It's not as bad as you think... seriously

[That'sHernandez]

I know everyone is probably disappointed by the lack of signings but I really don't think it's a bad thing. Frankly I have found the growing need for clubs to throw money around at players literally every window quite surreal; is that really how we operated in the past? Have we always done that? Do we really need to sign two or three players on top of the team we already have, which won the league last season might I add, every year? I'm not convinced we do and I think it goes to show how out of touch football is with the rest of the world that the people in the industry, both press and club employees alike are.

Anyway after that rant, this thread does have a purpose.

Firstly: As far as I know, we managed to keep Rooney. I find it unlikely that we accepted an astronomical last minute bid, that has yet to be reported, without having an adequate replacement for him. Our lack of movement and creativity against Liverpool on the weekend proves how important he is to our team and how much we need him.

Secondly: If the president of Juventus is to believed, we have also kept Nani and signed him onto another few seasons with us. That's good news as he's easily our most creative winger and we have definitely missed his presence while he has been injured and left out by Fergie for whatever reason.

Thirdly: Fellaini is not ideal as I am sure most agree but it's not the end of the world, look at it this way; a defensive midfield pairing allows for players like Kagawa and Anderson to play creatively without having to worry as much about their defensive duties. While we haven't got the creative player I'm sure a lot of people wanted us to get, we already have players who are already very creative and I hope will now be given the freedom to be more creative.

I'm sure we will learn from this window and we won't be (as) disappointed in future.

 

[Randall Flagg]

It's been a load of wank.

And now we sign players on loan too for no apparent reason.

 

[Wumminator]

Felliani, Coentrao and Zaha.

Keep Rooney and Nani.

Decent transfer window overall. The way it's gone throughout the summer is the worrying part

 

[Siorac]

We've embarassed ourselves at every turn and got fleeced for a mediocre target man who's going to be our mainstay in midfield for years because at that price we won't give up on him even if he'll be shite. See Anderson.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

A quality post amongst the madness, nice one op.

 

[Theon]

It's been a piss poor window

Pleased we got Fellaini even though we clearly overpaid, but the way the club has conducted themselves has been terrible

 

[Ole's_toe_poke]

It is bad. We've looked like absolute fools this summer.

Aptly culminating in the whole Herrera saga.

 

[100]

Atrocious window but not important in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I'm amazed you didn't get the phrase "He'll be like a new signing" into that OP TH...

 

[Rozay]

We're no marks in the market. Since when do we sign cast offs on loan? We really have an Everton manager in charge now.

 

[rcoobc]

Nani will be like a new signing.

Edit - AN got there.

Regardless. Moderate to fair OP.

 

[CassiusClaymore]

I don't think you can sugar coat this one mate.

I don't know much about the Americans but they can't be happy with the way we've pissed away excess money on Fellaini and if Moyes was genuine in his interest in Fabregas, Herrera etc... then he can't be best pleased either.

We've made a complete pigs ear of this summer.

 

[sullydnl]

In terms of our actual squad things aren't too bad.

Our transfer policy this summer has been an absolute clusterfeck though, we're rightly being called out on it. Coentrao is only a loan, we've payed way too much for Fellaini and we didn't strengthen the squad in the way Moyes wanted. It's a mess and there's no point in trying to spin it any other way.

 

[Rozay]

Not to mention that the £4m we paid over Fellaini's release clause is the exact amount we needed to add to our Herrera bid. fecking jokers.

 

[Phil]

It is.

The above is the least we should be doing.

 

[Sam]

Its been fecking terrible

 

[NotoriousISSY]

It's not the lack of signings. It's the manner of EVERY move being so public and the image of the club being dragged down because of incompetent executives who either don't know when no means no or waste the time of other clubs making illogical offers.

Had we not allegedly and publicly been in for about 17 players (not just rumours), I'd say it's been OK...but knowing we tried to sign so many players and all went tits up for different reasons, you've got to be pretending that you're the reddest of the reds to not be somewhat alarmed by what has been a genuinely embarrassing summer from a transfer perspective. As I say, couldn't care less about names, quantity and fees...it's the manner and actions of the people running the club.

 

[Sixpence]

At least Woodward didn't sell RVP and De Gea for £1m each. For that, I say good work today Ed.

 

[thegregster]

If either of these signing dont happen.................

Neither confirmed.

 

[rcoobc]

I think back to the almost signings of yesteryear.. Ronaldinho, Shearer, Gascoigne... There is an apt comparison in there somewhere

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

In all honesty there have probably been many such windows under saf, we just never got told as much as we have this year

 

[Someone]

It hasn't been good but the squad we have is very good.

 

[Randall Flagg]

Now it appears we managed to feck up that loan deal we never needed in the first place.

 

[RK]

Felliani, Coentrao and Zaha.

Keep Rooney and Nani.

Decent transfer window overall. The way it's gone throughout the summer is the worrying part

Agreed. Shame it's not gone entirely as planned but I don't really give a feck about transfer windows. We've improved the squad, that's good. We'll keep winning and if not it's not the end of the world.

 

[gregwar]

fletcher. new signing. etc...

 

[shaggy]

Unfortunately I think their may well be future ramifications such as other players not willing to join us and our own players considering their future. I certainly would be questioning the club after this shambles.

 

[EvilChuck]

The Herrera reaction has been laughable. Earlier in the day when the reports were that we were going to meet the 36million release clause all the talk was that we were 'embarrassing' for spending that much on that player, then as the day progresses and the news comes out that the club doesnt think he's worth that and wanted to pay less than the release clause, closer to the club's own valuation then apparently we're 'embarrassing' again for not spending the money on him.... and most of the people whining about it almost certainly havent seen enough of him to even get that worked up about it

 

[Red Shorts]

What made it so dire was the fact that we made it out as if we went into so many deals with so little push (Thiago, Fabregas, Herrera), and we left it until the last minute, literally, to sign Fellaini. It just seemed all too arrogant and nonchalant, releasing it to the press we had made a bid for Cesc... for £25million . If we got one realistic target ie Fellainin before his release clause expired, nice and early then it would have been fine. All very amateur stuff from Woody, and will be interesting to see what he can do next january and next summer.

