Summer Transfer Window 2021

[egg]

19 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Completely unrealistic. 

Bless. 

[egg]

21 minutes ago, tajjuk said:

Yeh that table is wrong, transfermarkt has it as + £18 million without the fee for Small or Simeu, which likely adds another £7 million or so and they also seem to have the Ings and Vestergaard fees higher than reported. 

So it's less £10 million. 

That £10m will likely have gone on loyalty fees on outgoing players, signing on fees and agents fees. And before any smart arses pipe up that other clubs have those fees blah blah, we ain't other clubs, and didn't have another £10m lying around to pay those fees. 

In truth it's a break even ish window. 

[Miltonaggro]

Positive overall, interesting at the very least. I think this should go down as the ‘Crocker window’ as that appears to be where the change of direction has come from, a large dose of strategic thinking in terms of signing these young stars with the promise of prem starts. Good work, given that we have owners who aren’t interested and don’t put in. 
 

So far this season it looks promising but over the season it will be whether improved performance (including fitness) translates to points. We clearly need experience, that vocal confident keeper in the Neimi mould, and the seen-it-all-before combative midfielder in the Case mould - you would think the club must be looking. If we’d got these over the line in addition to the kids I think most fans would be over the moon. Hopefully it’s time for Semmens to do some strategic thinking now and find us new owners that are willing to forego the net spend trophy for the reasonable chance of a real one! 

[John D]

The graphs that sky sports produce,including the one above,  do not include undisclosed fees.  So basically not worth the time it takes to create them!

There is a searchable table further down that shows how they have come up with the figure - basically it is Ings, Vestergaard and Armstrong only.

Edited 1 September, 2021 by John D

[CB Fry]

34 minutes ago, egg said:

That £10m will likely have gone on loyalty fees on outgoing players, signing on fees and agents fees. And before any smart arses pipe up that other clubs have those fees blah blah, we ain't other clubs, and didn't have another £10m lying around to pay those fees. 

In truth it's a break even ish window. 

The club have briefed to Sheldon and Blackmore in the last 24 hours that we would have signed a defensive midfielder if the opportunity was there. So does this mean we were prepared to go into the red, or maybe we do have £10m or so in the kitty for another signing?

[OldNick]

16 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

The club have briefed to Sheldon and Blackmore in the last 24 hours that we would have signed a defensive midfielder if the opportunity was there. So does this mean we were prepared to go into the red, or maybe we do have £10m or so in the kitty for another signing?

I wish we could have linked the Obefemi sale to buying Matt Grimes from Swansea

[Smirking_Saint]

6/10 for me

Reduced the quality of the first 11 but improved the squad which was much needed and in reality the quality isn’t greatly reduced

We shifted the dead wood, signed sime smart young options and hopefully are in a position to build on any success this year in Jan/2022

Stephens worries me… an injury to Romeu worries me.. but all in all we’ll be fine

Im not sure what the bedwetting is for, of course Id of liked a marked improvement in CB or a better replacement in CM but we are skint and still managed to hit our targets this window

[FarehamSaintJames]

Amazed Ross Barkley wasn’t picked up. Could’ve done a job for us.

[Badger]

2 hours ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Should have signed someone in the Jimmy Case mould. We lack leadership and mental strength which in the PL are vital commodities. 

Not sure a "Jimmy Case" is still around these days, but agree with you.

For me Delaney was a stand out option, but we passed it by, presumably due to age and the notion of resale value. Short sighted view in my book, whilst we wouldn't get the "resale" in him , his experience - or someone like him - would have brought others on rather than them having to find their feet in a struggling team short of organisation and low on morale after a few defeats, with the odd pasting thrown in.

[alehouseboys]

29 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

The club have briefed to Sheldon and Blackmore in the last 24 hours that we would have signed a defensive midfielder if the opportunity was there. So does this mean we were prepared to go into the red, or maybe we do have £10m or so in the kitty for another signing?

And I’d imagine they’d have kept a bit in the tank for the January window in case we’re desperate.

[Badger]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Indeed. I was surprised to see Danny Drinkwater end up at Reading. Unless he's gone right downhill, I'd have thought he'd have given us a bit of no how and leadership. 

