Summer Transfer Window (2024/25)

[Leeroy]

1 minute ago, allani said:

But wouldn't you also agree that it's about who we haven't sold?  We haven't sold Emi, Konsa or Watkins - all of whom will have been on the radars of big clubs, all of whom will know that they'd need to go to silly numbers for us or them to be tempted.  The world's best keeper and surely England's new 9 - not being straight out of the door is a big step from where we have been (as demonstrated by Grealish feeling that he needed to leave to fulfill his international ambitions not that long ago).

Of course I'd love to have kept Luiz - him, Onana and Kamara would be an incredible base in the middle of the pitch. 

I thought Diaby would be terrific but the more he played the less he seemed (to me) to fit the way we play.  Bailey can do a lot of what he does.  I genuinely think that Baena, Goncalves or Felix (not Grealish - he's a busted flush in my opinion) would all be more in tune with the way that we want to play.  They might not directly replace the goal contributions but I think they'd all make our attack more "integrated" (sorry not sure that is the right / best word) so indirectly we'd be better.  And your rating assumed that a player like that does sign. 

I obviously rate Luiz higher than many other posters on here, I think we'll miss him. Never injured and definitely for me one of our best players under Unai for sure and I don't care about that blip at the end of last season, everyone's form suffered even Ollie's. But yes it is good that we haven't sold others, particularly Emi and Ollie. As I said it's not us I'm blaming as such, it's the rules that are clearly not beneficial to clubs like us trying to break into the top 6. 

 

I do think we had a choice about selling Diaby though and I didn't agree with it, maybe he wasn't starting at the end of last season but he'd be thefirst player off the bench and he could change a game in our favour. Champions League teams need quality players off the bench. Depends on who we get to replace him before the window closes. 

[allani]

6 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Mings is months away and if we don't qualify for the knockout stages will miss our entire Champions league campaign, there's also no guarantee's that a 31 year old CB coming off a year out will ever reach the level he was at before his injury.

Bogarde is a defensive midfielder who did a job in pre-season for us because.....

We don't have enough CB's.

 

But presumably the club will have a pretty good idea on both of these now based on his current training performance (I'm sure there must be all kinds of stats available that will compare his current position to the "average" expected position as well as to his pre-injury position)?  There's just so much more data, medical insight and prior case studies available these days that I can't believe that NSWE, Emery and Monchi don't have a pretty firm idea on the exact position and the associated risks on which they are basing their decisions rather than crossing their fingers and hoping.  Obviously nothing is certain but I'd think that there would already be clues about just where Mings is likely to get to in terms of the capabilities of his ACL.

[allani]

4 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

I obviously rate Luiz higher than many other posters on here, I think we'll miss him. Never injured and definitely for me one of our best players under Unai for sure and I don't care about that blip at the end of last season, everyone's form suffered even Ollie's. But yes it is good that we haven't sold others, particularly Emi and Ollie. As I said it's not us I'm blaming as such, it's the rules that are clearly not beneficial to clubs like us trying to break into the top 6. 

 

I do think we had a choice about selling Diaby though and I didn't agree with it, maybe he wasn't starting at the end of last season but he'd be thefirst player off the bench and he could change a game in our favour. Champions League teams need quality players off the bench. Depends on who we get to replace him before the window closes. 

I posted a lot about the influence that Luiz had last season (passes, touches, etc, etc) so I'm not suggesting he isn't a big loss and agree the "blip" was partly down to him playing too much and also to him having to play in a different role with Kamara out and our midfield generally then becoming very unbalanced (just as much an issue with Tielemans, McGinn, etc as it was with Dougie).  But I do think the loss there is counterbalanced by improvements elsewhere (Onana is a different type of CM but gives us more balance, Maatsen improves us at LB, Geert will be a much better RB (which I think - along with Onana's height - will make us less suspect defensively), a think any of the attacking players you mentioned (except Grealish) start more than Diaby would.  I mean not all those transfers are done - but the assumption in this discussion is that they would be.

