Rate the window out of 10.

On a scale from 1998 which was the best one, and 2023 which was the absolute worst one:

6 Sounds about right, for me.

The Left Back position doesn’t need more depth, with young Amass staying (?) and Dalot and Maz who can also play there.
The Left Back position needs a starter and an upgrade on Luke Shaw after 13 long and painful years, next summer, shake hands, thank him for his service and set him free at the end of his contract.

A backup striker could have been nice, but who? Its a void in the striking department out there in the world, the mighty Barcelona don’t even have a starter striker, they’ll find solutions and so shall we whenever Sesko isn’t available.
Could be Mbuemo, could be Cunha or Rashford or maybe even Bruno in a false 9 sort of role, I mean every striker on the planet would’ve been proud in his finish for his first against Ipswich and his third was such a cracking classic poacher’s instinct.
 
3/10 and that is being generous.

We missed out on all of our main targets and opted to sign Tielemans just because he had a cheap release clause, overpaid for Santos who is inexperienced and overpaid massively for Baleba who had a shit season.

We have one left back in Shaw and he isn't remotely good enough to be starting. He is going into his 13th season now, he wouldn't have lasted this long at an actual top club.

Maguire, Martinez and de Ligt are not reliable, Yoro and Heaven are inexperienced. Martinez should have been sold so we could sign a decent reliable centre back.

Zirkzee and Rashford should have been sold and we should have at least signed a left winger, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and even Spurs would have got money for them.

Our squad was weak to cope playing with one game a week in a 40 game season, we are going to struggle massively this season.
 
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7/10. Pleased with the midfielders, wanted a LB but beyond Hall don't think there's anyone who would come in and make an immediate impact.

Think we were somewhat hamstrung by Ugarte's injury and Barca not signing Rashford. Although I'm hopeful he can be a net positive in attack. I'd like to see Dorgu as an overlapping LB fit Rashford, especially in games we expect to dominate. Not sure it'll happen, and will need Baleba in the team to cover that space too.

I think people need to remember lots of other clubs didn't get their way either.

Spurs spent big in midfield and defence, but not sure the defence has improved that much and their attack still looks pretty blunt to me.

Chelsea couldn't get an Enzo replacement. Arsenal couldn't get Alvarez. Liverpool hit a lot of roadblocks and then spent over £100m on another winger. Everton have one striker.

We did fine in the end. Not the disaster many are making it out to be, but certainly could have been better.
 
Fortitude said:
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?
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I'd say 6/10.
The main immediate task, getting a new central midfield, was done quite well. However it is disappointing that we did nothing further to strengthen, despite the midfield expenditure being very moderate.
We didn't manage to sell any of the explicit deadwood Rashford and Zirkzee, we didn't manage to give the defense any new impetus or quality, we don't have proper positional cover at CF or LB.
It's not a disaster by any means, but it feels very much like a missed chance to push on at a crucial moment in time, and smacks strongly of lack of ambition and squad-building creativity.
 
3/10.
Catalandevil said:
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.
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Seriously? No offence but if you think that we will buy anything in January you are deluded. It will be the usual "No valute in the market" bollocks and "We are concentrating on the summer" nonsense.
 
4/10.

No issue with the players we have signed but ignoring that your only left back is well past his best and has never at any point in his career been able to handle playing 2 games a week, is criminally stupid.

The excuse of there being no one better than what we have available is also non valid, because whoever we signed would have been a replacement/upgrade on literally no one. We have failed to identify a single left back on the entire planet who would have been an improvement on potentially not having a left back at all.

This will very obviously have a significant negative impact on our season. The best case scenario is Luke Shaw struggling through and it noticeably impacting both his and our performances. The worst and more likely case is he ends up getting injured and we continuously lose games or drop points because whoever we play there will be targeted and found out constantly. There is no way around or past that, and therefore don't see how you can argue its been a good transfer window.

We've sacrificed having a solid team/squad to pinch some pennies, which ultimately will save us no money at all as we will still need to sign a left back anyway, and could end up missing out on significant competition money as a result of choosing not to yet.

I assume from the ratings in here people are just underestimating how big a negative impact this is very likely to have on a 50+ game season.
 