Think his time at Villa and Burnley suggest he has.

[S-Clarke]

4 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Well at least you have only given Armstrong 3 whole games, where he has scored, assisted and won a pen when about to score. Not enough from him so far then. Looking at his goals at Blackburn he has the ability to hit good goals so lets give him more than 3 games eh.

Huh?

I've given him 3 whole games where I've said he's been involved in all our goals so far, he looks positive. I have no problem with him. All I said is that i'm not sure if he's at the Ings level...is that unfair?  

I think it would be amazing if he's as good as Ings, that's why I'm hoping other players pop up with goals this year as well so the burden just isn't on him.

[Wade Garrett]

Hopefully we are on a better financial footing now.

I am disappointed that we didn’t sign another midfielder.  But patience is the key.  We are probably another couple of windows away from having the first XI and squad depth that most of us would be happy with.

Hopefully, we have enough to finish above the relegation places.  

[wild-saint]

31 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

6/10 for me

Reduced the quality of the first 11 but improved the squad which was much needed and in reality the quality isn’t greatly reduced

We shifted the dead wood, signed sime smart young options and hopefully are in a position to build on any success this year in Jan/2022

Stephens worries me… an injury to Romeu worries me.. but all in all we’ll be fine

Im not sure what the bedwetting is for, of course Id of liked a marked improvement in CB or a better replacement in CM but we are skint and still managed to hit our targets this window

This is my view to be fair. I think the starting 11 is at best no stronger but the squad strength is overall better. With the club finally removing nearly all the dead wood draining money from the coffers we are finally at a point where we can start to build a team. I think this season will be one of survival allowing next season to add strength to the starting 11 meaning we should improve. Its all about ensuring we stay up this season! 

[TWar]

I'm going to go 7.5/10

Positives:

• Armstrong is a great player and a great buy at his age, price, and homegrown status
• Livramento is a truly excellent signing, value-for-moneywise probably our best signing since Koeman left
• Perraud looks very capable, great at getting stuck in and getting involved
• Ralph has seen something in Elyounoussi and he has 4 goals in two starts (three admittedly against crap oppo)
• JWP signed a long term deal and committed his future which is great as he has been easily our best and most important player under Ralph
• We cleared a lot of deadweight including Lemina, Hoedt, Gunn, and unfortunately nearing the end Bertrand
• We got fantastic money for Vestergaard and Ings considering they were at the end of their contracts, I remember people (myself included) saying it was naïve to budget £30m from their combined sales, we got about £45m. Excellent selling.
• Whilst we didn't spend all we made we clearly have a plan going forward and that ~£20m or so we made this window can be invested in the future

Negatives

• We should have replaced Vestergaard with someone higher profile to fix our struggling defence
• GK would have been nice to fix now rather than in 12 months
• Ings will be a miss, although I fully back Armstrong to hit his 10 non-pen goals he got last season we could have had both
• Our number 10 role is not that improved although the development of Elyounoussi, Djenepo, and Tella could change my mind on that.

All in all, very satisfied with this window. Not perfect, of course, but holding some money back and spending the rest next summer could be shrewd as this is quite a substantially changed team now and assessing it's strengths and weaknesses over a longer period and then addressing them could be an astute move. Would have liked a keeper though.

Edited 1 September, 2021 by TWar

[Matthew Le God]

2 minutes ago, TWar said:

We should have replaced Vestergaard with someone higher profile to fix our struggling defence

Why does being 'higher profile' matter? It is ability that matters, lets give Lyanco a chance before writing him off.

Edited 1 September, 2021 by Matthew Le God

[TWar]

1 minute ago, Matthew Le God said:

Why does being 'higher profile' matter? It is ability that matters, lets give Lyanco a chance before writing him off.

Was trying to be polite, what I ment was "not probably shit"

I guess I could have said "someone with more proven quality" or "someone who has a better career track record"

Edited 1 September, 2021 by TWar

[Dusic]

I don't think anyone can really give a proper rating until we have seen Lyanco play. If he is good then it could be a 7/10 window and if he is awful then its probably 4/10 as we would have weakened ourselves in the position we were already weaker in.

