams? Possibly.

 

Likewise Adams, if he’d taken that early chance he’d have 50% of Austin’s tally from last year already (and one of them was on an empty pitch).

[Saint Fan CaM]

The club have once again failed to address the sub-Prem standard of central defender position...i.e. without pointing the finger at any one of the present incumbents, we are exposed. It’s been this way for what, three seasons? Sorry, but there is no way this window can be classed as a success, although it must be recognised that past mistakes (e.g.Hoedt, Forster, Carrillo etc.) will take another 2-3 seasons to correct. Whether we are able to sustain Prem status in the interim is of course the key issue - hopefully Ralph can work his magic again.

[Topcat]

The defence let in 65 goals last season. It was clearly an area that had to be improved. Yesterday the 5 starting defenders were the 5 defensive players that had the most Prem appearances last season.

 

Nothing had changed. The Club had not brought in one player able to start the season ahead of our woeful 2018-19 defence. It needed to have brought in or promoted from the youth at least 2 starters better than 2018-19.

 

We let in 3 goals to a team that finished just one point above us. On that basis the Summer 2019 transfer window was a dud.

[CB Fry]

The defence let in 65 goals last season. It was clearly an area that had to be improved. Yesterday the 5 starting defenders were the 5 defensive players that had the most Prem appearances last season.

 

Nothing had changed. The Club had not brought in one player able to start the season ahead of our woeful 2018-19 defence. It needed to have brought in or promoted from the youth at least 2 starters better than 2018-19.

 

We let in 3 goals to a team that finished just one point above us. On that basis the Summer 2019 transfer window was a dud.

This. Instead of high-fiving themselves for signing a rookie centre back on the cheap 20 hours after the window closed we should have prioritised an experienced central defender to not only walk into the first eleven but lead and dominate the back line.

 

Yes understand that wouldn't be cheap but it should have been the priority and it should have felt like the priority all summer.

[Heisenberg]

People still underestimating the mess and squad les reed has left us with.

 

Club has needed to work under a massive handicap all summer and still has c500k a week of wages and £80m of transfers sitting on the sidelines. + the obligation to sign Ings.

 

Saying the club should have signed an "experienced and dominant" CB but as always no realistic examples of who

[CB Fry]

People still underestimating the mess and squad les reed has left us with.

 

Club has needed to work under a massive handicap all summer and still has c500k a week of wages and £80m of transfers sitting on the sidelines. + the obligation to sign Ings.

 

Saying the club should have signed an "experienced and dominant" CB but as always no realistic examples of who

Exceptional stuff. 8/10.

[S-Clarke]

The defence let in 65 goals last season. It was clearly an area that had to be improved. Yesterday the 5 starting defenders were the 5 defensive players that had the most Prem appearances last season.

 

Nothing had changed. The Club had not brought in one player able to start the season ahead of our woeful 2018-19 defence. It needed to have brought in or promoted from the youth at least 2 starters better than 2018-19.

 

We let in 3 goals to a team that finished just one point above us. On that basis the Summer 2019 transfer window was a dud.

 

I know people will claim that we couldn't move much because of the players we had on the books already, but....why didn't we prioritise s a CB? Was Moussa really, really necessary as our first signing?

 

He may turn out to be amazing, but you'd have thought the first priority would have been defence. To me, Moussa was maybe more of a nice to have.

 

Bit weird really.

[Heisenberg]

Exceptional stuff. 8/10.

 

Never heard of him.

[Viking Saint]

People still underestimating the mess and squad les reed has left us with.

 

Club has needed to work under a massive handicap all summer and still has c500k a week of wages and £80m of transfers sitting on the sidelines. + the obligation to sign Ings.

 

Saying the club should have signed an "experienced and dominant" CB but as always no realistic examples of who

 

Cahill would've been the obvious candidate

[Heisenberg]

Cahill would've been the obvious candidate

 

Yes fair shout. Could we realistically compete with palace though? Wages c75-100pw and wanted a 2 year contract. He's 34 v soon and played just 22 minutes of PL football last season

 

Be interesting to see how he gets on at palace and how much he plays

[Viking Saint]

Yes fair shout. Could we realistically compete with palace though? Wages c75-100pw and wanted a 2 year contract. He's 34 v soon and played just 22 minutes of PL football last season

 

Be interesting to see how he gets on at palace and how much he plays

 

Agree with all you've said, but think it's a case of getting what you pay for. I know he doesn't fit our 'model' per se in terms of age and re-sale value, but felt he would've been an ideal player to organise and marshall our back line, and that the other players around him could've learned a lot off him. As it is, we've bought young, untried, untested to solve our glaring weakness and can only hope.....

