Rate our January window

Bastian

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Jul 16, 2015
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Mejbri
Martial out on loan
Donny out on loan
Amad out on loan
Jones, Lingard and Henderson with moves that didn't materialise for various reasons

Squad made a bit more manageable, Pogba coming back, Mejbri coming into the senior team, and our most promising player likely finished.

My hopes were for us to make a low-risk signing of a DM (Kamara) or if possible, or a summer target player now. And for us to make some money in the market by selling players who are not playing (Mata, Bailly), whose contracts are running out (Lingard). As it is, it's sensible to have kept Lingard. And I think those loans out make sense as long as they're guaranteed game time (no worries about Martial).

It's hard to know whether Rangnick just wasn't backed in terms of acquisitions or if it's a measured approach as the required profiles weren't available. But we are very thin in midfield. An injury to Fred/McTominay and we're kind of fecked.

Not factoring in recent events, I'd give it a 6/10 for showing the effort to trim the squad.
 
7/10

We got rid of alot of bad apples. Thats a great start. We need a squad who is together and willing to improve. 3/4 rotten teammates and screw up alot of things.
 
Bastian said:
It's hard to know whether Rangnick just wasn't backed in terms of acquisitions or if it's a measured approach as the required profiles weren't available. But we are very thin in midfield. An injury to Fred/McTominay and we're kind of fecked.

Not factoring in recent events, I'd give it a 6/10 for showing the effort to trim the squad.
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YOu left out one option -- maybe its almost impossible to get quality players when they know he is an interim manager? It was hard enough for Ralf to get coaches. I imagine it's much more difficult to get the players you want with an interim manager ....and in January, a traditionally difficult window regardless.
 
With the benefit of hindsight, pretty poor. Shipped 3 attacking players we could have used and haven’t strengthened in midfield.
Also 2 players who are kicking up stink remain at the club. Jesse & Hendo should be gone. Not good enough.
 
5/10

Was never expecting anyone in and at least a start has been made on getting rid of those who are surplus.
 
Awful. Can't see us win CL now with this squad. Still some hope if we get it right.

Bookies give us 1/20 to win it roughly. Sounds about right if we have our lucky day, but not sure Rangnick is good enough as a manager.
Think Ajax and Inter have better chances than us to be fair.
 
We haven't used Tony in almost 2 years. Good. Hope they buy him.
We haven't used VDB at all, if you don't count the 88 minute sightings. Good. Hope he proves us wrong and gets back in the team.
Amad is young. He should be on loan. Actually, he should have been on loan for quite some time.

Lingard leaving on free. Don't care.
Pogba leaving on free. Good riddance.
Mason leaving on fre.....nah, ain't gonna be FREE for quite some time.

Sell Hendo in the summer.
Sell Bailly in the summer.
Sell Jones in the summer.
Mata get's the coaching/ambassador job.

Ronny probably leaves.
Cavani as well.


New coach is gonna have his hands full if he plans on fielding 11 players.

It's gonna be some proper Football manager summer for who ever gets the job.
 
It's fine. None of these players out on loan have any impact on our first team squad. It means there's more onus for Sancho, Elanga, Rashford and Lingard to make it work and it also means that Pogba will be a big part of the remainder of the season.

And we've managed to get rid of some miserable faces from our bench like Donny and Martial. It'll also be pretty exciting seeing Diallo with some real game time.

7/10.
 
2/10. Amad and Martial got good loans... But we didn't buy a midfielder and lost Greenwood (not that that's a "transfer" but it happened)
 
DickDastardly said:
We haven't used Tony in almost 2 years. Good. Hope they buy him.
We haven't used VDB at all, if you don't count the 88 minute sightings. Good. Hope he proves us wrong and gets back in the team.
Amad is young. He should be on loan. Actually, he should have been on loan for quite some time.

Lingard leaving on free. Don't care.
Pogba leaving on free. Good riddance.
Mason leaving on fre.....nah, ain't gonna be FREE for quite some time.

Sell Hendo in the summer.
Sell Bailly in the summer.
Sell Jones in the summer.
Mata get's the coaching/ambassador job.

Ronny probably leaves.
Cavani as well.


New coach is gonna have his hands full if he plans on fielding 11 players.

It's gonna be some proper Football manager summer for who ever gets the job.
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It maybe Ralf's grand scheme -- get rid of all the players and like LVG, play kids who he can mould to play the 4-2-2-2 gegenpress 2.0. -- with his in charge
 
Forwards - Needed some fresh legs with ancient cavani and ancient ronaldo at the helm
Central Midfield - Needed anyone half decent due to nonexistent midfield unless you count McFred

How will we dominate play in the opponents half and make chances that our ancient forwards can actually put away ?

Rating: SqueakyBumTime/10
 
0/10. Not making a midfielder signing let alone any signing and missing out on top 4 will be very costly this next summer.

Or maybe that's exactly what this incompetent board is going for. "Oh we tried! Nobody wanted to join a team who is not in the CL! Better luck next summer!" (pockets money to Glazers).
 