What can be said is the profile of players we have signed is ideal for us as a club and it is great to see a bit of an actual plan/philosophy emerging again in the recruitment where it went missing at the end of the Reed era.

Nice to have freshened up the squad with a good number of new faces, which in itself add a bit of intrigue.

[egg]

1 hour ago, CB Fry said:

The club have briefed to Sheldon and Blackmore in the last 24 hours that we would have signed a defensive midfielder if the opportunity was there. So does this mean we were prepared to go into the red, or maybe we do have £10m or so in the kitty for another signing?

In truth we don't know what we've received or spent. It may be that the wage savings gave us wriggle room. Personally, I think we needed a DM and not getting one has left is short. 

[egg]

59 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Amazed Ross Barkley wasn’t picked up. Could’ve done a job for us.

I suspect he's on massive wages. Good player though. 

[TWar]

11 minutes ago, Dusic said:

I don't think anyone can really give a proper rating until we have seen Lyanco play. If he is good then it could be a 7/10 window and if he is awful then its probably 4/10 as we would have weakened ourselves in the position we were already weaker in.

What can be said is the profile of players we have signed is ideal for us as a club and it is great to see a bit of an actual plan/philosophy emerging again in the recruitment where it went missing at the end of the Reed era.

Nice to have freshened up the squad with a good number of new faces, which in itself add a bit of intrigue.

I think Salisu probably would have come through and replaced Vestergaard this season anyway, he is much more naturally talented imo. Would have been nice to see money spent on a partner for Salisu but for me Salisu + Bednarek/Stephens is stronger than Vestergaard + Bednarek which we had most of last season due to Salisu's injury

[Totton Saint]

3 hours ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Should have signed someone in the Jimmy Case mould. We lack leadership and mental strength which in the PL are vital commodities. 

Or Alan Ball Mould

[saint1977]

1 hour ago, Badger said:

Think his time at Villa and Burnley suggest he has.

Barely played for Burnley and IIRC was convicted for drink driving whilst there or at Villa as well? 

Edit - he was although not sure who he was playing for at the time https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-48253793

In fact, elements of Osvaldo https://www.bt.com/sport/news/2020/september/drink-driving-fighting-and-headbutting-jota-danny-drinkwater-opens-up

Hope he finds his feet at Reading and a bit of stability. Leaving Leicester was a colossal mistake.

[Baird of the land]

15 minutes ago, egg said:

In truth we don't know what we've received or spent. It may be that the wage savings gave us wriggle room. Personally, I think we needed a DM and not getting one has left is short. 

Yeah, was hoping for a dm. Hopefully Romeu can stay fit, giving time for either someone to come through to compete with him or we can pick up a player in Jan/summer to do so.

[Whitey Grandad]

4 hours ago, Turkish said:

The trophy is back home

 

Meaningless. Where are Arsenal in the real table?

[Toussaint]

24 minutes ago, Totton Saint said:

Or Alan Ball Mould

....Terry  'Urlock or Chirs Marsden? Someone who knows what life is outside the bubble of the elite leagues, they are always good to have around.

[stknowle]

11 hours ago, DT said:

Next few fixtures and this inactivity will hit home. Bad goalkeepers. Too weak midfield. Equals skirting with relegation all season. 

Sack the board.

Anyway, not sure if mentioned but I think a key factor could/should be working a formation with KWP, Livramento and Perraud in it. We've already seen the team line up without either KWP or Perraud in all 3 games which means starting without arguably our best player from last season or our second most expensive purchase this summer. Neither seem sensible although playing Liv from the start most certainly does based on the evidence so far. I want to see KWP at rb and Livramento in front of him, that combination could be f'in dynamite. 

[Turkish]

25 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Meaningless. Where are Arsenal in the real table?

Threes games in hun, let’s wait a few more months shall we

[S-Clarke]

4 hours ago, Turkish said:

The trophy is back home

 

I saw that article and I think Sky have got very confused. They seem to be suggesting we only spent £15m, which isn't true.

