Roundup:
So we did a Maguire with Bruno. A player available for less money last summer (as was Maguire when Jose wanted him). We then proceeded to spend the whole window negotiating, only to end up paying the set price at the end of the window. With Maguire, we could have had him bed in much sooner, with Bruno we could have had him playing for all of January.
We tried to tempt Jude Bellingham to join from Birmingham. Rumoured to have offered 30m for the 16 year old. He didn’t fancy it.
We made an offer for Josh King - Bournemouth fighting relegation - how likely was it that they’d want to sell relatively cheap with no time to replace him?
Ole personally went to speak with Haaland, thinking he’d join us. Goes to Dortmund and scores loads of goals. Granted, if rumours of the deal are to be believed, the player is almost being rented from Raiola and his dad. If Ole tried to get around Raiola, that’s a plus.
We were rumoured to have scoped out a loan move for 20 year old Argentine striker Adolfo Gaich, who has a tiny €13.5m release clause.
Vague rumours around Grealish, Maddison, Cavani, Rakitic.
And we saw Rojo and Young leave, despite Ole saying he wanted to retain the players at the club as the squad was so stretched.
It is clear that our transfer “committee” is atrocious. It is also clear that we do not have a long-term approach in place, where we know our targets. A long-term plan includes more then 2-3 players that are unattainable in January because they are playing in the CL. This “long-termism” seems to be a relatively empty buzzword to buy more time for a club that has little ambition, and perhaps, not the money it once did, having squandered hundreds of millions on inflated fees, wages and managerial sackings.
That being said, we needed a striker and got one in. Mainly it’s good so we won’t destroy Martial and Greenwood.
And we needed a midfielder so we won’t play Matic and Fred until they get even too injured for Ole to play them.
I don’t mind us not spending huge sums in January, but I find it unacceptable that a club of this stature doesn’t seem prepared in the slightest.
I’d give this window a 5/10 given our needs, but I was expecting 0/10.