[SOTONS EAST SIDE]

This. Instead of high-fiving themselves for signing a rookie centre back on the cheap 20 hours after the window closed we should have prioritised an experienced central defender to not only walk into the first eleven but lead and dominate the back line.

 

Yes understand that wouldn't be cheap but it should have been the priority and it should have felt like the priority all summer.

 

Would of been cheaper than getting relegated!!!

[Fatboy40]

I'll give a generous 4/10.

 

- We seem to have spent a few years growing a bloated squad of mediocrity, especially in midfield and at CB, and all we shipped out was Austin, **** poor (and our under 23's and academy players seem no worse than what we've bought so what's going on here?).

- Reed's parting gift of selling us down the river with Ings really winds me up.

- Is our awareness and planning so poor that we only submit a deal sheet for a loan CB just in time on the last day of the window? The club is paying staff to be on top of this, are they also sub-standard?

- Not strictly a "window" issue but Rohl's departure will effect us, I feel for Ralph as "no man is an island".

[aintforever]

It’s been a ****e window but the club are hamstrung by not being able to shift too many poor high-earners.

 

Until we get shot of players like Forster, Hoedt, Boufal, Corillio, Mo, Stephens, Cedric etc we are never going to free up enough space on the wage bill for decent replacements.

 

It’s going to be a good few years before we get over what Les Reed has done to this club, we just have to hope we can stay up long enough for them to see out their contracts.

[hypochondriac]

I think it's funny people saying rohl is a huge loss. I'll be honest I didn't even know who the bloke was till fitzhugh brought him up this pre season. How does anyone know he was hugely vital to things here?

[Topcat]

I think it's funny people saying rohl is a huge loss. I'll be honest I didn't even know who the bloke was till fitzhugh brought him up this pre season. How does anyone know he was hugely vital to things here?

 

A good question. What we do have is an awful defense, this season and last season. Danny Röhl was a defender in his brief playing career. In the coaching team after he left we have 3 former goal keepers....

[CB Fry]

Absent Danny Rohl is the new Eric Black.

[whelk]

Danny Rohl used to instruct Vestergaard on how to read wind speeds. Clearly missed for the first goal.

[Badger]

A good question. What we do have is an awful defense, this season and last season. Danny Röhl was a defender in his brief playing career. In the coaching team after he left we have 3 former goal keepers....

 

but we've already seen an improvement between the sticks so some good has come from it..

[Badger]

Danny Rohl used to instruct Vestergaard on how to read wind speeds. Clearly missed for the first goal.

 

Unfortunately don't think you can coach him head to feet co-ordination very easily. Sometimes you get the impression they are operating in different time zones.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Danny Rohl used to instruct Vestergaard on how to read wind speeds. Clearly missed for the first goal.

 

[Turkish]

I think it's funny people saying rohl is a huge loss. I'll be honest I didn't even know who the bloke was till fitzhugh brought him up this pre season. How does anyone know he was hugely vital to things here?

 

Probably the same people who blamed all our crap performances on Eric Black.

[Dusic]

I think it's funny people saying rohl is a huge loss. I'll be honest I didn't even know who the bloke was till fitzhugh brought him up this pre season. How does anyone know he was hugely vital to things here?

Just for balance:

 

Many did know who he was, and he and Ralph clearly worked well, as had been at Leipzig together. Rohl knows RH and how he thinks much better than Watson, Davis and Fleming do. He also provided RH with a sounding board and someone he could probably be totally honest with, possibly about the other coaches.

 

Rohl has gone to Bayern, in an analysis role. Ralph mentioned countless times how important the video analysis is to him. Fair to suggest he might be good at it.

 

I would suggest none of Davis, Fleming or Watson would be hired by a bigger team than Saints, and two of those are very much novice coaches.

 

Not saying its a huge issue, but to pretend there would be no impact just because you didnt know who he was, is possibly a little naïve.

[hypochondriac]

I didn't pretend there would be no impact so you just made that up. My point is firstly that had we beaten Burnley no one would really be mentioning this at all and secondly nobody really knows that it's a huge loss, maybe Ralph didn't want a replacement. I'm sure he contributed but it's all speculation to say thjs is going to make us weaker as we have no idea.

