Rate the window out of 10.

Fortitude

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Scale of 1 - 10, 10 being amazing, how do you rate this window?

This conversation is basically wildfire across a number of threads and is kind of detracting from what those threads are supposed to be about so makes sense for the conversation to be housed in one place and not overspilling into other threads where people don't necessarily want to read about it.

So putting your money where your mouth is, how do you rate this summer transfer window?
 
6/10

Needed to get one of the big/top midfielders to make it a 7.
Needed a LB to make it an 8.
Needed to get attacking cover to make it 9.
I don’t see a perfect window existing.
 
We'll only know if it's a truly good window in May.

On the face of it, I'd give it a 7.

If we win an FA Cup or League Cup this season and qualify for the Champions League, it becomes an 8.

If win the Premier League or Champions League, it becomes a 10.
 
Sky sports gave it 2/10. I'd be more generous with 4/10. We slightly improved the quality of CM and that's it. LB is a shambles, we didn't get rid of Rashford, Zirkzee and co, we didn't add a backup for Sesko and the CB situation is a concern.
 
I'd say a 6.

Midfield rebuild has been completed to a decent standard, I'm an optimist so I think Baleba will get back to his best here and that Tielemans will show his class eventually. Santos I'm less convinced on, but he had some good showings in preseason.

I'd have liked a LB to compete with Shaw, but seems we never had the money for that, given the Hall links died the second we signed Baleba. A Salinas type would have been good future planning, but Shaw would still have started most games when fit.

Sales killed us this window, and I don't really know what the club could have done to solve that issue. Looking through our squad it's either players we need with us, or complete deadwood that was never fetching anything.

If we can have a few years closer to the top of the table, we'll start to see our rotation options come into demand by other clubs.
 
Remains to be seen but none of them smell like immediate success. Not wrong to invest in talents but we needed at least one ready from day one top midfielder.

Not buying a LB is really bad, and not upgrading on Zirkzee as well.
So overall a 5, maybe 6.
 
hard to do this because we don't really know the constraints we are working under financially

City were able to do a midfield refit with 3 players for 320m - ours cost us about 140m - that was because of historical debt

the players we bought look promising and a good blend of abilities

we didnt do anything stupid (Tonali/Fernandes) and we operated like a sensible club

we sold poorly or didnt shift players we needed to at all

there are clear issue in the squad in terms of quality at full back. Quality cover in the number 9 position

im hopeful that Rashford and De Ligt make strong contributions this year

overall a 6 out of 10 for me. (taking debt into account)
 
4/10. To qualify for Champions League and be left with a squad like this is criminal. Same defence that’s been tripping us up for years and years. One recognised striker.

Think most of us would have sacrificed a Tielemans or a Santos in favour of a left back or a striker.
 
We have replaced Casemiro and Ugarte but whether our midfield is actually stronger remains to be seen.
We haven’t signed a lb which means teams will have a ton of fun attacking our left side.
Depending on how Tielemanns and Santos work out it could be a 6/10 window. Probably a 4/10 right now.
 
This was the season we should have bought. To give our Bruno the chance to go for the title, in order to convince him to stay beyond this season. Perhaps if we did sign top players in all areas of need, he maybe would have left after winning the PL.
 
P-Nut said:
I'd say a 6.

Midfield rebuild has been completed to a decent standard, I'm an optimist so I think Baleba will get back to his best here and that Tielemans will show his class eventually. Santos I'm less convinced on, but he had some good showings in preseason.

I'd have liked a LB to compete with Shaw, but seems we never had the money for that, given the Hall links died the second we signed Baleba. A Salinas type would have been good future planning, but Shaw would still have started most games when fit.

Sales killed us this window, and I don't really know what the club could have done to solve that issue. Looking through our squad it's either players we need with us, or complete deadwood that was never fetching anything.

If we can have a few years closer to the top of the table, we'll start to see our rotation options come into demand by other clubs.
Click to expand...
This really, 6/10 seems fair. It’s a shame that the doom mongers were right in the end about the lack of a left back, but like you said I think lack of sales hurt us. I also wonder if Sesko was signed from this years budget. I think the club deserve criticism for not filling this obvious hole.