Based solely on the purchases, I'd say a 6/10 but of course only time will tell whether the signings knit the team together to make us more secure defensively and more dangerous in attacking areas...that's how important midfield is, and scandalous that it was not addressed properly for so long.

We cant compete with the cheating lot, so its pointless to even compare our relative signings but if, IF, we can have a period of sustained CL qualifications and runs deep into the competition, we may be able to claw some ground back in 3-5 years but if the footballing authorities choose to turn a blind eye to this PSR/SCR engineering that's taking place in the PL then the gap will never close!
 
I'll start by saying I rate our signings, I think all 3 CMs bring some much needed skillsets to the team. But still it's a 5/10. On paper we won't know if we got better until after Baleba and Santos start playing regularly. An argument can be made that we could be worse due to more games this season because we left gaping holes in LB and ST options.

I'm of the mind that you should always bring in an attacker in the summer. Just to freshen things up and give the fans something new to look forward to. And no, Rashford is not "like a new signing". Until he has an entire season of good performances with proper dedication he'll always have a question mark.

But leaving my personal desire aside, we simply cannot rely on Shaw as our only LB with wrong footed Dalot or Mazraoui as his backups. Similar situation with Sesko where Zirkzee has shown time after time that he isn't suited to the league. That we couldn't find some replacements in the whole of transfer window has made one thing pretty clear-we were not shopping at the top level.

And no, I don't mean that we should be buying 100m players for each position. I'm saying budget wise we can't match the top level. The Glazers have done such a number on us that we can't address more than one area of weakness in a window. For example, if our plan is Hall for LB next summer, a non-financially constrained club gets a cheap LB to at least cover for Shaw. But our budget is so tight, that if we spend some money now, we won't have enough money for Hall + whatever defenders we need next summer. That's how it looks to me.

So we're putting our hopes on Shaw being fit/Amass having a breakthrough, Bruno to repeat another great season, Baleba/Santos settling well (Tielemans is a known quantity), our CBs(De Ligt, Licha) to remain fit and for Sesko to maintain his second half of last season's level for a whole season. That's a lot of hoping. It has put a lot of pressure on the players and the coaches.

I'll finish this rambling by saying I wasn't under any illusion that we were going to compete for the title. But I had hoped we'd go some way of consolidating our place as a CL club after the window. Right now it'll be another fight for CL places. I think we can win that fight but it won't be as comfortable as it could've been with more additions to the squad.
 
5.5/10

Im glad we addressed the obvious hole in CM left by Casemiro, but to completely neglect the other areas we have known desperately needed strengthening in LB & ST, a joke.. An injury or two in these areas (especially LB) and watch our season fall apart quickly
 
What's the goal nowadays? Just get top 4? They told us they wanted to win the league...

Ultimately as others have said we cannot compete with the spending power of City, Chelsea and Liverpool. We are years behind Arsenal. So thats top 4 gone. And let's not kid ourselves CL is way beyond our level these days. We are a Europa League club from here on our.
 
6/10 for me too.

The critics of the window would do well to remember that we finished a comfortable 3rd. Lost a Casemiro who was finishing up. We were never going to be able to replace his goals in any other central midfielder. We've upgraded Casemiro and Ugarte and brought in very good cover. Mainoo looks to still be improving. It's positive.

Adding Rashford will add goals either way. It's the work rate and mood around the squad that worries me but he's a plus for goals so that's some more goals added back in and it does cover us up front when we can use BM as a backup striker. The manager even seemed to prefer him to Sesko for large parts of last season. Sesko as a backup is already overkill.

The attack should mature having spent a season together.

Look. I'd rather we were like City and we could just go out and buy à la carte but Arsenal and Liverpool (under Klopp) have shown that with sensible recruitment you can seriously challenge city. We can't slug it out with them on British record transfers every second player. We need to identify and recruit before hype hits home run level.