We certainly don't have a net spend that large.

Not surprised though, we seem entirely irrelevant to Sky. They were talking yesterday about us not replacing Ings or Vestergaard. Rating Evertons business as good, but worrying about us because we didn't replace the players we lost. They're paid money to have views like that!

Edited 1 September, 2021 by S-Clarke

[Whitey Grandad]

7 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Threes games in hun, let’s wait a few more months shall we

Yes indeed. Early doors

Doesn’t the same apply to every team?

[Give it to Ron]

7 minutes ago, adriansfc said:

Nope, we all know he's unlikely to be Ings level, while wanting him to do well. He's looked alright so far, nothing more. 

The worry is, we really needed Armstrong in addiiton to Ings, to take the pressure of him and Adams. Tella and Armstrong as competition would have been great. But now we're in a difficult situation when you look through the squad and figure out where the goals are coming from. 

It seems like the squad would score enough for a team with a solid defence. But it's really concerning that we'll probably score fewer than last season and our keeper situation is still dire. 

Still, could be worse, we could have a Brathwaite/De Jong strike force replacing Messi/Suarez/Griezmann. 

Why are you forgetting Broja?

[jamesfp1]

8/10. Competition for Romeu would have been nice.

[tajjuk]

6/10 for me for this season, I think down the line with the young players we've signed the better financial position the clubs I think in a few years we'll be looking back at this window as both an excellent window and probably a turning point for the club. BUT we have to stay up this season, from there I think we can progress and will be back on track. 

[Turkish]

57 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Yes indeed. Early doors

Doesn’t the same apply to every team?

Yep. We’ll be fine. think we’ll be somewhere between 12th and 15th. I also think Arsenal will finish above us. Once we’ve got shot of Long and Forster next summer we will be in a good place as a club. 

[Lighthouse]

41 minutes ago, jamesfp1 said:

8/10. Competition for Romeu would have been nice.

Considering the known basis that we are skint as a club and our owner wont put money in, I'd be inclined to agree. We've got fresh faces and young blood, none of whom are guaranteed to succeed but I'd rather give them a go than cling to the likes of Bertrand forevermore. We've added depth and competition at fullback, which was a big omission from last year's squad. 

[Badger]

1 hour ago, Totton Saint said:

Or Alan Ball Mould

That is being greedy !! Can't think of any player in the modern game that comes close, let alone one that might come to us - or we could afford - aged 31.

[once_bitterne]

5 hours ago, Daft Kerplunk said:

If we stay up, that’ll be a perfect season 👍🏼

For the owners yes.  For the fans finishing 17th is not really a season which will last long in the memory and fewer and fewer fans will renew their s/t based on what they are getting back in return.

[Badger]

2 hours ago, TWar said:

I'm going to go 7.5/10

Positives:

• Armstrong is a great player and a great buy at his age, price, and homegrown status
• Livramento is a truly excellent signing, value-for-moneywise probably our best signing since Koeman left
• Perraud looks very capable, great at getting stuck in and getting involved
• Ralph has seen something in Elyounoussi and he has 4 goals in two starts (three admittedly against crap oppo)
• JWP signed a long term deal and committed his future which is great as he has been easily our best and most important player under Ralph
• We cleared a lot of deadweight including Lemina, Hoedt, Gunn, and unfortunately nearing the end Bertrand
• We got fantastic money for Vestergaard and Ings considering they were at the end of their contracts, I remember people (myself included) saying it was naïve to budget £30m from their combined sales, we got about £45m. Excellent selling.
• Whilst we didn't spend all we made we clearly have a plan going forward and that ~£20m or so we made this window can be invested in the future

Negatives

• We should have replaced Vestergaard with someone higher profile to fix our struggling defence
• GK would have been nice to fix now rather than in 12 months
• Ings will be a miss, although I fully back Armstrong to hit his 10 non-pen goals he got last season we could have had both
• Our number 10 role is not that improved although the development of Elyounoussi, Djenepo, and Tella could change my mind on that.