The 3 we have brought in I really like, all have different profiles so that’s interesting for the manager. The squad seems stronger to me, we have depth in forward positions and depth in midfield now. We lack depth in full back positions and left back is the big concern throughout this season.
 
Probably a 4 or 5. We did well to pivot to players like Tielemans and Santos when we weren't prepared to get involved for the huge fees involved to sign players like Anderson and Mateus Fernandes early in the window, but we didn't do anything remarkable after that. Baleba maybe has the right traits on paper but still feels like a gamble for a large fee, and we've left two positions in the squad largely unresolved in a season where we had to bulk out to contend with Champions League football.

We've also planned poorly. Welbeck is an ex-academy player who could've been available on a free going into the summer if we got in his ear early enough, or failing that, we could've just got involved at whatever price Chelsea ended up paying for him. If we knew there were going to be budget constraints, he was an obvious get and then we could've allowed Zirkzee to leave on loan when other teams inevitably came in for him at the end of the window. We wanted Welbeck for the last two summers, he would've helped with Champions League homegrown quotas and he likely would've played more football here than he will end up getting at Chelsea this season. It wouldn't have taken a genius to identify that target.

The left back situation is just crazy, really. You could argue Dorgu should be tried in that position, but if Carrick and/or the club really don't believe he is capable of playing that position, something had to be done to address that. We're now in a position of essentially hoping Luke Shaw manages to rebuild himself for the rest of the season or Harry Amass has a great season out of nowhere. Neither situation is likely, and succession planning for Shaw would've been so much easier if we had a new player coming in now with him in the background, than taking over next season when Shaw might be already gone.
 
I’d say a generous 4, taking our failure to sell in a window where money was being splashed across the league.

Looking at our squad, we have 25 senior players.

3 of those are goalkeepers.
1 is Ugarte who is likely out for the season.
2 who knows how many games we will get from them in De Ligt and Mount.
Baleba and Diallo are currently injured for I’m guessing a month.
We have 1 actual striker.
if/when Shaw breaks down we don’t have a proper left back, just people who can cover.
Our other main centre backs in Martinez and Maguire are getting quite injury prone, so can’t be relied on.
 
KStandBarmyArmy1993 said:
We'll only know if it's a truly good window in May.

On the face of it, I'd give it a 7.

If we win an FA Cup or League Cup this season and qualify for the Champions League, it becomes an 8.

If win the Premier League or Champions League, it becomes a 10.
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The thread is to rate the window, which is asking for an opinion based on expectations.

Based on how upset the Villa and Chelsea fans were when the deals were announced, I'd rate our midfield signings as 8/10 with Baleba hopefully being the cherry on the top.

Not dealing with the LB and striker positions is negligent in the extreme. Carrick is going to have to be massively creative during the season to find solutions within the squad, probably having to play Heaven or Yoro at FB at times. None of the options (even our proper FBs) we have provide any real attacking threat.

Screwing up a simple pursuit for Louis Page after a free run at him on deadline day just makes us a proper laughing stock.

Clearly INEOS expected some money coming in from sales but we effectively got zilch for Rashford/Onana/Zirkzee/Ugarte/Mount. With CL money coming at the end of the season you can to some degree understand prudence.

But the overall window can only be seen as very low. I'd rate it as a 3. For us to go deep in competitions we need a lof of luck, Carrick to work some miracles on the training ground, some players to step up and have massive Bruno like seasons to share the burden. Oh, and to have very few injuries in key positions where we are short.

Maybe we dip into the market in January.
 
It’s a solid 4/10 window. We haven’t sold anyone bar a couple of youngsters, didn’t address full backs, didn’t address striker, and only added depth to midfield. It will be very difficult for us to compete on 4 fronts with this squad, sadly
 
Only 5/10 because we didn't sell Rashford, Zirkzee and didn't replace Shaw. Could have done with some more bodies. Happy with Tielemans and Baleba.
 