 

[Sarni]

Felliani, Coentrao and Zaha.

Keep Rooney and Nani.

Decent transfer window overall. The way it's gone throughout the summer is the worrying part

This. Signings alone aren't that bad, there weren't really any better midfielders available so Fellaini will do, especially as he can act as both a partner and a cover for Carrick.

It's the fact that we bottled the Thiago deal, spent half of the Summer chasing a player who didn't want to join us and then tried to lowball Everton only to pay £5m than we'd have had to pay 2 weeks ago for Fellaini and fecking over a young Spanish lad because we wouldn't stump up extra €6m. It's embarrasing.

 

[Robbie Boy]

Someone just had to make an 'everything is rosy' thread eh.

 

[evil_geko]

I am not upset about lack of signing, I am upset about idiots deteriorating our club's reputation like that, conducting business like amateurs!

 

[Siorac]

The Herrera reaction has been laughable. Earlier in the day when the reports were that we were going to meet the 36million release clause all the talk was that we were 'embarrassing' for spending that much on that player, then as the day progresses and the news comes out that the club doesnt think he's worth that and wanted to pay less than the release clause, closer to the club's own valuation then apparently we're 'embarrassing' again for not spending the money on him.... and most of the people whining about it almost certainly havent seen enough of him to even get that worked up about it

Missing the point spectacularly.

First, nobody said that paying that much money was embarassing, I don't even know where you got that from. There were people who doubted it was wise, yes. The majority wanted him.

Second, we went in for him a few days before deadline day. He's a key player for Bilbao, a club that can only sign Basque players so they have a limited pool of replacements. We expected them to sell one of their best players for less than his very affordable release clause on fecking deadline day.

Do you seriously not see how stupid and amateurish that is?

 

[krazyrobus]

You're joking right? it's been a shocking window.

The problems were known from forever, central midfield has been an issue, for what? 6 years now.

Wingers were an issue last season.

3 months to address the problem and all these idiots can come up with is a technically poor forward/midfielder.

It's not only that its the way they have carried on like imbeciles, Fabregas, seriously? He cried for months on end to go to Barca, and once he gets there he's suddenly going to want to come back to England and do it all over again?

The Thiago was a decent attempt, fair enough we lost him to Pep, no complaints there.

 

[Skywarden]

It's the approach that irks me. I'm fine signing Fellaini and no one else but why leave it til the dying hour?

 

[Sam]

Unfortunately I think their may well be future ramifications such as other players not willing to join us and our own players considering their future. I certainly would be questioning the club after this shambles.

Agreed.

 

[gregwar]

The Herrera reaction has been laughable. Earlier in the day when the reports were that we were going to meet the 36million release clause all the talk was that we were 'embarrassing' for spending that much on that player, then as the day progresses and the news comes out that the club doesnt think he's worth that and wanted to pay less than the release clause, closer to the club's own valuation then apparently we're 'embarrassing' again for not spending the money on him.... and most of the people whining about it almost certainly havent seen enough of him to even get that worked up about it

i think it's more to do with the reported three strangers turning up for negotiations and getting away with it for most of the afternoon.

 

[Revan]

Woodward has acted like a total clown. I hope that he has the dignity to resign tomorrow. He cost the club 4m in the Fellaini deal alone.

I think we acted a bit like cnuts in Herrera deal (if the reports are to be believed). If he was all alone the backup plan to Fellaini, then I really would be worry.

Mixed feelings about Coentrao dealing. Still not confirmed if it happens. If he comes, I think he'll do well and would have preferred him to Baines anyway.

To conclude, I think that it was a terrible summer and we have looked like total idiots. Hopefully we'll have a good season, but I am a bit worried with the direction the club seems to go.

 

[RedSky]

Agree with Cassius, no way you can dress this up. Our transfer business this summer has been appalling. The only signing we managed to complete was available for 4m cheaper a month ago. He could have had a pre season and played every game for us had we bothered to do this earlier, instead we gave Everton the upper hand and they (to their credit) took another 4m off us.

Herrera transfer saga... the Fabregas saga... it's just. Crikey.

I don't really see the logic in getting Coentrao in, just means Fabio has even less playing time. To do all this on the last day of the window is just... i'm lost for words. The whole Herrera saga was utterly surreal.

 

[sullydnl]

The fact that we didn't strengthen the squad a much as Moyes wanted is obviously a problem, one that would rightly be pointed out any other year. Simply put, we failed to meet any of the targets we set for ourselves this summer. Fellaini is the closest thing we have to a success and he was a) over priced, b) available for less a few weeks ago and c) only papers over some of the cracks in our cm. Not good and still leaves us as probably third favourites for the PL.

However, way we've handled ourselves is the real problem here and it is exactly as bad as people are saying. If this had happened to another club we'd have found it hilarious, so lets not pretend people are exaggerating it or something. It's a proper shambles, there's no defending it. My only hope is that the club recognises this and sorts out whatever the feck went wrong.

It's Moyes I feel sorry for. The club has kinda fecked him over here.

 

[Gazza]

It's "not as bad as you think" if you were thinking Old Trafford would slide into the Quays

It is very bad though. We've wasted time and money with the Fellaini deal. Coentrao seems like an after-thought and even then we've seemingly misunderstood the concept of a transfer deadline.

Happy to have signed Fellaini, and keeping Rooney was the right thing for the club, but a successful summer it has not been.