All in all, very satisfied with this window. Not perfect, of course, but holding some money back and spending the rest next summer could be shrewd as this is quite a substantially changed team now and assessing it's strengths and weaknesses over a longer period and then addressing them could be an astute move. Would have liked a keeper though.

I thought the Positives/Negatives you've listed are a decent summary, and difficult to argue with, although MLG managed to !

Think you're being a bit generous in your 7.5 assessment though, time will tell. For me I'd rate it 6/10, because although pleased with the incomings, I'd also have liked

• Getting rid of more dross (as well as 'deadwood'), and I'd include Redmond, and Elyounoussi in that, (hoping they prove me wrong over a season rather in just a week)
• GK's - no further comment required
• DM & CB - much needed experience and physical presence 

Lyanco is a strange one, I suspect he'll be one of two extremes, a revelation or a self destructing hand grenade. Bit of a risk.

In terms of CB and DM would have liked a more proven player, although difficult on our budget. To use a 'Borisism' players coming in here should have been 'oven ready' ! 

 

[Roo1976]

2 hours ago, egg said:

I suspect he's on massive wages. Good player though. 

And injuries hindered his stint at Chelsea,but theres still january to come, maitland niles would be a good shout.

[Verbal]

Is Sergio Romero still a free agent?

[Rebel]

4 hours ago, Badger said:

I thought the Positives/Negatives you've listed are a decent summary, and difficult to argue with, although MLG managed to !

Think you're being a bit generous in your 7.5 assessment though, time will tell. For me I'd rate it 6/10, because although pleased with the incomings, I'd also have liked

• Getting rid of more dross (as well as 'deadwood'), and I'd include Redmond, and Elyounoussi in that, (hoping they prove me wrong over a season rather in just a week)
• GK's - no further comment required
• DM & CB - much needed experience and physical presence 

Lyanco is a strange one, I suspect he'll be one of two extremes, a revelation or a self destructing hand grenade. Bit of a risk.

In terms of CB and DM would have liked a more proven player, although difficult on our budget. To use a 'Borisism' players coming in here should have been 'oven ready' ! 

 

I think its probably about 6/10

We are still short a defensive midfielder to cover for Romeu (and eventually replace him).  Diallo and Armstrong provide cover for JWP in the box-to-box role but I don't see that we have anyone that can cover for Romeu in the CDM role.   We struggled when he was out last season as our midfield is too lightweight without him.  Hopefully Diallo will prove me wrong and provide that cover this season - and be more physical.

At attacking midfield we still look a little lightweight. I was hoping we'd move on at least 2 out of Djneppo, Redmond and Elyounoussi  if not all 3 and get some upgrades at AM. Lets not forget we borrowed Minamino as we didn't think what we had in AM last season was good enough.

Djneppo works hard but has no end product - no finish or final pass. He will score the odd worldy but overall he wont make a real difference.  Redmond can do it but  very rarely - he has no consistency and a somewhat toxic relationship with the crowd.  Elyounoussi will hopefully come good and prove to be a much better player than 2 season ago.  

I was  not particularly happy we brought Walcott back on a permanent deal as he is on big  wages - and I don't see him having that much impact on the pitch.  I think we will regret giving him a 2 year deal next summer.

Lets hope Tella can find the form and consistency he has hinted - if he does we should be OK in AM

Our 2 best AMs are probably going to be S Armstrong and Livramento which says something as one is a CM and the other a RB.

However I think in A Broja and A Armstrong we have done well in replacing Ings and with those two and Adams we should be OK. But we could do with a bit more depth upfront. But I am surprised Long is still here. Why the hell did we give him a 2 year contract last summer instead of letting him leave on a free - and on bigger wages than any other club appear to be willing to pay.  Tella & Redmons provide cover  at CF but they are both really AMs

And we look a lot stronger at full back

In central defence I think we will be OK with Salisu and Bednarek as first choice (once Jan's back on the pitch after getting over having a new baby in the house). Stephens will provide OK cover and hopefully Lyanco will do the same.  And I guess Simeu gives us a 5th centreback.  But I would have liked another CB all the same.

And then there is the keeper issue - we really need a better keeper as first choice than McCarthy or Forster.  But I don't think we have the money.