Not rad/10

Edit: forgot about Baleba. If he returns to form, great, but then one or both of Tielemans and Santos is redundant. Mainoo is clearly a nailed on starter, not sure how we are integrating all these players.

Missed out on all of our top transfer targets.

We didn’t sell players that we needed to sell.
We didn’t get a striker.
We didn’t get a LB.

Basically added Baleba as an eventual starter, with 2 rotation midfielders.

3/10 maybe 4/10
 
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This all seems to be based on the amount of time since last transfer. Motivation, optimism. They spike every time we get a somewhat good or above transfer. With the amount of time, it deflates. This is a very emotional forum. :D I do understand it.

People want the first transfer early. We got that. But the longer we go, the more we demand. I think we'd see completely different ratings, if for example all 3 midfield transfers had happened 1 per week throughout the last 3 weeks. It creates momentum. On the other side, getting Santos and Tielemans somewhat early, just deflates the optimism. Is it like a fix? I remember the feeling from FM, new transfers were more enjoyable than playing the actual game.

The logical arguments focusing on LB, Striker etc. are of course very relevant. I think it just comes down to expectation. Completing 3 good upgrades for midfield with weeks to go just created the focus on the next position to be upgraded. I really think these sort of ratings should be based on a pre-window list of expectations, midway and then after the end. Not gonna waste my time on doing anything like that of course, just in theory.

For now, I think a rating within the first few days of transfer window closing is just emotional based on what we did not get done, or if (like City, maybe even Chelsea if they had closed their last failed transfer) we succeeded in late approaches. Even if that had just been 1 out of the needed 3 additional signings. While "May" is a bit late to evaluate, I think it is time to just conclude that we did not sell enough, we are not financial as strong as some opponents, we strenghtened the midfield, we did nok strenghten attack and lb but it is very obvious, that it is something the club prioritizes. Now, I will just give it a rest. Enjoy some games. We have what we have. And then consider good/bad or ratings in a few weeks. Right now, it's just a bad time of the month for most of us anyway. ;)
 
No real sales (Lazy Rashford is back and he could be poison in the dressing room
Sold a few kids for almost nothing. Paying more on a kid from Tottenham
No striker, LB, CB, RB, LW.
Tielemans looks as a good deal as a rotation player with Mainoo.
Santos and Baleba can end up everything from horrible to great players (red flags are Santos seems slow) + (Baleba is a huge gamble coming off a horrible season. Is he what we need or just another Ugarte).
We did not get any of our A or B targets.

Our defense is weaker (Maguire and Shaw are declining fast now)
Our midfield is stronger but on paper not a top 4 team.
Our Attack is about the same as last year (except for Bruno none of them are delivering on a continues high level).

I think we go lucky last year over performing under Carrick (while other teams underperformed). I will not put us in the top 6, but hope we stay in the top 10. More matches and with bad luck on injuries we could drop out of top 10.

3/10
 
4/10

It's also made worse by the fact we're so transparent with our squad building.

Pretty sure we're the only team that buys one area of the pitch a year, just means everyone and their dog knows we're going to be desperate for defenders next year and will charge us accordingly.
 
5 or 6/10

We are the worst selling club, possibly in the world, addressed midfield in some manner, albeit I feel Santos/Baleba have a lot to prove.

No LB brought in at all, no back up striker.
 
4/10. Below what I'd say 'average' or 'ok' because of lack of LB which will haunt us. Also Zirkzee and Rashford staying. I never expected striker backup to come. LB though, again, is criminal.

I have concerns about Santos but happy with Tielemans and especially Baleba.

This summer will be seen as missed opportunity down the line.
 
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It's somewhere in the the middle - around 4-6/10.

The Ugarte injury and Rashford situation definitely complicated matters. I don't really put much blame on that part, other than whoever gave Rashford that contract in the first place of course. It feels like we couldn't find the right player as well though! We should be in the market for an attacking player, either a more experienced striker or a bit of a tricky/unpredictable winger (ideally both in the longer term). That didn't happen so we have to keep the score down by 1-2 points for this. Having to keep Zirkzee longer shows where this part of the squad is at despite huge improvement the previous summer.