Anyway, I think you've articulated your reasons pretty clearly and so  for indulging me.  You're still nuts for suggesting that we beat Fulham by dumping £35m on Anderson though. 

[Don_Simon]

6 hours ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Rogers for a whole season....

 

Buendia back in the team...

 

Youri being freed up to be more advanced in midfield...

 

More attacking quality in the full backs...

 

Window is still open....

Also, JJ is back and greater height in players to make attacking set pieces more dangerous. 

[osmark86]

1 hour ago, allani said:

Are you really saying that signing our (on paper) best RB for 20+ years, a CL team of the season LB, arguably the best young CM outside the Sly 6, a top CL "10" and a player with 50 caps from the current world champions (I have to say that I am a bit meh on that one) plus 3 high potential youngsters would ONLY merit a 7???!!!  All of which whilst operating within the ridiculous financial constraints that are FFP / PSR?  Wow.  You have some high / ambitious / unachievable expectations / standards!!!

Lol I don't even know what separates ourselves from the likes of AFTV sometimes anymore XD

[allani]

32 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Lovely, I have high hopes for Enzo too. We finally have quality and depth (especially defensively) in midfield. They will protect us more… it’s up to the attackers to bring more creativity and threat.

It's all about balance.  And whilst I argued long and hard about the attributes and importance of Luiz - I do think that Onana gives our midfield more balance both with and without the absence of Kamara.  Obviously in the ideal world we would have been able to make that purchase without having to sell Luiz first (assuming that he would have been happy to stay).

[duke313]

22 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

I do think we had a choice about selling Diaby though

Did we? And you know this how?

My guess is Diaby didnt want to me 2nd choice to Bailey, and since he didn’t fit our system we sold because of the money involved.

[DakotaVilla]

I suspect that the vast majority of Diaby and Luiz’s contributions came in the first half of the season. Diaby will be more than replaced with having Ramsey and (an even better) Rogers and McGinn potentially playing further forward. 

Luiz depends on who picks up the pens and how they fare but I think a combination of Onana (set pieces), McGinn, Rogers and Ramsey will do as well as Luiz and Diaby did last season. Then you have the benefit of better fullbacks and being defensively more secure with Konsa at CB with Onana helping out. When Kamara is back we’ll be rock solid. 

That’s without even adding in a Felix/baena signing. 
 

I give the window 8/10 so far. Add in Geertruida and Felix/Baena and the required departures and it would probably  be one of, if not the best, windows in the history of the club. 

[Delphinho123]

5 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Did we? And you know this how?

My guess is Diaby didnt want to me 2nd choice to Bailey, and since he didn’t fit our system we sold because of the money involved.

It was opportunistic. We didn't have a replacement lined up because the offer was too good to turn down at the time. We had to act.

Diaby didn't fit our system. That is the kindest compliment I can give him. 

[allani]

33 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

And Olise and maybe Eze. I was never worried about them when they started selling their crown jewels. 

 

They were a problem back end of last season but are clearly a feeder club to the bigger fish. Shame we aren't one of those stealing their players. 

Yeah Olise or Eze would have been / would be great acquisitions although I suspect that their fees would be hard to balance.  I also think Konsa is better then Guehi so dropping £60m on him would be difficult to justify.  I think Geert / Ned at RB and Konsa & Torres at CB is better than Konsa with Guehi and Torres at CB although I can certainly see situations where KGT would be really strong as a "central" three.

[Teale's 'tache]

21 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

It was opportunistic. We didn't have a replacement lined up because the offer was too good to turn down at the time. We had to act.

Diaby didn't fit our system. That is the kindest compliment I can give him. 

I feel like the Diaby sale is in part caused by the Luiz sale, having just been backed in to a corner with PSR and forced to sell one of our better players this summer, I think we looked at the Diaby offer and thought better this now than be in a similar position next summer. It was a sale more on our terms that opens up a lot of options. If PSR was not a thing I think we'd of probably kept both players, but it is a thing and it requires regular sales, sales on your own terms preferably.