I'm glad to just get back to football and see how the players we have will do. I think the squad is confident and we will do better than a lot of the transfer naysayers on here believe. I think we are going to have a good solid season. I fancy us to get top 4 again and to possibly win a cup which is already a lot better than what's normally happened in CL seasons post Fergie. It means we've made a solid foundation. Do I trust Ineos to take the next steps? If that means going out signing Bellingham then no definitely not. If it means picking up improving players and developing them here with good facilities and coaches then yes I think we've clearly started moving in that direction
 
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5/10 overall. 7/10 midfield.
We are desperate for a LB as Shaw is way too slow and who would bet him going through the season uninjured? Was Santos a panic buy as I cant see him being a starter now they have baleba? Where is the striker that Carrick wanted?
Why keep Zirkzee as he wont get game time, in front of Sesko. Mbeumo and Cunha for the CF position.
Rashford is ike a new signing said Carrick. The bloke no big club wants and were stuck with him.
Penny pinching again as we have European football for this season. This always seems to happen.
'Biggest club' my arse.
 
noodlehair said:
4/10.

No issue with the players we have signed but ignoring that your only left back is well past his best and has never at any point in his career been able to handle playing 2 games a week, is criminally stupid.

The excuse of there being no one better than what we have available is also non valid, because whoever we signed would have been a replacement/upgrade on literally no one. We have failed to identify a single left back on the entire planet who would have been an improvement on potentially not having a left back at all.

This will very obviously have a significant negative impact on our season. The best case scenario is Luke Shaw struggling through and it noticeably impacting both his and our performances. The worst and more likely case is he ends up getting injured and we continuously lose games or drop points because whoever we play there will be targeted and found out constantly. There is no way around or past that, and therefore don't see how you can argue its been a good transfer window.

We've sacrificed having a solid team/squad to pinch some pennies, which ultimately will save us no money at all as we will still need to sign a left back anyway, and could end up missing out on significant competition money as a result of choosing not to yet.

I assume from the ratings in here people are just underestimating how big a negative impact this is very likely to have on a 50+ game season.
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I think there's also a chance you are overestimating the impact though. We're not going to fail hard because of one position, that's not how football works. It doesn't suddenly invalidate the good players we do have in other parts of the pitch.

I'm sure at some point we will see someone even less than ideal than Shaw playing at LB, and that will change how the team will play somewhat. Ultimately though, that's what a coach is there to do. We could have signed a LB, him and Shaw both get injured at the same time, and then we'd still have to find another solution mid-season.

We needed to sign someone better then Shaw so he became the back up. Beyond Hall, I'm not sure who we could have got that makes that happen.
 
5/10.

The Athletic article was an awful read.

- Had Anderson,Tchouameni and Fernandes as top targets. Couldnt compete financially on those deal
- Were basically humbled and spat on by Tottenham and WHU on the Fernandes deal, and revealed fee was a bigger issue than wages
- Were told A.Scott was not for sale, and Ederson had knee issues, so pivoted to Tielesman and Santos
- Went in for Hall only in August. Had no other real backup in mind
- Panicked and scrambled near deadline day for the likes of Salinas, Balde and Ait Nouri
- No CFs either
- Failed to sell/loan the likes of Rashford, Zirkzee etc
- Deadline day drama over a youngster, and still refused to pay up

So incompetent, and honestly embarassing.
 
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6 or 7/10. I don't really buy into this hysteria online. A Lewis Hall would have made it an 8 or 9 but we pushed the budget last season with Sesko and also we are paying for not having any European football next season. The CL money will have an impact on the next windows - it simply wasn't there this summer. Left back aside, we have 2 good options for each position IMO.
 
When we signed Andrey Santos I thought we were on course for a 6/10

When we signed Tielemans I thought we were on course for a 7.5/10

When we signed Baleba I thought we were at 5/10
 
Buckfast in the Park said:
On a scale from 1998 which was the best one, and 2023 which was the absolute worst one:

6 Sounds about right, for me.

The Left Back position doesn’t need more depth, with young Amass staying (?) and Dalot and Maz who can also play there.
The Left Back position needs a starter and an upgrade on Luke Shaw after 13 long and painful years, next summer, shake hands, thank him for his service and set him free at the end of his contract.

A backup striker could have been nice, but who? Its a void in the striking department out there in the world, the mighty Barcelona don’t even have a starter striker, they’ll find solutions and so shall we whenever Sesko isn’t available.
Could be Mbuemo, could be Cunha or Rashford or maybe even Bruno in a false 9 sort of role, I mean every striker on the planet would’ve been proud in his finish for his first against Ipswich and his third was such a cracking classic poacher’s instinct.
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I rate this review a 0/10. Complete lack of hyperbole. No use of the words "embarrassing", "revolting", or "disgusting". No declaration that we are finished as a club and shall never challenge for the title again (lucky if we even make Europe!). Hasn't even branded anyone a "clown" two matches into the season.