Annihilate Now! said:
2/10. Amad and Martial got good loans... But we didn't buy a midfielder and lost Greenwood (not that that's a "transfer" but it happened)
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Yeah, if you factor that into the window it is diabolical. Which is why I leave it out. Though of course it does affect other things. Like I wanted to see Jesse leave, but get why it's important to have him as cover now. Lingard moving would have felt like there really were a few more gears to some progressive future on our part. But it happened. Like you say.
 
VidaRed said:
Forwards - Needed some fresh legs with ancient cavani and ancient ronaldo at the helm
Central Midfield - Needed anyone half decent due to nonexistent midfield unless you count McFred

How will we dominate play in the opponents half and make chances that our ancient forwards can actually put away ?

Rating: SqueakyBumTime/10
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Whats interesting is that we had the youngest starting 11, barring De Gea like 2 seasons ago to now one of the oldest.
 
Pretty meh, I suppose it's a good sign that we didn't kneejerk sign a CM that would've been deadwood once Ten Hag came in.

Hope VdB does a Lingard and Everton come back in the summer with a proper offer.
 
Bastian said:
Yeah, if you factor that into the window it is diabolical. Which is why I leave it out. Though of course it does affect other things. Like I wanted to see Jesse leave, but get why it's important to have him as cover now. Lingard moving would have felt like there really were a few more gears to some progressive future on our part. But it happened. Like you say.
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Jesse has the motivation to impress in training/match performance for a couple of reasons now. Potential new club and the WC.
Its Hendo you have to feel sorry for -- he is unlikely to dethrone De Gea in the next few months.
 
Did anyone actually believe we would bring in anyone ?

Wait till the next window when we're not in CL and we'd have to pay a surplus on top of the utd tax on transfers. We won't attract top talent either since no CL.

We'd be spending top dollar on mid table players who cant hack it at the top level while our rivals show us the net spend chart to piss on our faces.
 
VidaRed said:
Did anyone actually believe we would bring in anyone ?

Wait till the next window when we're not in CL and we'd have to pay a surplus on top of the utd tax on transfers. We won't attract top talent either since no CL.

We'd be spending top dollar on mid table players who cant hack it at the top level while our rivals show us the net spend chart to piss on our faces.
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I am sure we tried. But nobody we needed wanted to come to an interim manager.
 
Andersonson said:
7/10

We got rid of alot of bad apples. Thats a great start. We need a squad who is together and willing to improve. 3/4 rotten teammates and screw up alot of things.
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Besides Martial which of the other ones were bad apples? I mean, I dont think Amad or VdB can be classified as such.
 
Everyone would’ve given 9/10 if zakaria or kamara was signed but i personally feel ours is still good enough to finish top 4 with fa cup.
My rating is 6/10
 
Pathetic, for a club with so many issues in midfield not to make one signing is just laughable but given our current state of affairs it wasn't unexpected.

Hopefully the loanees do well. I'm disgusted at the treatment of Lingard though.
 
lol/10

We've pretty much waved a white flag this window. Blatantly wrote off yet another season.
 
Andersonson said:
7/10

We got rid of alot of bad apples. Thats a great start. We need a squad who is together and willing to improve. 3/4 rotten teammates and screw up alot of things.
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got rid of a lot of bad apples? Other than possibly martial who was a bad apple?
 
Having a tiny squad is key to win CL in our minds. City have a big squad and have not won it.

This is a masterplan from Woodward.
 
About an 8/10. Very good conservative decisions were taken to streamline the squad. Too many people are too emotional right now and I don't quite understand. In a few months' time, there will be threads on how this was a great move.

Got rid of deadwood and removed bloated salaries of the books till the end of the season. It allows everyone to be laser-focused in the squad knowing that they are all completely GUARANTEED minutes therefore no more sulking. They will be switched on in training and in games.

We're not in the league cup anymore and this season has 3 months left. Get settled in the summer and start the process clean and clear then.
 
5/10. We let a guy go then a spot opened up, but then a kid decided to destroy his life. Our team is always not interested in anyone so a replacement wasn't feasible.
 
from now on I'm giving every window where we don't sign a midfielder a 0

how this club has conspired to not do that in the last two windows defies all logic
 
Terrible window.i was all for Jesse going at start of window.but with the whole Mason stuff I think Jesse has a role to play.if he can help somewhat to get 4th then that's much better than 7m off toon. Off he goes then. Spurs were favs for 4th IMO and with their window I think they've shorten their odds. Uphill battle for us now. Seems like all our hopes are on P.P returning,Knowing our luck news will break tomorrow that pogba has re-injuried himself and is staying in the middle East until summer when he moves on to psg or real or whoever. Oh well this time next year.....
 
WR10 said:
About an 8/10. Very good conservative decisions were taken to streamline the squad. Too many people are too emotional right now and I don't quite understand. In a few months' time, there will be threads on how this was a great move.

Got rid of deadwood and removed bloated salaries of the books till the end of the season. It allows everyone to be laser-focused in the squad knowing that they are all completely GUARANTEED minutes therefore no more sulking. They will be switched on in training and in games.

We're not in the league cup anymore and this season has 3 months left. Get settled in the summer and start the process clean and clear then.
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Yeah, I largely agree, but those midfield options leave me feeling a couple of levels below your positive take. As I said, an injury to Fred or McTominay and we're really struggling. And we're relying on them to do the business consistently now.
 
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