[Delphinho123]

1 minute ago, Teale's 'tache said:

I feel like the Diaby sale is in part caused by the Luiz sale, having just been backed in to a corner with PSR and forced to sell one of our better players this summer, I think we looked at the Diaby offer and thought better this now than be in a similar position next summer. It was a sale more on our terms that opens up a lot of options. If PSR was not a thing I think we'd of probably kept both players, but it is a thing and it requires regular sales, sales on your own terms preferably.

Agree somewhat. If PSR wasn't a thing, agree that we don't sell Luiz. I do however, feel the Diaby sale was in part down to him not really fitting in positionally. I think we maybe do that deal PSR or not. 

Either way, we need to crack on with adding a couple of new first team additions. I think the window has been ok to date, but we desperately need to sort the defence out further.

[duke313]

6 minutes ago, Teale's 'tache said:

I feel like the Diaby sale is in part caused by the Luiz sale, having just been backed in to a corner with PSR and forced to sell one of our better players this summer, I think we looked at the Diaby offer and thought better this now than be in a similar position next summer. It was a sale more on our terms that opens up a lot of options. If PSR was not a thing I think we'd of probably kept both players, but it is a thing and it requires regular sales, sales on your own terms preferably.

Absolutely this. And probably the main reason why we need to sell Carlos/Duran in order to sign a defender/attacker.

We could probably go out and spend another £80/90m now if we wanted too, but would probably have to sell Martinez or Watkins next summer to balance the books. 

Edited August 13 by duke313

[allani]

10 minutes ago, osmark86 said:

Lol I don't even know what separates ourselves from the likes of AFTV sometimes anymore XD

To be fair to him @Leeroy actually articulated his reasonings pretty well in the follow up chat which I respect a lot.  His expectations are high rather than being completely delusional.  I still think a 7 is harsh (especially after the assumed signings) but I'm sure he feels that my 8.5 is equally over-optimistic.

[Teale's 'tache]

4 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Agree somewhat. If PSR wasn't a thing, agree that we don't sell Luiz. I do however, feel the Diaby sale was in part down to him not really fitting in positionally. I think we maybe do that deal PSR or not. 

Either way, we need to crack on with adding a couple of new first team additions. I think the window has been ok to date, but we desperately need to sort the defence out further.

Possibly, I think Unai would probably have backed himself to get more out of Diaby than he did last season though, so I don't think we were actively looking for a sale, but the money and the temptation not to be scrambling around again for a sale next summer was just too good

[Jas10]

 

[one_ian_taylor]

48 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Did we? And you know this how?

My guess is Diaby didnt want to me 2nd choice to Bailey, and since he didn’t fit our system we sold because of the money involved.

Makes sense - when Diaby signed, the jury was still very much out on Bailey,  who wasn't necessarily a guaranteed starter at the beginning of last season

[one_ian_taylor]

4 hours ago, allani said:

Don't most of our attacking lefties play down our right?

Was posted in jest,  but we have a lot of players  who have played/often play on the left - Digne, Moreno, Maatsen, Illing Junior,  Ramsey, Rogers,  Buendia, Philogene

[Villaphan04]

4 hours ago, duke313 said:

If our only other incoming's were Geertruida and Lo Celso.  How would you rank our window out of 10?  

Who would we have moved on? I feel like if we sell Carlos and bring in Gerrtruida, we are leaving ourselves massively short at CB. I’m against the grain with Lo Celso on here. I think he’d fit really well in our squad and Unai’s signed him 3 times already iirc.  
 

probably a 5

[Villaphan04]

3 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

Then we'd be short. 

We'd have three senior CB's in the squad, one of which (either Geertruida or Konsa) would be our starting RB.

We need to replace Lenglet and if we let Carlos go, we'd also need to replace him.

Yep, absolutely. How can our “backup CB” also be our starting RB? I don’t see that working out well when we get injuries.