Embarrassing really...
 
C-

Good midfield signings.
Rashford mk2

I think we will score alot goals but also concede loads.

Lets hope we can outscore everyone and Maguire/Martinez and Shaw dont get injured.
 
7 for me. We bought a midfield, for the first time since, um, forever. That was the goal.

There was opportunity to definitely elevate the squad and everyone is rightly terrified of the next Shaw injury, but if there was a plan and none of the targets on that plan were available so be it.

We're still only a short while past a moment where the actual financial future of the club looked at risk. If the last two years mean that we can get back on level footing then it was necessary.

Personally I have no idea how Chelsea and City have been able to do what they have but that is nothing new, been doing it for over two decades now. We don't operate in that reality, whether it is cheating or not.

This team has the quality to get top 4, now it's up to the players and staff to do so.
 
7/10 for me. I like the signings and we have certainly strengthened. I'm also not too fussed that we have not spent silly money on fees, agents' fees and wages.

I don't think anyone really thinks we were ever going to win the league this year, but very few would have thought that finishing third last season was remotely possible.
 
5/10.

More midfield options is good and necessary, but I'm not sure all of them are as quality as you'd want them to be if you want to challenge for the Champions League spots reliably. Baleba, maybe, but at that age it can still go either way, of course. Tielemans and Santos I'm less sure about.

The lack of backups in multiple positions is a concern. No proper backup striker and the CB looks rather thin if De Ligt's injury troubles turn out to not be over, having stopgap measures all the time can't be the goal. Should Bruno be injured I also don't see anyone who'd I suspect to even be remotely capable of plugging that gap. With the once again more filled calender now that United is back in the CL and (hopefully) not crashing out of the domestic cups soon injuries become more likely after all.

LB going unaddressed is also not good. Neither Shaw nor his potential replacements are what I'd call good enough.

Sales also can't possibly have gone as United had hoped for. The only one sold at what has to be considered an appropriate or even good sum, given how he flopped at United, was Hojlund. The club failed to get rid of some players who remain clogging up the wage structure, only being able to loan them out if at all.
 
6/10*. We always expected to get at least one fullback so that's disappointing. Not surprised there were no attacking signings with Rashford and Zirkzee staying.

*In few months it'll obviously look either worse or better than that, depending on how our midfield signings perform. Same as last year when we waited to see how Cunha, Mbeumo and Šeško would work out.
 
4 out of 10.

Didn't seem to get any of our first choice midfielders but still did alright in that position. Didn't improve defense, didn't get another striker, didn't move on any deadwood.
 
5/10.

We've added depth in midfield, but hard to tell if we actually improved on what Cas offered or not.
We've failed to address our defensive issues.
We've failed to add another CF.

We aren't short in numbers, but quality in key positions is really lacking. We keep signing young players with potential and expect them to deliver. Bruno is still the only player who you'd expect to start every game.
 
Adz_99 said:
4 out of 10.

Didn't seem to get any of our first choice midfielders but still did alright in that position. Didn't improve defense, didn't get another striker, didn't move on any deadwood.
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Hojlund, Collyer and Casemiro - can be argued he might have lasted another year but his wages were over the top
 
I fluctuate between 5 and 6 because the midfield could be very good value if it all clicks, but likewise it could not, and being only one/two personell better off going into a 20 extra game season just smacks of something we didnt intent to do, and therefore failure.

Its also the manner of it all that worries me.

Ive no issue with not competing with the 100m targets, but we shouldve had a far better plan to make up for that. It seems very obvious that we drastically misjudged the window, after briefing Anderson was going to be our top target and then acting surprised that the league's most high profile available CM going into the World Cup as an England starter wasnt going to be 60-70m - which seems to be the limit we've set ourselves on transfers after managing it last season, and frankly makes us look dumb.

We then just bumbled around targeting the most obvious people until eventually settling on our back up choice who we knew wanted to come and we got late on after he'd already injured himself because he was clearly so far down our list.

...and then we just gave up.