[Nordic Saint]

It’s been a ****e window but the club are hamstrung by not being able to shift too many poor high-earners.

 

Until we get shot of players like Forster, Hoedt, Boufal, Corillio, Mo, Stephens, Cedric etc we are never going to free up enough space on the wage bill for decent replacements.

 

It’s going to be a good few years before we get over what Les Reed has done to this club, we just have to hope we can stay up long enough for them to see out their contracts.

 

I'd add Vestergaard to that list. We should try to get rid of him in January to free up a place in the squad for a new central defender. But, one wonders about the quality of our scouting and recruitment when they waste so much money on so many players who are obviously not cut out for the Premier League.

[VectisSaint]

A good question. What we do have is an awful defense, this season and last season. Danny Röhl was a defender in his brief playing career. In the coaching team after he left we have 3 former goal keepers....

Craig Fleming was a defender (and is the replacement for Rohl).

[VectisSaint]

I think it's funny people saying rohl is a huge loss. I'll be honest I didn't even know who the bloke was till fitzhugh brought him up this pre season. How does anyone know he was hugely vital to things here?

Who are these people that are saying Rohl is a huge loss? Looks to me like something you have made up.

He may be a loss, who knows, certainly Ralph was keen to get him in last season, so you'd think he thought he would be a great benefit, especially when he was given a 2.5 year contract. Ralph seems to think that Fleming is an adequate replacement, time will tell, though I'm not sure that Fleming brings the same to the coaching team as Rohl did (they were both defenders in their brief playing days but other than that the comparisons are hard to see).

[Special K]

Season long loan with exclusive option to buy though. No one can honestly say or think that KD after about 20 Bundesliga games and St the age of 20 is better than what we already have, even Ralph. Dream on if you think he is going to be the answer to our prayers this season, however good he turns out to be.

 

Exactly. You'd think we signed Sergio Ramos last Thursday, judging by the responses on twitter. Assuming he's picked, the poor bugger is gonna have to **** some miracles from the first minute if he's going to make much difference to that defence.

[Miltonaggro]

The defence let in 65 goals last season. It was clearly an area that had to be improved. Yesterday the 5 starting defenders were the 5 defensive players that had the most Prem appearances last season.

 

Nothing had changed. The Club had not brought in one player able to start the season ahead of our woeful 2018-19 defence. It needed to have brought in or promoted from the youth at least 2 starters better than 2018-19.

 

We let in 3 goals to a team that finished just one point above us. On that basis the Summer 2019 transfer window was a dud.

 

 

Spot on!

[Batman]

The defence let in 65 goals last season. It was clearly an area that had to be improved. Yesterday the 5 starting defenders were the 5 defensive players that had the most Prem appearances last season.

 

Nothing had changed. The Club had not brought in one player able to start the season ahead of our woeful 2018-19 defence. It needed to have brought in or promoted from the youth at least 2 starters better than 2018-19.

 

We let in 3 goals to a team that finished just one point above us. On that basis the Summer 2019 transfer window was a dud.

 

perfectly put.

[stevy777_x]

perfectly put.

 

Last year our attack was ****, last year our defense was ****.

 

We have added 3 players with pace and skill to that attack (counting Boufal) + we have sold in attack those who had not been contributing.

 

We have added 1 player to our defense and kept the same defense - i still call that progress.

 

You can spin whatever way you want, we are clearly not worse off than last year. Our transfer window was adequate on my scale, not perfect but a progress compared to recent seasons.

[Topcat]

Last year our attack was ****, last year our defense was ****.

 

We have added 3 players with pace and skill to that attack (counting Boufal) + we have sold in attack those who had not been contributing.

 

We have added 1 player to our defense and kept the same defense - i still call that progress.

 

You can spin whatever way you want, we are clearly not worse off than last year. Our transfer window was adequate on my scale, not perfect but a progress compared to recent seasons.

 

Last season we conceded 1.7 goals per game. We start off by conceding 3 in one game. I judge it as worse. Let us see what Liverpool bring. Miracles happen.

[TWar]

Last season we conceded 1.7 goals per game. We start off by conceding 3 in one game. I judge it as worse. Let us see what Liverpool bring. Miracles happen.

Seems like a pretty shockingly small sample size to "judge it as worse" but whatever. After 10 games we'll report back and see how that stat looks on average

 

Sent from my G3311 using Tapatalk

[Faz]

Last season we conceded 1.7 goals per game. We start off by conceding 3 in one game. I judge it as worse. Let us see what Liverpool bring. Miracles happen.