But I think in reality Ralph/Crocker/Semmens have done as well as they can - and spent all the money they could.  Also I think this is really just the start of a team rebuild that will be finished next summer when Long and Forster are off the wage bill and with only 1 year on their contracts Redmond, Elyounossi and Djneppo will be sold and replaced.  We probably would have sold them this summer - but we knew no one would match the contracts they are on with us.

 Hopefully then they will sign a first choice keeper, another striker, a CDM and a CB and upgrade in the AM positions.

 

 

[Ex Lion Tamer]

5 hours ago, Badger said:

That is being greedy !! Can't think of any player in the modern game that comes close, let alone one that might come to us - or we could afford - aged 31.

I suppose in today's game a player like Case might stay at Liverpool as a rotation player

[LiberalCommunist]

7 hours ago, egg said:

I suspect he's on massive wages. Good player though. 

Well worth speaking to Villa fans if anyone seriously thinks he's the answer to any of our questions. 

Over paid & under worked. This guys giant ego causes the vast majority of his lower body injuries.  Avoid. 

[DT]

2 hours ago, Verbal said:

Is Sergio Romero still a free agent?

Get him in. Please. 

[The Cat]

3 minutes ago, DT said:

Get him in. Please. 

He's played 21 games in the last 8 seasons. No thanks.

[Cartman]

Goalkeeper - 0/10 - No comment.

Centre Back - 7/10 - Depends a lot on Lyanco being a hit, but if he is then it is one of the strongest positions in the squad.

Full Backs - 10/10 - Gone from one of the weakest parts of the squad to by far the strongest. Top work.

Midfield - 5/10 - Needed strengthening but not critical.

Attack - 8/10 - Lost Ings but better depth and less injury prone. Looks good.

Overall - 30/50 = 6/10

[Alain Perrin]

14 hours ago, CB Fry said:

Pretty stupid comment. By the same token we could have signed a large black pudding with a face drawn on and hand tied to a broom handle as our Danny Ings replacement and some on this forum would be saying "let's give him a chance, I can't believe you people are knee jerk writing him off already without seeing him play, its a disgrace,this is exactly what happened to Mane, call yourselves a supporter etc etc etc"

If the truth stings...

Neither position is right and yes there are posters at both extremes. My underlying point is, which you miss by not fully quoting, is that it's possible to criticise without thinking the sky is falling in.

Also, a seemingly player with weaknesses can sometimes be the missing piece of the jigsaw if their skills complement another in the team.

[Hodgey]

Weaker 1st team but much stronger squad. Failed signings replaced with high potential youngsters. Total failure to improve our two stand out weaknesses - centre back and gk, and don’t think the additions of Walcott and Ely improve us at all in no 10s. so all in all I’d give it a 6 out of 10 with the acknowledgement that money is tight. We’re going to ship a load of goals again with those CBS / Gks so have to hope that Ings match winners are replaced somewhere - hopefully Armstrong can be that man.

[CanadaSaint]

We have understandably been very focused on whether the ins and outs will make us more competitive than we were in the second half of last season, and I’m confident that they will. That’s the shorter term benefit.

Even more important is the fact that fixing a lot of the accumulated financial disasters should make the club much more attractive to prospective buyers than it was six months ago. That’s the longer term benefit, because we’ll have a low ceiling for as long as Gao owns us. I don’t see a flotilla of luxury yachts suddenly appearing at Ocean Village, but the future certainly looks brighter.

[John B]

4 hours ago, CanadaSaint said:

We have understandably been very focused on whether the ins and outs will make us more competitive than we were in the second half of last season, and I’m confident that they will. That’s the shorter term benefit.

Even more important is the fact that fixing a lot of the accumulated financial disasters should make the club much more attractive to prospective buyers than it was six months ago. That’s the longer term benefit, because we’ll have a low ceiling for as long as Gao owns us. I don’t see a flotilla of luxury yachts suddenly appearing at Ocean Village, but the future certainly looks brighter.

It will only look brightr if we start winning games and clubs like Palace Watford Burnley Norwich Brentford do not