There is absolutely a bunch of players out there in the entire world of footballers that couldve been useful and acquired cheaply... there will be players worth 100m next summer that arent immediately obvious this summer (like Anderson and Fernandes, for example).and we clearly just werent competent or imaginative enough to find them. Thats the bigger worry for me.

If we dont get top 4 again this season, then itll be a huge failure that cant just be put down to our financial difficulties.

Crimson King said:
I think there's also a chance you are overestimating the impact though. We're not going to fail hard because of one position, that's not how football works. It doesn't suddenly invalidate the good players we do have in other parts of the pitch.

I'm sure at some point we will see someone even less than ideal than Shaw playing at LB, and that will change how the team will play somewhat. Ultimately though, that's what a coach is there to do. We could have signed a LB, him and Shaw both get injured at the same time, and then we'd still have to find another solution mid-season.

We needed to sign someone better then Shaw so he became the back up. Beyond Hall, I'm not sure who we could have got that makes that happen.
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One position can absolutely affect one or two placings in the league. Its a couple of wins and/or losses, and if our 'plan' and immediate ability to get out targets in the future comes down to getting 4/5/6th, that will be a huge issue.
 
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3/10

Tielemans and Baleba were both right calls.

With due respect, Santos is not someone we need. He does not add enough press resistence or physicality to our midfield - something we lack of. He is just another Ugarte-esque buy (buying an average young midfielder at inflated price).

We failed to get Welbeck back home at 5M or 6M, who would have been a perfect off the bench striker for us (he scored lots of goals off the bench for Brighton last season).

And we failed to address our LB position.
 
I'll give a score at the end of the season.
We didn't spend a shitload so that puts us in front of the cheats (Citeh) at the moment but it all comes down to what the new players contribute to their new clubs over the season
 
Crimson King said:
7/10. Pleased with the midfielders, wanted a LB but beyond Hall don't think there's anyone who would come in and make an immediate impact.

Think we were somewhat hamstrung by Ugarte's injury and Barca not signing Rashford. Although I'm hopeful he can be a net positive in attack. I'd like to see Dorgu as an overlapping LB fit Rashford, especially in games we expect to dominate. Not sure it'll happen, and will need Baleba in the team to cover that space too.

I think people need to remember lots of other clubs didn't get their way either.

Spurs spent big in midfield and defence, but not sure the defence has improved that much and their attack still looks pretty blunt to me.

Chelsea couldn't get an Enzo replacement. Arsenal couldn't get Alvarez. Liverpool hit a lot of roadblocks and then spent over £100m on another winger. Everton have one striker.

We did fine in the end. Not the disaster many are making it out to be, but certainly could have been better.
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We have one striker

The only saving grace for this window is that many other clubs left themselves short too
 
Real Madras said:
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.
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No way we were going from where we were to a title challenge
 
Just glad it’s all over and everyone will just focus on the football for a while (I hope). 6.5/10, for me. A quality fullback would have made it a 7.5/10.
 
I think 5/10, because I’m a generous bloke.

We had a major opportunity to push on this year, we were not worried about pushing on though.

I worry about the club’s planning and overall analysis for the same reasons that Mockney mentioned too.
 
Sales has to be 3 out if 10 and that's being generous.
Purchases is hard to assess. Which Baleba are we getting? Last years or the year before? Is Santos that good? Will he prove a shrewder buy than say Sangare or Chema Andre? For 35 mill I'd say Tielmans is a good signing.
So I'd give 6/10 for our midfield rebuild if you compare it to Cities. Could be a 7/8 if Baleba and Santos turn up.
Then minus points for not getting other players in -lb, striker but also CB.
All in all 4/10.
 
SirScholes said:
No way we were going from where we were to a title challenge
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There's a difference between thinking we can plausibly win the League, to thinking we shouldve made a push for it/been in the race....which is a perfectly normal thing for a club who finished 3rd to think frankly.

Its also a massive transition year where City and Liverpool (the two big hitters of the last decade) have new managers and could be a lot weaker. It would've been a very obvious moment to identify as one to 'push on'....but for whatever reason (and im sure financials are one of those) we've decided 'just about keeping it ticking along and hoping for the best' was the call. Its completely reasonable to find that disappointing
 
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