 

Do you still think we have a mid-table League 1 squad?

[Dalek2003]

In the context of our overall ambition, ie staying up with the minimum of outlay, then should be just enough.

 

Same as in previous years and a pattern I predicted some years ago.

[Matthew Le God]

Miracles happen.

 

Any evidence for this?

[SuperSAINT]

Miracles happen.

 

Any evidence for this?

 

Us staying up last season.

[Gordon Mockles]

Most of us were happy with Hoedt and Moi at the time. So the jury's still out.

 

Most of us were not happy with these signings. We were happy we had signed players in these positions. A big difference. They were unproven. Now they are proven but we had no idea that they would prove to be dogsh*t!

 

I would rate the window 7 out of 10. That’s a kind rating as we have no idea on Denso & Djenepo but the winger sounds exciting but have said that before. Denso must be solid. I trust in Ralph more than our previous scouting in conjunction with Les.

 

Some interesting football, technical conversations about our midfield protecting the back and I’m inclined to agree, without Ralph favouring Romeu & age & mobility now slowing a once good player for our club. I feel it’s time to be looking at replacing Romeu in DM. Everton have bought superbly and should surely be expecting a top 8 or higher finish with what they’ve spent but they’ve also done some seemingly excellent business. Possibly the best on the league.

 

Gbamin is a direct replacement for Gueye & is exactly the type of player we should be looking at.

25 million a very good price too. Everton’s transfer policy is spot on but we would struggle to attract this type of player, sadly. We need to at least have some form of mission statement to inspire the club. Some target of ambition we can sell to young, prospective players. In the academy & from outside. Survival or the offer of a big money move to a bigger club is not a sign of intent. We need a new plan of attack and a dream to aspire to. Much like Markus’ 5 year plan. The spirit we so carefully instilled in the club has stagnated. It needs a fresh injection of passion, performance & pride and that can only be built from within.

 

https://royalbluemersey.sbnation.com/2019/8/5/20751706/everton-transfer-news-what-will-jean-philippe-gbamin-bring-idrissa-gueye-psg-latest

[Gordon Mockles]

This. Instead of high-fiving themselves for signing a rookie centre back on the cheap 20 hours after the window closed we should have prioritised an experienced central defender to not only walk into the first eleven but lead and dominate the back line.

 

Yes understand that wouldn't be cheap but it should have been the priority and it should have felt like the priority all summer.

 

This echoes my sentiments exactly. Spot on fella. I’m glad some of us still have high levels of expectation & ambition even if the club seemingly don’t. Everton had the perfect transfer window and whilst they clearly have more money available than us, we should be aiming to compete with teams such as these; Wolves, Watford, Newcastle, Palace & Leicester. Bournemouth should be looking up to us. Sadly, we seem to have swapped positions and the club appear just happy with us to finish above relegation rivals. If not in words, as our club don’t communicate, certainly in action.

 

Look at Everton’s signings. That’s the level we should aim for. Maybe the Arsenal signing Iwobi a little too much for our current restrictive budget but - much like Royal Mail being sold to a group including the chancellor’s best man - he was undervalued and undersold will clearly move on for a much bigger prices in a season or 2. That’s what we should aspire to. Even if you can’t achieve it with a restricted budget while saddled with overpriced, p*ss poor & unmotivated players as a result of a negligent & incompetent board neglecting overseeing the club management, at least dream big.

[benjii]

Priorities for me at the start of the window were centre back, striker and right back, in that order. Then centre midfield. And I didn't expect us to lose Targett and Lemina.

 

We signed a striker but it's a big ask for a guy who's never played at this level to be our main goal source. However, I appreciate that signing a "proven" 15+ PL striker is nigh-on impossible so I'm reasonably pleased with the Adams signing.

 

Djenepo - who knows? Do we need him, especially with Boufal back? If we play JWP deeper to accommodate him then we will be weak in centre midfield. I'm not sure he improves us this season.

 

Danso - again, who knows but he's a 20 yr old with limited game time. As CB Fry says, I'm not sure he's exactly what we needed.

 

Maybe this is the best we can do under Gao's "no investment" policy - and seeing as we still have loads of useless over-paid dross stinking the place out - and if they all turn out great then in the long-run it will be an excellent window but it doesn't feel like it at the moment.