Midfield has seen us go for good players with certain profiles rather than the top targets. I understand that if we tried to bid on certain players it would have increased our spend exponentially. We've been left in a position where we needed to buy too many in one area at once. Mainoo is still our best midfield player and he was already here, but I do think the four of them should be enough and could become the required quality.

Defence is a bit of a shambles. We should have got one more experienced or highly rated defender over the line. We are relying on Shaw, Martinez and De Ligt to stay fit which is historically not likely. It's a gamble from the club to keep finances in order. I think we will end up having to use the January window to find a defender.

We've done a bit better with some of the outgoings, but I feel like the big Summer is going to be the next one. We should be getting a forward and 2-3 defenders as a minimum.

This window might turn out to be the right call for the position we find ourselves in, but it's hard to give it more than 6/10. I'd probably sway slightly more to 5 even.
 
6. I am surprised that we have signed not 1 but 3 midfielders!

CM is usually our cryptonite.
 
6.5 for me.

Strengthened central midfield, a position it feels we haven't bought in for around twenty years, with a top level experienced player and two younger and clearly talented players.

Brought in some exciting young talents and a quality back up goalkeeper.

Weren't able to move on players that are surplus to requirements.

Happy enough with the window but I just feel that just a tiny bit more needed to be done.

Nobody was bought that made me think "wow what a signing" but I feel that they're all good players.

Next season will focus on the defence clearly so there's a year for them to show why they should stay. Be interesting
 
We couldn't sell and didn't address holes in the squad. 2/10 not addressing the defense and no striker addition will cost us this season.
 
5/10 simply because we added Baleba

- overpay for a reasonably inexperienced Santos
- Tielemans is a decent passer but weak and not as mobile as others. May need runners around him. 5 year contract is a bit much for a 29 year old
- going into a CL season, where the money is, with a woefully unbalanced squad
- no backup option for CF. Sesko is young, gets lots of niggling injuries because of his frame. We are a professional football team without another CF!?
- likewise, no backup for LB, despite it being painfully obvious that Shaw is not the player he was anymore. I think that we may have to witness his Gary Neville moment
- being unable to sell, even the academy players for any decent fees.
- €100m Net spent in the window, despite financial experts telling us that the club has great spending power this window. We’ve moved like a club that has no money
- CEO told us that this will be the year of a title challenge. And by next year we’d win it. Dead man walking
 
6.5/10

We rebuilt our midfield with some great players, with a decent mix of experience, potential and skills. However, we didn't manage to sign a LB and we didn't made the sales we were expecting. I guess we will have a busier January than we were anticipating.
 
golden_blunder said:
5/10 simply because we added Baleba

- overpay for a reasonably inexperienced Santos
- Tielemans is a decent passer but weak and not as mobile as others. May need runners around him. 5 year contract is a bit much for a 29 year old
- going into a CL season, where the money is, with a woefully unbalanced squad
- no backup option for CF. Sesko is young, gets lots of niggling injuries because of his frame. We are a professional football team without another CF!?
- likewise, no backup for LB, despite it being painfully obvious that Shaw is not the player he was anymore. I think that we may have to witness his Gary Neville moment
- being unable to sell, even the academy players for any decent fees.
- €100m Net spent in the window, despite financial experts telling us that the club has great spending power this window. We’ve moved like a club that has no money
- CEO told us that this will be the year of a title challenge. And by next year we’d win it. Dead man walking
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Agree with all those reasons but don't agree with the rating. 4/10 at best. And if Baleba doesn't hit the ground running, it'll be even worse.
 
Hernandez - BFA said:
6/10

Needed to get one of the big/top midfielders to make it a 7.
Needed a LB to make it an 8.
Needed to get attacking cover to make it 9.
I don’t see a perfect window existing.
Click to expand...
This is a fair way of looking at it

A level up for additional areas that we didn’t quite manage

6 is good. Not amazing. Not terrible

Without looking I’m sure a few are posting 1s 2s and 3s

But I would drop it to a 5 based on our terrible ability to sell..or not
 
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